This paper elaborates on a form of university-industry cooperation called 'collaborative PhDs'. Engineers working at companies or governmental organisations get the opportunity to do a PhD at the university. The aim of these science-based collaborations between academia and industry is to increase the impact of research on sustainable development. However, to fulfil this promise, how should doctoral engineering education for collaborative PhD tracks look like? A literature search, a benchmark on successful doctoral education programmes, in-depth interviews with 10 PhD candidates and their supervisors, as well as observations of meetings, revealed the requirements for a track that is consistent with the relationship and everyone's interest in it, as well as the needs and talents of the PhD candidate. The conclusion of the research is that collaborative PhD candidates come to the university to conduct research, but do not intuitively fit into the academic world. Some feel squeezed between their jobs as, for instance, project managers on the one hand and doctoral candidates at the university on the other hand. This research led to 1 O recommendations for setting up a track within the graduate school. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ellen-sjoer-06506a2/
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We examined the various career paths of PhDs in the Netherlands. In this publication, we feature the personal stories of ten of our study participants, detailing their careers both within and outside of academia. The ten portraits of PhD graduates are complemented by three portraits of employers describing their experiences working with PhDs. The personal accounts featured in this publication contain a wealth of information and recommendations for PhD students, universities and employers alike.
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Phd Thesis Higher professional education aims to prepare graduates for the complexity of professional practices. The development of conceptual understanding is important to deal adequately with this complexity, especially in an unstructured professional domain such as international business. The aim of this dissertation is to investigate the concept conceptual understanding in this professional domain, how it can be measured, what it looks like, how it changes, and in what ways it differs between students. The dissertation comprises five empirical studies for which data collection took place at a university of applied sciences in the Netherlands.
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To understand under what conditions intercultural group work (IGW) leads to more intercultural interactions, a survey was conducted among local students (n = 80) and international students (n = 153) in Dutch universities. In this study, students were more inclined to engage in intercultural interactions when they perceived that working with culturally diverse others prepared them to work and live in a diverse setting. The positive association was strengthened when students perceived that diversity, in terms of nationality within their work group, was also beneficial for accomplishing their group task. The findings demonstrate the significance of students’ perceptions of IGW, including the perceived general value for personal development and intellectual benefits related to specific tasks. This implies that institutions and teachers could be made responsible for engaging with innovative educational methods to address and incorporate student diversity into curriculum.
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The focus of the thesis is an exploration into students’ vocational knowledge in the context of Dutch vocational education and training (VET). The reason students’ vocational knowledge requires exploration is because there is no consensus among scholars in the field of VET about how to theorise the nature of students’ vocational knowledge; most (not all) scholars rely on dichotomous conceptualisations, such as theory versus practice, general versus specific or explicit versus implicit. However, such commonly used dichotomies are not very helpful to understand the complex nature of vocational knowledge. Vocational knowledge is more than putting bits of theoretical and practical knowledge together, it is characterised by sometimes-intimate relationships between knowledge and actions. As a result of the above-mentioned gap in the VET literature, there is little empirical research on how VET students develop vocational knowledge and the extent to which this is occupation-specific knowledge. To understand students’ vocational knowledge, four different aims are formulated and carried out in four studies. The aim of the first study is to identify powerful vocational learning environments to enable the selection of a case that represents high quality vocational learning and teaching. With an eye on analysing students’ vocational knowledge, the second study aims to conceptualise the nature of vocational knowledge that avoids dichotomies. Therefore, two conceptual frameworks are integrated; the idea of contextualising is introduced which is based on cultural-historical theory to highlight the crucial role activity plays in knowledge development and to understand the relationships between the mind (i.e., what people think (and feel)), and action (i.e., what people do). Secondly, the theory is supplemented with ideas from inferentialism, a philosophical semantic theory of meaning to provide a useful way to focus on students’ processes of knowing and to reveal students’ vocational knowledge in terms of ongoing reasoning processes. The third study uses the conceptualisation of vocational knowledge to explore how students develop vocational knowledge in occupational practice, and to illustrate the process of contextualising. The forth study aims to describe what characterises students’ vocational knowledge using an analytic framework that distinguishes between occupation-specific knowledge components and qualities. This thesis contributes to research scholarship in the field of VET and an understanding of students’ vocational knowledge in practice. The theoretical framework of contextualising supplemented with inferentialism provides an alternative way to focus on students’ processes of knowing and helps to reveal students’ vocational knowledge in terms of reasoning processes. The empirical explorations and illustrations of students’ vocational knowledge contribute to the scholarly literature and practice on understanding the nature of vocational knowledge, how students develop vocational knowledge and what characterises their vocational knowledge. The intention to introduce the idea of contextualising is not about reinventing the wheel but rather an attempt to understand how it turns and how it functions. The intention of this thesis is to encourage dialogue and move the debate about the nature of vocational knowledge further, and hence, to provide some “food for thought”.
