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This study explored the extent to which social workers conduct Social Practice Development (SPD), an approach translated from nursing, to foster practice improvement in social work. Alumni of bache...

Low-achieving adolescents are known to have difficulties with reading comprehension. This article discusses whether principles of reciprocal teaching can improve low-achieving adolescents' reading comprehension in whole-classroom settings and to what extent treatment effects are dependent on implementation quality. Over the course of two years, experimental teachers (n = 10) were given training and coaching aimed at using principles of reciprocal teaching, while control teachers (n = 10) used their regular teaching method. Observations of teacher implementation were focused on instruction of reading strategies, modeling, and support of group work, and were performed in both experimental and control classes, comprising a total of 238 students (grade 7). The study shows that overall, there is no effect of the treatment on adolescent low-achievers' reading comprehension. Interestingly however, the principle of modeling positively moderated the effect of reciprocal teaching In addition, results suggest that the quality of implementation of reciprocal teaching in whole-classroom settings should receive more attention.

Purpose In the author’s reflection on the special issue, the author will start with a brief discussion of the different theoretical, methodological and empirical contributions of the articles. In addition, the author will argue that the challenge for research on school–non-governmental organization (NGO) interactions is to move beyond the use of a myriad of conceptual models to a more coherent framework to better understand what system and nonsystem actors do, how they do it and how the broader institutional system enables or constrains collective action. The author concludes with some suggestions for future research. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, the author reflects on the design and findings of articles that focus on the involvement of non-governmental or third sector organizations in education. Findings By taking up these different themes, the articles reported in this special issue help the author to get a better picture of the growing plurality and power of third sector organizations and their interactions with schools. The work also raises questions about the legitimacy of NGOs in education, the weakening of democratic control over public schooling and the possible role of private interests and the concentration of power in facilitating equal opportunities for all students and promoting educational excellence. Given their methodological designs, the studies make an important contribution to our understanding of what nonsystem actors do and how they interact with schools. Research limitations/implications By using a neoinstitutional framework, the research on school–NGO interactions will be informed by a coherent conceptual framework that conceives school systems as open systems and focuses on the intersection of instruction and organization, while simultaneously treating the system as the relevant unit of analysis (see Cohen et al., 2018). The works of Glazer et al. and Peurach et al. reported in this special issue are good examples of the kind of research that is needed. Following this work, future studies into the involvement of third sector organizations in education using a neoinstitutinal lens should give careful attention to historical analysis and also need to examine changes over a longer period of time as new institutionalized patterns do not emerge quickly and “interact with the hand of history in shaping instruction” (Peurach et al., p. 25). Practical implications The articles in this special issue may prompt more researchers to inquire school–NGO interactions and push future research efforts to understand the complex picture of increasing institutional diversity from a more neoinstitutional perspective. Findings from these cross-national studies, with careful attention to historical analysis of the intersection between organization and instruction, may help the author to develop a theory of design (Rowan and Miskel, 1999) that can provide practitioners with tools to redesign and change the regulative, normative and cognitive mechanisms that constrain and enable collective action. Originality/value Different studies have examined how policy decisions emerge and are implemented, and how this affects the “technical core” of schools (Cohen and Hill, 2001; Hiebert et al., 2005). However, most of these studies have predominantly focused on the vertical interactions between formal system actors at the state, district and school levels to analyze how policy decisions are shaped as they move through the multilayered system. Little attention has been paid to the horizontal exchange relations between the public policy system and NGOs and how these connections influence management and instruction (Coburn, 2005; Rowan, 2006). Given the increasing institutional diversity, conflicting trends and dilemmas school systems are faced with, scholars have emphasized the need to develop an understanding of the role the educational infrastructure can play in supporting improvement (Cohen and Moffitt, 2010; Cohen et al., 2018).

