EXPLORING EDUCATION SYLLABUS - Groep T

( IEC 

Undergraduate Certificate (30 ECTS) 

EXPLORING EDUCATION 

Based on the ‘Four Pillars of Education’ of 

SYLLABUS 

Spring

IEC - International Educating Class – Spring 

This syllabus applies to the following categories of students: 

EIEC: 

UIEC: 

IEC: 

Exchange International Educating Class (Erasmus students) 

Undergraduate program International students 

GROUP T third-year BA students 

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TABLE OF CONTENTS 

OBJECTIVES: What can IEC do for you? .................................................................................................................. 4 

PROGRAM COMPONENTS: What does this program look like?............................................................................. 5 

CORE MODULES 

LEARNING TO KNOW 

Capacity building and learning strategies for innovation (3 ECTS) .................................................................... 65 

Course description .............................................................................................................................................. 5 

Teaching .............................................................................................................................................................. 5 

Learning outcomes ............................................................................................................................................. 5 

Global education networks and agencies (3 ECTS)................................................................................................ 7 


Teaching .............................................................................................................................................................. 7 


LEARNING TO DO 

Educational planning, implementation and evaluation: (3 ECTS) ........................................................................ 9 


Teaching .............................................................................................................................................................. 9 


Educational planning, implementation and evaluation: internship (3 ECTS) .................................................... 11 

Course description ............................................................................................................................................ 11 

Teaching ............................................................................................................................................................ 11 

Learning outcomes ........................................................................................................................................... 11 

LEARNING TO LIVE TOGETHER 

Living together in 2025 (3 ECTS) .......................................................................................................................... 12 


Teaching ............................................................................................................................................................ 12 


Education, Society and Intercultural dialogue (3 ECTS) ...................................................................................... 13 


Teaching ............................................................................................................................................................ 13 


LEARNING TO BE 

On becoming a person (6 ECTS) ........................................................................................................................... 15 


Teaching ............................................................................................................................................................ 15 


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EXTENSION MODULES 

Language - Code & Culture (3 ECTS)..................................................................................................................... 17 


Teaching ............................................................................................................................................................ 17 

Chinese language and culture: a touch of China (3 ECTS) ................................................................................... 19 


Teaching ............................................................................................................................................................ 19 

GROUP T ............................................................................................................................................................... 20 

UNESCO’s Four Pillars of Education .................................................................................................................... 21 

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OBJECTIVES 

WHAT CAN IEC DO FOR YOU? 

As IEC participants, you will share a common ambition: to find new ways to creatively respond to 

the current needs of your work environments and to think up plausible courses of action for the 

future. To guide you in this task, we will take UNESCO’s Four Pillars of Education as guiding 

principles, namely learning to know, to do, to live together, and to be. 

Regardless whether or not you are a teacher, you will be able to use these Four Pillars as tools for 

analyzing, fine-tuning, and revitalizing your professional life. 

Educating goes beyond formal education. That is why, by approaching life as one educational 

journey, you will learn to apply educating competences in all areas and at all stages of your 

personal life. 

IEC covers two semester programs, which can be taken in any sequence. These semester 

programs can also be taken separately as autonomous entities. 

This brochure provides information on the Spring semester program, themed ‘Exploring 

Education’. In the Fall, we offer its counterpart, themed ‘Enterprising Education’. Each of these 

semester programs leads to an undergraduate certificate of 30 ECTS. 

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PROGRAM COMPONENTS 

WHAT DOES THIS PROGRAMME LOOK LIKE? 

The program in EXPLORING EDUCATION and its components have been designed and organized 

in light of UNESCO’s Four Pillars of Education. This means that all program modules and activities 

will fall under one of the pillars. 

The modules have been classified as either “L” or “E”. In the “L” modules you will approach the 

Four Pillars from the perspective of yourself as learner, while the “E” modules will involve you as 

(future) educator. 

In order to graduate, you must obtain all 30 ECTS. 

