Study Guide

Descriptions

This joint degree programme in Creative Wellbeing offers master education for both Culture field students and students of Health and Wellbeing sectors. Studies provide the culture and arts, social or health professionals with the skills to develop the future social – health – arts working life on the basis of their own professional core competencies and networks. The education provides a broad range of expertise for a variety of social, artistic and health care professionals for in development and co-ordination tasks in their fields, and interfaces between them.

The aim of the programme is to promote expertise in the field of creative well-being, which can be used as a basis for independent thinking and development work in the field. The field of creative well-being operates at the interface between the social, health and cultural sectors: at the heart of education is a critical understanding of issues related to the interface between different sectors. An expert of creative wellbeing needs advanced creative and problem-solving skills for developing new knowledge and procedures and to integrate knowledge from different fields. Such an expert is a responsible actor or change agent , who is also able to reflect, evaluate and develop one's own and others' work in the field.

The Creative Well-Being Programme is part of the Turku University of Applied Sciences Master's programs and is implemented by the Turku University of Applied Sciences Art Academy in cooperation with the Faculty of Health and Wellbeing of Turku University of Applied Sciences. The studies lead to a Master's degree, which corresponds to a master's degree at a university level and gives the same qualification, for example, to public posts.

The Master School of Turku University of Applied Sciences equips experts for development of their field and for reforming future working life. The Master School gives students the opportunity to develop their expertise and deepen their skills in cooperation with working life. The degree opens the door to a new kind of professional career development. Master-level expertise is also linked to the development of Finland's future competitiveness.

The programme is aimed at individuals with competence in arts, culture, social or health sectors, and motivation to develop and use their competence to promote inclusion, community, well-being and health at the level of individuals as well as communities throughout society. Today's working life requires a new kind of networking expertise in different situations, with different partners and in different operating environments. The aim of the programme is to develop the student's multidisciplinary arts-linked well-being, co-operation and networking skills as well as the ability to work in various multiprofessional communities and projects.

Objective

Upon completing their studies, students will be able to:

• reflect on their own relationship with arts and culture, its importance for well-being, and its significance as part of their professional identity as a creative well-being expert.

• identify and articulate the value base and concept of humanity in their work, and make conscious ethical choices as a professional in the field of creative well-being.

• apply the key concepts and theoretical approaches of creative well-being for examining and developing their own work.

• justify the importance and impacts of arts and culture on different customer groups, and in different contexts, on the basis of research-based knowledge.

• coordinate, apply and develop implementations of creative and arts-based methods in different operating environments.

• identify, utilise and develop their own competences, strengths, networks and opportunities in the developing field of creative well-being.

• work, communicate and interact in multidisciplinary teams and operating environments, and creatively combine their own expertise with that of others.

• recognise the links between creative well-being and sustainable development, and act responsibly, sustainably and in a future-oriented way in their own work.

• use different means and channels of communication and advocacy to promote awareness of creative well-being and the availability of high-quality and accessible cultural and arts services in society.

Development

The Degree Programme of Creative Well-being is implemented as multiform studies. Most of the studies and learning take place according to the student's own schedule at the place of his / her choice. The studies are carried out as e-learning, independent work and various forms of group and project work. Independent studying is supported and scheduled by contact phases, which usually take place during two consecutive days a month.

Students with various basic training and professional backgrounds and proficiency profiles in the fields of culture, arts, education or social sector and health make the education multidisciplinary by nature. The interdisciplinary student group is a strength and when working in multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary teams, the students have the opportunity to produce fresh ideas, solutions, and innovations.

Teacher supporting the learning process:
The teachers of the educators’ team act as supporters of the student's learning process and competence development, as supervisors of a development project carried out as the thesis and as facilitators of networking and multidisciplinary teamwork. In addition to pedagogical competence, the educators’ team has strong core competence in the arts and culture, social, health and/or education fields.

Each student participates in a tutor discussion at the beginning of the studies and during the second semester. In the discussion, the student is supported in setting his/her own learning goals and in making and following his/her own individual study plan (HOPS).

