Onderwijsparade 2021

In the morning, the third Utrecht Scholarship of Teaching and Learning conference will be organised. Click here for more information.

Drop-in event during which participants will have an opportunity to explore the online platform and find out more about community-engaged learning.

After a warm welcome by Rector Magnificus Henk Kummeling, Karin Rebel (Senior Lecturer in Environmental Sciences and Senior Fellow at the Centre for Academic Teaching) will have a conversation with societal partner Rose-Anne Dotinga of game company IJsfontein. In 2019, they developed the Utrecht 2040 Game: a serious game that introduces students to sustainability based on the Sustainable Development Goals. Together they reflect on how their collaboration formed a bridge between society and education.

Dealing with different perspectives in higher education

In this session, we will focus on the issue of how to deal with both the presence and lack of multiple perspectives at Utrecht University. We will do this by highlighting specific cases from the Perspective Taking hub (part of the strategic theme Dynamics of Youth). We will explore one of these cases, which illustrates the challenge of a lack of multiple perspectives within a Master’s programme, in greater depth. In addition, we will discuss a case in which the conflicting perspectives of students led to difficult choices. Our aim is to have an open conversation on the possibilities of and limits to multiple perspectives and academic freedom.

By: prof. Ted Sanders, prof. Mariëtte de Haan, prof. Wieger Bakker, prof. Jan van Tartwijk, dr. Koen Damhuis, dr. Bjorn Wansink, dr. Suzanne Kleijn.
Language: NL / ENG

U-Collaborate in education, for you too!

The U-Collaborate in Education programme, which launched on 1 January 2021, aims to forge ties between all those involved in education in cooperation with external partners. The programme is intended to establish connections, equip participants with tools and resources and form a community. Following an explanation of the programme, we will invite participants to talk about their own educational activities in cooperation with partners and to suggest desirable future partnerships for education in which external partners might play a role. This will allow us to bring participants together there and then, so that they can continue the conversation. For the benefit of the programme, we would like to record any new ties forged during the session. Another aim of the session is to list suggestions, wishes and requirements for the U-Collaborate in Education programme.

By: Sabine Uijl and Jan Haarhuis (Programme management U-Collaborate in Education)
Language: ENG/NL

Learning in the real world (Dutch)

By giving students the opportunity to make an active contribution to the challenges of modern society and boosting their sense of civic responsibility, the City Academy gives them a key role in the development of the city. At the same time, it allows students to explore their place in the world by leveraging their mental and physical powers to find solutions to urban challenges. Students use the city as a living lab for their personal development by contributing to themes such as participation, sustainability and mobility. In our session, we would like to introduce teaching staff and students to the mission of Academie van de Stad and the ways in which we stimulate and guide students. Together with the director of the Bachelor’s programme, Prof. Vincent Buskens (Sociology), we want to inspire our audience with a specific case: Warme Wijken (Warm neighbourhoods).

By: An Nguyen Phuc (bachelordirecteur Sociologie) en Judith Werkman (Projectcoördinator Academie van de Stad)
Language: NL

My hidden impact

Making a contribution to sustainability often seems to involve skipping or abandoning certain activities. We argue that it can also yield benefits and enrich your life and your work.

Are you curious about the ‘hidden impact’ that can enrich your lectures – or your personal life – in a sustainable way? Take part in this workshop, led by Mark Kauw of UU’s Sustainability programme. In the workshop, Mark will explain the ‘hidden impact’ concept, demonstrate how it can affect you personally and challenge you to make the connection with your own teaching.

By: Mark Kauw (Projectmanager Sustainability)
Language: NL / ENG

Teaching with society and Issue focused education

In this 3rd edition of the talkshow Teaching with Society, we want to talk about intervening education. One of the university's greatest ambitions is to have education contribute to developments in society in an innovative way. But in what ways can students 'intervene' in society? To answer this question, several educational innovators talk about their experience in linking academic knowledge to the organisation of broader attention to social issues. The talk show will depart from the idea that the education sector will only be able to withstand the crises of the 21^st century by bringing together broad knowledge of and contributions to important areas. Among other things, the discussion will focus on the Mixed Classroom concept, a UU project that was awarded three Dutch Higher Education Awards for university education.

