Abstract:

Focusing on the development of student agency within the scope of tourism education, the following paper outlines different interdisciplinary, student-centred initiatives, briefly describing their design, implementation and assessment and reflecting on how they can enhance student involvement and overall engagement.

These initiatives, which include the development of a digital platform (blog), featuring student-generated content, examples of context-based simulated activities and an interdisciplinary project involving two different courses and an external partner (Village Tourism Association), offer an alternative to “lecturer driven, one-way transmission” (Pitt et al., 2020, p. 3) of content and feedback, relying both on Project-Based Learning (PBL) and group work, as ways of addressing real-world challenges and promoting 21st century skills, particularly flexibility, teamwork and creativity (Geisinger, 2016; Piirto, 2011). Furthermore, by involving students in dialogic processes, which required them to look for (rather than just receive) feedback from different sources, at different times, crosscutting it with their personal experiences and contexts, the projects have also promoted accountability and autonomy, moving beyond the scope of specific tasks and becoming catalysts for skill transferability and hands-on experiential and simulated-based learning.

Based on documentary research, content analysis and questionnaires applied to the students, the paper establishes the importance of interdisciplinarity, collaboration and simulation as key components of teaching and learning experiences. Moreover, by sharing what could be considered best practices for tourism education, it also supports and informs practitioners and researchers, leveraging future initiatives.
References

References:
[1] Geisinger, K. F. (2016). 21st Century Skills: What Are They and How Do We Assess Them? Applied Measurement in Education, 29(4), 245–249. https://doi.org/10.1080/08957347.2016.1209207
[2] Piirto, J. (2011). Creativity for 21st century skills. In Creativity for 21st Century Skills (pp. 1–12). Springer.
[3] Pitt, E., Bearman, M., & Esterhazy, R. (2020). The conundrum of low achievement and feedback for learning. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 45(2), 239–250. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2019.1630363

Keywords:

Agency, Interdisciplinarity, Project-Based Learning, Simulation, Tourism Education.