learning It most often performs the role of an additional study method, usually for the purpose of disseminating the material of lectures and seminars among students.

Literature searches. This methods is used to prepare for seminars and write essays and final

theses.

Case studies. Case studies help synthesize acquired knowledge, this means information collection and individual or group presentation in a form of the qualitative research in order to foster a holistic conception of certain conditions or a situation. It is also used in order to understand an impact of environmental factors on health and to determine health problems of various people groups; debate, discussion, oral presentation and group-work methods may be used. Besides, in this case an ability of critical, creative and analytical thinking will be fostered as well as ability to find and use various sources, become a member of a team. This promotes autonomy and increases motivation for studies. 23 _{Universities‘ Contribution to the Bologna Process. An introduction. 2nd Edition, 2008.}

For example, with respect to the development of the competence ‘cooperation with health care specialists and specialists of other fields’, seminars and experience-based empirical teaching may be applied, which involve the use of play elements (role-play) and audiovisual material that shows interaction and allows observing human communication. Professional partnership skills can be developed through multidisciplinary projects and joint health and social programmes. Professional independence and responsibility are developed by documenting the process of public health supervision. Ethical principles related to the understanding of legislation are shaped when preparing reports, criticising them or consulting with a teacher. Students can be offered various ethical scenarios that are discussed and evaluated by students themselves. The competence under consideration, which is very important for self-development abilities and awareness, can be developed by the method of autonomous studies when analysing various incidents, problems and experience and providing feedback.

As mentioned before, assessment forms a coherent whole with the teaching/learning methods in developing subject-specific and generic competences and does not represent only a summary of a study period. At the beginning of each course unit, the students must be introduced not only to the learning outcomes of that unit with respect to generic and subject-specific competences, but also to their assessment system (with particular attention paid to assessment criteria and sources that provide evidence of the competences)24_{. In view of the fact that the ECTS methodology places an} emphasis on student-oriented studies where the student becomes an active participant of the study process, creating an assessment system must give the student an opportunity for self-assessment and feedback on the student’s achievements and progress in the discipline that is being studied.

Different assessment methods can be applied to public health studies. The study method selection depends on many factors which should be considered by a teacher developing his/her own assessment system:

• a size of a students’ group;

• aims of assessment – whether it is formative or summative assessment; • learning outcomes of a subject;

• object of assessment (what is assessed – knowledge, comprehension, generic or specific competences).

In order to thoroughly examine all fostered competences one assessment method is not enough. It is necessary to use more and various assessment methods which allow examining the learning level of all learners and its correspondence with the learning outcomes. It should be noted that the subject assessment system would be incomplete if the assessment models and methods had not be integrated into the whole. Assessment measures the learning outcomes, which are articulated with the help of the SOLO or B. Bloom’s taxonomy. Various assessment methods and tasks are proposed for assessing different levels of cognition. An oral or written survey or test may be applied to assess the learning outcomes at the knowledge level, while a case study, project activity, review of information sources, etc. are suitable for measuring the achievement of learning outcomes at a higher level (analysis, synthesis). For example, in developing the competence of

‘population health evaluation’, the first cycle Bachelor degree programme will have to provide

for assessment methods that will allow to determine whether the student has the ability to apply health indicators to evaluate the health of the public and its separate groups. Students of the Master degree programme will have to demonstrate their ability to evaluate the health of the public and its separate groups and the factors affecting it, and the appropriately selected instrument of evaluation will allow measuring the level of achievement of a separate element of a competence.

When developing the assessment system of a particular subject and assessment tools, it is possible to associate the competences to be fostered (extracting them into assessed competence 24 _{Bulajeva T., Jakubė A., Lepaitė D., Teresevičienė M., Zuzevičiūtė V., op. cit.}

elements) with the assessment methods and assessment tasks. The assignments which allow a student to show acquired knowledge, its understanding, theoretical and practical abilities and values at the utmost should be selected for assessment. To assess knowledge and understanding the authors recommend to use the SOLO taxonomy which describes the students’ learning outcomes in a hierarchical manner. When developing the subject assessment system, it is necessary to remember that the same competences may be fostered in degree programmes of different cycles, and the assessment system is intended to help assess the compliance of the competence level with the requirements of an awarded degree. The authors of a degree programme must take into account the guidelines for a degree/cycle, the level of which is determined by the above-mentioned elements of the Dublin descriptors and which is expressed as a list of learning outcomes, i.e. each generic and subject-specific competence becomes part of the guidelines for a degree programme if the level to be attained is expressed as specific learning outcomes.

Subject specific competences are associated with the study content, reflect the degree programme specificity and comprise the basis of a profession. The basis of generic competences consists of transferred abilities which are essential for all students who want to successfully complete their studies and acquire a qualification which would allow to find a job easily and remain on a labour market afterwards, would help to study further and improve, undertake ethical commitment, be an active member of society and meaningfully participate in various activities. It has been noticed that the correlations between teaching (learning) methods and generic competences exist. For example, instrumental competences may be assessed during oral presentation in a work group. Thus the study methods during the study process become assessment methods in respect of generic competences provided that a student himself/herself actively participates in assessment of generic competences. Such assessment methods as self-analysis, peer assessment, praise and similar non-cumulative assessment methods are more appropriate to assess the development of generic competences. With respect to the summative assessment system, the authors propose to assign a certain portion of the score for the presentation of the task rather than be limited to the assessment