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Tasks are crucial for gaining access to powerful knowledge in geography and for fostering higher-order thinking in lessons; therefore, they are key to subject-specific pedagogy. After analysing tasks in geography textbooks for upper secondary education, it was revealed that higher-order thinking barely occurs in textbooks in the Netherlands and is more frequent in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Subsequently, both curriculum contexts were systematically compared to determine factors that influence the use of tasks. The results show that evaluative rules play a crucial role. The assessment in North Rhine-Westphalia focuses on higher-order thinking and how this becomes visible in students' work. Dutch assessment concentrates on students handling an outlined body of knowledge in defined settings. This raises questions of epistemic access, as students are less prepared for the skills expected at university level. Finally, we observed the importance of alignment between official institutions, the discipline of subject-specific pedagogy and support for teachers when it comes to fostering higher-order thinking in geography education.

In this study we measured the effect of COIL on intercultural competence development using a quasi-experimental design. Our sample consisted of 108 undergraduate students from two universities, one located in the Netherlands (NL) and one in the United States (US). Students' self-reported intercultural competence was measured using a pre-post survey which included the Cultural Intelligence Scale (CQS) and Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ). Qualitative data were collected to complement our quantitative findings and to give a deeper insight into the student experience. The data showed a significantly bigger increase in intercultural competence for the US experimental group compared to the US control group, supporting our hypothesis that COIL develops intercultural competence. This difference was not observed for the NL students, possibly due to the NL control group being exposed to other international input during the course.

Personal and social development constitutes an important goal of physical education (PE) curricula worldwide. Few studies have analysed how PE teachers perceive and operationalise personal and social development goals in their lessons. This study sought to investigate the implemented curriculum of in-service PE teachers, that is, how PE teachers perceive and operationalise personal and social development goals. In sum, 12 experienced primary school PE teachers participated in semi-structured interviews. Deductive-inductive content analysis was used to analyse the data. Findings are discussed under three themes. The first theme, "goal versus means," relates to personal and social development as a goal in itself or as a means to achieve other goals. This duality is discussed in relation with how teachers organise their lessons, the tasks and activities they provide, and how they divide children into groups. The second theme, "the teacher's role versus children's role," relates to the struggle PE teachers face with delegating responsibilities to children. Under the third theme, "(lack of) curriculum line," we discuss the structure or curriculum line that is missing in the pursuit of personal and social development goals. Future research and practice should devote time and effort to training PE teachers to realise personal and social development goals in a more structured and systematic way.

In this study, we aimed to identify how the learning activities elicited in a lesson study project contributed to self-perceived change in supervisors' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). Lesson study is a method which combines both professional and educational development. During a lesson study project, teachers collaborate in a team and develop, teach, evaluate, and redesign a research lesson. During the 4-month lesson study project described here, four supervisors designed a protocol for research supervision meetings aimed at enhancing undergraduate students' learning. During the project, they experimented with open questioning and giving positive feedback instead of giving instruction and explanations. A mixed-methods design was used in this study. Data on the supervisors' learning activities and PCK were gathered using learner reports, video-recordings of meetings, and exit interviews. The analyses of these data showed that the lesson study project contributed to the development of the supervisors' PCK on instructional strategies and student understanding. The learning activity that contributed most to these changes was reflecting on their own practice and that of their students.

Tasks are essential in fostering students' learning processes, and thinking skills are considered to be of central importance to learning. In order to analyse how tasks promote the development of thinking skills in school geography, we need an instrument that looks beyond a simple distinction between lower and higher order thinking. It should be able to identify types of tasks based on distinctive elements on the way to acquiring powerful knowledge or knowledge of high epistemic quality. In this paper, we describe the development of an instrument based on the adaptation of existing categorisations and the use of Bernstein's recognition and realisation rules. The instrument distinguishes five levels of thinking: lower order thinking, use of thinking strategies, parts of higher order thinking, higher order thinking, and reflection. The instrument was employed to analyse tasks in geography textbooks used in the Netherlands and the German State North Rhine-Westphalia, with researchers and teacher educators in both states considering its efficacy both plausible and practicable. The results show that the instrument is sufficiently sensitive to identify differences in types of tasks and the extent to which access to powerful knowledge is fostered.

