Collaboration between disciplines can be complex, as illustrated by the experiences of district teams in youth care in recent years. Since the decentralisation of social services in 2015, youth care has been organised so these district teams can provide comprehensive care and support at the neighbourhood level. It sounds praiseworthy, but in practice it has turned out to be very difficult. This is because the professionals in the teams are insufficiently prepared to use new methods that are needed to provide interdisciplinary support for children and young people. It is therefore urgent that the professionals of the future – the students of today – learn how to collaborate with other disciplines in a team.
Professionals from different levels of education collaborate in practice
The Arnhem-Nijmegen region is exceptional in the Netherlands due to the many initiatives in which students can gain experience with interdisciplinary collaboration. At the initiative of the HAN University of Applied Sciences, learning-working placements have been established in various neighbourhoods in both cities in recent years. This initiative resulted from the urgent need in higher education to prepare students for collaboration with professionals from other disciplines. Radboud University and ROC Nijmegen are now taking part in these learning-working placements as well. Inspired by the City Deal Kennis Maken and the Nijmegen movement Ieder Talent Telt (Every Talent Counts), lecturers and students from various study programmes collaborate in these learning-working placements on metropolitan themes in the social domain. In this way, students learn to collaborate with their counterparts from various academic levels and disciplines, in connection with local professionals.
Connected learning for children and young people
During the academic year 2020-2021, the work-placement facility Connected learning for children and young people was established in the Nijmegen-Noord district, in which all three educational institutions collaborate. It is the starting point for the research programme of the same name led by Judith Stoep. “In this work-placement facility we collaborate with five different study programmes, which are all related to the theme of care for young children (up to 12 years).” The programmes are at various academic levels: teacher training for primary education (Pabo), Pedagogical Sciences at Radboud University and training as a pedagogical staff member and teaching assistant at the ROC.
Stoep: “Each study programme has its own perspective on the learning-working placement. The education provided at the Pabo is very different from that offered by the training programme to become a pedagogical staff member, for example. So, on the one hand, we see the same objectives in training programmes aimed at care or education, but on the other hand, different areas of emphasis and levels of abstraction. And that is exactly the context in which students end up in practice later on, when they have to work together in a team with professionals from various backgrounds. One professional has more of a care profile while another is trained in education, also at various academic levels. They do very good work, but sometimes run into obstacles because they are unable to combine the perspectives of care and education. That appears to be one of the threats for the success of the district teams for youth care.”
Students learn to look outside their own context
Why do students need to learn this? “During their studies, students don't really learn how to collaborate with their counterparts from other academic levels and other study programmes so they can look at problems of children and young people from various perspectives,” Stoep explains. “And that's exactly why we established this workplace: to enable them to experience that collaboration in practice. In the meaningful context of the neighbourhood-oriented learning workplace, students are given the opportunity to see, use and exchange knowledge about each other's expertise. The learning environment is not bounded by the walls of the educational institution, but is shaped by the societal context in which care and education for young children is provided, and by the people who play a role in this process: parents and children, neighbourhood professionals such as pedagogical staff at childcare facilities, members of district teams, district managers, teachers, teaching assistants and remedial educationalists.”
Research into the effects of joint learning
In this project, Stoep and the other research associates want to describe various facets of learning in a neighbourhood-oriented learning workplace from the perspective of students and lecturers, neighbourhood professionals and other partners, such as the municipality of Nijmegen. In this way she wants to determine the effects of joint learning in a rich learning environment. To what extent are the students successful in achieving the learning outcomes of their own studies? And what about collaboration? “Students usually learn to work together during their studies, but with like-minded people,” says the researcher. “They don't end up in situations where there is a difference of opinion about the right approach, as happens in the district teams. Consider the example of a physiotherapist and a remedial educationalist who look at a child together. Their perspectives, which are based on different training backgrounds, must be brought together into a single approach. That is complicated because the two professionals do not understand each other’s expertise and how they can complement each other.”
Practising in real life
According to Stoep, preparing students for such collaboration is helpful. “Many professionals and partners are connected in district teams. Contact with each other is therefore extremely important. During their study programme, students should become aware of the societal context in which they will work as professionals. Remedial educationalists no longer work alone in a room with a child to solve a developmental problem. When providing support for a child, he or she must take other professionals and parties into account. In the learning workshop, all students can practice those collaborative competences, in real life, with a realistic problem. Based on the data, we hope to clarify the importance of this form of authentic learning. I hope that we can continue this joint approach in the near future, based on the research results.”
Bright spot during the Covid-19 era
In any case, the Connected learning initiative for children and young people in Nijmegen-Noord has proven to be successful. In total, nine students from five study programmes and three academic levels participated in the initiative during the second semester of the 2020-2021 academic year. Despite Covide-19 measures, they were still able to work on location and at the schools in the neighbourhood. Stoep: “It was often a bright spot for the students during the Covid-19 era, especially for the students in secondary vocational education (MBO). All their other work-placement assignments had been cancelled. It was the only time in the week that they saw each other physically and felt that they were getting a real education.”
The results of the study will officially be presented on12 November. “In any case, it has already become clear that the learning workplace offers a meaningful context for learning. Students learn to collaborate and at the same time they have a meaningful experience in the neighbourhood.”
This article is a slightly edited, updated version of a piece that previously appeared on agendastad.nl , author: Pieter Verbeek.
Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash