Learning communities, informal learning and the humanities: An empirical study on book discussion groups

1
Learning communities, informal learning and the
humanitiesAn empirical study on book discussion
groups

• Ph D student Drs. Marjolein van Herten,
  faculteit cultuurwetenschappen,
  marjolein.vanherten_at_ou.nl
• Supervisors Dr. Lizet Duyvendak (OU), Prof. dr.
  Jaap van Marle (OU), Prof. dr. Paul Kirschner
  (OU), Prof. dr. Dick Schram (VU), Prof. dr. Frank
  Huysmans (UvA, SCP)
• Length of the project 4 years (1 January 2008
  31 December 2011)
• Context
• NeLLL Program line 3 Professional and personal
  development
• Humanities have a long tradition of informal
  learning through learning communities
• Book discussion groups are such learning
  communities where informal learning takes place
• Research questions
• What are the characteristics of present book
  discussion groups in the Netherlands?
• What are the characteristics of the learning
  results in these groups?
• How can connections be made between the different
  characteristics of the book discussion group and
  the different characteristics of the groups
  learning results?
• Which of these differences significantly
  influence the learning results?

• Intended output
• Dissertation (in English)
• Conference presentations
• Scientific and non scientific publications

• Various methods
• General survey among book groups
• Visiting book groups
• Observing book discussions
• Interviewing participants