Background: There are concerns that school track recommendations that are mostly based on teachers' judgements of students' performance ('judgement-based recommendations') are more biased by students' SES than school track recommendations that are mostly based on standardized test results ('test-based recommendations'). A recent policy reform of the Dutch educational system has provided us the unique opportunity to compare the effects of students' SES on these two types of track recommendations. Aims: The aim of this study was to examine the differences between test-based and judgement-based recommendations regarding the direct and indirect effect of students' SES at student level and school level. Sample: The sample consisted of 8,639 grade 6 students from 105 Dutch primary schools. Methods: Data were analysed using two-level multilevel mediation models. Results: Track recommendations were higher for high-SES students. This was mostly due to differences in students' prior performance. SES also had a small, direct effect on judgement-based, but not on test-based recommendations. The effects were partly situated at school level. Conclusion: Overall, the results indicated that teachers based their track recommendations mostly on students' prior performance without being biased by students' SES.

Bernstein describes a curriculum context as a system context that is regulated by strong and weak framing, which refers to the "degree of control teachers and pupils possess over the selection, organisation, pacing and timing of the knowledge transmitted and received in the pedagogical relationship" (1975, p. 89). In this article, we describe research on how differences in framing influence the design of geography textbooks and lessons in higher secondary schools (ages 16-18). In a comparative case study, we analysed geography textbooks, observed lessons, and interviewed editors and teachers in a country with weak framing (Germany) and a country with strong framing (the Netherlands). The results show that weaker framing goes hand in hand with textbooks focussing on knowledge and offering higher-order tasks. In the country with weaker framing, teachers use more question and answer teaching strategies, students deliver more presentations, and more assignments are used that are aimed at practising higher-order cognitive skills. Interviews carried out with teachers in both countries underline the fact that stronger framing of the curriculum can cause stress and has a strong impact on the teaching practice. This explains the different teaching patterns in both countries, despite similar teaching orientations.

Background: The importance of clarifying goals and providing process feedback for student learning has been widely acknowledged. From a Self-Determination Theory perspective, it is suggested that motivational and learning gains will be obtained because in well-structured learning environments, when goals and process feedback are provided, students will feel more effective (need for competence), more in charge over their own learning (need for autonomy) and experience a more positive classroom atmosphere (need for relatedness). Yet, in spite of the growing theoretical interest in goal clarification and process feedback in the context of physical education (PE), little experimental research is available about this topic. Purpose: The present study quasi-experimentally investigated whether the presence of goal clarification and process feedback positively affects students' need satisfaction and frustration. Method: Twenty classes from five schools with 492 seventh grade PE students participated in this quasi-experimental study. Within each school, four classes were randomly assigned to one of the four experimental conditions (n = 121, n = 117, n = 126 and n = 128) in a 2 × 2 factorial design, in which goal clarification (absence vs. presence) and process feedback (absence vs. presence) were experimentally manipulated. The experimental lesson consisted of a PE lesson on handstand (a relatively new skill for seventh grade students), taught by one and the same teacher who went to the school of the students to teach the lesson. Depending on the experimental condition, the teacher either started the lesson explaining the goals, or refrained from explaining the goals. Throughout the lesson the teacher either provided process feedback, or refrained from providing process feedback. All other instructions were similar across conditions, with videos of exercises of differential levels of difficulty provided to the students. All experimental lessons were observed by a research-assistant to discern whether manipulations were provided according to a condition-specific script. One week prior to participating in the experimental lesson, data on students' need-based experiences (i.e. quantitatively) were gathered. Directly after students' participation in the experimental lesson, data on students' perceptions of goal clarification and process feedback, need-based experiences (i.e. quantitatively) and experiences in general (i.e. qualitatively) were gathered. Results and discussion: The questionnaire data and observations revealed that manipulations were provided according to the lesson-scripts. Rejecting our hypothesis, quantitative analyses indicated no differences in need satisfaction across conditions, as students were equally satisfied in their need for competence, autonomy and relatedness regardless of whether the teacher provided goal clarification and process feedback, only goal clarification, only process feedback or none. Similar results were found for need frustration. Qualitative analyses indicated that, in all four conditions, aspects of the experimental lesson made students feel more effective, more in charge over their own learning and experience a more positive classroom atmosphere. Our results suggest that under certain conditions, lessons can be perceived as highly need-satisfying by students, even if the teacher does not verbally and explicitly clarify the goals and/or provides process feedback. Perhaps, students were able to self-generate goals and feedback based on the instructional videos.

