WeQ Pedagogy aims to meet one of the most important challenges in our time: how to teach the unteachable? The ‘unteachable’ refers, first, to the way in which the knowledge production has transformed from facts to understanding; second, to the way active teaching methods bring up and may facilitate teaching of taboo and difficult subjects; third, to the understanding of both pedagogy and democracy as parallel processes resisting finalization. WeQ emphasises collaborative knowledge production instead of individual success and intelligence (IQ). WeQ Pedagogy targets teachers, particularly in higher and secondary education offering a pedagogical model for improving teaching and learning processes.
WeQ Pedagogy is rooted in socio-constructivist theories of learning, and it emphasises collaborative and active learning methods, learning by doing/research, and out-of-classroom techniques. WeQ Pedagogy relies on a vital paradigm change in relation to knowledge. Students should be aware of the multiple and multidimensional sources of information. Teachers would promote the students’ effort to connect information innovatively and critically to create new knowledge. Unlike lectures or course books this is not a set process but brings about new knowledge, contradictions and even taboos.
The techniques and pedagogy emerges from our ongoing teaching and research, which have been now integrated into the framework of WeQ Pedagogy. It was successfully piloted with in Tbilisi State University, Georgia in May 2015. The results with students and teachers from Georgia, Belarus and Finland were excellent: WeQ Pedagogy demonstrates increased critical thinking, innovativeness and active citizenship – and it enables reflecting on difficult and taboo issues. The team was contacted for future teacher training.
The team seeks new pilots and plans to establish a new online community on WeQPeda.com. After conducting a survey on WeQPedagogy. The team is working on a manuscript on WeQPedagogy and academic articles based on pedagogical research and pilots.
The Helsinki Challenge team Higher Education Unbounded looks forward to different types of collaboration and cooperation, sharing and discussing cases of teaching the unteachable, and declarations of support. Are you interested in WeQ Pedagogy? Get in touch!