Research has demonstrated that in controlled experiments in which small groups are being tutored by researchers, reading-strategy instruction is highly effective in fostering reading comprehension (Palincsar & Brown, Cognition and Instruction, 1(2), 117–175, 1984). It is unclear, however, whether reading-strategy interventions are equally effective in whole-classroom situations in which the teacher is the sole instructor for the whole class. This meta-analysis focuses on the effects of reading-strategy interventions in whole-classroom settings. Results of studies on the effectiveness of reading-strategy interventions in whole-classroom settings were summarized (Nstudies = 52, K = 125) to determine the overall effects on reading comprehension and strategic ability. In addition, moderator effects of intervention, study, and student characteristics were explored. The analysis demonstrated a very small effect on reading comprehension (Cohen’s d = .186) for standardized tests and a small effect (Cohen’s d = .431) on researcher-developed reading comprehension tests. A medium overall effect was found for strategic ability (Cohen’s d = .786). Intervention effects tended to be lower for studies that did not control for the hierarchical structure of the data (i.e. multilevel analyses).For interventions in which “setting reading goals” was part of the reading-strategy package, effects tended to be larger. In addition, effects were larger for interventions in which the trainer was the researcher as opposed to teachers and effect sizes tended to be larger for studies conducted in grades 6–8. Implications of these findings for future research and educational practice are discussed.

This longitudinal study explored the degree in which level and development of writing proficiency of a group of 63 low-achieving adolescents can be explained by their engagement in literacy activities. These adolescents were intensively followed from grades 7 to 9, measuring their writing proficiency and their engagement each year focusing on affective, cognitive and behavioral aspects of engagement. Results indicate that level of writing proficiency increases from year to year, but that this development cannot be predicted by any of the engagement measures. In contrast, the level of writing proficiency of the students can be explained by aspects of affective and behavioral engagement. Therefore, the results underline the importance of distinguishing between the level and development of writing proficiency in examining relationships between engagement and writing achievement of low-achieving adolescents. Although average level of students’ writing proficiency is explained by affective and behavioral engagement, these aspects of engagement do not explain growth in writing proficiency in the course of the three grades studied. Implications of these findings for future research and for educational practice are discussed.

Low-achieving adolescents are known to have difficulties with reading comprehension. This article discusses how reciprocal teaching can improve low-achieving adolescents' reading comprehension in whole-classroom settings (as opposed to small-group settings) and to what extent intervention effects are dependent on teacher behaviour. Over the course of 1 year, experimental teachers (n = 10) were given extensive training and coaching aimed at using principles of reciprocal teaching, while control teachers (n = 10) used their regular teaching method. Observations of teacher behaviour were focused on instruction of reading strategies, modelling and support of group work and were performed in both experimental and control classes, comprising a total of 369 students (mean age = 13.01). Our study shows that reciprocal teaching contributed to adolescent low achievers' reading comprehension only when experimental teachers provided high-quality strategy instruction. In addition, results suggest that the quality of implementation of reciprocal teaching in whole-classroom settings should receive more research attention. Highlights What is already known about this topic Reciprocal teaching is a method of instructing and guiding learners in reading comprehension. It consists of a set of three related instructional principles: (a) teaching comprehension-fostering reading strategies; (b) expert modelling, scaffolding and fading; and (c) students practising and discussing reading strategies with other students, guided and coached by the teacher. High quality of implementation of reciprocal teaching by teachers in classrooms is difficult. What this paper adds After 1 year of implementing reciprocal teaching, no main effects of the treatment were established. Intervention effects were moderated by quality of instruction: strategy instruction led to higher scores on reading comprehension in the treatment condition but not in the control condition. Implementation of the instructional principles was by no means optimal: teachers were unable to provide detailed guidance to students working in small groups and modelling of strategies requires more experience and theoretical insight in the use and nature of reading strategies. Implications for practice and/or policy Extensive training and coaching are needed for teachers to become experts in reciprocal teaching. Teachers need hands-on tools to be able to guide students in their collaborative group work and to fade the teachers' role in order to allow more individual self-regulation by students in their use of strategies. Implementation quality has to be taken into account when doing effectiveness research and when adopting new, theory-based didactic approaches.

This study explores teacher learning in Vocational Education and Training colleges, combining organizational and psychological factors, such as transformational leadership, teamwork, and self-efficacy. 447 teachers participated in a survey study. Multilevel structural equation modeling was used to test 7 hypotheses derived from previous research. The results show that transformational leadership has direct and indirect effects on teacher learning as mediated by teamwork processes. Moreover, the impact of teamwork processes on teacher learning was mediated by self-efficacy. The study contributes to research on workplace learning by giving insight into the role organizational and psychological factors play in stimulating teacher learning.