Diagnosing teachers are teachers who perceive diagnostic information about students' learning process, interpret these aspects, decide how to respond, and act based on this diagnostic decision. During supervision meetings about the undergraduate thesis supervisors make in-the-moment decisions while interacting with their students. We regarded research supervision as a teaching process for the supervisor and a learning process for the student. We tried to grasp supervisors' in-the-moment decisions and students' perceptions of supervisors' actions. Supervisor decisions and student perceptions were measured with video-stimulated recall interviews and coded using a content analysis approach. The results showed that the in-the-moment decisions our supervisors made had a strong focus on student learning. Supervisors often asked questions to empower students or to increase student understanding. These supervising strategies seemed to be adapted to students' needs, as the latter had positive perceptions when their control increased or when they received stimuli to think for themselves.

Supervision meetings give teachers and students opportunities to interact with each other and to co-regulate students' learning processes. Co-regulation refers to the transitional process of a student who is becoming a self-regulated learner by interacting with a more capable other such as a teacher. During a task, teachers are expected to pull back their support and give opportunities to students to take responsibility. This study aims to explore the shifting patterns of co-regulation, feedback perception, and motivation during a 5-month research project. Participants were 20 students conducting research in pairs and six teachers who supervised these students. Two videotaped supervision meetings at the beginning and end of the research process and questionnaires on feedback perception and motivation were analysed. Results on co-regulation showed a constant and comparable level of regulation at the start and at the end of students' research projects. Feedback perception did not change, but motivation decreased significantly.

In higher education, students often write an undergraduate thesis and receive one-to-one or small group support. During mentoring, 10 teachers ideally diagnose students' research skills, to be able to adapt their support to students' needs. In this study, we aimed to answer the question of how mentors apply the diagnostic phases of a diagnostic question, a diagnosis, a diagnostic check and an intervention, during mentoring meetings about 15 students' research skills. Four mentors participated in this multiple case study. Qualitative data were gathered and sixteen videotaped mentoring meetings were coded on the four diagnostic phases. The results were compared within and between mentors, showing that mentors asked several diagnostic questions, seldom articulated and shared their diagnoses explicitly with students, and mainly used interventions. We concluded that more support is needed for mentors who do not automatically use their diagnostic questions to formulate explicit diagnoses about students' research skills.

To refine selective admission models, we investigate which measure of prior achievement has the best predictive validity for academic success in university. We compare the predictive validity of three core high school subjects to the predictive validity of high school grade point average (GPA) for academic achievement in a liberal arts university programme. Predictive validity is compared between the Dutch pre-university (VWO) and the International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma. Moreover, we study how final GPA is predicted by prior achievement after students complete their first year. Path models were separately run for VWO (n = 314) and IB (n = 113) graduates. For VWO graduates, high school GPA explained more variance than core subject grades in first-year GPA and final GPA. For IB graduates, we found the opposite. Subsequent path models showed that after students' completion of the first year, final GPA is best predicted by a combination of first-year GPA and high school GPA. Based on our small-scale results, we cautiously challenge the use of high school GPA as the norm for measuring prior achievement. Which measure of prior achievement best predicts academic success in university may depend on the diploma students enter with.

