Diverse meeting participants stimulate each other

Participants may have different educational backgrounds. In (Dorst & Reymen, 2004) Dreyfus distinguishes between seven distinct levels of expertise: novice, advanced beginner, competent, proficient, expert, master and visionary. Participants may also differ in the roles within a team they are capable of playing (Claessen, Van Hezel, Van der Naald, & Nijenhuis, 2006), or in the professional culture they are accustomed to Bucciarelli (2002), e.g. using a certain type of writing tool.

Participants may differ in terms of their type of intelligence. Kagan and Kagan (2000) describe various multiple intelligences, such as logical-mathematical; verbal-linguistic visual-spatial interpersonal, and Seagal and Horne (1998) distinguish the following character types: mental-physical; emotional-mental; emotional-physical; physical-emotional and physical-mental.

When choosing the participants and also working methods, a wide spectrum of intelligences must be considered. One way to categorize these intelligences is to base them on the senses:

  • Auditory type: hearing, (focused) listening
  • Haptic/locomotive type: feeling, doing, experiencing, experimenting
  • Reading type: written text
  • Visual type: seeing (images, demonstration)
  • Discussion type: verbal interaction, discussion
  • Writing type: making notes and transcribing

(Hoogeveen & Winkels, 2011) (p 45).

The participants can also have different learning styles. Kolb (Simons, 2012) distinguishes between the following styles:

  • Dreaming (e.g., reflecting, designing)
  • Thinking (e.g., analyzing, abstract thinking)
  • Daring (e.g., experiencing, feeling)
  • Doing (e.g., experimenting)

References:

Dorst, C. H., & Reymen, I. (2004). Levels of expertise in design education. Paper presented at the 2nd International Engineering and Product Design Education Conference (IEPDE), September 2-3, 2004, Delft, The Netherlands, Delft.

Claessen, C., Van Hezel, H., Van der Naald, R., & Nijenhuis, B. (2006). Aan de slag met…. : een inspiratiebron voor leidinggevenden (J. Van der Naald Ed.). Heeze: ABLE.

Bucciarelli, L. L. (2002). Designing Engineers. Cambridge, MA, USA: The MIT Press.

Kagan, S., & Kagan, M. (2000). Meervoudige intelligentie : het complete MI boek (v. u. h. E. M. A. e. al.], Trans. r. N. v. D. K. e. al.] Ed.). Middelburg: RPCZ educatieve uitgaven.

Seagal, S., & Horne, D. (1998). Human dynamics : samen leven samen werken (L. Vonk, Trans.). Schiedam: Scriptum.

Hoogeveen, P., & Winkels, J. (2011). Het didactische werkvormenboek : variatie en differentiatie in de praktijk (10th ed. ed.). Assen: Van Gorcum.

Simons, R.-J. (2012). Leerstijlen – [David A. Kolb]. In M. Ruijters & R.-J. Simons (Eds.), De canon van het leren: 50 concepten en hun grondleggers (pp. p. 325-338). Deventer: Kluwer.