Whereas cross-sectional research has shown that transformational leadership, task interdependence, and self-efficacy are positively related to teachers’ engagement in reflective learning activities, the causal direction of these relations needs further inquiry. At the same time, individual teacher learning might play a mutual role in strengthening school-level capacity for sustained improvement. Building on previous research, this longitudinal study therefore examines how transformational leadership, task interdependence, self-efficacy, and teachers’ engagement in self-reflection mutually affect each other over time. Questionnaire data gathered on three measurement occasions from 655 Dutch Vocational Education and Training teachers was analyzed using a multivariate Latent Difference Score model. Results indicate that self-reflection and task interdependence reciprocally influence each other’s change. A considerate and stimulating transformational leader was found to contribute to this process. Change in self-efficacy was influenced by self-reflection, indicating that learning leads to competency beliefs. Together, the findings point to the important role transformational leadership practices play in facilitating teamwork, and sustaining teachers’ levels of learning in schools.

This study examines the relationship between types and sequences of self-regulated reading activities in task-oriented reading with quality of task achievement of 51 low-achieving adolescents (Grade 8). The study used think aloud combined with video observations to analyse the students' approach of a content-area reading task in the stages of orientation, text reading and answering questions. Results show that in general these low-achieving adolescents are infrequently monitoring their text comprehension or making connections with prior knowledge. Nevertheless, important differences are found between types and sequences of self-regulated reading activities related to task achievement. The low-achieving adolescents showing a straightforward linear approach to the task (orientation, reading of the whole text and finally answering of questions) yielded more success. In addition, readers demonstrating more activities directed at connections between text contents and prior knowledge during reading showed better task achievement. Implications of these findings for literacy education of this special group of adolescents are discussed.

Background: Interest in the role of metacognition has been steadily rising in most forms of education. This study focuses on the construction of a questionnaire for measuring metacognitive knowledge, metacognitive regulation and metacognitive responsiveness among students in higher education and the subsequent process of testing to determine its validity. Purpose : The aim of the study was to construct an original instrument for measuring features of metacognition, henceforth referred to as the Awareness of Independent Learning Inventory (AILI), and further to establish the similarities and differences between this model and existing instruments for measuring metacognition. Sample: The AILI questionnaire was distributed to 1058 students in various types of Teacher Training Institutes in the Netherlands and Belgium. The abridged English version of the questionnaire was administered to another sample of 729 students reading Economics and Business Administration at the University of Maastricht in the south of the Netherlands. Design and methods: The AILI instrument was constructed on the basis of a facet design along two dimensions: components of metacognition and topics of concern to students in higher education. The data gathered with the instrument was analyzed by means of a generalisability study and a decision study, respectively. The validity of the instrument was investigated by using confirmatory factor analysis. Results: The generalisability study showed that the reliability of the instrument was satisfactory. The decision study revealed that the number of items included in the questionnaire could be reduced substantially by leaving out two components of one of the dimensions in the facet design, without losing too much generalisability. The validity study showed that there was a considerable level of congruity between parts of the AILI questionnaire and the relevant parts of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). Conclusions: The AILI questionnaire is a reliable and valid instrument for measuring metacognitive knowledge, regulation and responsiveness. It is suitable for use in the evaluation of the effects of interventions that purport to increase metacognitive knowledge, regulation and responsiveness of students in higher education.

PurposeAt a time when secondary vocational education is implementing competence‐based education (CBE) on a large scale, to adapt to the needs of students and of the labour market in a modern society, many vocational schools have recognised that interdisciplinary teacher teams are an important condition for this implementation. In order to provide students with the right competences for the labour market, different subject teachers should work and learn together and, by doing so, should be able to develop changes and improvements to ensure the effective implementation of CBE. In spite of the appeal of forming teacher teams in vocational education, studies on this subject show that teams in educational settings are not easily implemented. This paper aims to address this issue.Design/methodology/approachIn this study, 28 managers from a Vocational Education and Training (VET) college in The Netherlands were interviewed in order to find factors that are related to effective team functioning. The authors choose to rely on a qualitative approach, because there has hardly been any empirical validation of factors that are related to effective team functioning in a vocational education context. In order to determine what factors influence team effectiveness, the results from the interviews have been related to what is known about team effectiveness from the literature.FindingsBy relating the results from the interviews to what is known about team effectiveness from the literature, a framework for future research on team effectiveness in schools is provided. In line with the organisational and psychological literature on team effectiveness, the managers distinguished several aspects in their definition of team effectiveness. Moreover, the findings of the study highlight the importance of the development of task interdependence, transformational leadership, and group efficacy for producing effective teams in education.Originality/valueAlthough teams and team functioning have been the focus of researchers from different disciplines and have been studied from different perspectives, studies on the conditions that support or limit the successful implementation of teacher teams in vocational education are still scarce. The results of this study are expected to provide a deeper understanding of the mechanism that underlies the ability of teacher teams in vocational education to function effectively.

