We report research into the evolvement of a hybrid learning environment where education, companies and government successfully cooperate. This hybrid learning environment—one of the latest inventions in curriculum design—is special because it was neither intended nor planned by the parties involved. With some self-astonishment, the participants in this research experienced a growing acknowledgement of their emerging educational creation, aside from the experience of and appreciation for their cooperation and the increasing turnover. With a bricolage research approach within the scope of a rhizomatic perspective on becoming, a multivocal perspective on the evolvement of the learning environment was pursued. In emphasizing the historical evolvement of the learning environment, our findings challenge the tradition of drawing board design, accompanied by an appeal for re-appreciating professional craftsmanship. In addition, some reflections regarding the research are discussed.
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This paper deals with the problematic nature of the transition between education and the workplace. A smooth transition between education and the workplace requires learners to develop an integrated knowledge base, but this is problematic as most educational programmes offer knowledge and experiences in a fragmented manner, scattered over a variety of subjects, modules and (work) experiences. To overcome this problem, we propose a design approach and shifting the educational focus of attention from individual learners to learning environments. The broader notion of learning environments facilitates transitions by establishing horizontal connections between schools and the workplace. The main argument of this paper is that combining or connecting aspects of school-based settings only is not sufficient to ensure learners will develop an integrated knowledge base. The concept and examples of “hybrid learning environment” show how formal, school-based learning and workplace experiences can be closely connected. The paper offers a framework of four coherent perspectives that can help to understand the complex nature of such environments and to design hybrid learning environments: the “agency perspective”, the “spatial perspective”, the “temporal perspective”, and the “instrumental perspective”. The framework is applied to three cases taken from vocational education in the Netherlands to describe what hybrid learning environments look like in contemporary educational practice. RÉSUMÉ
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Vocational education and training (VET) plays a central role in preparing young people for work, developing adequate skills and responding to the labour-market needs of the economy. The transition learners are required to make from education to the workplace is a complex, and often problematic, process (Tynjälä, Välimaa, & Sarja, 2003). Studies show a gap between what is learned and what is required of competent professionals in an ever more complex world (Baartman & De Bruijn, 2011). The integration of students? learning experiences across academic and practice settings is currently of considerable interest within the educational sectors in a number of countries (Billett, 2011), among which the Netherlands. The last decade Dutch VET institutes haven been experimenting to design learning environments that cross the traditional school boundaries into working life. Zitter (2010) introduced the term hybrid learning environments . "A learning environment can be considered as a hybrid learning environment? When different formal and informal elements are woven together into coherent programmes of learning and into single learning environments, rather than a programme that combines different components with the aim of offering a more enticing menu of learning for the students" (Zitter & Hoeve, 2012 in OECD, 2013, pp. 138).
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Community, lab, werkplaats, netwerk, systeem, multi-stakeholder leeromgeving, leerwerkplaats, hybride leeromgeving: de termen buitelen over elkaar heen. Het gaat om omgevingen waarbij betrokkenen vanuit verschillende werelden met elkaar samen werken, leren en innoveren over grenzen heen, vaak rondom een maatschappelijke opgave. Bij de HU is gekozen voor de term ‘rijke leeromgevingen’. Vanwege het samen werken, leren en innoveren over grenzen heen, vinden wij ‘grensoverstijgende leeromgevingen’ een passend concept.
Business relations between Brainport organisations and their partners based in China have been growing rapidly. This postdoc project explores the Sino-Dutch corporate communicative strategies in the intercultural and geo-political context. Adopting discourse analysis and design-based research methods, the research aims to develop effective communication strategies for organisations in Brainport. Probing the geo-political, intercultural and digital challenges, the project provides a framework and insights in terms of corporate communication in the intercultural settings. Based on the results, the publications, the teaching activities, and the public talks, this research will generate future research leads and more societal discussions on the interplay between intercultural and business communicative strategies. Furthermore, this research engages the teaching activities through lectures and workshops at Fontys School of Business and Communication. Engaging the students in various learning activities, I will encourage the learning groups to participate and experiment in a hybrid learning environment at Fontys. I will lead a research project team in our minor China and World Economy, and encourage the learning group to participate and experiment in a hybrid learning environment at Fontys.
