Students’ experiences with different learning pathways to higher professional bachelor programmes

Context: In the Dutch educational system, different learning pathways to higher professional bachelor (or HBO) programmes have been created: the regular VET route, the general secondary education route, and continuing learning pathways (such as the Green Lyceum or GL) that combine characteristics of these two traditional routes and that are specifically designed for students who combine a relatively high cognitive level with an affinity for practical, vocation-oriented assignments. Approach: The present study aimed to compare the experiences of students coming from these three different learning pathways to HBO. 62 former GL students, 127 former middle-management VET (or MBO) students, and 81 former regular general secondary education (or HAVO) students completed an online questionnaire on their experiences in their first HBO study year and their scores on the various scales were compared. Findings: Students from the three groups were equally satisfied with their current HBO programme. The same pattern was found for perceived study success in their HBO programme. Former GL students, however, mentioned that they had been better prepared in terms of development of study skills needed in HBO. Compared with the MBO route to HBO, former GL students felt better prepared in terms of the theoretical subjects addressed in their previous educational programme. In this regard, their level of theoretical preparation was comparable to that of former HAVO students. When the vocation-oriented aspects of education were concerned, however, the GL appeared to be comparable with the MBO route to HBO (in the HAVO curriculum, vocation-oriented preparation for HBO is absent). Moreover, former HAVO students scored lower than former GL and former MBO students with respect to the extent to which they felt that they had received support in choosing a particular HBO programme in their previous educational programme. Conclusion: The GL seems to combine the advantages of MBO and HAVO programmes for this particular group of students: theoretical preparation for HBO at HAVO level combined with practical preparation at MBO level, systematic career orientation and guidance, and development of study skills required in HBO. In other words, such continuing learning pathways can be a curriculum design solution for specific student groups to promote their transition to HBO. (DIPF/Orig.

Students’ experiences with different learning pathways to higher professional bachelor programmes

Context: In the Dutch educational system, different learning pathways to higher professional bachelor (or HBO) programmes have been created: the regular VET route, the general secondary education route, and continuing learning pathways (such as the Green Lyceum or GL) that combine characteristics of these two traditional routes and that are specifically designed for students who combine a relatively high cognitive level with an affinity for practical, vocation-oriented assignments. Approach: The present study aimed to compare the experiences of students coming from these three different learning pathways to HBO. 62 former GL students, 127 former middle-management VET (or MBO) students, and 81 former regular general secondary education (or HAVO) students completed an online questionnaire on their experiences in their first HBO study year and their scores on the various scales were compared. Findings: Students from the three groups were equally satisfied with their current HBO programme. The same pattern was found for perceived study success in their HBO programme. Former GL students, however, mentioned that they had been better prepared in terms of development of study skills needed in HBO. Compared with the MBO route to HBO, former GL students felt better prepared in terms of the theoretical subjects addressed in their previous educational programme. In this regard, their level of theoretical preparation was comparable to that of former HAVO students. When the vocation-oriented aspects of education were concerned, however, the GL appeared to be comparable with the MBO route to HBO (in the HAVO curriculum, vocation-oriented preparation for HBO is absent). Moreover, former HAVO students scored lower than former GL and former MBO students with respect to the extent to which they felt that they had received support in choosing a particular HBO programme in their previous educational programme.Conclusion: The GL seems to combine the advantages of MBO and HAVO programmes for this particular group of students: theoretical preparation for HBO at HAVO level combined with practical preparation at MBO level, systematic career orientation and guidance, and development of study skills required in HBO. In other words, such continuing learning pathways can be a curriculum design solution for specific student groups to promote their transition to HBO

The Nature of Study Programmes in Vocational Education: Evaluation of the Model for Comprehensive Competence-Based Vocational Education in the Netherlands

In a previous series of studies, a model of comprehensive competence-based vocational education (CCBE model) was developed, consisting of eight principles of competence-based vocational education (CBE) that were elaborated for four implementation levels (Wesselink et al. European journal of vocational training 40:38–51 2007a). The model thus consisted of 32 cells, all defined by text. It was developed to provide study programme teams working in vocational education with an instrument to assess the actual and desired “competentiveness” of their study programmes. “Competentiveness” refers to the extent to which study programmes are based on the principles of CBE that we formulated. The model is an instrument for analysing the alignment of study programmes with the defining principles of CBE and clarifying programme teams’ intentions, i.e. the extent to which they wish to achieve higher levels of implementation of the different principles. This article presents the results of two studies, the aim of which was to identify adjustments the teachers felt were necessary to make the CCBE model a valid instrument for assessing the actual and desired “competentiveness” of their study programmes. In study A, 57 teachers evaluated the model during focus group discussions, resulting in a revised CCBE model consisting of ten principles for five levels of implementation. In study B, 151 teachers completed a questionnaire to evaluate the comprehensibility of the revised model. The study showed that teachers understood and interpreted the revised model as intended, were able to position their study programmes by using the revised model and that the content validity of the revised model was good

Fostering oral presentation competence through a virtual reality-based task for delivering feedback

While previous studies have stressed the importance of feedback delivered by experts, it is unclear whether students’ oral presentation competence can be fostered through innovative technology for delivering feedback. This experimental study examined the effectiveness of a virtual reality-based task, in which first-year undergraduate students practiced their presentation in a virtual environment and received feedback produced by the system, on their presentation competence components (i.e. cognition, behaviour and attitudes towards presenting). The effects were compared with a control condition, which was a face-to-face presentation task with expert feedback. The students’ performance was measured using pre- and post-test multiple-choice tests, validated rubrics, and self-evaluation instruments. Results revealed significant improvements from pre-test to post-test in all three presentation competence components, without a difference between the conditions. Furthermore, the self-evaluation tests showed that students who presented in virtual reality were appreciative of the detailed and analytical feedback they received. Because of sample size limitations, the effects found could not be generalised. Therefore, future research on a larger sample is needed to examine population effects. Follow-up studies should focus on the extent to which virtual reality-based tasks can encourage self-regulation skills for the effective and efficient integration of these tasks in presentation courses.</p

Modelling competencies for computing education beyond 2020: a research based approach to defining competencies in the computing disciplines.

How might the content and outcomes of tertiary education programmes be described and analysed in order to understand how they are structured and function? To address this question we develop a framework for modelling graduate competencies linked to tertiary degree programmes in the computing disciplines. While the focus of our work is computing the framework is applicable to education more broadly. The work presented here draws upon the pioneering curricular document for information technology (IT2017), curricular competency frameworks, other related documents such as the software engineering competency model (SWECOM), the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA), current research in competency models, and elicitation workshop results from recent computing conferences. The aim is to inform the ongoing Computing Curricula (CC2020) project, an endeavour supported by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the IEEE Computer Society. We develop the Competency Learning Framework (CoLeaF), providing an internationally relevant tool for describing competencies. We argue that this competency based approach is well suited for constructing learning environments and assists degree programme architects in dealing with the challenge of developing, describing and including competencies relevant to computer and IT professionals. In this paper we demonstrate how the CoLeaF competency framework can be applied in practice, and though a series of case studies demonstrate its effectiveness and analytical power as a tool for describing and comparing degree programmes in the international higher education landscape