The complexity of the daily practice of social workers in the Netherlands has increased, while the social appreciation for their work has decreased. Stakeholders involved in social work practice agreed that a master's programme for social workers could be an important step to improve the quality of social work and enhance the professionalisation of social workers. However, stakeholders disagreed considerably on the objectives of this new programme. Hence, there was no focus for the programme or for its evaluation. In order to assess the purpose and intended goals of the master's programme in social work, a retrospective plan evaluation was conducted, consisting of a document analysis and concept-mapping procedure with thirty-nine stakeholders. The study resulted in a consensus-based conceptual framework in which practice development is considered the key domain of the programme. Practice development seems to fit the open domain of social work and meets the various and often ambivalent demands on social workers and their profession. It is regarded as a method in which the social worker with a master's degree has a new role and position in the interplay between clients, stakeholders and professionals

Contains fulltext : 102461.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) The aim of this study is to test the effects of dynamically scaffolding social regulation of middle school students working in a computer-based learning environment. Dyads in the scaffolding condition (N = 56) are supported with computer-generated scaffolds and students in the control condition (N = 54) do not receive scaffolds. The scaffolds are dynamically adjusted to dyads’ progress with an attention management system. The scaffolds support two aspects of socially regulated learning namely the metacognitive and cognitive activities. We analyzed the effects of dynamic scaffolding on dyads’ performance, their perception of the learning environment and students' knowledge acquisition. We found that scaffolding had a positive effect on the dyads’ learning performance, but did not affect students’ domain knowledge. The repeated measurements of perception of the learning environment showed that dyads in the experimental condition were more positive about their teachers and their collaborators than students in the control condition. With respect to their perception of the software and the 3D embodied agent delivering the scaffolds, we found a stronger decrease of appreciation over time in the scaffolding condition compared to the control condition.

This article describes the results of a study into the utility of the SVI model, a model inwhich internal and external evaluation are balanced. The model consists of three phases:school self-evaluation, visitation and inspection. Under the guidance of school consultants, 27 Dutch primary schools have built up two years of experience with the SVI model. The results show that the school leaders developed a positive attitude towards school self-evaluation and visitation. They found that both self-evaluation and visitation have improved their insight into the quality of the school. However, a content analysis of the school self-evaluation reports shows that the school self-evaluations are often of low quality. For example, it appeared that most of the self-evaluation reports do not provide answers to questions the schools have formulated at the beginning of the self-evaluation. Moreover, the teams of critical friends and the inspectors concluded that the school self-evaluations do have many shortcomings. Based on these results, we conclude that school self-evaluation is a very difficult task for most schools. It is therefore crucial that schools receive external support and that they build up experience with school self-evaluations over a period of years.

Background: This study explores the interaction between organizational and psychological factors that play a role in professional teacher learning. More specifically, how teachers’ engagement in learning activities (e.g. keeping up to data, self-reflection, and experimenting, respectively, asking for feedback and information sharing) is influenced by the organizational factors transformational leadership and perceived interdependence, and the psychological factor self-efficacy. Methods: The study is conducted in the context of Vocational Education and Training (VET) colleges in the Netherlands, using a survey among 447 VET teachers working in 66 teams. Results: Results showed that self-efficacy and task interdependence directly, and positively, influence a variety of learning activities. Task interdependence influenced self-efficacy positively. Goal interdependence influenced self-efficacy positively, but from the learning activities it only affected information sharing and social reflection positively. From the transformational leadership practices vision building positively affected goal interdependence, and consideration and stimulation positively affected task interdependence. Conclusions: In general, two configurations for the facilitation of teacher learning were found: one that empowers individual teachers to acquire new knowledge, and another that helps teachers to focus on shared goals and binds them to social learning. Teachers’ engagement in learning activities, and consequently VET colleges’ change capacities, is optimally facilitated by empowerment and purpose.

