Integrative learning to improve connection with labour market: 'Digital skills are badly needed'
Many humanities graduates find work in digital heritage, but a good pedagogical model to match education is lacking. University lecturers Karin de Wild and Peter Verhaar want to change this with a Comenius grant.
'There have been several reports in recent years showing that there is a gap between humanities studies and the field,' begins Verhaar. 'The skills demanded by libraries and museums differ from those students traditionally acquire in humanities. Students are good at contextualising, interpreting and communicating, but sometimes lack the digital skills demanded nowadays.'
'Peter and I also notice this in practice,' adds De Wild. 'We both work a lot with institutions dealing with digital heritage. Peter works partly for the University Library, I have a lot of contact with museums. There, we often hear that a battle could still be struck between education and the field: better cooperation, making modules fit better with practice. Only, a good pedagogical model for this is lacking.'
Integrative learning
Verhaar and De Wild therefore decided to join forces and apply for a Comenius grant. Recipients of these grants are given funding to innovate or improve secondary vocational education (MBO) or education at a university of applied sciences (HBO) or research university (WO). ‘We will be working with integrative learning,’ says De Wild. ‘This is a didactic model that brings together people with different backgrounds and disciplines within a group. It can also work very well if you want to combine theoretical and practical knowledge.’
In concrete terms, this means that De Wild and Verhaar will be working with libraries and museums for three years to bridge the gap between education and the professional field. ‘We’re going to start by appointing an advisory council of representatives from the heritage sector,’ explains Verhaar. ‘They will have six months in which to suggest subjects that could be covered. We will then test these content-related and didactic innovations for three semesters in six different master’s courses, both our own and those taught by various colleagues.’
Toolkit
The ultimate aim is to produce a toolkit full of best practices, which other lecturers can use themselves. Verhaar: ‘We hope that they’ll also be able to apply the principles of integrative learning.’