Initiatives aimed at supporting student teachers for entering and staying in the teaching profession require a better understanding of the nature of student teachers' development as it unfolds during teacher education. Accordingly, we focused on changes in the extent to which student teachers perceive and expect dis/continuity in their development during the programme. The design of the study included 25 authentic supervision dialogues/conversations, enabling the analysis of development within and across six student teachers' developmental trajectories. Findings showed that student teachers' initial sense of dis/continuity is not necessarily predictive of progress and (un)successful completion of teacher education. Furthermore, sensed dis/continuity varies differently over time in student teachers, both in terms of when it changes as well as in terms of with what types of past perceptions and future expectations these changes occur.

Based on a review of recent studies and reports, this research investigates attrition among beginning teachers in the Netherlands as well as reasons for teacher attrition, and compares the finding with studies on this topic conducted elsewhere in the world. The findings suggest that attrition among beginning teachers in the Netherlands with a percentage close to 15% is somewhat lower than in countries such as the United Kingdom, United States, and Australia. Yet, causes for attrition are comparable to those reported elsewhere. Interestingly, attrition seemed lower for teachers with a teaching degree, suggesting that teacher education may play a vital role in reducing attrition. In addition, it seems that high-quality coaching and supervision, reducing workload, and organizing a social network for beginning teachers may be important factors in reducing attrition. Finally, there is a need for better registration and monitoring of teacher attrition and for more comprehensive research on this topic.

A rubric for research theses was developed, based on the manual of the American Psychological Association, to be used as an assessment tool for teachers and students. The aim was to make students aware of what is expected, get familiar with criteria, and interpret teacher and peer feedback. In two studies, it was examined whether students use and value these functions. In the first study, a rubric was provided to 105 Educational Sciences students working on their bachelor's thesis. Questionnaire data indicated that students did value the rubric for the intended functions, although rubric use was not related to ability. In a panel interview, teachers stated that the number of proficiency levels should be increased to be able to distinguish between good and excellent students adequately, and that a criterion concerning student's role during supervision should be added. Therefore, in the second study, 11 teachers were interviewed about their motives to give high grades and about the supervision process. This lead to an extra criterion concerning student's role during supervision and an additional proficiency level to assess excellent performance. It is argued that an adequate course organisation is conditional for the rubric's effectiveness.

The authors voice teachers' perceptions of their interpersonal experiences with students in both positive and problematic relationships. Interview data from 28 teachers were examined by coding utterances on teacher and student interactions. Results indicate that teachers defined the quality of the relationship mostly by the level of communion (friendly vs. hostile), instead of by the level of agency (in control vs. powerless). Analyses of mentioned teacher and student behavior show a friendly interactional pattern for positive relationships and a hostile pattern for problematic ones. In teachers' perceptions, positive and problematic relationships also differed in context where encounters take place and topic of talk. Contrary to interactions in problematic relationships, encounters in positive relationships were mostly situated outside the classroom context and conversations during these encounters covered a wide range of topics. Implications for teacher education programs are discussed.

To determine the content of integrated curricula, clinical concepts and the underlying basic science concepts need to be made explicit. Preconstructed concept maps are recommended for this purpose. They are mainly constructed by experts. However, concept maps constructed by residents are hypothesized to be less complex, to reveal more tacit basic science concepts and these basic science concepts are expected to be used for the organization of the maps. These hypotheses are derived from studies about knowledge development of individuals. However, integrated curricula require a high degree of cooperation between clinicians and basic scientists. This study examined whether there are consistent variations regarding the articulation of integration when groups of experienced clinicians and basic scientists and groups of residents and basic scientists-in-training construct concept maps. Seven groups of three clinicians and basic scientists on experienced level and seven such groups on resident level constructed concept maps illuminating clinical problems. They were guided by instructions that focused them on articulation of integration. The concept maps were analysed by features that described integration. Descriptive statistics showed consistent variations between the two expertise levels. The concept maps of the resident groups exceeded those of the experienced groups in articulated integration. First, they used significantly more links between clinical and basic science concepts. Second, these links connected basic science concepts with a greater variety of clinical concepts than the experienced groups. Third, although residents did not use significantly more basic science concepts, they used them significantly more frequent to organize the clinical concepts. The conclusion was drawn that not all hypotheses could be confirmed and that the resident concept maps were more elaborate than expected. This article discusses the implications for the role that residents and basic scientists-in-training might play in the construction of preconstructed concept maps and the development of integrated curricula.