This paper presents a cognitive social-psychological theoretical framework on emotions, derived from Richard Lazarus, to understand how teachers' identity can be affected in a context of reforms. The emphasis of this approach is on the cognitive-affective processes of individual teachers, enabling us to gain a detailed understanding of what teachers have at stake or what their personal, moral, and social concerns are. To illustrate the usefulness of this approach, a case of a reform-enthusiast Dutch secondary school teacher of Dutch language and literature is presented. The analysis of his emotions of enthusiasm for the reforms, and his emotions of anxiety, anger, guilt, and shame related to the way the reforms unfold in his school and influence his work, show the many ways his identity and concerns are affected, resulting in a loss of reform enthusiasm. The paper ends with a reflection on the possible risks of current educational policies to the commitment and quality of the current and next generation of teachers. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Purpose: Elementary schools have been confronted with large-scale educational reforms as strategies to improve the educational quality. While building school-wide capacity for improvement is considered critical for changing teachers’ classroom practices, there is still little empirical evidence for link between enhanced school capacity for improvement and instructional change. In this study, the authors examined the impact of school improvement capacity on changes in teachers’ classroom practices over a period of time. Leadership practices, school organizational conditions, teacher motivation and teacher learning were used to measure school-wide capacity for improvement. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approach: Mixed-model analysis of longitudinal data over a four years (2005-2008) period of time from 862 teachers of 32 Dutch elementary schools were used to test the impact of school improvement capacity on changing teachers’ instructional practices.Findings: The results showed that organizational-level conditions and teacher-level conditions play an important, but different role in changing teachers’ classroom practices. Whereas teacher factors mainly affect changes in teachers’ classroom practices, organizational factors are of significant importance to enhance teacher motivation and teacher learning.Research limitations/implications: More longitudinal research is needed to gain better insight into the opportunities and limits of building school-wide capacity to stimulate instructional change.Practical implications: By encouraging teachers to question their own beliefs, facilitating opportunities for teachers to work together to solve problems, and through the promotion of shared decision making, school leaders can reinforce the personal and social identification of teachers with the organization. As a consequence, teachers will feel increasingly committed and are more willing to change their classroom practices. Additionally, school leaders can use the findings from this study and the related instrument as a tool for school self-evaluation.Originality/value: This paper contributes to a deeper understanding of the nature of changes in conditions for school improvement and its influence on changes in teachers’ instructional practices over a period of time.

This paper presents the results of a preliminary investigation into the innovative capacities of secondary schools. The content of the innovation in this case was the implementation of a core curriculum for Dutch secondary education. The goal of this preliminary investigation was to refine the conceptualization of the innovative capacity of schools. A review of the literature was performed and interviews (N = 46) were conducted based on the results of this review. The nine schools involved in the research were recruited from a “high innovation group” and a “low innovation group.” The results of the interviews proved to be largely comparable to the expectations derived from a tentative conceptual framework.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine the means by which principals achieve an impact on student achievement. Research Design: Through the application of structural equation modeling, a mediated-effects model for school leadership was tested, using data from 97 secondary schools in the Netherlands. Findings: The results showed a small positive effect of school leadership on the mean promotion rate in schools, mediated by a development-oriented school organization and favorable classroom practices. The promotion rate may be considered as a measure of efficiency. No indications of direct positive effects of school leader activities on student achievement were found. This might be the result of the relatively small differences in overall student achievement and school leader behavior between the schools studied. Conclusions: The results underline the important role school leaders play in school effectiveness and offer valuable insight in how school leaders actually can make a difference. School leaders were found to have a strong influence on development orientation in schools, which shows similarities with the idea of the “learning organization.” This study points to the importance of school context. The results show that contextual variables have considerable effects on several variables in the model.

This study examines the relationship between patterns of cognitive self-regulatory activities and the quality of texts produced by adolescent struggling writers ( N = 51). A think-aloud study was conducted involving analyses of self-regulatory activities concerning planning, formulating, monitoring, revising, and evaluating. The study shows that the writing processes of adolescent struggling writers have much in common with “knowledge telling” as defined by Bereiter and Scardamalia (1987). Nevertheless, there are interesting differences among the individual patterns. First, it appears that adolescent struggling writers who put more effort in planning and formulation succeed in writing better texts than do their peers. Furthermore, self-regulation of these better-achieving writers is quite varied in comparison to the others. Therefore, it seems that within this group of struggling writers, self-regulation does make a difference for the quality of texts produced. Consequently, some recommendations can be made for the stimulation of diverse self-regulatory activities in writing education for this special group of students.