By: Jeroen Oomen, Jesse Hoffman, Toine Pieters en Ivar Troost (Docenten Geo- en Bètawetenschap)
Language: ENG 

The Embryo Lab: a platform for dialogue between students and youth on social issues of embryo research

Students of Biomedical Sciences visit secondary schools throughout the Netherlands with an Embryolab they have designed themselves. On location, they discuss with students the ethical and social issues that play a role in embryo research and the modification of embryonic DNA. Through the lab, they learn to bring issues initiated by scientific developments in their own field to the attention of a wide audience in an accessible way, and they practice listening to other perspectives.

During the session, the developers of the Embryo Lab will talk about the development and implementation of the Embryo Lab and what this interactive way of working brings to the various stakeholders. In this way, we hope to inspire other teachers to actively seek contact with society.

By: Anne-Wil Marissen (Coordinator Traveling DNA-lab)

Language: 

Reconnecting our commUUnity in times of crisis

What is the academic community, exactly, and who forms part of it? On the one hand, this community seems fragmented on account of the current coronavirus crisis. Students, teaching staff, support and administrative staff and management are marooned on separate islands, connected only by a digital sea. On the other hand, we may have rediscovered what lies at the heart of this community and found all kinds of ways to keep the separate islands together. Or did these islands already exist before the crisis we find ourselves in now?

In this session, we would like to gather input. How can we keep our academic community together? Are there any creative ideas for establishing common ground? How can we rebuild our academic community in a sustainable manner? Together with the audience, we hope to open up a conversation between students and staff and find an answer to these questions. We will do this by exploring a variety of contrasting viewpoints (e.g. student-lecturer and management-community) in our discussions.

This session is organised jointly by members of the CAT Special Interest Group Oker and student members of the University Council.

By: Special Interest Group Oker and students U-Council
Language: NL / ENG

Community as client: Challenges and rewards of legal clinical education

Introduced by the Legal Skills Academy, the teachers leading this interactive panel discussion will present four different legal clinical education initiatives within the law school. The five panel members who have set up four different schemes involving partnerships with international NGOs, law firms, prisons and regional/local governments (in particular water management authorities) will first present best practices and lessons learnt, relating to the integration of ‘skills-learning’ in curricula. After that the panel will be opened up for discussion with other teachers in the university who wish to learn about and discuss the challenges and rewards of community based teaching initiatives. Together with participating students we will focus on common concerns that could prevent teachers from setting up such a programme: finding clients, evaluation, professional ethics, communication, and teamwork.

Door: Katharine Fortin en Legal Skills Academy
Voertaal: ENG

Equal opportunities! - City Network Language & Homework Utrecht

The UU was one of the initiators of a fruitful partnership between parties in the education sector and extramural initiatives. The Utrecht City Network for Language & Homework (Stadsnetwerk Taal & Huiswerk) is part of the City Network for Equal Opportunities (Stadsnetwerk Gelijke Kansen). This is an Utrecht cooperation for equal opportunities in education between the municipality of Utrecht, Utrecht University, universities of applied sciences, primary and secondary schools, volunteer organisations, the Volunteer Centre Utrecht and the Utrecht Library.

By: Merlijn Slothouber (Project leader Taal doet Meer)
Language: NL

The Connection Project: Research into Loneliness

'De Verbinding' ('The Connection') refers not only to connectedness, the counterpart of loneliness, but also to the connection between various courses and between academia and practice. In this session, we look at how we can build a bridge between education and social issues. With the Connection project, first-year psychology students tackle a social theme: loneliness. During their project, students design a psychological intervention for a target group that is faced with loneliness. In this way, they explore their role as psychologists in a social issue.

Following a pitch about the core tenets of the project, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. The participants will then split into groups to brainstorm about ways to make the link to professional practice in their own degree programmes/courses and which social issue is most closely related to their specific degree programmes/courses.

By: Joyce Onderwater (Teacher Social sciences)
Language: NL/ENG

CEL Toolkit Training! Using the CEL Toolkit for your Community Engaged Learning project

In this interactive session, the Centre for Global Challenges introduces participants to a collection of methods, practical ideas, examples, and tips and tricks to help teachers design Community Engaged Learning courses or projects, and inspire them to engage students with societal partners. We will introduce the CEL toolkit, a collection of resources designed by and for teachers, followed by an interactive panel discussion about a specific CEL case study (Da Vinci Project).

