EFFECTS OF A SHORT COURSE TRAINING PROGRAM ON APPROACHES TO TEACHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION: EXAMPLE FROM CROATIA

European countries, in accordance with their higher education policy, regulate in various ways the need for additional professional education of higher education teachers. In the Republic of Croatia, despite the recognized need to improve the process of teaching and learning at the higher education level, efforts and activities in this direction are left to the universities. The main aim of the present study was to examine how the participants of the short course training program on approaches to teaching in higher education in Croatia perceived their own teaching and learning competencies before and after attending the program. University teachers from five higher education institutions in the Republic of Croatia participated in the research. The participants assessed agreement with the statements related to various teaching competencies, important for university teachers, on a 5-point Likert-type scale. The results obtained through research quantitative and qualitative methods indicate that the participants of the short course training program on approaches to teaching in higher education evaluate their own teaching competencies better at the end than at the beginning of the program. The obtained results indicate the importance of formal training and improvement of teaching competencies of university teachers and can serve as an assessment of the expediency of the short course training program on approaches to teaching in higher education at the national level and as a basis for comparison with programs implemented at other European universities. Keywords: higher education, short course training program, teacher training, university teachers