De professionele ontwikkeling van leraren ofwel het voortdurend blijven leren tijdens de loopbaan staat volop in de belangstelling in zowel nationaal en internationaal onderwijsbeleid als in de wetenschap. Enerzijds heeft dit te maken met de grote invloed die leraren hebben op de leerresultaten van leerlingen (zie bijvoorbeeld Scheerens & Bosker, 1997). Investeren in professionele ontwikkeling wordt dan ook gezien als een manier om de kwaliteit van het onderwijs te verbeteren. Anderzijds vragen de onderwijsvernieuwingen die massaal plaatsvinden om de nodige professionele ontwikkeling van leraren. Als gevolg van nieuwe leerpsychologische inzichten (zie bijvoorbeeld Boekaerts & Simons, 1995; Kanselaar & Andriessen, 2000) en het belang vanlife long learning skills in de huidige kenniseconomie (Kessels, 2001; Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995) wordt binnen het onderwijsleerproces meer en meer aandacht gegeven aan zelfsturing en actieve kennisvergaring door leerlingen (Kwakman, 1999; Simons, Van der Linden & Duffy, 2000). Deze ‘nieuwe’ vormen van leren brengen ‘nieuwe’ rollen en methoden voor leraren met zich mee (Sol & Stokking, 2008), en vragen van leraren dat zij zich op een zodanige manier ontwikkelen dat zij deze rollen ook adequaat kunnen uitvoeren en nieuwe methoden adequaat kunnen toepassen.

The decentralisation policy of the Dutch Ministry of Education and Science is aimed at increasing the autonomy of schools. There is some doubt, however, whether schools are able to cope adequately with this increased autonomy. In other words, do schools have sufficient decision‐making or policy‐making capacities? A recent Dutch investigation into the relationship between the policy‐making capacity of schools and the way in which schools use this capacity, tackled this question. This study reveals that schools differ in their policy‐making capacity and their use of the scope for policy‐making. On the basis of these results, the authors advocate the need for a differentiated decentralisation policy which allows for the differences between schools. Along the line of this argument two stimulating governmental measures are explored: the self‐diagnosis of schools and in‐service education for organisational development. The conclusion of the article is that more careful thought about decentralisation wi...

This qualitative research investigates the degree in which pupils, who belong to different religions, express their religious otherness in dialogical communication, the degree in which teachers offer them room to do so and the views on religious pluralism that teachers use to this end. Otherness refers to the relation of the I with himself and with the other. The expressions of otherness of both teachers and pupils in nine lessons on interreligious communication were analysed by means of the Taxonomy of Verbal Response Modes, an instrument to describe interactions between people as conveyed in language. In addition interviews were used to investigate which views on religious pluralism the teachers use in interreligious communication. The main conclusion of the research is that both teachers and pupils do express otherness in interreligious communication, be it to a limited extent. The teachers and pupils that participated in the research appeared to feel a certain shyness to express otherness. This shyness can perhaps be explained by the educational context in which the interreligious communication took place. It is characterized by forces that wish to impose limitations to otherness in order to guarantee a maximum of comprehension and by the concept of religion that teachers use, which focuses on expressing similarities between religions rather than on expressing religious otherness.

Contains fulltext : 55164.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) More educated individuals are more tolerant towards ethnic minorities than less educated individuals. This is one of the most consistent findings in studies on different expressions of intolerance towards ethnic minorities. In this contribution we set out to explain this recurrent finding by studying the educational effect on ethnic distance in a Dutch sample of young adults who have recently been exposed to the educational system. We have tested four explanations for the educational effect that are derived from different theoretical traditions: (i) perceived threat from ethnic minorities, (ii) cognitive sophistication, (iii) authoritarianism, and (iv) open-mindedness. We managed to explain the educational effect to a large degree (almost 67 per cent). Perceived threat turns out to be the most important explanatory factor (it accounts for 56 per cent of the educational effect), followed by authoritarianism, whereas cognitive sophistication and open-mindedness turn out to be of negligible importance for the explanation of the educational effect. 27 p.

Contains fulltext : 56848.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) In this paper, patterns of group‐specific reasons for school choice and their implications for segregation within the Dutch educational system are examined. The data from more than 10,000 parents are considered in analyses of variance. Parental reasons for school choice are found to relate to religion, social milieu and ethnicity, on the one hand, and the school’s denomination, social milieu and ethnic composition, on the other hand. The results show general quality of education to be a leading reason for school choice while group‐specific reasons for school choice also exist with Muslim migrant parents, in particular, showing a strong preference for an Islamic education for their children. The results thus suggest a risk of self‐segregation among Muslim migrant parents. 20 p.