Student-oriented learning and teaching methods:
The Master's studies include a professional autobiography process that steers the continuous reflection of one's own professional choices and goals, one's own competence and development goals and one's own professional identity.
The basic starting point is the student-centered learning process and the use of authentic, activating learning tasks. Many of the learning assignments are linked and contribute to the student's own thesis development project. In addition, the learning tasks utilize real case studies, problems, and possible assignments from working life partners.

Diverse learning environments:
In these studies, learning takes place in many different learning environments. Some learning environments are utilized by all the degree programme students together whereas others are used by the students who find them a meaningful way and place of learning to reach their own learning goals and follow their own learning paths.

Educational environment:
The students usually meet for two days at Turku University of Applied Sciences once a month. These intensive days are important as a place for guidance, peer support and teamwork as well as joint reflection in the learning process. Key note lecture sessions and workshops are given and facilitated by visiting experts or the teachers on the topic under discussion. When possible, the students will also be “collided” with other Master School students, for example in joint seminars.

E-Learning environment:
The “home base” of the multidisciplinary implementation is TUAS online learning environment, where the students find both general information about their studies and the programmes of individual modules or courses, learning materials, instructions for learning assignments, and tools for learning, completing and sharing learning tasks. Some of the learning activities in the online environment take place in interaction with the student group or team. The online learning tools can also be complemented, if necessary, with other distance learning technology.

Collaboration networks:
The studies of Creative Wellbeing are conducted in close cooperation with working life networks and the students are encouraged to use their own professional networks in their development project and other studies to create new networks. The students are also encouraged to benefit from events, services and training events relevant to their professional development and to include them in their elective studies.

Research Groups and RDI Projects:
The student can link the thesis development project to the research groups of the Academy of Arts or other TUAS research, development and innovation projects. The student can also include RDI projects as project studies in the elective studies.

The system of continuous feedback:
The education of Creative Wellbeing relies on the principle of continuous self-assessment and continuous feedback. Students receive feedback on a regular basis. The studies are being developed through continuous dialogue with working life. For example, feedback is available from the (other) educators at TUAS, project partners and the working life networks.

Further information

The assessment of each study module is based on the learning outcomes described in the curriculum, which in turn is based on the competence objectives of the entire degree. The evaluation is done on a scale approved--failed or numerical evaluation on the scale 0–5.

The assessment criteria for the development project is the joint assessment criteria of the Turku University of Applied Sciences Master's thesis. The thesis always has two assessors, one of them being the teacher who supervises the thesis. The second assessor can be either a teacher at Turku University of Applied Sciences or a working life representative. The student gets a verbal evaluation statement for his/her thesis, in which the numerical grade is justified. Prior to this summative assessment at the end of the thesis process, the student receives feedback from the teacher / supervisor who supervises the thesis to help the student develop the thesis. Process assessment is conducted in group situations with the presentation of the research and development plan and later with the demonstration of the progress of the development project, in private steering discussions and after the return of the pre-examination version of the thesis report.

Teacher Assessment: Teacher assessment is based on the principles of continuous evaluation for all learning tasks performed during the course. The assessment focuses on the student's final output (learning outcomes) and on the student's work process (competence development).

At the heart of self-assessment is the professional autobiography process, which acts as a tool for reflecting on one's own skills and their development as well as reflecting on one's own professional identity throughout the studies. In addition, the student is required to reflect on the development of his / her own competence in all reports related to the studies, such as reports on project studies for elective studies and reporting on the development project carried out as a thesis.

Peer review is used in a number of learning tasks on the web-based learning platform, where the students share in-progress or completed versions of the learning outcomes and give feedback on each other's work. The students also give each other peer feedback on the presentation sessions of the development projects and on various learning tasks during the contact days. Peer review takes place in all courses.

Working life assessment:
External assessment by the working life partners is carried out in the theses that have been commissioned by or are assigned to a second supervisor and / or assessor who represents working life. In addition, the study modules use working life visitors as experts of their fields who can also give feedback on students' work during the intensive contact working days. The purpose of working life assessment is above all to support the development of the student's competence and the achievement of his/her goals, i.e., it is primarily meant for the student himself/herself.