Zoekresultaten

Teaching for excellence

What exactly are the characteristics of honors pedagogy? What are the teaching strategies that are particularly relevant and successful for academically gifted and motivated students? In spite of the substantial body of literature about the practice of honors education, largely referring to the United States, very little systematic and empirical research has been done about honors pedagogy. This study contributes to a better understanding of honors pedagogies, focusing not just on what might distinguish honors teaching and learning from standard expectations and methodologies but also on how honors pedagogy offers both instructors and students an opportunity to fundamentally rethink their philosophy of education. The present study points out the similar and different approaches and dispositions in American and Dutch honors teaching. Cultural differences, distinctive educational systems, and diverse priorities play a role in defining both the shared and unique perspectives on honors education in both countries. Therefore, a baseline comparison is made between American and Dutch honors teachers with respect to their teaching strategies.

Niemand past in één hokje

Enter the specialists

In this article the work of power through discourse in music education in primary schools in the Netherlands is examined. After introducing the central concepts of culture, practice, discourse, and power, the current dominant musical discourse in the Netherlands is presented as expressed in three nested perspectives: the perspective of music as a specialist domain, the perspective of music as (essentially instrumental) performance, and the perspective of music as Art. Then, a central document in current music educational developments in Dutch primary schools is analyzed. It is demonstrated that specifically the perspectives of music as a specialist domain and (partly) music as (instrumental) performance have a strong presence in the document. The article finishes with calling for more attention to the workings of dominant musical discourse in music pedagogical debates.

Learning to question the status quo. Critical thinking, citizenschip education and Bildung in vocational education

Educational policies in the Netherlands reveal that the current mainstream participatory approach to citizenship education jeopardises students’ autonomy. Especially in Dutch post-secondary vocational education, citizenship education has been shown to be mainly aimed at socialization: initiating students into tradition, internalising rules, societal norms and values. This article reports on the findings of a research project, which is grounded in the assumption that integrating Bildung, citizenship education and critical thinking is a promising way to grapple with the perceived overemphasis on socialization strategies. We justify the interrelationship of critical thinking, Bildung, citizenship education, and professional training from two perspectives – historical and contemporary. It is only by combining these concepts, we contend, that educational professionals can create teaching materials more geared to developing autonomy, and prepare students in vocational training to navigate the political and societal dilemma’s on the work floor. Furthermore, we also clarify our perspective by offering three educational principles, used in our project to guide the design of teaching materials, that form a context for integrating citizenship, critical thinking, and Bildung in vocational education. A practical illustration is subsequently discussed.

Let’s Be Makers Instead of Followers

A Europe-wide revival of the idea of bildung as a goal for education has been gaining momentum for a couple of decades. The main idea is that bildung enables teachers, researchers and policy makers “… to explore the ways in which education might be about something more than simply the transmission of our facts and values to the next generation,” to use a quote by Gert Biesta, the Dutch professor of educational theory and pedagogy at the University of Edinburgh. Others often narrow bildung down to a process of becoming a whole person or cultivating one’s self towards civic excellence. Those ideas come from an older tradition with bildung thinkers such as the 19th century Prussian minister of education, Wilhelm von Humboldt, who promoted bildung as a key objective of public education.

Bildung-making as a key for inclusive education

This paper explores how a Bildung-making approach underpinned by embodied pedagogy and didactics can contribute to a learner becoming a person and a teacher’s development of artistry. We argue that the existing Cartesian divide between mind and body can explain the fundamental differences in how teachers and learners perceive Bildung within the Dutch educational system: either as an ‘academic’ phenomenon (for ‘the head’) or as vocational (for ‘the hand’). In this study, Dutch (pre)vocational teachers designed and co-created Bildung prototypes in professional learning communities (PLCs) and classrooms. The teachers used ‘real life’ questions from their teaching practices as their departure point to develop Bildung-making. The results of the study show that when Bildung education becomes an embodied maker’s process, it enables learners to transcend barriers to educational equity. Co-created enjoyment and social emotional learning come to the foreground during Bildung-making, thus fostering inclusive education.