Against a background of current reforms which involve a diversity of strong expectations with regard to how teachers should work, this study explores how teachers themselves view their professionality. Four hundred and fifty two secondary school teachers were asked about their professional orientations. Teachers were found to differ in their orientations and in the combinations of their orientations towards instruction, educational goals, and their role in the school organization. These findings are relevant to consider in the light of successful reform of schools and education. The article ends with a reflection on those combinations of orientations, and suggestions for future research into professional orientations are made. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Item does not contain fulltext In Dutch secondary schools the recent trend has been to replace the two existing sub-structures of subject departments and student guidance units by one system of integrated and decentralised teams. The aim of this article is to gain more insight into how secondary schools can provide supportive working contexts in which teacher learning is promoted. The first question is whether the foci of these two sub-structures can reach a balance in integrated teams. The second question concerns how much weight should be given to the integration of these two sub-structures when the school as a context for teacher learning is central. These questions are answered in three steps. Firstly, the tension between the two sub-structures and their contribution to professional development and school improvement is analysed. Secondly, recent insights into teachers' professional communities and organisational learning in schools are summarised. In the third part the potential for teachers' professional development of integrated and autonomous teams is discussed by means of these insights into the professional community.

Item does not contain fulltext This article describes the results of a study into the relations between school, teacher, class, and student characteristics in Dutch elementary schools. Central to the study were the socio-ethnic background of the students, socio-ethnic class composition, language and math test results, teaching approach, and consistency of teaching approach within the school. The major question was whether student achievement levels vary according to the consistency of the teaching approach after controlling for socio-ethnic background at both the individual and class levels. The sample consisted of 7,410 grade 8 students and in total 1,714 teachers from 567 schools. The results of multilevel analyses showed consistency of teaching approach to be of no relevance to achievement levels. The most important factor appeared to be the socio-ethnic background of the students. Ethnic minority students perform less well than native Dutch working-class students, who in turn perform less well than the other students studied. In addition, students in classes with a relatively high number of so-called disadvantaged students perform less well independent of their individual socio-ethnic background.

Evit@ is an instrument to evaluate the quality of electronic information resources. Specialities are the method of comparative analysis of products and the largely deindividualized way. The developed system of criteria is the most differentiated one can find. The method of weighing aspects according to types of products brings many advantages on the quantifying description of all essential characteristics of electronic information resources. A specially developped software module allows to make an output of evaluation results for each single criterion or in condensed end results. These results are judgements of quality to help in the process of selection and decision in acquisition. Evit@ is also a useful checklist for quality assurance to producers of electornic information resources

Contains fulltext : 28195.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) The policy of decentralisation of the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science is aimed at increasing the autonomy of schools. This policy is also considered an appropriate strategy for the revitalisation of the teaching profession. Decentralisation, school autonomy and professionalisation are issues which are strongly interwoven in recent educational policy in the Netherlands. This strive towards decentralisation has also created a fundamental dilemma for the Dutch Government: on the one hand the Government is responsible for the quality of education and on the other hand increasing the autonomy of schools is desired. The question, however, is whether or not a further increase in autonomy and professionalisation of the teachers represents an adequate solution to this dilemma. The conclusion of the article is that the desirability and necessity of decentralisation should receive critical consideration on both political and ideological levels.

Metacognitive scaffolding in a computer-supported learning environment can influence students’ metacognitive activities, metacognitive knowledge and domain knowledge. In this study we analyze how metacognitive activities mediate the relationships between different avatar scaffolds on students’ learning. Multivariate, multilevel analysis of the 51,339 conversation turns by 54 elementary school students working in triads showed that scaffolding has an effect on students’ learning. Students receiving structuring or problematizing metacognitive scaffolds displayed more metacognitive knowledge than students in the control group. Metacognitive activities mediated the effects of scaffolding, and increased metacognitive activities supported students’ metacognitive knowledge. Moreover, students who were engaged in proportionately more cognitive activities or fewer off-task activities also outperformed other students on the metacognitive knowledge test. Only problematizing scaffolds led to more domain knowledge and metacognitive activities mediated the effects of the problematizing scaffolds. Moreover, students in the problematizing condition who engaged in more cognitive activities or whose group mates used more relational activities had greater domain knowledge acquisition than other students.