Development activities and methods in universities of applied sciences

Turku University of Applied Sciences launched an English language degree programme leading to a Bachelor of Social Services degree in 2022. As our international students have progressed to the thesis phase in their studies, it has become evident that there is only a limited amount of methodological literature on working life-oriented development activities available in English.
In this book, we describe the contents of development activities and outline the key concepts related to them. In addition, we examine working life-oriented development activities as part of innovative higher education studies. The perspective is pedagogical and professional, because development is largely a process of learning in action. Development skills and innovativeness are increasingly important and valued professional qualifications in working life, especially for those with higher education degrees.

Participation in practical development activities and management require an overall understanding of development. Participating in development activities and leading one’s own development project especially requires a high degree of self leadership and good cooperation skills. Teaching should support the understanding of the development phases and the progress of the work towards results in dialogical or trialogical interaction with different actors. This is achieved by through collaborative discussions, planning and evaluations and, if necessary, by redirecting operations. Peer support, encounters between people and reciprocity promote the development of overall understanding.

In this book, we draw from a wide range of development literature on a broad range of topics, as well as some research literature. All in all, Finnish literature on development is still relatively young and even scarce, even though working life, for example, has been studied for decades. For some reason, the methodological nature of development activities in particular has received little attention. This may be due to a lack of interest among working life developers in describing the exact use of working methods and tools in the same way as research methods.