Eerste SoTL-subsidiewinnaars aan de RUG!

The Process Improvement and Change course at the Faculty of Economics and Business is selected as a case study for this research. This course is chosen due to its emphasis on group work and its primary focus on enhancing students' social rather than technical skills. 

The intervention will use the current course structure as a basis, with alterations being made at various levels. These modifications will primarily concern group design and composition, but will also encompass learning activities (lectures, tutorials, and workshops), in addition to associated course materials.

Students in the Master Population Studies have signalled that the demographic theories and methods they learn are shaped by traditional socio-cultural norms. For instance, demographic indicators are typically disaggregated by sex (“males” vs “females”) and theories on family and household dynamics usually focus on opposite-sex couples, which may leave some students feeling excluded. Such biases related to, amongst others, gender, sexuality, ethnicity and nationality compromise inclusiveness and could negatively affect students’ learning experiences. Ideally, our concepts, definitions and data should be inclusive and representative of the population. Students’ lack of relatedness may extend further in the classroom through different learning experiences between Dutch- and non-Dutch-speaking students. With this project, we want to evaluate and enhance the inclusivity in the Master programme. The Master coordinator, 2-3 course coordinators and ± 40 students will be involved.

The first theoretical pathway course within the Master’s programme Media Studies: Media Creation and Innovation is “Cultures of Creativity”. I taught this course since September 2019. The course consists of weekly seminars of 2 hours and combines critical theory discussions with a hands-on approach to creativity theories. Students are assessed on the basis of a final individual essay and a Creative Demo. This Demo asks and/or answers a specific question with regard to creativity. Students use a self-chosen, justified, creative method for their Demo presentations.

While students respond well to the class, I want to optimize my pedagogical practice to further raise the critical skills of students. I want to investigate how creative practice and critical thinking and writing can be more closely connected, to achieve more synergy. This also fits part of my current research agenda into pedagogical practices (Aasman et al., 2022).