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To adequately deal with the challenges faced within residential care for older people, such as the increasing complexity of care and a call for more person-centred practices, it is important that health care providers learn from their work. This study investigates both the nature of learning, among staff and students working within care for older people, and how workplace learning can be promoted and researched. During a longitudinal study within a nursing home, participatory and democratic research methods were used to collaborate with stakeholders to improve the quality of care and to promote learning in the workplace. The rich descriptions of these processes show that workplace learning is a complex phenomenon. It arises continuously in reciprocal relationship with all those present through which both individuals and environment change and co-evolve enabling enlargement of the space for possible action. This complexity perspective on learning refines and expands conventional beliefs about workplace learning and has implications for advancing and researching learning. It explains that research on workplace learning is itself a form of learning that is aimed at promoting and accelerating learning. Such research requires dialogic and creative methods. This study illustrates that workplace learning has the potential to develop new shared values and ways of working, but that such processes and outcomes are difficult to control. It offers inspiration for educators, supervisors, managers and researchers as to promoting conditions that embrace complexity and provides insight into the role and position of self in such processes.
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In this paper I investigate the differences between the 960 first year students at the department of Media, Information and Communication (MIC) of the University of Applied Sciences Amsterdam (UASA) in their use of new media and their background variables. With statistical test the various variables will be measured and compared with each other in order to give insight in the distribution of the variables among the students and possible relations between new media use and the students’ background. This study is part of a broader PhD research that investigates the relation between aspects of media literacy and students’ success. Therefore, the background variables that had proven to be factors of influence in student success by previous studies were also measured in this study. The use of new media was measured in the same survey amongst the students. The digital questionnaire was part of the career counselling course and mandatory for all students. With the insight of the distribution and relations between the different variables and the use of new media, this study will provide us a better few on the differences between the so-called Internet generation. Especially in the Netherlands, where 98% of all households with children have access to the Internet, a closer look into the differences could provide useful information for future research in digital divide and it’s shift from access to skills and differences in usage of the Internet.
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Introduction: Depression can be a serious problem in young adult students. There is a need to implement and monitor prevention interventions for these students. Emotion-regulating improvisational music therapy (EIMT) was developed to prevent depression. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of EIMT for use in practice for young adult students with depressive symptoms in a university context. Method: A process evaluation was conducted embedded in a larger research project. Eleven students, three music therapists and five referrers were interviewed. The music therapists also completed evaluation forms. Data were collected concerning client attendance, treatment integrity, musical components used to synchronise, and experiences with EIMT and referral. Results: Client attendance (90%) and treatment integrity were evaluated to be sufficient (therapist adherence 83%; competence 84%). The music therapists used mostly rhythm to synchronise (38 of 99 times). The students and music therapists reported that EIMT and its elements evoked changes in all emotion regulation components. The students reported that synchronisation elicited meaningful experiences of expressing joy, feeling heard, feeling joy and bodily responses of relaxation. The music therapists found the manual useful for applying EIMT. The student counsellors experienced EIMT as an appropriate way to support students due to its preventive character. Discussion: EIMT appears to be a feasible means of evoking changes in emotion regulation components in young adult students with depressive symptoms in a university context. More studies are needed to create a more nuanced and evidence-based understanding of the feasibility of EIMT, processes of change and treatment integrity.
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In the following paper I investigate several factors of integration and their influence on students’ success in higher education derived from leading pedagogical theories. Furthermore the use of Facebook by first year students, in the Department of Media, Communication and Information at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences is discussed as a possible new influential factor of student success in contemporary society. The differences in the purpose of Facebook use by students are measured and compared with factors of integration, which were proven in previous studies, to be of influence to the success of students in higher education. Because this study is part of a broader (PhD) research wherein I investigate the influence of media literacy and its possible effect on students’ success, I will embed the results in a more theoretical discussion into integration in higher education and compare the results with previous studies conducted among the same population as part of previous mentioned research. All variables are measured using digital surveys and analysed with the help of statistical tests. This paper will ultimately investigate the relation between the variables derived from Tinto’s integration theory in contemporary society, Facebook use by students and its possible influence on students’ success.
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