* Since the language of instruction is English, it is of vital importance that you have a good command of 

the English language. Upon arrival you will be asked to sit an intake to determine your level of proficiency 

and see what further language support is needed. If your entry-level is lower than B2 (Common European 

Framework of Reference), you will have to follow an English proficiency course with our language 

department, ACE (see the section ‘World Languages’). 

* TOEIC: You can sit a TOEIC, or Test of English for International Communication, towards the end of the 

academic year at a special student price. 

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from a learner perspective 

CAPACITY BUILDING AND LEARNING STRATEGIES FOR INNOVATION (3 ECTS) 

Instructor: 

Milton George 

Start date: February 1, 2010 

End date: June 30, 2010 

Evaluation method: Continuous evaluation and assignments 

Contact: 

milton.george@groept.be 

COURSE DESCRIPTION 

In this course students shall gain insights into the six domains of capacity building: Government, 

Civil Society, Community Development, Partnerships, Climate Change, and Technology. The 

importance of capacity building in developing countries is reflected in the UN Development 

Program’s description of its core function: ‘to help develop the capacities required to achieve the 

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)’. 

The second part of this course is about innovation. You will acquire proactive hands-on strategies 

for learning and performance by constructing laboratories of ideas. The aim is that you discover 

the enterprising dimension of education at large, daring to innovate and to challenge other people 

to participate. Educational change may be fostered at a regional level through the professional 

development of future educators. 

TEACHING 

The course is based on a combination of lectures, individual study, seminars and independent 

projects. In between the in-class group sessions, students will carry out various individual and 

small group assignments. 

LEARNING OUTCOMES 

On completion of the course, students shall be able to grasp, relate, and analyze the concepts 

treated in the course, especially those of “capacity building” and “capacity development” as 

understood by the UN development program. 

By using study cases, the students will learn: 

1. To plan human resource development: equipping the project participants with the 

understanding, skills and access to information, knowledge and training needed for the 

execution of projects 

2. To plan organizational development: management structures, processes and procedures 

3. To plan institutional and legal framework development. 

4. To know the developments in the study of innovation processes 

5. To describe and explain the main characteristics of innovation processes in educational 

settings and to indicate their main determinants 

6. To illustrate an innovation process by referring to a recent national program in their 

country of origin 

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TESTIMONIAL 

‘The most valuable thing for me about the IEC 

program is that it is multicultural, and it is a 

learning process of living to together which is 

one of the four pillars of education and here we 

learn things about others which empower us as 

humans to accommodate or tolerate and thereby 

we will be able to build a world of peace. My 

expectation is that at the end of the program 

I will be able to educate those around me one 

way or the other to live together in peace and 

harmony because without peace there will be no 

growth.’ 

Tim Torlowei 

(Nigeria) 

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GLOBAL EDUCATION NETWORKS AND AGENCIES (3 ECTS) 

from an educator perspective 

Instructor: 

Kaat Vandensavel 




Contact: 

kaat.vandensavel@groept.be 


You will analyze UNESCO’s vision of the Four Pillars of Education, explore its mission to achieve 

Education for All by 2015, and gain insight into its ideals: e.g. the fight for equal access to 

education at all levels, the promotion of gender equality with regard to curriculum material, or 

both the enhancement of the access to information as well as the promotion of information and 

media literacy in order to bridge the digital divide. 

You will learn about projects aiming at realizing these ideals such as the Associated Schools 

Project Network. 

Against this background, you will be challenged to define strategies for organizing education in 

your own professional life. 

TEACHING 

Approach 

The course is based on a combination of lectures, individual study, seminars, independent 

projects, and a visit to the UNESCO Headquarters, the International Institute for Educational 

Planning (IIEP) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris. 

Contents 

The following topics will be dealt with: 

1. UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization): 

1.1. General Introduction 

1.2. Four Pillars of education 

2. Education (Education for All): 

2.1. Early childhood 

2.2. Primary education 

2.3. Secondary education 

2.4. Higher Education 

2.5. Teacher education 

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3. Literacy 

4. IBE (International Bureau of Education) 

5. Curriculum Development 

6. Associated Schools (ASP-net) 

7. Conclusions 


On completion of the course, students shall be able to analyze, relate to and use the basic concepts 

of the course in both their personal as well as their professional life. 