Many teachers experience their profession as stressful, which can have a negative impact on their job satisfaction, and may result in burnout, absenteeism, and leaving the profession. The relationship with students can have both positive and negative implications for the job satisfaction of teachers, both early and later in their careers. The current study focused on the relationship between veteran teachers' job satisfaction and their aspirations in teacher-student relationships. Data were gathered among 12 Dutch veteran secondary school teachers, including interviews, the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction, and the Questionnaire on Teachers' Self-Efficacy. Veteran teachers' job satisfaction appeared to be positively related to the extent to which their aspirations in teacher-student relationships had been realized. Teachers who had failed to realize their aspirations in teacher-student relationships showed relatively low job satisfaction, or avoided feelings of low job satisfaction by reducing the number of tasks that were directly related to teaching students. An implication for coaching veteran teachers is the need to pay more attention to the teacher-student relationship so that they can adhere to the way they would like to teach students.

The first-year grade point average (FYGPA) is the predominant measure of student success in most studies on university admission. Previous cognitive achievements measured with high school grades or standardized tests have been found to be the strongest predictors of FYGPA. For this reason, standardized tests measuring cognitive achievement are widely used as a tool for selective admission to higher education. The FYGPA, however, measures many markedly different aspects of student success. In this article it is shown that when the FYGPA is divided into averages that reflect performance on different types of goals, the predictive value of previous cognitive achievement differs significantly between these disentangled averages. It is therefore important to distinguish between different types of goals when considering what student success is, and which students should be admitted to particular university programmes.

Students' reflective essay writing can be stimulated by the formative assessments provided to them by their teachers. Such assessments contain information about the quality of students' reflective writings and offer suggestions for improvement. Despite the importance of formatively assessing students' reflective writings in teacher education programmes, it is difficult for teacher educators to provide high-quality formative assessments. In this article, a quantitative content analysis procedure (QCA) is used to assess the level of argument and content of 34 student teachers' reflective writings over the course of two semesters. The study showed that the mean argument levels of students' reflective essays differed between the two consecutive semesters. The modes of the reflective essays were primarily descriptive and evaluative. The results indicated that it is important to encourage students to focus on the content of the justification, dialogue and transformative learning in their reflective essays. It is concluded that QCA can be used as a procedure for teacher educators to formatively assess their students' reflective writings, reliably and validly.

An important purpose of internships in teacher preparation programmes is to develop competence through experience. The research questions in the present study concern student teachers' interpersonal profiles (i.e. patterns of their interpersonal behaviour as perceived by students) and the accuracy of their self-belief regarding the interpersonal relationship with students at the beginning and end of the internship. Participants were student teachers (n=34) of a one-year teacher education programme. There were fewer student teachers with preferable interpersonal profiles at the end of the internship than in the beginning. Self-beliefs at the beginning indicated that the majority of student teachers were underestimating themselves; at the end of the internship most of them were overestimating themselves. About two-thirds had more accurate self-beliefs at the end of the internship than at the beginning. Overestimating oneself seemed negatively related to more accurate self-beliefs at the end of the internship and student teachers with more preferable profiles had more accurate self-beliefs.

Teacher discipline strategies are well documented when it comes to its effects on students and the working climate in the classroom. Although it is commonly acknowledged that for student teachers classroom management is a major concern, student teachers' use of discipline strategies is largely unknown. In this paper, we examine student teachers' beliefs in relation to their discipline strategies. Three clusters of discipline strategies are distinguished: sensitive, directive and aggressive discipline strategies. Beliefs that were taken into account are self-images on control and affiliation, control orientation and anticipated student responses on control and affiliation. All participants were student teachers of a one-year teacher education programme for secondary education in the Netherlands. Student questionnaires were used to measure discipline strategies ("n"?=?2506). Student teachers' ("n"?=?104) self-images, control orientation and anticipated student responses were measured with student teacher questionnaires. Results of the multiple regression analyses showed that student teachers' sensitive and directive discipline strategies are explained best by self-images on control; aggressive discipline strategies are explained best by self-images on affiliation and by control orientation. Apart from the possible academic interest in these particular findings, results are believed to be useful in a practical sense, in particular for teacher education programmes.

