Entrevista a Dick De Wolf. La renovación de las metodologías educativas en la universidad

Abstract

Which are the strategies implemented in Dutch universities in order to promote adaptation of educational methodologies in the European Higher Education Area framework? For example, incentives, training, encouragement etc. Which other strategies should be introduced in your country?

There aren’t any special strategies, because in Dutch education everybody expects the teachers or professors include innovation as part of their job. Innovation in methodology is therefore a key part of their role. You have to prepare students and pupils for the future. This cannot be done unless you think about the future and innovate shifts within a programme. If you continue to do what you always did, you will get what you always got. Therefore there won’t be any change. Of course, there are always difficulties: not everyone has the capacity to become part of the change process. You have to teach them that 10% of the professor’s time is spent on learning themselves, so that they have to think about and reflect on their own capabilities and design their own programme. What this is changing is that now there is a paradigm shift: it is no longer so teacher-centred – it is becoming more pupil-centred. What we’re trying to do is to get the students to take responsibility for their own studies. They have to reflect on their own capabilities and then ask themselves, “What do I need in order to become a good teacher”.

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