TESTIMONIAL 

 

Classe Internacional de Educação 

uma das melhores experiencia da 

minha vida, onde nos abre novos 

caminhos e novos horizontes para a 

nossa vida. 

O contacto com outras culturas, 

novos conhecimentos de 

aprendizagem, novas amizades, novo 

estilo de vida e o contacto com a 

UNESCO dá-nos uma força 

estrondosa para continuarmos a 

sonhar com novas ideias e 

motivações para uma educação 

melhor com vista a um futuro 

promissor. 

 

Gonçalo Gomes 

(Portugal) 

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EDUCATIONAL PLANNING, IMPLEMENTATION AND EVALUATION: (3 ECTS) 

Instructor: 

Milton George 




Contact: 



In this course you will equip yourself with the necessary tools to draw up a project. We will 

explore present-day educational methods, such as experience-based and problem-based learning, 

as well as active learning. 

The course will deal with the following themes: 

(1) planning a project 

(2) setting up a project 

(3) managing a project 

(4) implementing a project (in an educational setting) 

(5) evaluating a project. 

During the course itself, you will set up and prepare your own project (see ‘Educational planning, 

implementation and evaluation: internship’). 

TEACHING 

This course centers on your internship and a presentation. 


You will develop planning, executive, and analytical competencies. 

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EDUCATIONAL PLANNING, IMPLEMENTATION AND EVALUATION: 

INTERNSHIP (3 ECTS) 


Instructor: 

Milton George 



Evaluation method: Presentation and paper 

Contact: 



You will be doing an internship around the project you prepared in ‘Educational planning, 

implementation and evaluation: theory’. You will conduct your project in a concrete learning 

setting. You will also be asked to analyze your own performance so that you can better 

understand your own learning process, evaluate your results, and suggest alternatives. 

This combination of theory, internship, and reflection is meant to help you increase your 

metacognitive awareness and competences. 

TEACHING 

The course is based on a combination of your internship and a presentation. 


The students will develop planning, executive, and analytical competencies. 

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LIVING TOGETHER IN 2025 (3 ECTS) 


Instructor: 

Jan Van Maele 




Contact: 

jan.van.maele@groept.be 


In this course you will define a shared vision of (one aspect of) living together in 2025. From the 

field of futures studies you will learn to identify the megatrends of today that will shape 

tomorrow’s world. By applying the scenario method, you will learn to turn those possible futures 

into vivid scenarios and backcast ways to arrive there. Drawing on strategic management theory, 

you will finally learn to define paths towards your most desirable visions. In this way, the 

exercises in envisioning the future will yield a route planner for navigating the present. 

Living together is more than a theme in this course. In addition to constructing knowledge about 

living together in 2025, the group will tackle hands-on exercises in learning to live together. As 

you envision desirable futures, you will engage in strategic conversation and genuine dialogue 

with students from different cultures and backgrounds. As you develop scenarios towards 

plausible futures, you will come to terms with promoting values with respect for others. In this 

way, this course will help you to strengthen a wide range of faculties, including imagination and 

creativity, analytical and synthetic thinking, empathy and pro-activity. 

TEACHING 

In between the in-class group sessions, students will carry out individual, team and group 

assignments. 

The course is structured in accordance with the stages of the scenario method. 

1. Analysis: brainstorming visions of the future, investigating megatrends, and selecting 

driving forces. 

2. Development: forming a scenario template, developing the scenarios, and presenting the 

scenarios. 

3. Reflection: evaluating the scenarios, and charting a course to a desirable common future. 


On completion of the course students will be able: 

to articulate shared visions regarding the UNESCO pillar ‘learning to live together’ 

to put the different steps of the scenario process into practice with a peer-group 

to conduct strategic conversations and engage in genuine dialogue 

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EDUCATION, SOCIETY AND INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE (3 ECTS) 


Instructor: 

S. Sergio Scatolini Apostolo 




Contact: 

sergio.scatolini@groept.be 


The aim of this course is to zoom in on the socio-economic and cultural aspects of educational 

issues in the globalised world. You will gain some perspectives on the dynamic interplay of 

global, national, and local forces as they shape the functioning and outcome of educational 

systems in specific contexts. Attention will be given to democracy, human rights, ethics, and 

international migration. You will be challenged to develop insights, as well as perspective-taking 

skills. 

