Learning also means daring to try

Joost Baars has been working as a lecturer in Plant Breeding at Wageningen University & Research for more than four years. Before that, he worked in industry, including as a tomato pre-breeder. Moving into education was a deliberate choice.

“I wanted to work a little more with people than with research projects,” he says. His background in biology still plays a role in how he sees learning. During his studies, he focused on how organisms adapt to their environment. “That still fascinates me, also in people. Learning is ultimately a form of adapting too.”

Joost teaches across several programmes and is involved in multiple courses within the Online Master Plant Breeding. There, he works with a diverse mix of students. Some continue studying directly after their previous degree, but a large proportion already work for a breeding company and complete the master’s alongside their job.

That can make studying challenging. Work does not always fit neatly around a study schedule. Particularly in plant breeding, there are periods when an experiment, selection round or crop simply cannot wait.

At the same time, Joost sees this as one of the programme’s strengths. “They already bring a great deal of experience and knowledge with them. That means they can immediately put the theory into context: this is how we do it at work, so how does that relate to what we are learning here?”

As a result, the questions working professionals ask are often highly specific. Someone who has worked with one crop for years may know it in great detail. The programme then helps them look beyond their own specialism. How are similar challenges approached in potato, maize, apple or tomato? And which broader principles underpin those approaches?

The field itself is changing too. New technologies are making it increasingly easy to generate large amounts of phenotypic and genotypic data, while AI is creating new opportunities to analyse that information.

According to Joost, however, this does not make fundamental knowledge any less important. “Generating data is no longer that difficult. But properly understanding what you are doing remains important.”
A plant breeder still needs a strong understanding of genetics, inheritance and selection, and must know how to design a good experiment. Statistics and data analysis also remain essential. Students therefore work extensively with tools such as R throughout the master’s, with these skills returning across several courses.

AI mainly changes how that knowledge is used. Finding information has not been the main challenge for some time. The real challenge is being able to assess, filter and apply it. “It is becoming easier to produce a report or an answer. That makes it even more important to critically analyse the result.”

New developments are also explicitly addressed in the course New Trends in Plant Breeding, which is updated each year to reflect the latest developments in the field.

For Joost, good education is not only about subject knowledge. Perhaps even more important is having the opportunity to put that knowledge into practice.

That also means accepting that things will sometimes go wrong. “If you try something and it does not work, you start asking yourself: why did this go wrong, and how can I approach it differently next time?”

Education can provide a safe environment for that process. In professional practice, there is often pressure to deliver and perform. During a programme, there can be more room to try something, receive feedback and have another go.

That is why Joost does not focus solely on the final result. Students receive feedback throughout assignments, for example on writing, presentations and collaboration. The grade is not the only objective. What matters more is what someone does with that feedback in the next assignment.

“I think education has long placed a lot of emphasis on that one final assessment where you have to perform. I am much more interested in the process leading up to it: looking back, considering what could be improved and trying again.”

He knows from his own experience what this can lead to. Presenting, for example, used to make him nervous. By continuing to do it, sometimes with less success than he would have liked, he gradually learned how to prepare better and deal with that tension.

That development does not only happen between lecturer and student. Participants bring different professional and cultural backgrounds to the programme and also learn from each other.

According to Joost, this becomes visible when students share experiences from their own work or point each other towards useful articles and resources. One important moment is the Wageningen Week, when the group finally meets on campus after a period of studying online.
“After that, they really know each other. You can see how important that is for building the group.”

Joost follows students over several years of the programme: during onboarding, in different courses, on excursions and sometimes all the way through to graduation. Last year, he had the opportunity to present diplomas to four students he had followed from the beginning of their studies.

“By then, you know what someone has had to do to get there. That makes a moment like that very special.”

For professionals considering combining the master’s with their job, Joost has one main piece of advice: first think carefully about why you want to do it.

Many participants want to progress into a role as a breeder, senior breeder or into a position with more responsibility. Others work in a laboratory or data-focused role and want to better understand how their expertise connects to the wider breeding process.

For them, the programme can be an important next step. But a part-time master’s also requires time and commitment. Joost therefore advises prospective students to discuss in advance with both their employer and the people at home what space they will need to make it work.

“If you know which step you want to take and the circumstances are right, then you should dare to go for it.”