Skills learning trajectories

Project introduction and background information

In order to keep up with the rapidly changing society and labour market, students acquire a broad set of skills, and being able to monitor their own development. How can university programmes make sure that students develop cognitive, interpersonal and metacognitive skills? As a possible answer to this question, several bachelor programmes at Wageningen University have implemented learning trajectories for (academic) skills (writing, presenting, and collaboration). The aim of this university wide project, was:

-  to do a review on what we know about skills learning trajectories and their design and implementation

- to investigate the intentions of the Bachelor programmes, the choices they made in designing the trajectories and the challenges experienced

- to explore the users’ experiences with (a number of ) trajectories. 

- Translate all findings into policy and practical advise for Engineering Programmes to design and implement skills learning trajectories

 Reasons for and design of the learning trajectories

A learning trajectory is a coherent and meaningful whole of teaching and learning, that is implemented in different courses throughout the curriculum – which are aligned to and build upon each other – and that enables students to acquire pre-determined learning goals.

 Common reasons to introduce learning trajectories were to improve students’ skills, or to create awareness among students (and staff) about the importance of skills development and ensure curriculum alignment. There is no one route to the design of skills learning trajectories, programmes make their own choices fitting their context and students. This project intends to explore design choices and opportunities and some first experiences with implementations.

Objective and expected outcomes

The objective of this project is to evaluate the design and implementation of these learning trajectories for skills education. The project consists of parallel activities: first, a literature review the why, what, and how of implementing skills learning trajectories. Second, university wide all programmes have been visited and made a footprint of their current and aspired skills in the bachelor programmes.  Third, the process of the implementation (of several first pilot programmes) is investigated: what choices were made before implementing the learning trajectory and why, and which factors promote or hinder a successful implementation?

We aim to also evaluate the design of the learning trajectories on students’ skills development, on students’ and teachers’ perceptions of students’ learning processes, and on the bachelor programme as a whole.  Moreover, the project intends to develop university wide advise for how programmes can work on making choices, designing, instructing, practicing and assessing a variety of skills within their bachelor programmes.

Results and learnings

Users’ experiences with the learning trajectories

Skills coordinators (that keep track of and guarantee the learning trajectory), educational directors, and teaching staff were largely positive about the learning trajectories. They acknowledged the importance of skills development, were more aware of skills education in the programme, and acknowledged the importance of aligning courses. Staff also had the impression that the trajectory benefitted students’ skills development. Nevertheless, they mention that alignment of skills education in different courses can be a challenge.

The users mentioned several factors that benefited the learning trajectory. The most important one was that a skills coordinator (i.e., someone that makes sure the learning trajectory is carried out, and courses and assessments are aligned to each other and the learning goals) is essential for the continuity of the trajectory. Students taught skills development is important for their future career, and they valued the integration of skills education in content courses (and therefore the connection of the two domains).

Recommendations

Conclusions and recommendations

This study shows that there are different ways to design skills learning trajectories, but that successful integration a trajectory requires a coordinator. Furthermore, it is recommended to carefully formulate the intention of the trajectory, as different intentions may lead to different design choices. Programmes that aim at improving students’ skills and/or awareness of the importance of skills development, may make use of separate modules/moments in courses, solely devoted to skills. They also should make sure to visualise the skills trajectory and its accompanying learning goals, and have students reflect on and prove their goal development in, for example, a portfolio. Programmes that aim at improving curriculum alignment or that have a more pragmatic reason for implementing learning trajectories may fully integrate skills education and assessment into content courses. The consequence is that students may not be (completely) aware of the skills learning trajectory and its learning goals.

Practical outcomes

The project results in an article on the systematic review:

Goriot, C., Biemans, H., & Gulikers, J. (2024). Learning trajectories for developing generic skills in higher education: A review study on design choices and helping and hindering factors. Pedagogische Studiën, 101(4), 363-387.  https://pedagogischestudien.nl/article/download/18053/23194/52611 (output 1) 

A management summery in the form of a powerpoint describing the study on the implementation and evaluations of the skills learning trajectories. This summary (ppt) can be found on this page. (output 2)

University wide this project resulted in an advisory report with practical tools, visuals and inspiration for all the steps programmes can take in designing their skills learning trajectories (output 3)

and: a number of practical examples of showing how several bachelor programmes designed their skills learning trajectories in their own way, what choices they made, challenges thy faced and lessons learned they could share (output 4)