The course will deal with the following themes: 

1. Education, its function(s) and borders in formal and informal settings 

2. The ‘glocal’ society as the matrix of interwoven identities 

3. Culture, multiculturalism and interculturality 

4. Becoming educators from a UNESCO perspective 

TEACHING 

In keeping with UNESCO’s Four Pillars of Education, the course will be conducted in a fourfold 

way: 

1. Learning to know: you will be expected to acquire the necessary knowledge base by 

studying the suggested didactic material. 

2. Learning to do: you will be asked to analyze and critique the course material, as well as 

to relate it to your own experience. 

3. Learning to live together: you will be asked to choose one topic and work on it in 

groups. The whole group will write down their findings and suggestions and then 

present them to the rest of the class. 

4. Learning to be: (a) You will be observed during our learning encounters to see how you 

are integrating the material covered during the course into your own discourse (what 

you accept and what you reject, and why). (b) There will also be a final moment of 

evaluation during which you will be given the opportunity to show your mastery of the 

newly acquired knowledge base and to apply your competencies to an imaginary study 

case. 

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You will be able to apply the basic competencies to the analysis of the educational practice in your 

own work environment as well as in other contexts not directly related to the field of formal 

education. 

TESTIMONIAL 

International Education Class, wat een klas ! Echt alles wat 

je je kunt bedenken, zit er in: verschillende culturen, landen, 

gewoontes, jong/oud, man/vrouw. En ik vind het geweldig. 

Het is echt een ervaring, een kans om zoveel van andere 

mensen te kunnen en mogen leren. En iedereen is ook 

bereid om iets te vertellen over zijn/haar achtergrond, 

ervaringen en verwachtingen. 

PIEC werd eigenlijk al heel snel een hechte groep en ik denk 

dat het vooral door de introductieweek is gekomen —en 

Parijs natuurlijk! 

Als ik kijk naar de uitstapjes, praat iedereen met elkaar en 

iedereen kent elkaar. Het is altijd gezellig en druk, maar 

tijdens de lessen wordt er wel goed opgelet en worden 

scherpe vragen gesteld. Tijdens de lessen die we volgen, is 

het voor mij soms best pittig om alles in een keer te 

begrijpen; gelukkig zijn de leerkrachten allemaal bereid om 

te helpen, extra uitleg te geven en om soms even een 

stiekem Nederlands woordje er in te gooien. :) Ook leuk is 

de verscheidenheid in lessen die we krijgen: leven in 2025, 

organiseren van educatie, innovatie en een portfolio maken! 

Voor mij is het een uitdaging om nu eens lessen te krijgen 

die niet alleen aansluiten op lesgeven, maar die mijn venster 

op de wereld vergroten/verbreden. 

Mijn verwachtingen na deze studie zijn om mijn eigen 

opleiding af te ronden, maar zeker ook rondkijken naar 

mogelijkheden m.b.t. UNESCO. 

PIEC, we rock! 

Mandy Wijnbergen 

(The Netherlands) 

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LEARNING TO BE 

ON BECOMING A PERSON (6 ECTS) 

from a learner and educator perspective 

Instructor: 

Katrien Mertens 




Contact: 

katrien.mertens@groept.be 


IEC-students will continuously be encouraged to discover their potentials, to reveal ‘the treasure 

within them’. Important values for learning and educational contexts will be applied in practical 

ways to real-life situations. These are the kinds of values that facilitate the process of becoming a 

holistic person (both as learner and as educator). Among such values are health and harmony 

with nature, truth and wisdom, love and compassion, creativity and appreciation of beauty, peace 

and justice, sustainable human development, national unity and global solidarity, as well as global 

spirituality. 

Students will be asked to keep a learning report, or portfolio, of their targets and experiences 

along the way. 

