Dimensie

The module Learning and Instruction teaches already what the important components are to making learning material for students (from ages of 6 to 14). Unfortunately, the effect of the learning material is never truly testable. To test your skill, and how students actually learn (besides the ongoing studies about this), is to work with children and teenagers, and really get the feeling of how different students learn.

For this hands-on experience, there are many possibilities to do (volunteer) work. Some schools ask themselves for Psychology students who want to help out in the BSO (Kindergarten), but there are also volunteer programs that give space for students who have trouble studying and are not from a high-income family. One of the biggest ones in Enschede/Hengelo/Oldenzaal is ‘Stichting Onderwijsbegeleiding’. 

As a volunteer you help children with their homework, studying, or study habits. As a Psychology student, I immediately saw the pattern of where things are explained vaguely in the class material, or where most students have trouble. You get the experience (and also workshops) of how it is to work with children who have ADHD or anything else that could affect their concentration in class. I got to work with children from the ages of 10 to 18. Besides this, you also get the possibility to be a mentor for these students. 

A mentor looks at the deeper problems that could be there for the child while in class. Signs of bullying, struggles inside the class, or just the child not working on what they are struggling with. It is just overall interesting to see how different students can react to the same guidance, and how much some material has to some students, but almost none to others. With almost every student there is a different method that needs to be used, and as an Educational Psychologist, you get to learn how to bring that balance and to make material for these students.

This experience gave me the confidence to choose later Educational Psychology (or Educational Sciences & Technology) as my master's. To see how much a little bit of adjustment, a little bit of habit, and a little bit of guidance can do to the well-being and results of a student. Even if you do not like to work with children, Educational Psychology also gives the path to be able to make learning material, and/or how to guide people at companies, as we must not forget, in every work field there has to be material that teaches people how to start up from their position. 

For more information regarding the master EP and ES&T:
https://www.utwente.nl/en/education/master/programmes/psychology/specialisations/educational-psychology/ogy
https://www.utwente.nl/en/education/master/programmes/educational-science-technology/ 

For more information regarding volunteer work at Stichting Onderwijsbegeleiding (DUTCH):
https://st-onderwijsbegeleiding.nl/