Let them flourish:enhancing higher education students’ well-being

Student well-being in higher education is receiving increasing attention. This is agood development, partly because well-being is related to being able to study successfully.Using the Job Demands-Resources model as a theoretical foundation, this dissertation investigates the well-being and promotion of well-being of students in general and honours students in particular, aiming to answer the research question: What personal resources promote higher education students’ well-being and how can these personal resources be enhanced by education?Exploratory interviews with honours students investigated which personal resources they believe are important for achieving success. Path analysis was then used to investigate which personal resources are most strongly associated with levels of engagement and stress of students. The systematic review that followed described, from 123 included studies, the characteristics of interventions to promote well-being, the underlying theories, the effects of interventions and possible factors influencing effectiveness. Finally, educational design principles are formulated for designing interventions to (further) develop four personal resources of honours students; self-efficacy, optimism, inquiry mindedness, and self-regulation.It is recommended that, based on the findings, further educational design research is conducted to both design effective interventions to develop students' personal resources and further develop the associated theory. In this way, increasingly evidence-based work can be done to promote student well-being

Welke persoonlijke hulpbronnen zeggen honoursstudenten te gebruiken om succes te bereiken?

Poster tijdens de Onderwijs Research Dagen (juni 2017

International Honours Conference Windesheim

Which personal resources do honours students use to reach success

Get ready for a smart world: Student's views on future-proof education

One of the tasks for higher education is to prepare students for their role in a changing world and to stimulate them to develop broader competencies than only in their own discipline. There are many initiatives in which existing curricula are redesigned to prepare students for this changing world. These new curricula oftentimes contain hybrid learning configurations, in which theory and (authentic) practice are intertwined, such as in project-led education, innovation labs, or workplace learning. But what are -according to students- key ingredients of future-proof education? Within Saxion University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands, an explorative, qualitative study was conducted amongst 74 bachelor students from >20 programs, including technology and engineering programs, such as mechatronics, industrial design, or biomedical engineering. Focus group interviews were held with 24 groups, of different group sizes from 2-7 students. Interviews started with the question: What are -according to you- key ingredients of future-proof education? The interviewers directly during the interview coded the reported ingredients deductively, following a prespecified scheme based on literature. New themes were added inductively, when necessary. Next, interviewers prompted on the first answers, asking for clarification or examples. The report follows the outline of the adapted coding scheme. Distinction was made between 1st/2nd year students versus 3th/4th year students since the latter provided more in-depth and experience-based information. According to students, main ingredients of future-proof education are: authentic projects (mentioned in 22 out of 24 groups), blended/online learning (16), self-directed learning (15), teacher as coach (15), active learning (13) and collaborative learning (11). Results were used as input for the formulation of a new educational vision and Education Model, specifying ingredients for our future education

Welke persoonlijke hulpbronnen zeggen honoursstudenten te gebruiken om succes te bereiken?

Poster tijdens de Onderwijs Research Dagen (juni 2017

Opbrengst en Effectiviteit van Saxion Honoursprogramma’s

Onderzoek naar voorwaarden die succesvolle ontwikkeling en implementatie van honoursprogramma’s (HP’s) ondersteunen is nog schaars. In dit onderzoek zijn kenmerken in kaart gebracht om een succesvolle implementatie van HP’s te bevorderen. In eerste instantie is vanuit de literatuur een raamwerk opgezet met ontwerpprincipes voor HP’s. Dit raamwerk vormt de basis voor het vervolgonderzoek. Middels gestructureerde interviews en documentenanalyse, zijn de HP’s (n=8) binnen Saxion gescand en beschreven. Vervolgens zijn vragenlijsten afgenomen onder alle betrokken studenten (n=112) en docenten (n=29) om hun meningen, ervaringen en verwachtingen van de HP’s te inventariseren. De conclusies worden eerst per HP geformuleerd en vervolgens, waar mogelijk en wenselijk, overkoepelend over alle Saxion HP’s