Universities have the potential, and the responsibility, to take on more ecological and relational approaches to facilitating learning-based change in times of interconnected socioecological crises. Signs for a transition towards these more regenerative approaches of higher education (RHE) that include more place-based, ecological, and relational, ways of educating can already be found in niches across Europe (see for example the proliferation of education-based living labs, field labs, challenge labs). In this paper, the results of a podcast-based inquiry into the design practises and barriers to enacting such forms of RHE are shown. This study revealed seven educational practises that occurred across the innovation niches. It is important to note that these practises are enacted in different ways, or are locally nested in unique expressions; for example, while the ‘practise’ of cultivating personal transformations was represented across the included cases, the way these transformations were cultivated were unique expressions of each context. These RHE-design practises are derived from twenty-seven narrative-based podcasts as interviews recorded in the April through June 2021 period. The resulting podcast (The Regenerative Education Podcast) was published on all major streaming platforms in October 2021 and included 21 participants active in Dutch universities, 1 in Sweden, 1 in Germany, 1 in France, and 3 primarily online. Each episode engages with a leading practitioner, professor, teacher, and/or activist that is trying to connect their educational practice to making the world a more equitable, sustainable, and regenerative place. The episodes ranged from 30 to 70 min in total length and included both English (14) and Dutch (12) interviews. These episodes were analysed through transition mapping a method based on story analysis and transition design. The results include seven design practises such as cultivating personal transformations, nurturing ecosystems of support, and tackling relevant and urgent transition challenges, as well as a preliminary design tool that educational teams can use together with students and local agents in (re)designing their own RHE to connect their educational praxis with transition challenges. van den Berg B, Poldner K, Sjoer E, Wals A. Practises, Drivers and Barriers of an Emerging Regenerative Higher Education in The Netherlands—A Podcast-Based Inquiry. Sustainability. 2022; 14(15):9138. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14159138
When students explore their own open questions, they learnto be proactive and see themselves not only as consumersbut also as producers of knowledge. Such student-framed inquiryhas received less research attention. This article aimsto shed light on learning outcomes and effects on students’mind-set and behavior by discussing a course that fostersstudent-framed inquiry. The one-semester, elective coursewas open to third- and fourth-year students of various bachelor’s-level programs. A questionnaire was sent to alumni after11 iterations of the course. The results showed that thecourse fostered the development of skills in innovation, networking,and cross-boundary collaboration and learning, aswell as enhanced personal and professional development.Students became more proactive, less afraid to contact peopleand take steps to make things happen. The results suggestthat courses for inquiry-based learning should include notonly more traditional, discipline-oriented research skills andmethods but also student-framed methods for design anddiscovery.
Many students in secondary schools consider the sciences difficult and unattractive. This applies to physics in particular, a subject in which students attempt to learn and understand numerous theoretical concepts, often without much success. A case in point is the understanding of the concepts current, voltage and resistance in simple electric circuits. In response to these problems, reform initiatives in education strive for a change of the classroom culture, putting emphasis on more authentic contexts and student activities containing elements of inquiry. The challenge then becomes choosing and combining these elements in such a manner that they foster an understanding of theoretical concepts. In this article we reflect on data collected and analyzed from a series of 12 grade 9 physics lessons on simple electric circuits. Drawing from a theoretical framework based on individual (conceptual change based) and socio-cultural views on learning, instruction was designed addressing known conceptual problems and attempting to create a physics (research) culture in the classroom. As the success of the lessons was limited, the focus of the study became to understand which inherent characteristics of inquiry based instruction complicate the process of constructing conceptual understanding. From the analysis of the data collected during the enactment of the lessons three tensions emerged: the tension between open inquiry and student guidance, the tension between students developing their own ideas and getting to know accepted scientific theories, and the tension between fostering scientific interest as part of a scientific research culture and the task oriented school culture. An outlook will be given on the implications for science lessons.
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The Dutch main water systems face pressing environmental, economic and societal challenges due to climatic changes and increased human pressure. There is a growing awareness that nature-based solutions (NBS) provide cost-effective solutions that simultaneously provide environmental, social and economic benefits and help building resilience. In spite of being carefully designed and tested, many projects tend to fail along the way or never get implemented in the first place, wasting resources and undermining trust and confidence of practitioners in NBS. Why do so many projects lose momentum even after a proof of concept is delivered? Usually, failure can be attributed to a combination of eroding political will, societal opposition and economic uncertainties. While ecological and geological processes are often well understood, there is almost no understanding around societal and economic processes related to NBS. Therefore, there is an urgent need to carefully evaluate the societal, economic, and ecological impacts and to identify design principles fostering societal support and economic viability of NBS. We address these critical knowledge gaps in this research proposal, using the largest river restoration project of the Netherlands, the Border Meuse (Grensmaas), as a Living Lab. With a transdisciplinary consortium, stakeholders have a key role a recipient and provider of information, where the broader public is involved through citizen science. Our research is scientifically innovative by using mixed methods, combining novel qualitative methods (e.g. continuous participatory narrative inquiry) and quantitative methods (e.g. economic choice experiments to elicit tradeoffs and risk preferences, agent-based modeling). The ultimate aim is to create an integral learning environment (workbench) as a decision support tool for NBS. The workbench gathers data, prepares and verifies data sets, to help stakeholders (companies, government agencies, NGOs) to quantify impacts and visualize tradeoffs of decisions regarding NBS.
