Linking complex problem solving to opportunity identification competence within the context of entrepreneurship

Today’s working life is increasingly characterized by entrepreneurial challenges. Entrepreneurial challenges start at an individual level with the identification of entrepreneurial opportunities, which is acknowledged as one of the key competencies for lifelong learning. Since the identification of entrepreneurial opportunities relies heavily on the opportunity identification competence (OIC) of individuals, understanding the meaning of OIC is relevant. Until now, OIC has been explored in the young entrepreneurship research field. However, entrepreneurship researchers until now have not fully explored OIC. According to several authors, the research on complex problem solving (CPS) in the cognitive research field might contribute to understanding OIC. In this paper, we review the link between OIC and CPS by comparing the cognitive and entrepreneurship research fields. We argue that those who excel in identifying opportunities share core characteristics with high-level complex problem-solvers. We propose to conduct empirical research in the future to investigate the relation between OIC and CPS within a work context in order to gain more insight into OIC. We believe that the cognitive research field contributes to the entrepreneurship research field and provides a deeper understanding of the initial steps of the entrepreneurial process.     

International Collaboration: Challenges for Researchers

This article presents a 2-year participatory intervention developed in a secondary school. Based on the European project Catch-EyoU, fostering a critical and active European citizenship, Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) was used with students to develop individual and collective reflection on the possibilities of political change over dating violence. The complexity of doing TO inside the school and the challenges of promoting a critical political understanding of the structural roots of social problems are discussed.     

Learning Styles of Chinese and Dutch Students Compared within the Context of Dutch Higher Education in Life Sciences

Abstract

This study investigated the extent to which the learning styles of Chinese students differ from those of Dutch students. The study was conducted within the context of Englishlanguage Bachelor of Science programmes thatWageningen University offers together with China Agricultural University to Dutch and Chinese students. Sixteen Dutch students and 25 Chinese students completed the Inventory of Learning Styles. The Chinese students have several of the characteristics that reflect a reproduction-directed and an undirected learning style, while the Dutch students as a group do not demonstrate any one particular learning style. It would be useful and desirable to show the Chinese students, by means of specific instructions and exercises, how to use strategies directed towards deep processing and how to regulate their own learning processes more in the direction of deep processing.     

Peer assessment for learning from a social perspective: The influence of interpersonal variables and structural features

This paper reports a systematic literature review examining empirical studies on the effects of peer assessment for learning. Peer assessment is fundamentally a social process whose core activity is feedback given to and received from others, aimed at enhancing the performance of each individual group member and/or the group as a whole. This makes peer assessment an interpersonal and interactional process. Using this social perspective in order to study learning effects, we focus on the impact of the structural arrangement of peer assessment on learning, and the influence of interpersonal variables.The literature search, focusing on empirical studies measuring learning outcomes in a peer assessment setting, resulted in 15 studies conducted since 1990 dealing with effects (performance or perceived learning gains) of peer assessment. Our analysis reveals that, although peer assessment is a social process, interpersonal variables have hardly been studied; more specifically, they were measured in only 4 out of 15 studies. Moreover, they are not used to explain learning gains resulting from peer assessment. Finally, comparing the studies with respect to structural features reveals that, although the differences between the studies are significant, there seems to be no relation with the occurrence of learning benefits. The results of this review seem to indicate that research on peer assessment from a social perspective is still in its infancy and deserves more attention.     

Aligning formative and summative assessments: A collaborative action research challenging teacher conceptions

Assessment innovations require explicitly challenging teachers’ assessment conceptions. In changing towards outcome-based curricula, aligning formative to new summative assessments is a challenge. This study, conducted in Dutch Agricultural Vocational Education and its new outcome-based summative assessments, aims to provide concrete insights into what teacher conceptions hinder the development of aligned formative assessment practices. In a structured collaborative action research, practitioners, researchers and consultants analyse teachers’ formative practices, identify underlying current conceptions and their misalignment to the new summative assessment system. An iterative process resulted in an overview of current conceptions versus required conceptions, showing required conceptual changes that are prerequisite for teachers to change towards formative assessment practices that are aligned to the new outcome-based summative assessment system.     

Using an instrument to analyse competence‐based study programmes: experiences of teachers in Dutch vocational education and training

Competence‐based education is becoming increasingly popular. Competencies are used more and more as the starting point for designing curricula and instructional methods, especially in vocational education and training, to realize authentic and self‐steering study programmes. Despite its popularity in both research and educational settings, there is no shared understanding of what competence‐based education should look like. Earlier work developed a model for competence‐based education that outlines eight features that are important for competence‐based education. This paper presents a study designed to determine the extent to which the model for competence‐based education can be understood and perceived as useful by teachers in vocational education and training in the Netherlands. The study included 12 teams of teachers in the process of designing or re‐designing their study programmes to be more competence‐based. Teachers reported that the instrument helped them understand the state of affairs of their study programmes, and empowered them to make decisions about the extent to which they want to make these programmes more competence‐based.     

Stichwort: Erziehungswissenschaftliche Perspektiven auf das Lernen Erwachsener

This leading article assumes that the understanding of learning is increasingly influenced by educational science and identifies several theoretical starting points for research in adult education. In doing so, the understanding of learning will be discussed in relation to various related disciplines and non-scientific discourses. The account is based on a scheme of self-reference and external-reference founded in systems theory which captures the relational character of learning—something that is developed more or less explicitly in all theoretical portrayals of learning. Central aspects for the facilitation of adult learning, such as self-monitoring of learning, the relationship of learning to meaning expressed in the term “competency”, embedding learning in social expectations and assumptions, as well as the link between individual learning and the learning of social systems, can be captured within this theoretical framework and related to one another.