Education guide 'Eindhoven designs' - Technische Universiteit ...

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Background to our approach
Our competency-centred
educational approach builds
on the constructivist view
of learning. In addition, it
emphasises the principles
of: context-related learning,
experiential learning, exemplary
learning, self-directed learning,
reflective learning, and learning by
doing. Last but not least, a holistic
Constructivist
perspective on learning
and integrated approach also plays
a central part.
Societal changes and developments have turned
the 21st century into a ‘knowledge age’ (see
chapter one). These changes have affected the
professional workplace, and thus the demands placed
on graduates: they need to be able to function as
‘knowledge-managers’ rather than ‘knowledge-owners’
(Dochy, Heylen and Van de Mosselaer, 2002). These
developments have also affected theories about learning,
such as the constructivist perspective on learning. Our
competency-centred learning approach is rooted in these
societal changes and in the constructivist learning paradigm.
Preparing graduates for their changing role in society requires
a student-centred approach. In terms of educational goals this
also implies a shift from teaching a specific body of knowledge
to facilitating students’ ability to learn and to develop
continuously: to acquire knowledge, skills and attitudes needed
to perform a task or role in a specific and often complex setting.
The constructivist paradigm includes learning theories that focus on
mind-world relations. The individual or cognitive theories assume the
locus of knowledge construction to be in the mind of the individual
learner; the social or situative theories assume this locus to be in