Personal interests as incentive fo professional writing

Towards a writing pedagogy for Dutch universities of applied sciences

Abstract

The aim of this study is to find design criteria for a writing pedagogy for Dutch universities of applied sciences (also: HBO schools). We analyzed policy and educational documents and interviewed lecturers of three writing courses in three HBO schools. This enabled us to characterize their writing approach and the problems and aspirations of the lecturers.

We discovered two issues: one is a conflict between the competence-based learning approach advocated in HBO policy documents and the actual writing approach, used by lecturers and in educational documents, reflecting a transfer of knowledge model. A second issue is an imbalance in the two key characteristics of HBO schools: the first characteristic, an orientation towards professional practice, is evident, but no attention is paid to the second one, that of vertical mobility and emancipation of HBO-students.

Lecturers would like a more motivating and activating writing approach. They are cautiously experimenting with creative writing techniques, but they lack professional self-confidence and support by their study programmes.

Design criteria for an HBO writing pedagogy should guarantee the significance of writing for student's professional future and for their current lives. It also should provide lecturers with consistent, justified principles and exercises. Thus, personal interests can function as incentive for professional writing.