Onderzoekende vaardigheden (OZV) van mbo-studenten in gezondheidszorg- opleidingen zijn essentieel voor het omgaan met problemen, veranderingen en innovaties in het (toekomstige) beroep. Maar hoe kunnen we hun OZV precies opvatten?Doel Met dit PhD-onderzoek willen we: OZV van mbo-studenten conceptualiseren vanuit de onderzoeksliteratuur en de beroepspraktijk. Interventies (het denken en doen) van mbo-school- en praktijkopleiders beschrijven als zij tijdens interacties met studenten OZV van studenten willen bevorderen. Resultaten Verwachte resultaten: Wetenschappelijk: vier artikelen, presentaties op conferenties en een proefschrift Praktijkgericht: publicaties, workshops en presentaties voor betrokkenen uit het mbo Gerealiseerde resultaten: Onderzoeksplan ‘Understanding vocational healthcare students’ skills of research and inquiry‘ Posterpresentatie ‘Understanding vocational healthcare students’ skills of research and inquiry’ tijdens Onderwijs Research Dagen (online) in Utrecht, juli 2021 Round Table presentatie ‘Understanding vocational healthcare students’ skills of research and inquiry’ tijdens EAPRIL (European Association for Practitioner Research on Improving Learning) Conference (online), november 2021 Looptijd 15 november 2021 - 14 november 2026 Aanpak We beginnen met een scoping review naar OZV, gevolgd door een interviewstudie onder mbo-professionals en -opleiders. Met een multiple case study en een vignette studie brengen we interventies van mbo-opleiders om OZV bij studenten te stimuleren in beeld. De promovenda is Erica Wijnands-Pot (mboRijnland). De promotor vanuit de OU is prof. dr. Elly de Bruijn (ook lector Beroepsonderwijs), en de co-promotor vanuit het lectoraat Beroepsonderwijs is dr. Annoesjka Boersma. Cofinanciering Erica heeft voor haar onderzoeksvoorstel de NWO Promotiebeurs voor leraren ontvangen.
Onderzoekende vaardigheden (OZV) van mbo-studenten in gezondheidszorg- opleidingen zijn essentieel voor het omgaan met problemen, veranderingen en innovaties in het (toekomstige) beroep. Maar hoe kunnen we hun OZV precies opvatten?Doel Met dit PhD-onderzoek willen we: OZV van mbo-studenten conceptualiseren vanuit de onderzoeksliteratuur en de beroepspraktijk. Interventies (het denken en doen) van mbo-school- en praktijkopleiders beschrijven als zij tijdens interacties met studenten OZV van studenten willen bevorderen. Resultaten Verwachte resultaten: Wetenschappelijk: vier artikelen, presentaties op conferenties en een proefschrift Praktijkgericht: publicaties, workshops en presentaties voor betrokkenen uit het mbo Gerealiseerde resultaten: Onderzoeksplan ‘Understanding vocational healthcare students’ skills of research and inquiry‘ Posterpresentatie ‘Understanding vocational healthcare students’ skills of research and inquiry’ tijdens Onderwijs Research Dagen (online) in Utrecht, juli 2021 Round Table presentatie ‘Understanding vocational healthcare students’ skills of research and inquiry’ tijdens EAPRIL (European Association for Practitioner Research on Improving Learning) Conference (online), november 2021 Looptijd 15 november 2021 - 14 november 2026 Aanpak We beginnen met een scoping review naar OZV, gevolgd door een interviewstudie onder mbo-professionals en -opleiders. Met een multiple case study en een vignette studie brengen we interventies van mbo-opleiders om OZV bij studenten te stimuleren in beeld. De promovenda is Erica Wijnands-Pot (mboRijnland). De promotor vanuit de OU is prof. dr. Elly de Bruijn (ook lector Beroepsonderwijs), en de co-promotor vanuit het lectoraat Beroepsonderwijs is dr. Annoesjka Boersma. Cofinanciering Erica heeft voor haar onderzoeksvoorstel de NWO Promotiebeurs voor leraren ontvangen.
