Over the past three years, honors faculty at South Florida State College, a two-year college offering a limited number of workforce baccalaureates, have reinvented their program. Rather than the themed seminars and exploratory courses popular with an earlier generation, our honors courses now offer students project-based, faculty-guided…

To encourage students to do geometry, the art of Islamic geometric ornamentation was chosen as the central theme of a lesson strand which was developed using the newly presented didactical tool called "Learning by Acting". The Dutch students who took these lessons in 2010 to 2013 were challenged to act as if they themselves were Persian…

Election simulations are considered a viable tool to instigate democratic learning in schools. This paper reports an explorative qualitative inquiry into one type of simulation project: mock-elections (ME). Main objective was to gain an insight into the organization of ME-practices in eight schools in the Netherlands in 2012. Thematic analysis of…

In 2013 five universities from across Europe undertook an innovative project "Media Culture 2020", combining skills and forces to develop new practices that would face the challenge of the convergence of digital media, taking full advantage of social media and cloud-based technologies. The aim of the Media Culture 2020 project was to…

Despite several years of successfully applying problem-based learning at Maastricht University, the Faculty of Medicine observed a slow erosion of problem-based practices and "PBL fatigue" among themselves and students. In response to this fatigue and new research into the development of the young adult brain, Active Self-Directed…

Innovation and entrepreneurship are vital for economic growth, as was already asserted by Schumpeter in 1934. In a recent survey carried out by the Ministry of Economic Affairs (Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, 2006) a picture emerges of The Netherlands as lagging behind when it comes to starting a company, whereby start-ups of students coming…

This paper highlights my experiences as World Citizenship teacher at a public school in the Netherlands, comprising a student population of second generation immigrants with a Turkish background. It shows how the concept and course of world citizenship has evolved since its inception three years ago. The paper also reflects what we, as teachers…

In a statistics course for bachelor students in econometrics a new format was adopted in which students were encouraged to study more actively and in which cooperative learning and peer teaching was implemented. Students had to work in groups of two or three students where each group had to perform certain tasks. One of these tasks was: explaining…

This article describes Espace (Electronic System for Peer Assessment and Coaching Efficiency), a student peer-feedback tool that enhances the educational quality of assignments without overburdening faculty or adding administrative costs. Developed and tested by four universities in the Netherlands, Espace focuses on qualitative feedback and…

It is a long and winding road from invention to innovation. Starting from this observation, this paper presents a historical perspective on the capabilities engineers should possess to do their work. The importance of the "communicative competence" involved in creating a social base for innovation is underpinned. We will present a…

This innovative session consists of a panel discussion on different approaches to researching and understanding action-learning programs, based on collaborative empirical work. Panel members compare their use of a critical-pragmatist approach and an actor-network approach. These different but complementary approaches are compared regarding their…

Notes that students with a history of failure may be hampered by feelings of incompetence and diminished expectations. States that teachers using responsive instruction become attuned to these perceptions and encourage students to regain control of the problem-solving process. Notes that to succeed, teachers must propose certain goals and…

In order to have a democratic society, equal rights to education are assumed. A democratic society needs citizens who are willing and able to commit themselves to lifelong learning--self-directed individual learning as well as collective learning. Learning in real life, although different for various people, can be seen as encompassing five steps:…

The reasons to introduce formats of active learning in engineering (ALE) such as project work, problem-based learning, use of cases, etc. are mostly based on practical experience, and sometimes from applied research on teaching and learning. Such research shows that students learn more and different abilities than in traditional formats of…

Examines the required and elective geography courses, staffing, textbooks, and methodology used in Dutch secondary school geography instruction. Shows that geography enjoys a high status, that Dutch textbooks tend to apply major geographic themes to a specific regional setting, and that active learning plays a prominent role. (MJP)