Teachers can profit from a solid knowledge base that can function as a frame of reference to help them organize their thinking. However, theoretical knowledge is easily "washed out" during the first confrontations with practice. For this reason, several Dutch university-based teacher education programs use a realistic approach to teacher education. In realistic teacher education, the integration of theory and practice is promoted by combining learning at the university and the school from the very start of the program, by tailoring the program to the individual students' needs, and by cooperation between university-based teacher educators and supervisors in the schools. In the university-based part of the program, students' concerns are taken as the starting point for teaching and theory is introduced as a means to enrich students' reflections on their experiences in their classrooms and schools. Because creating a positive, orderly working atmosphere in the classroom is the first concern of many students and beginning teachers, this is one of the first topics that is addressed. In this paper, we describe the teacher education program of the Leiden University Graduate School of Teaching, which has recently made a shift towards a realistic approach to teacher education, and how classroom management is taught in this program. Evaluation data are presented showing the success of this approach. (Contains 1 table and 3 figures.)

Background: The differential effectiveness of schools and teachers receives a growing interest, but few studies focused on the relevance of student ethnicity for this effectiveness and only a small number of these studies investigated teaching in terms of the teacher-student interpersonal relationship. Furthermore, the methodology employed often restricted researchers to investigating direct effects between variables across large samples of students. Aims: This study uses causal modelling to investigate associations between student background characteristics, students' perceptions of the teacher-student interpersonal relationship, and student outcomes, across and within several population subgroups in Dutch secondary multi-ethnic classes. Methods and sample: Multi-group structural equation modelling was used to investigate causal paths between variables in four ethnic groups: Dutch (N = 387), Turkish first- and second-generation immigrant students (N = 267), Moroccan first and second generation (N = 364), and Surinamese second-generation students (N = 101). Results: Different structural paths were necessary to explain associations between variables in the different (sub) groups. Different amounts of variance in student attitudes could be explained by these variables. Conclusions: The teacher-student interpersonal relationship is more important for students with a non-Dutch background than for students with a Dutch background. Results suggest that the teacher-student relationship is more important for second generation than for first-generation immigrant students. Multi-group causal model analyses can provide a better, more differentiated picture of the associations between student background variables, teacher behaviour, and student outcomes than do more traditional types of analyses.

Creating a positive working atmosphere in the classroom is the first concern of many student and beginning teachers in secondary education. Teaching in multicultural classrooms provides additional challenges for these teachers. This study identified shared practical knowledge about classroom management strategies of teachers who were successful in creating a positive working atmosphere in their multicultural classrooms. Twelve teachers were selected who were regarded as successful classroom managers in Dutch multicultural classes by their principals and students. Video-stimulated interviews were used to elicit data about the practical knowledge of these teachers. The teachers were aware of the importance of providing clear rules and correcting student behaviour whenever necessary, but they also wanted to reduce potential negative influences of corrections on the classroom atmosphere. They aimed at developing positive teacher-student relationships and adjusted their teaching methods anticipating students' responses. Most teachers seemed reluctant to refer to the cultural and ethnic background of their students. (Contains 3 tables.)

Research on students' perceptions of the teacher-student interpersonal relationship in multi-ethnic classes is scarce in Europe. This study compares students' perceptions in multi-ethnic classes in The Netherlands with those in mainstream Dutch classes and investigates differences in perceptions between students with various ethnic backgrounds. Perceptions were mapped in terms of 2 dimensions: influence (the degree of teacher control) and proximity (the degree of cooperation between teacher and students). Data were collected from students in 114 multi-ethnic classes in Dutch secondary education. Results showed that teachers in multi-ethnic classes were perceived higher on influence and proximity compared to teachers in mainstream classes. Moreover, Moroccan students perceived their teachers as more dominant than students from other countries. Students with a Surinamese background perceived their teachers relatively high on the proximity dimension. (Contains 1 figure, 4 tables, and 3 notes.)

