This chapter explores qualitative career assessment as an identity learning process where meaning-oriented learning is essential and distinguished from conditioned or semantic types of learning. In order to construct a career identity in the form of a future-oriented narrative, it is essential that learners are helped through cognitive learning stages with the help of a dialogue about concrete experiences which aims to pay attention to emotions and broadens and deepens what is expressed.
The central aim of this thesis was to increase understanding of designing vocational learning environments at the school–work boundary. Four studies were conducted, focusing on learning environment designs at the school–work boundary and on design considerations of the actors involved in their construction, both from the world of school and the world of work.
The learning innovation we report in this article is an international rapid-prototyping event (48 hours) in which teams of international BSc and MSc students from two universities (Western Europe and South-East Africa, respectively) jointly designed and developed a prototype for a local small-business owner in a developing economy. The learning innovation has its origin in the simple observation that the majority of the current theories, cases, and learning activities that characterize entrepreneurship education have their origin in western-oriented epistemologies and ontologies. The goal of this entrepreneurial learning activity was to develop students’ entrepreneurial competencies through interaction and cross-boundary entrepreneurial problem-solving between university students from western and non-western origin. The results underpin that it is very worthwhile for higher education teachers—who look for new, cost-effective “wide” entrepreneurship education programs—to adopt such events. The results show that the program not only contributes to short-term impact (e.g., joy of learning and collaborating, confidence in the own expertise, and seeing where to contribute) but also enables longer term impact (e.g., moving from intention to an actual start-up). Moreover, the activity produces actual solutions that, in this case the cheese maker can implement, can help the business to grow and survive.
GAMING HORIZONS is a multidisciplinary project that aims to expand the research and innovation agenda on serious gaming and gamification. The project is particularly interested in the use of games for learning and cultural development. Gamification - and gaming more broadly – are very important from a socio-economic point of view, but over the past few years they have been at the centre of critical and challenging debates, which highlighted issues such as gender and minority representation, and exploitative game mechanics. Our project’s key contention is that it is important for the European ICT community to engage with design trends and social themes that have affected profoundly the mainstream and ‘independent’ game development cultures over the past few years, especially because the boundaries between leisure and serious games are increasingly blurred. GAMING HORIZONS is a direct response to the official recognition by the H2020 programme of work that multidisciplinary research can help to advance the integration between Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) and the Social Sciences and the Humanities (SSH). The project’s objective is to enable a higher uptake of socially responsible ICT-related research in relation to gaming. This objective will be achieved through a research-based exchange between communities of developers, policy makers, users and researchers. The methodology will involve innovative data collection activities and consultations with a range of stakeholders over a period of 14 months. We will interrogate the official ‘H2020 discourse’ on gamification – with a particular focus on ‘gamified learning’ - whilst engaging with experts, developers and critical commentators through interviews, events, workshops and systematic dialogue with an Advisory Board. Ultimately, GAMING HORIZONS will help identify future directions at the intersection of ethics, social research, and both the digital entertainment and serious games industries.EU FundingThe 14-month research project 'Gaming Horizons' was funded by the European Commission through the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.
There's a growing recognition that the mainstream economic system contributes to environmental degradation and climate change. This jeopardizes human prosperity and poses existential risks for all life forms. Not waiting for global politics to solve the problems, Regenerative Placemakers show that we can organize ourselves differently. They engage with realigning human systems to work within planetary boundaries as a well-being economy. However, they face challenges, such as incorporating non-human voices and embracing the complexity of co-creation. Our transdisciplinary, exploratory research project aims to incorporate a lifecentric worldview in the collective transformation process when investigating: What tools, methods, and approaches the Stewards of Place could use to embody the ecosystems thinking and be able to integrate the needs and perspectives of nature in a process of decision-making, such that it is understandable and fitting for different types of contexts? Our research focuses on fostering a post-anthropocentric outlook, where human identity merges with broader ecosystems. Through the development of methodologies, we seek pathways to coexist harmoniously within diverse natural habitats, prioritizing ecosystem health. This perspective fundamentally shifts worldviews, placing ecosystem well-being at the forefront. Our goal is to cultivate an integrated approach to living that acknowledges and respects the interconnectedness of all life forms. Consortium Partners: Practice Partners are Regenerative Placemakers, referred to as Stewards of Place: Impact033's, IMPACT024's, and Oosterhout SDG's Local. Together with WEAllNL, they are optimizing conditions for innovative, regenerative leadership in the "Plekathon” pilot project, which will serve as a Living Lab for this participatory research. Changemaker: Stichting Wellbeing Economy Alliance Nederland (WEAllNL)- Bas Poppel leading development of a learning community of practice. Knowledge Partners: Avans’ Economy in Common Research Group: Lector Dr. Godelieve Spaas and researcher Ewelina Schraven, Miranda van Gendt (Plekmakers_), Luea Ritter (World Ethic Forum), and Nature as an Advisor, Inspiration, and Stakeholder.
Deze aanvraag beoogt de verwezenlijking van hoogwaardig onderwijs in Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) in het primair- en voortgezet onderwijs en de lerarenopleidingen, door een beproefde systematiek voor netwerkvorming beschikbaar te maken voor het STEM-domein. Het uiteindelijke doel hiervan is de systematische en duurzame bevordering van bèta-burgerschap en het verhogen van de instroom van leerlingen in technische opleidingen (CBS, 2017, TechYourFuture, 2018). Om te komen tot de beproefde systematiek voor netwerkvorming, wordt de werkwijze van ontwerponderzoek toegepast (Plomp & Nieveen, 2013). Concreet betekent dit dat een systematiek wordt opgesteld voor het netwerk, dat deze in praktijk wordt gebracht, formatief wordt geëvalueerd, vervolgens wordt bijgesteld op basis van de bevindingen en dan wederom in de praktijk wordt beproefd (McKenney & Reeves, 2012). De systematiek voor het netwerk bestaat uit een aantal aspecten: 1) het opstellen van een landelijke onderzoeksagenda rondom STEM-onderwijs op basis van een proces van vraagarticulatie en focusbepaling, 2) het vervolgens in professionele leergemeenschappen (PLG’s) werken aan de beantwoording van vragen van de landelijke onderzoeksagenda, en 3) het delen van kennis, voorbeelden en onderzoeksresultaten door fysieke ontmoetingen te organiseren en een digitaal platform beschikbaar te stellen. Op deze wijze wordt kennisdeling en samenwerking gestimuleerd, wordt voortgaande netwerkvorming bevorderd, en wordt gewerkt aan het vergroten van onderzoekend vermogen van alle leden van het netwerk. Door meermalen de systematiek voor netwerkvorming bij te stellen en te verbeteren op basis van formatieve evaluaties, wordt toegewerkt naar een effectieve structuur voor het doen van praktijkgericht onderzoek naar STEM-onderwijs alsmede het delen en ontwikkelen van onderzoeksinitiatieven, kennis en good practices. Het STEM-netwerk is een open netwerk dat uitbreiding van deelname stimuleert, hetgeen leidt tot verbreding van kennisdeling en meer en beter praktijkonderzoek. Aan het eind van het project is een beproefde, doeltreffende systematiek voor voortgaande netwerkvorming binnen het STEM-domein beschikbaar.
