EMBRACING A COMPLEXITY ORIENTATED LEARNING APPROACH IN HEALTH

Higher education is lacking the capacity to prepare students for complex challenges in health. This was the conclusion after 10 years of building education and research and (social innovation) aiming at complex health issues. We stress the urgency of the increased complexity in both individual health issues and the need for a sustainability transition of health systems and the lack of addressing them as such. For this we developed ECOLAH and put the need central to open up to new insights about the multiple pathways required toward a healthy society. The project answers to the need to become more engaged universities through the capability of learning in complexity. This includes empowering educators, policymakers and students with a mindset, new learning approaches, evaluation strategies suited to embrace complexity.

Ecolah contributes to the understanding of how the complex social challenge of a healthy society can be influenced and co-driven by higher education. It piloted new forms of real-life learning environments and combined complexity-based learning approaches that connect with existing higher education structures and is incorporated in health curricula. With our in health education, we aimed to put social innovation central. It involves a constant learning process for all stakeholders involved in the health ecosystem to better meet the needs of groups and individuals and take advantage of available assets in services. One of these assets are the collaborative capacity available in all stakeholders. For this We aimed for a transdisciplinary learning approach that leads to solutions that can be applied and scaled across the health sector, and that facilitates transitions between different levels and types of learning Working towards collective learning (in communities in practice) and individual learning. Allowing health professionals and students to learn how to learn, to adapt to ever-changing circumstances, and to acquire enhanced skills and new mind-sets adapted to sharing information in a context of co-disciplinary thinking.

The project delivered two whitepapers introducing the concept of learning in complexity and an evaluative approach for it. It developed 4 courses in learning in complexity with a flexible toolbox on the themes of: Complex Adaptive Systems, Becoming, Futures literacy and holding and facilitating a learning environment. These courses were piloted and implemented in the curricula of the partners and informal learning environments. 24 teachers were trained in facilitating learning in complexity and 60 students attained our intensive courses. The concept and its products have been extensively shared in 4 multiplier events reaching more then 500 people, many presentations and 13 articles and blogs. A website offers open access and a learning community to continue the project of ECOLAH. For this purpose the consortium managed to start several new financed projects and research group with the very aim to bring ECOLAH further.