Factors influencing the successful introduction of portfolios are described. A portfolio is a purposeful collection of all kinds of documents and other artefacts that together give an impression of how tasks were fulfilled and how competence has developed. A portfolio can also contain reflections and plans for future development. Although portfolios are often promoted as valuable instruments in innovative educational practices, the introduction of portfolios in everyday education often leads to disappointment. Factors that influence the success of the introduction of portfolios are the match between the purpose of using a portfolio and the portfolio content and structure; the educational configuration in which the portfolio is introduced; the support of teachers, students and educational leaders; and the availability of an adequate infrastructure. (Contains 2 figures.)

In the Netherlands, as in many European countries, classrooms display a growing cultural diversity. There are only very limited empirically supported data on the interpersonal competence teachers need in Dutch classrooms and studies from other countries cannot be generalized because of differences in the composition of the student population. This paper reports on an exploratory study in two schools on teachers' experiences in multicultural classes followed by an in-depth case study of one expert teacher. We use this study to answer the question to what degree this teacher displays interpersonal competence (teaching behaviours, knowledge and attitudes) specific for teaching in multicultural classrooms by comparing this teacher's competence with generic interpersonal teaching competence. The teacher studied seems to be aware of special needs of students from different cultures and to use this knowledge to apply specific teaching strategies and interpersonal cues to create a positive classroom atmosphere and to cater for needs of diverse students. Further, the results indicate that many elements of this teacher's interpersonal competence in teaching a multicultural class can be considered aspects of generic teaching competence. It seems that the multicultural classroom puts heavier demands on this competence than a less diverse classroom. (Contains 3 tables and 5 figures.)

This contribution explores the relation of teacher experience with features of teacher-student relationships. Cross-sectional and longitudinal data were used to investigate this relation. The cross-sectional data set consisted of data on teacher-student relationships of over 6000 teachers with 1-36 years of experience. Teacher experience was compared with the amount of teacher influence and proximity in the relationship. The longitudinal data set included data on perceptions of teacher-student relationships of 343 teachers, that were collected each year during 2-20 years of these teachers' career. Growth trajectories in these relationships were estimated for the first 20 years of the teaching career using multi-level analyses. Results showed that, on average, teachers' ideal perceptions of influence and proximity were rather stable during the career. Teachers' self-perceptions and students' perceptions of proximity in the teacher-student relationship were rather stable as well. Students' and teachers' perceptions of teacher influence on average grew in the first 6 years of the teaching career. [For Chapter 5, see EJ739721.]

Context The portfolio is becoming increasingly accepted as a valuable tool for learning and assessment. The validity of portfolio assessment, however, may suffer from bias due to irrelevant qualities, such as lay-out and writing style. We examined the possible effects of such qualities in a portfolio programme aimed at stimulating Year 1 medical students to reflect on their professional and personal development. In later curricular years, this portfolio is also used to judge clinical competence. Methods We developed an instrument, the Portfolio Analysis Scoring Inventory, to examine the impact of form and content aspects on portfolio assessment. The Inventory consists of 15 items derived from interviews with experienced mentors, the literature, and the criteria for reflective competence used in the regular portfolio assessment procedure. Forty portfolios, selected from 231 portfolios for which ratings from the regular assessment procedure were available, were rated by 2 researchers, independently, using the Inventory. Regression analysis was used to estimate the correlation between the ratings from the regular assessment and those resulting from the Inventory items. Results Inter-rater agreement ranged from 0.46 to 0.87. The strongest predictor of the variance in the regular ratings was ‘quality of reflection’ (R 0.80; R2 66%). No further items accounted for a significant proportion of variance. Irrelevant items, such as writing style and lay-out, had negligible effects. Conclusions The absence of an impact of irrelevant criteria appears to support the validity of the portfolio assessment procedure. Further studies should examine the portfolio's validity for the assessment of clinical competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]