Introductions - Belgium
Jan Elen, Belgium - Jan.Elen@duo.kuleuven.ac.be
Hello, here follows my brief introduction to this discussion group.
Jan Elen, University of Leuven, Belgium
E-mail address: jan.elen@duo.kuleuven.ac.be
Working at the university educational services center of the flemish part of the univeristy of Leuven, we are responsible for 'educational quality' at our univeristy. In addition to the management of various educational quality projects (including evaluation of teaching-related activities of academic staff) and a number of research projects (relating to the impact of technology on education, the design of powerful learning environments for skills development), the center is also involved in developing a new educational policy for the university. The basic idea is that rather than having students to assimilate the outcomes of scientific endeavours, the focus should be much more on enabling them to actively participate to knowledge development. In other words, the process rather than the product is focussed upon. We strongly belief that this option is related to the shift, brought about by cognitive psychological developments and more specifically constructivist thinking, from teaching (lecturing) to learning. We also start from the assumption that in order to change universities a systemic approach is to be adopted which put learning and research at the core. A taskforce is currently elaborating these ideas. We are convinced that we will be able to benefit from the discussions on this list.
My personal background is in instructional design, educational technology and educational policy. Together with Joost Lowyck of the Centre for Instructional Psychology and Technology (CIP&T), I investigate students' conceptions about the realtionship between instructional interventions and learning and the impact of these conceptions on their learning.
Looking forward to thought-provoking discussions and best regards to all of you, Jan Elen