Latin America Looks to Europe for Teaching Reform.

The article discusses an effort by the University of Veracruz in Mexico to redesign its model of higher education in the face of findings of soaring dropout rates, lack of scholarly research and poor quality academic programs. Changes focus on instituting a more flexible, multidisciplinary curriculum emphasizing critical thinking and problem-based learning as well as integration of research and technology into classes. The initiative, Project Classroom, provided a semester-long training program in student-centered learning for 100 professors from all of the university's five campuses. Those professors mentor 700 other colleagues, who will, in turn, mentor the remainder of the school's 3,500 professors. The project is modeled after the European Union's Bologna Process of common standards.