Are you able to translate your vision on education into a successful innovation in a school at home or abroad?
In this minor, Innovative Educational Approaches, you get acquainted with the basic principles and content of well-known but also less known forms of traditional and modern innovative education. The lessons are given by authoritative teachers from different countries. We are collaborating with the University of Bicocca (Milano/Italy), Palacky University (Olomouc/Czech Republic), Linnaeus (University in Kalmar/Sweden). You will get the opportunity to specialize in an innovative concept and do either an internship in your own school or in a primary school in The Netherlands, or you get the opportunity to attend a university abroad with an internship in a primary school.
- Code
M.1214
- Start
February
- Type
Fulltime
- Language
English
- Max number of students
30
- Location
Enschede
- Minor Type
B: Available for some HBO courses
- Audience
Saxion student, Non-Saxion student
Course content
In this minor you will learn about the most important reform pedagogical principles and how they can be interpreted in practice. You can connect these reform pedagogical principles with contemporary renewal initiatives in education, like for example personalized learning or relevant themes such as gender and empowerment. You learn what the main principles are of the five most important reform pedagogical concepts: Montessori, Dalton, Freinet, Waldorf and Jenaplan education. But also less known concepts, such as Pizzigoni Education. Students can differentiate between these main principles and consider them critically. Based on this knowledge you describe and justify your own vision of learning/education in a manifesto.
At the same time this phase of the minor is a starting point for a critical analysis of your own educational practice. You will be provided with tools, with which you can write an innovation plan for your own professional practice or internship (change management). This task will be supervised by experienced teachers. With the help of this supervisors, you look for a suitable internship at home or abroad, where (in consultation with the host- or own school) you write the innovation plan.
The minor consist of three parts, in two phases.
The first phase of the minor will consist of lectures and workshops, and will include several formative assessments. This is a theoretical part, with a general introduction into reform pedagogical concepts. In the second part you will be provided with tools, with which you can investigate and change educational practices. In the last part, during the second phase, you will do an internship or go back to your own workplace, where you will write an innovation plan for the school in question.
The first two parts will take 10 weeks. This second phase (the internship or own workspace) will also take 10 weeks. Throughout the minor you will be supervised and supported in person or remotely using online collaboration tools.
The target group are students who are becoming a teacher. Students who are following courses in the field of education and upbringing are also more than welcome. Finally, with this minor we also focus on beginning teachers who are already working in the field of education.
This minor is not open to Health Care and Social Work students.
Your level of English must be: Level B2.
The profile part is a presentation for teachers and students of the minor. You have to present your vision on education in a comprehensible way to a professional audience by means of a poster presentation which is justified in a manifesto (15 ects). This is an individual test. The second phase students implement an innovation plan for a primary school itself. It is the so-called professional product/the practical part (15 ects).
In most cases, this is a group effort, because most students will be doing an internship with one or two other students in the same school. The group will write a report on the findings of the innovation and the research that was conducted, which supports the innovation plan. Students present the findings before a delegation from the internship school and for some teachers and students from the minor.
- Student from Italy: "It is a very enriching and beautiful experience for future teachers."
- Student from Italy: "In general, both the training and the treatment they have given us from the first day has been excellent and it is undoubtedly an experience that I would recommend to other students."
- Student from Spain: "For me, the idea of the project and the simple opportunity to get out of the classroom and get to know different methodologies and ways of educating, having the possibility of observing and reflecting on the different schools, is already something incredible and that has taught me and awakened much more knowledge than many of subjects in my degree."
- Student form the Netherlands: "Nice to learn about different education systems and visit the schools. Also going abroad was a very nice experience."
- Student from the Netherlands: "My vision for education is clear which means I now know what kinds of schools to apply to."