Proud to be tvmbo - Kortlopend Onderwijsonderzoek

Creativity, projects, surprises and new things
Linked to the topic of variety, several teachers mentioned that students learn well if
they are allowed to be creative themselves. Tvmbo students like to express their own
thoughts and to use their fantasy, to push their creative boundaries further. And surprises
and new or exciting things also work in the classroom. For instance, making a
‘fantasy animal’ for biology and explaining its life processes.
Projects allow, too, for creativity and experimentation. For example, one school does a
project on America, with twenty-two possible subjects to choose from in groups of
three; each topic is allocated a different number of points and the students choose topics
which add up to 120 points. Another example is a project on a British city – each
group having a different city (Manchester, Reading) or area (the Lake District, the
Scottish islands) to investigate and the same budget to spend. Groups of students have
to plan a week’s holiday using the budget, including their accommodation, cultural
visits and their journey.
Choice
Some teachers say that one way to motivate tvmbo students is to give them choice. For
example in a reading project, the teacher has ten boxes of books and DVDs plus ac-
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