TEACHING 

This course consists of ten work sessions in which evaluative feedback is given both by costudents 

and the instructor. Self-reflection is also required. The students are expected to present 

what they have learned in the form of portfolio and explain whether and how they became a 

navigator of peace and an agent of positive change. 


This course offers a guideline for reaching our full potential as complete human beings in all our 

dimensions, thereby enabling us to develop the courage, wisdom and leadership qualities 

required to constructively contribute towards building a culture of peace. 

15


TESTIMONIAL 

‘This IEC program gave me more chance to 

know people and their culture from different 

countries. It was both interesting and 

challenging to join in this group, because you 

knew how much fun and how many 

misunderstandings you were probably going to 

encounter as you set out to learn and live 

together with different people. I've myself 

learned a lot from pleasant talks and the 

cooperation with my classmates. I really 

appreciate their friendliness.’ 

Lisi Bai 

(China) 

16



LANGUAGE - CODE & CULTURE (3 ECTS) 


Instructor: 

Joris De Roy 




Contact: 

joris.de.roy@groept.be 


General outline 

This course is not intended as a ‘course in English’, but rather as a course in language as 

communication, illustrated mainly through English. Participants will be asked to apply the 

findings of the course to their own native language and present their own findings in class and/or 

in a paper. 

The main aims are to gain insights into how language in general – and English in particular - 

works as a code, and to understand why it is of vital importance to understand the code correctly 

in order to effectively pass on information. 

In a second step, we will see how a language code is shaped and determined by the culture 

underlying the language. It is at this stage that the roles of language and culture in education 

become especially significant. 

Since the first and foremost medium of education is language (and that of international 

education, English), it goes without saying that a thorough knowledge of the interaction between 

language, code and culture is an indispensable asset for any teacher in an international context. 

A closer look will also be taken at what happens when a foreign language is used to teach mixed 

groups, what effects this may have on cross-cultural understanding, and how – in turn – language 

itself may be affected in such a context. 

TEACHING 

Approach 

The course is designed in such a way that theoretical lessons will alternate with a hands-on 

approach to language by way of set tasks. Participants will be asked to actively contribute to the 

weekly sessions by preparing and presenting tasks in which they will compare their mother 

tongue to English in different contexts. 

17


Contents 

The following topics will be dealt with: 

[1] Language and Communication – understanding the code 

Language as product and shaper of culture, metaphors, jokes, shibboleths, myths, stereotypes and 

proverbs 

[2] Language Spheres – theory of expanding circles 

Language Models – what standard to choose? 

[3] Aspects of language 

Form, meaning, purpose, register & appropriacy, discourse 

[4] Language as Culture 

Why do we mean the opposite of what we say? Why will an artificial language never be able to 

replace natural language? What are the implications of ‘living language’ on education? 

[5] Working with words and meaning 

18



CHINESE LANGUAGE AND CULTURE: A TOUCH OF CHINA (3 ECTS) 


Instructor: Wim Polet (Confucius Institute, Group T) 



Evaluation method: Participation and paper 

Contact: 

wim.polet@groupt.be 


This course is intended as an introduction to the Chinese language and culture. It will consist of 

three components. 

1. General introduction to the geography, history, philosophy, art, and socio-economic 

development of China 

2. Chinese language: history and structure of the Chinese language (spoken, written en computer 

variants), differences from Japanese, and some “survival” dialogues 

3. Workshops 

Kung Fu and Calligraphy: Calligraphy is the art of writing. Kung Fu refers to a series of 

movements similar to boxing, but carried out with weapons. A video demonstrates both. 

Questions & Answers About Chinese Ancient Thinkers: The philosophies of Confucius, Laozi, 

and Zhuangzi lie at the heart of traditional Chinese culture. Their sayings illustrate their 

vision on studying, working, love, and friendship. 

Science and Technology: Pictures and moving images show China's contributions to 

science. Did you know that paper, gunpowder, the compass, and printing all originated in 

China? 

Changing Cities: Chinese cities have changed dramatically over the course of the 20th 

century. Images from Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Lhasa, and Guangzhou at different 

moments in time, illustrate this development. 

