Abstract:

The implementation of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) has meant a significant change in higher education. Teachers’ perspective of this process has been analyzed in several areas of knowledge such as science, history, education, etc. with different results. The general attitude is of doubt and uncertainty about the real improvement that this reform entails. The attitude survey is an effective tool to measure teacher satisfaction, widely used to assess attitudes and opinions of a collective group. Some of these surveys regarding the Bologna process have been already conducted at Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (UPM). The present study is an initiative taken by university lecturers of the UPM to know the opinion and perception of faculty about the implementation of the Bologna process as well as their satisfaction with it. The proposed tool is a questionnaire which includes questions about the dedication of lecturers to different tasks, how they are trained, what changes have been introduced into their work, and finally the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats faced when meeting this challenge.

The purpose of this study was to validate the tool through the method of expert consultation. To achieve this, we asked 6 experts, 3 from Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) and 3 from the UPM to share their insight and advice on the questionnaire’s format and content. Their evaluation focused on the relevance, importance and clarity of all items, having to evaluate a 1-4 scale (lower value to higher value) and an ‘open comments’ section of each block of questions. The experts’ validation questionnaire was provided in a digital format to be completed anonymously. Results showed that the items related to ‘opportunities’ the Bologna process offers to lecturers scored significantly lower than the rest of items while items related to ‘difficulties’ were scored with the highest values. Suggestions from the experts included clarification of several items (e.g. educational methodology) as well as a call for more specificity in teacher evaluation systems. Both their evaluation and comments have been incorporated into the questionnaire with a view to ensuring its utility and scientific validity.

Keywords:

European Higher Education Area, the Bologna Process, university lecturers, degree of satisfaction, survey.