The knowledge society experiences the evolution towards a learning society (en. learning society) in which co-participation in learning, collaborative management of knowledge and dissemination of information are essential vectors of success. In this global landscape characterized by competitiveness and change, higher education needs relevance, attractiveness and accessibility. In this context, universities play an essential role in preparing students for a labor market that is more and more oriented towards the transition to the learning society, in which innovation skills will represent key resources of graduates (Kamp , 2019a). The perspective on the knowledge and skills needed to be trained can support improvements to prepare the young generations for the learning society and for the skills of the XXI century, transversal and transformative in essence. This dynamic, which we can notice at the level of several educational systems, revived interest in innovation in the design of university training programs and in higher education pedagogy. There is also a growing recognition that it is not only necessary to get closer to the core of teaching and learning, but that there should be a widespread willingness to innovate. Deep and transversal learning must be achieved to allow young graduates to optimally adapt to the changing problems and circumstances that define contemporary societies. International analyzes suggest an imperative to orient teaching and learning towards the future. Innovation in pedagogy is an essential pillar of innovation in higher education. However, despite lively discussions regarding innovation in pedagogy, higher education institutions have not yet integrated coherent practices to support this approach. In this context, deep and rapid changes are necessary in the teaching and learning process.
The present work, a collection of activities with the role of cognitive, emotional-affective, social and actional stimulation, presents a suite of learning activities organized thematically, which can be used within the initial and continuous training programs for teachers.
The premise on which this material is built is the need to initiate a pedagogy of co-creation, in which empathy and teacher-student synergies create the framework for the design of learning experiences. The teaching-learning couple exists and makes sense when the two components mutually generate, nourish and shape each other, telling the story of a pair that is redefined at every meeting and that has the potential to transcend the school space.
The pedagogy of co-creation is built on a relational approach, in which the teacher and students collaborate to realize the design of learning experiences and represents one of the 6 key ideas of learning in higher education (Ryan & Tilbury, 2013). Starting from the approaches present in the scientific literature related to co-creation pedagogy (Kunnari et al., 2019; Temple Clothier & Matheson, 2019), the paper presents a suite of learning activities and tools that have the potential to orient us towards forms and more engaging levels of teaching and learning in tertiary education. This pedagogy rediscovers the centrality of the two actors in the teacher-student dyad, rethinks the social distance between the poles of teaching and learning, stimulates inclusion and increases the relevance of learning (Bovill, 2020), contributing to the transition towards a learning society.
The thematic organization of the learning activities invites you to a journey that begins activities and tools with an introductory role in the Preparation for a teaching career. We introduce the concept of professionalism with central and organizational values in relation to the fields of competence, roles and responsibilities of teaching staff. The section Domains of competence, roles and responsibilities of the teacher invites to co-creation by training students in activities of re(defining) the roles and responsibilities of teaching staff, as well as orienting them towards solving complex societal challenges.
The pedagogy of co-creation is reflected in the second section - The Role of the school as an actor of the educational community and social ecosystems - both by the nature of the proposed activities and by the content addressed. Competences, defined as a coherent and impactful result of knowledge, skills and attitudes, represent the individual's essential contribution to personal development and to the society of which he is an actor. Consequently, a systemic and complex approach to school organizations is needed, which ensures the connection to ecosystems with multiple partners: employers, governments, education providers, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), social partners and other interested parties. This section includes key messages for substantiating the role of schools as vectors of innovation in the dynamics of social ecosystems.
The relationship with the community is specifically addressed in the chapter entitled Opportunities for co-creation with the community: learning through services, in which we propose a less concrete approach in the Romanian space, learning through services (en. service-learning). Learning through and for the community is a way to value knowledge and skills in order to respond to concrete and direct needs that give meaning and depth to the learning results.
Building on the need to generate impactful learning experiences, we introduce the concepts of learning pattern and learning storyboarding with the role of emphasizing the collaborative dimension in the teaching-learning dyad in the chapter Focus on the design of learning experiences. Our reader's journey will be a complex one, with an exploratory, constructive and reflective role, being in a position to co-create learning experiences by integrating the ideas and activities contained in this section.
The link of pedagogies based on co-creation is the formative assessment, the design of which is naturally participative. Methods and techniques are included in the Formative evaluation section - techniques, activities, tools.
The Organization of the pedagogical practice activity is dedicated to the presentation of some tools traditionally associated with this endeavor (e.g., the lesson observation sheet or the lesson project) or newly proposed to stimulate co-creation and engage students in an in-depth endeavor.
Our journey ends with the chapter Reflectivity and mutual knowledge for the co-creation of learning experiences, which presents activities designed to stimulate the well-being and reflective capacity of our readers, proposing approaches to intra- and inter-individual exploration, through reflexive techniques.
Before leaving open the invitation to the reading, we launch one last challenge that has probably already generated a vague curiosity among readers. The text just read marks differently the letters with which each word of each chapter begins, making up the rationale and purpose of this work: TEACHER. In fact, those of you who have already scanned the page in search of a confirmation have noticed the remarkable absence of the letter S. The letter S belongs to you, to the readers who have already engaged in a co-creation effort! The letter S belongs to those who truly embrace this profession and change the world every day, who will write their own scripts, tell stories and play sotron even on hot summer days!
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