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Abstract

Background - In today’s fragmented world, university students often experience increasing pressure with studies, together with a student’s own increased demands on life. The circumstances for today’s university students are somewhat different from earlier generations, which generates needs for different pedagogics and teaching. Based on a study by Henningsson and Fredriksson (2018), planning is one essential part of deep learning, and plan and realize the plans seems to be difficult. Based on a questionnaire with free answers this paper will show that the students need to be educated in what and how to plan and realization of their plans. Learning repertoire in coaching model - long term, means that the student work with reflection and evaluation. These aspects can be linked to students’ progress with the help of the portfolio. The skill of planning is linked to the learning repertoire to reach desired goals.

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate if, what and how students plan, i.e., their self-management, in order to give the students insights in their own developing process.

Methodology/Approach: This paper is based on a combination of literature study and a survey, in order to study students ways of working to achieve desired goals.

Findings – Students are involving in many issues and do not always focus on their education programme. Desirable goals differ between students, and how to reach them. Planning to reach the goals also differs. One conclusion that can be highlighted, is the difficulties or lack of skills to plan, especially when it comes to how. In this paper a suggestion to amplify the PDSA-cycle in the portfolio is made.

Practical Implications - The major implication of the study is to help students in their personal progress.

Value of the paper – The study makes a contribution to the area of Quality Management in Higher Education and the toolbox university students.