Chinese Food: Chinese food is known for its longstanding tradition and variety. You will 

not be able to sample any food, but you can learn about the 8 Chinese cuisines: Shandong, 

Sichuan, Canton, Fujian, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hunan, and Anhui. 

TEACHING 

The theoretical components of the course will alternate with tasks and hands-on activities, all 

held on the same day. 

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GROUP T 

Who are we? What are our values? What do we represent? 

GROUP T’s objective is to provide education in the broadest sense, both locally and globally, from a 

plurality of world views. Based on the 5E concept, namely ‘environmenting,’ enterprising, engineering, 

educating, and ‘ensembling,’ GROUP T’s mission is educing essence by experiencing existence. 

As regards educating, GROUP T aims to develop the person as a whole, referring to UNESCO’s body of 

thoughts, the four pillars of education: learning to be, learning to know, learning to do and learning 

to live together. 

The international nature of GROUP T’s education, research and services is essential. Its international 

character includes initiatives like joint organization of education and research projects with 

international institutes and services to international institutes, exchange of personnel and students, 

development of its own extensions abroad and of extensions of foreign institutes at GROUP T, 

development of educational concepts and programs on behalf of international partners, and 

organization of education in languages other than Dutch. The use of electronic media as a tool and 

English as a language is essential in all this. 

www.groupt.be 

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UNESCO’s Four Pillars of Education 

The Four Pillars of Education form the basis for the UNESCO report Learning: The Treasure Within. 

They cannot be defined separately; they form an integrated whole, complementing and 

strengthening each other. Education is, after all, a total experience. 

Learning to know lays the foundations of learning throughout life. This pillar refers to the 

basic knowledge that we need to be able to understand our environment and to live in 

dignity. It is also about arousing curiosity, allowing us to experience the pleasures of 

research and discovery. It faces us with the challenge of combining a sufficiently broad 

education with the in-depth investigation of selected subjects. Naturally, learning to know 

presupposes that we develop the powers of concentration, memory, and thought. In short, 

that we learn to learn. 

Learning to do. Learning to do refers to the acquisition of practical skills, but also to an 

aptitude for teamwork and initiative, and a readiness to take risks. As such, this pillar is 

about the competence of putting what we have learned into practice so as to act creatively 

on our environment. A variety of situations, often unforeseeable, is bound to arise. When 

this happens, learning to do enables us to turn our knowledge into effective innovations. 

Learning to live together is the pillar that the UNESCO Commission emphasizes more 

than any other. It refers first of all to developing an understanding of others through 

dialogue—leading to empathy, respect, and appreciation. Yet if we are to understand 

others, we must first know ourselves. Learning to live together is thus also about 

recognizing our growing interdependence, about experiencing shared purposes, and about 

implementing common projects and a joint future. Only then will it be possible to manage 

the inevitable conflicts in a peaceful way. 

Learning to be is founded on the fundamental principle that education needs to 

contribute to the all-round development of each individual. This pillar deals with the 

broadening of care for each aspect of the personality. It deals with giving us the freedom of 

thought, feeling, and imagination that we need to act more independently, with more 

insight, more critically, and more responsibly. The end of education is to discover and 

open the talents which are hidden like a treasure within every person. 

21


‘Education is the point at which we decide whether we love 

the world enough to assume responsibility for it...’ 

Hannah Arendt 

‘Every truth has four corners: as a teacher I give you one 

corner, and it is for you to find the other three.’ 

Confucius 

‘The task of the excellent teacher is to stimulate “apparently 

ordinary” people to unusual effort. The tough problem is not 

in identifying winners: it is in making winners out of ordinary 

people.’ 

K. Patricia Cross 

22


Contact 

IEC coordinator: 

Milton A. GEORGE 

Address: 

Tiensevest 60, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium 

Telephone: + 32 – (0)16 – 30 11 80 

Homepage: 

www.groupt.be/eiec 

E-mail: 

iec@groupt.be 

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EXPLORING EDUCATION SYLLABUS - Groep T

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