By: Nadine Blignaut-van Westrhenen and Brianne McGonigle Leyh (Docenten faculteit REBO)
Language: ENG

Animal Dilemmas - Is Education the Answer?

Veterinarians are confronted with several socially sensitive issues. One of these is euthanasia on animals. Experience shows that this topic has led to questions and dilemmas among both students of Veterinary Medicine and practising veterinarians. To prepare students for these questions and dilemmas, in 2020 we gave the elective course Euthanasia of Animals for the first time. This course has proven to add value to the core curriculum of the Master’s programme in Veterinary Medicine. It may also be useful for students who are training to become veterinary nurses or as a type of refresher course for practising veterinarians, nurses and other professionals involved in the animal health sector.

During this session, we will discuss how an interdisciplinary course can connect people from different professional communities. The central questions are: How do you deal with different levels of knowledge and different ways of learning? How do you deal with potentially conflicting views on the questions and dilemmas that will be discussed?

By: Ellen Deelen (Teacher at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine) and Maite van Gerwen (project leader)
Language: NL

How do you discuss controversial topics in the classroom?

The assassination of the French teacher Samuel Paty shocked society. Teachers around the world felt directly affected by this act of violence. Many teachers believe that not enough attention is paid to the sometimes extreme consequences of simply following the curriculum. How do you make complex themes like terrorism, political violence, freedom of expression and coronavirus conspiracy theories debatable?

TerInfo helps teachers in primary, secondary and MBO education to discuss terrorism and political violence in the classroom. In this interactive session, the audience will enter into a discussion with TerInfo staff, experts, students and teachers about discussing these subjects in the classroom. By offering multimedia material, factual knowledge, historical context and pedagogical tools, TerInfo supports teachers in increasing the resilience of children and young people to political violence, terrorism and other forms of disruptive moments. In this way, TerInfo translates scientific knowledge into practice.

By: Mila Bammens (Project leader and Education and research staff TerInfo)
Language: NL

Utrecht 2040: The location-based game for collectively creating a sustainable future

Utrecht University wrote in its Strategic Plan for 2016-2020 that 'All students will become familiar with sustainability issues as part of their curriculum'. To introduce and teach students about the basic concepts of sustainability, a location-based, multiplayer, Serious Game was developed: Utrecht2040. This game can be played with tens to thousands of students simultaneously.

The game makes use of Challenge Based Learning and thus offers the opportunity to put topics discussed in the classroom into practice in a playful manner. The aim of the game is to open the eyes of first-year students and raise their awareness of sustainability and the potential role they can play in their own discipline. By playing the game the students get the feeling they are part of something bigger: they work together to create a vision of the best possible version of Utrecht in 2040. During this session, we let participants have a taste of part of the game themselves.

By: Tara Smeenk (Junior Researcher faculty of Geosciences)
Language: NL/ENG

Putting community engaged learning to the test in the neighbourhood: the Learning Lab case study

In Learning Lab, students work in interdisciplinary teams with societal partners from the neighbourhoods of Overvecht, Lombok or Kanaleneiland on issues put forward by these partners. In the course Actie, leren en impact ('Action, Learning and Impact'), they do this based on the cycle of action research, in which designing, planning and implementing interventions and reflecting on them are central. An important part of Learning Lab's educational vision is that students take ownership of their own learning process. All of this requires a different form of assessment than usual, namely to 1) give the local partners a place in the assessment, 2) give reflection a place in the assessment, and 3) involve students (in part of the assessment) in both the determination of the assessment criteria and in the creation of the grade. In this workshop we will discuss with the participants the dilemmas and questions that this raises for teachers and students. Besides the teachers of the subject, one or two students will also be present at the workshop and will talk to the participants.

By: Danielle Vlaanderen (Faculty of Social Sciences), Peter Linde (Faculty REBO) and Thea van Lankveld (Educational advice and Training)
Language: NL

Connecting Life Sciences and Society In Education

The Master’s programmes of the Graduate School of Life Sciences (GSLS) are generally very disciplinary and prepare our students with very in-depth knowledge of the life sciences fields. There are, however, many stakeholders outside of academia. In order to prepare students for life after education, we have developed the interdisciplinary minor Life Sciences and Society. Together with teachers from the faculties of Medicine, Veterinary Medicine, Humanities and Social Sciences  and the University Corporate Offices we will offer students theoretical knowledge about different societal aspects of life sciences. Parallel to this they will work on a Capstone project, a project from an external stakeholder (e.g. RIVM or Sanquin) on a contemporary societal issue that this party is dealing with. During the 6 months programme they will learn hands-on how they can connect research and society and will learn to integrate different perspectives and new knowledge into their work to make it more relevant and robust.

