Martin Mulder

The recent international intercultural tensions call for intercultural understanding between students in education. Vitaliy Popov was publishing about his in the International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 36, 3012-317. ‘This paper aims to examine challenges that are inherent in multicultural student group work (MCSG) in higher education and the differences between students from different cultural backgrounds in how they perceive the importance of challenges in MCSG. For this purpose as 19-item suvey was completed by studients (N=141) of the 9-EC (European Credits) Academic Consultancy Training (ACT) course of Wageningen University, a university in the Netherlands in the domain of life sciences with a student population consisting of over 30% foreign students from over 100 different countries. Students were required to rate on a Likert scale (from 1 to 5) the importance of a certain challenge in MCSG. Challenges for students in MCSG were analyzed using scales that centered on cross-cutting challenges and culture-related challenges in multicultural group work identified in exploratory factor  analysis. To examine the extent to which culturally diverse students differed with respect to their perceptions of the importance of the challenges, a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted based on Hofstede’s individualist–collectivist cultural dimension. Free-riding, insufficient English language skills and students not communicating properly were perceived by all participants of this explorative case study to be the most important challenges in MCSG. The results suggest that students’ cultural background (the individualist–collectivist dimension) affects their perceptions of the importance of challenges in MCSG. Explanations for these results and recommendations for future research are provided.’ (source: Popov, V., D. Brinkman, H.J.A. Biemans, M. Mulder, A. Kuznetsov, O. Noroozi (2012). Multicultural student group work in higher education. An explorative case study on challenges as perceived by students. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 36(2), pp. 302– 317). http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0147176711000939

 

E.J.H. Spelt, P.A. Luning, M.A.J.S. van Boekel & M. Mulder (2014). Constructively aligned teaching and learning in higher education in engineering: what do students perceive as contributing to the learning of interdisciplinary thinking?, European Journal of Engineering Education, DOI: 10.1080/03043797.2014.987647

Abstract:

‘Increased attention to the need for constructively aligned teaching and learning in interdisciplinary higher education in engineering is observed. By contrast, little research has been conducted on the implementation of the outcome-based pedagogical approach to interdisciplinary higher education in engineering. Therefore, the present design-based research was undertaken to develop, implement, and evaluate a constructively aligned learning environment in the interdisciplinary field of food quality management. The practical aims were to reduce the perception held by the students of choppiness and to prevent them floundering in the disciplines; the theoretical aim was to accumulate theory on learning environment aspects that would help students to learn interdisciplinary thinking. The design-focused evaluation among 26 students showed that the practical aims were met, and concerning the theoretical aim, eight learning environment aspects were identified such as learning within an interdisciplinary framework. Further research should validate these aspects to continue with tackling teacher challenges on teaching interdisciplinary thinking.’ (Spelt et al, op cit).

 

Dear website visitor,

I wish you a Happy and Healthy New Year!!!

As I mentioned earlier, I am maintaining this website for your convenience. It started when I began doing projects in East-Africa. I learned then that many colleagues and students did not have access to current publications, thus I started uploading my papers and presentations on an earlier version of this website. I had never thought that it would get used so much. In 2014 the website again got hundreds of thousands of hits and tens of thousands unique visitors.

Last year I introduced a system by which persons who would want to download papers had to register their email address. That was because I was eager to learn who was downloading papers to see whether the users still match the original purpose of the website. Indeed, that is the case, although the visitors profile is quite broad. All of you who left your email address, rest assured that I will keep your address for personal use, and that I will not use them for commercial reasons.

One of my good intentions for 2015 is to complement the list of downloadable publications, to increase the usefulness of the site.

To all visitors: I hope you found this website interesting and useful.

Thanks a lot for visiting. Come again!

