Together on the way to EPX – Trial actions with holistic teaching

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE PROJECT?

Nørresundby Gymnasium & HF, Techcollege, Aalborg Business School and SOSU Nord have joined forces on a multi-year development project on holistic education targeted at the upcoming vocational and professional upper secondary education (EPX). The purpose is to gain knowledge and experience with holistic education in a joint project process with different student groups through concrete tests in practice. Through the action learning principles, the project will, among other things, investigate the importance of diverse youth environments and student involvement, how practice-based and case-based education can function, and look at which teacher and leadership competencies are necessary for success. The project also collaborates with internal resource persons and external suppliers to develop the competencies of teachers in practice, collect knowledge from the processes and ensure the dissemination of knowledge - through, among other things, publications in different formats and knowledge sharing sessions.

WHO IS BEHIND?

WHICH COURSES ARE PARTICIPATING?

The following programs from TECHCOLLEGE participate:

• Lifestyle and Health

THE PROJECT IN NUMBERS

Total project budget: DKK 1,900,000.

Project period: 01.04.2026– 30.03.2029

WHAT ACTIVITIES ARE PART OF THE PROJECT?

· Development of a holistic learning design for a group of students from the 4 schools in a common project track

· Testing, evaluating and adjusting learning designs with students via action learning

· Visits to vocational and professional training courses

· Teacher collaboration across schools including competence development and visits to each other's practices

· Ongoing evaluation and anchoring

· Development of a handbook and podcast with lessons learned from the project

WHAT ARE THE EXPECTED RESULTS OF THE PROJECT?

The project aims to gain knowledge about:

• What acquired competencies and what learning do students experience that takes place when working with holistic teaching?

• How do students assess the importance of an inclusive, diverse youth environment – including the importance of student involvement and participation for their learning and well-being?

• Handling a common student target group, including any attention in relation to participant requirements and needs for special support.

In the same way, the project is curious about what teacher competencies it requires, and what other resources need to be considered when working to develop, test and evaluate holistic teaching in the above context:

• To gain experience with which of the known subjects and subject objectives are particularly well suited to be included in holistic learning designs

• To gain experience with the importance of prioritizing shared experiences as relationship building among teachers in combination with professional collaboration in the initial development phase

• To gain concrete experience with a co-created project-based learning design, where the holistic teaching is built around a project case

• To be able to improve the skills of teachers in teaching the future EPX student target group, through competence development in practice, and thus gain insight into the future EPX teacher profile in general.

• To get some good ambassadors for EPX in the local teachers' room. The leaders will have a crucial role in the future realization of EPX, and part of the purpose of the project is therefore also to be able to crystallize knowledge and experiences for use at a generic educational leader level.

Thus, it is hoped that the project can also:

• Investigate the importance of establishing dialogues on shared practices for educational leadership

• Gain experience with what is required in terms of managerial attention and scaffolding to succeed with cross-institutional collaboration and holistic teaching.

• Develop a guide, for example as a handbook with a process model for how to work collaboratively with learning design across institutions

Contact

Lotte Sandberg Kjær, lokj@techcollege.dk , 25266425