191 Preliminary WCD Reception at Driestar Christian University 5 more and more schools where it is really necessary that the school also jumps into the non-cognitive. As a group, the students believe that, while WCD is especially helpful in more diverse urban contexts, the more traditional Christian schools with relatively homogeneous student populations should also focus more on the fostering of social cohesion as an important educational task in a fragmented society. St1 notes that ‘less and less schools look like such a safe Reformed Christian village school’, while St 5 adds that ‘to hold society together schools will become more and more important’. The joint conclusion of the students is that WCD is helpful for all types of schools, although it is especially necessary in schools where societal fragmentation is felt more intensely. A WCD approach will also be, they believe, helpful for the cognitive aspects of education. St6 stresses this point: ‘If you make use of WCD, the cognitive part will also get the chance to develop. So it is not logical to think: we don’t have time for WCD, let’s focus on the cognitive’. However, all of the students also recognise and mention constraints: the system focuses on cognitive testing, the agenda is full, a WCD approach will only be helpful if it is well integrated and not an add-on to the existing curriculum. St1 responds to this from the perspective of a private school with an international curriculum that she visited, indicating that a more independent approach is needed and can, in fact, make a difference. St5, some moments later, responds to this claim: St5: They actually found the relationship with God and each other to be the basis for everything they did, and then came the learning. And that learning went really super-good. Even children who didn’t do well at all at other schools, they were very comfortable and learned. So, they did not have to think primarily about the inspection requirements and, in the meantime, they achieved good results. I found that interesting to see. St6: It does require a very different way of thinking and, of course, it's not something you can measure very easily, whereas the quality of education is completely based on things you can actually, scientifically measure. Something like this really requires a different way of thinking and you can’t make it that easy and objective in that way, I think. Together, the students agree that their own formation at DCU should have been more of a whole teacher education formation to know and experience how this is done. They, therefore, not only embrace WCD as a way to practise education in a modern, fragmented society but also WTD as an adequate method for teacher training and formation. What the students wish for is holistic teacher
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTk4NDMw