Karimi, S. , H.J.A. Biemans, T. Lans, M. Aazami & M. Mulder (2014). Fostering students’ competence in identifying business opportunities in entrepreneurship education. Innovations in Education and Teaching International http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2014.993419

Continue reading Fostering students’ competence in identifying business opportunities in entrepreneurship education published online

The Reviews of the ESEE2015, the European Seminar on Extension and Education (www.ESEE2015.nl) conference, which will take place in Wageningen on April 28 until May 1, 2015 (and is organised in conjunction with the AIAEE 2015 conference on the same dates and locations), are completed; the selection of proposals is done, and submitters may expect a submisstion notification email today or on Monday December 15, as planned. There were over 200 proposals (we expected only 50), and 120 are accepted (we would have been happy with 40 accepted proposals). It is remarkable to see that many rejected proposals miss a link to the current international theoretical and research context. Several submission were about scientific or practical topics which were interesting for an international audience like 25 years ago. But the field of Extension and Education have moved forward. The rejected proposals may be relevant for local developments, but are not that important for an international audience which is interested in the latest developments in the field of Extension and Education. So we see up-to-date proposals on competence assessment, webinars for farmers, and MOOCs for students. That is quite something different from repetitive replications of studies on the adoption of innovations, and endless variations of studies on extension practices related to demographic variables of target groups. Good to see that there are many colleagues who are working on timely issues and who are interested in coming to Wageningen for this conference next year.

On December 8 I paid a visit to Céreq in Marseille to discuss the competence-based education movement in France. I met with Josiane Paddeu, Patrick Veneau, Katia Melnick, and Matteo Sgarzi. Céreq is conducting various studies on competence-based education in France. An interesting case is related to vocational education in the field of electricity. Continue reading Visit to Céreq

Het is inmiddels al weer twee weken geleden, maar het symposium en feest van ECS op 14 november jongstleden waren een succes. Er waren een kleine 200 deelnemers aanwezig bij het middagsymposium in Hotel de Wageningsche Berg en het feest ‘s avonds voor (oud-)medewerkers en partners in ‘t Veerhuis in Opheusden. Onder de aanwezigen emeritus-hoogleraar Vinus Zachariasse die buitengewoon veel heeft betekend voor de opbouw van de leerstoelgroep ECS, alsook emeritus-hoogleraar Anne van den Ban, nestor van de Wageningse voorlichtingskunde, die zeer actief is geweest in het Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension, waarvan het editorship bij ECS ligt. Dank aan alle voorzitters, inleiders, referenten, deelnemers en de organisatie van de dag, en: alle voorgangers van ECS, in het bijzonder Dr Wout van den Bor, die vele jaren leiding heeft gegeven aan de leerstoelgroep Agrarische Onderwijskunde; dank ook voor de mooie woorden tijdens de receptie in ‘t Veerhuis. Het was een mooie mijlpaal. Op een succesvolle tweede helft! Reserveer de datum – 100-jarig bestaan van ECS in 2064. Meer nieuws en verslagen over de dag in het komend nummer van het ECS Bulletin.

Voor foto’s: zie fotoalbum en klik op:
ECS 50 Jaar, Symposium Wageningse Berg en Feest Veerhuis
Foto’s Bart de Gouw, 2014 in opdracht van ECS, Wageningen UR

Continue reading Fotoreportage Symposium en Feest 50-jarig bestaan ECS 14 november 2014

‘The Real Revolution in Online Education Isn’t MOOCs.’ ‘… there is a new wave of online competency-based learning providers that has absolutely nothing to do with offering free, massive, or open courses. In fact, they’re not even building courses per se, but creating a whole new architecture of learning that has serious implications for businesses and organizations around the world. It’s called online competency-based education, and it’s going to revolutionize the workforce’, says Michelle Weise in the October 17 issue, 2014, of the Harvard Business Review. Thank you Michelle, for your wise words. MOOCs is about marketing, real education is about the development of competence and excellence. See https://hbr.org/2014/10/the-real-revolution-in-online-education-isnt-moocs

 

Today I had the privilige of presenting the research review on Vocational Education and Training Research at the Integrated Research Network on Vocational Education and Training (IRN-VET) at the World Educational Research Association (WERA) Focal Meeting, which is organised in conjunction with the Annual Conference of the Scottish Educational Research Association (SERA) in Edinburgh, Scotland. The session took place in the Pollock room of the classical St Leonard’s Hall of the University of Edinburgh. It was nice to see that the audience was more intercultural than the Vocational Education and Training Network (VETNET) of the European Educational Research Association (EERA), the incubator of  IRN-VET, is used to, justifying presenting VET research at WERA Focal Meetings in the future. Continue reading Research Review on VET Research presented