Final Report Pilot Project - Relaciones Internacionales de la ...

Of course the core content can be further detailed, by giving for a
given university the set of units, which actually constitute the core
content. For each of the units belonging to this set, the actual content,
the number of credits, the level of teaching/learning must be specified.
The level may be specified in terms —for instance— of a reference
textbooks or of a predefined and agreed «broad» descriptive list, under
which the units may be grouped, or even by describing each unit in terms
of its own specific contents and of the foreseen learning outcomes 19 .
Another quick possibility is to attach to the unit a conventional label,
which specifies the level (e.g., B for Basic; A for Advanced; S for
Specialised;… ). However, past attempts in this latter direction never
attained easy reproducibility and/or effective extension to a wider set of
institutions (see, for instance, the early Information Packages of the ECTS
Pilot Project). In the present work we rely on a «rather detailed»
descriptive list (comprehensive of 27 items, see §E below).
D. Other Problems in defining a Core Content in Physics
1. Two main approaches exist, when designing a Physics curriculum:
—The initial years of the curriculum are common to the subjects
of physics, mathematics, chemistry, (geology?, biology?…)
and the students makes the choice of the subject only later
(at the third year, e.g., see below the case of Copenhagen).
—The whole degree course has «physics» as the key word
2. Our network has difficulty in defining a single core curriculum
since our institutions offer degrees in physics, engineering physics,
applied physics, theoretical physics, etc. Nevertheless experience
shows (see for instance the EUPEN report of Annex II; see also
below) that meaningful results can be obtained even with this
apparently not homogeneous sample of institutions.
E. The experience of the Tuning Physics Network
The Tuning Physics Network produced an analytical characterisation
of the core contents and the other essential elements offered in each
institution, on the basis of a rather detailed descriptive list of entries
190
19 This unit by unit characterisation is adopted in the Diploma Supplement approach.