During this session we would like to show you the programme as well as gain your feedback and ideas of how we can improve the programme and widen collaborations. Is this something we could do university-wide and offer more students? How can we adjust the programme for a wider audience? We are looking forward to your input!

By: Gisela van der Velden and Gönül Dilaver (Faculty of Medicine)
Language: ENG

Real World Challenges- How to apply the Challenge Based Learning approach in your education

Challenge Based Learning (CBL), is an educational approach broadly used since 2010 in numerous educational programmes/institutes, as well as in the University of Utrecht, where challenges are being developed as courses in collaboration with other institutes in the Netherlands or abroad.

Firstly, we would like to bring awareness to the teacher community on what CBL is, provide examples of challenges by colleagues that are already experts on that field and communicate current initiatives in our university. After that, the participants will dive into the didactics of challenge based learning in small groups and with the help of the facilitators. They will be challenged to think about the elements that need to be taken into consideration when applying CBL in their own education.

By: Dimitra Mousa (Educational advisor Challenge Based Learning) and Sabine Uijl (CHARM-EU)
Language: ENG

Ethicists in the real world: tools for ethical deliberation in a large company's R&D department

In this session, an employee of swine genetics company Topigs Norsvin and a group of students will reflect on their participation in a course in the master Applied Ethics. For this course, students developed ethical analysis and a set of ethical tools to support members of the R&D department who are interested in engaging in ethical deliberation regarding their work.

Lecturer Naomi van Steenbergen shall interview both the Topigs Norsvin employee who commissioned the assignment and the student group. The interview will focus on the question how both parties experienced the project. Attention will also be devoted to the insights the students gained from working with professionals in the field and from acting as 'ethical experts'.

By: Naomi van Steenbergen (Faculteit Geesteswetenschappen)
Language: ENG

Struggles with- and solutions for- assesment in innovative education

Society is changing rapidly. The university helps students to be part of this change by offering an innovative educational environment wherein students’ learning processes are central. In such an environment, students are challenged to develop generic skills. Furthermore, courses are offered that monitor student’s development, and interact directly with external partners. In this way students graduating from university become self-directed, engaged in life-long-learning, and have developed skills that are necessary to be change agents in working life.

This raises the question: have we adequately adapted our assessment practices for these courses? Teachers are struggling whether they assess what they want to assess: ‘How do I know that my students developed general skills?’, ‘How can I monitor the student’s longitudinal development?’, ‘How do I measure the impact that students have made?’  

In this workshop you are invited to express your assessment struggles concerning courses where students connect with communities. Then we will provide assessment solutions by combining current insights from three different fields of study (skills assessment, programmatic assessment, and effectual assessment). Then we will go into subgroups aimed at discussing your assessment struggle and providing each other with inspiration and suggestions for alternative assessment practices and how to apply them.

By: Lubberta de Jong (Educational Advisor and Project Leader Programmatic Testing)
Language: ENG

Guided walk: Creative Urban Methods and Exploring Present Futures (if possible)

We might think that imaginaries are about something yet to happen, a matter of the future. But what if we can already start to see, feel, smell, the future now?  

In this guided walk, the participants will experience a new imaginary about sustainable urban futures, in-the-making. We’ll start from each participant’s own neighbourhood. Commuters, we were once. But the direct surroundings of everyone’s home has become more important in the last year. Surroundings that many of us take for granted. By stimulating all the senses and shifting the look in an area so well known, one will not only see their surroundings in a different way, but feel the infrastructures that make our daily lives possible. 

By: Creative Urban Methods research consortium
Language: ENG

After a day full of debate, we conclude with a plenary session from the Auditorium of the Utrecht University Hall (Academiegebouw). What was discussed? In addition, the winners of the teacher awards are announced. Every year, Utrecht study associations can nominate a teacher for these awards. This year, 35 teachers were nominated, six of whom were chosen by the jury. Read more about the six nominees here.