Dr Teun Wolters - "Research as a way of learning at HBO"

Wittenborg is making strides in setting up its research centre.  I expect to substantiate this in the near future by informing you about a couple of interesting research projects that Wittenborg has embraced. 

However, this does not imply any kind of complacency. Recently, I attended a meeting where research professors working for Dutch universities of applied sciences explained how they had organised their research programmes. One of them was an organisational sociologist who enthusiastically talked about research as a way of learning.

On the one hand there was ‘learning by instruction’.  Indeed, we readily recognise this.  In our imagination we see teachers telling students what is worth knowing. 

On the other hand, there was research that involves students in a process full of cognitive surprises and discoveries.  The speaker had established a group of companies which could air their organizational problems for which they had no satisfactory solution.  After that, students could put on their research hat in order to come up with imaginative solutions.  You may wonder whether the students involved had enjoyed sufficient ‘instruction’ to deal with the kind of problems to which experienced professionals had no answer.

The speaker was able to take away this worry right away. The students could leave behind all the business knowledge they had ever learnt.  They had to conduct interviews with people in the company covering a diversity of functions and responsibilities from shop floor up to the CEO him/her self.  The questions asked had to be frank and unbiased, that is, not prejudiced by any book learning.

The results were amazingly interesting for all parties. New solutions emerged that remained hidden before.  In the final analysis only, could the students put the book knowledge and the field knowledge together, leading to a remarkable synthesis.  I was impressed by the presentation. Is this the way forward?

Dr Teun Wolters, December 2011