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The results of this study increased insight into factors that explain differences in the judgments of IGZ inspectors. This study shows that IGZ inspectors systematically differ in the regulatory judgments they assign to similar health care institutions. This study also shows that IGZ inspectors systematically tend to assign judgments that are too positive compared with the IGZ corporate standards. In this study it was examined whether the reliability and validity of regulatory judgments varied between two types of instruments: a lightly structured instrument (LSI) used for the regulation of hospital care was compared with the highly structured instrument (HSI) used for the regulation of nursing home care. The results indicated problems with the reliability and validity of the judgments assigned with the HSI; however, reliability and validity could not be calculated with the LSI. The results showed that using an HSI is preferable to using an LSI. To analyze the interventions professionals carry out to improve reliability, a systematic meta-analytic review of the research literature was performed. Three types of interventions could be defined: improving the diagnostic instrument, training the professional, and a combination of both. On average, although all types of interventions are effective, improving the diagnostic instrument seems to be the most effective; especially in the case of highly technical instruments, improvement has proven to be very effective. Because instrumental variables constitute a major source of error, improving the instrument is an important approach. However, this review offers solid arguments that can complement the literature and practice, with a focus on training the user of the instrument. An experimental study was performed to determine what kind of intervention would be effective for improving the reliability and validity of the regulatory judgments of IGZ inspectors. A case study was set up to examine the effect of participating in a consensus meeting and the effect of improving the regulatory instrument. The results showed that when an HSI was used, participating in a consensus meeting improved both the reliability and the validity of the regulatory judgments. Adjusting this instrument influenced but did not improve the reliability and validity of the judgments. This means that changing the instrument without training the inspectors in the use of the adjusted instrument does not improve the reliability and validity of the judgments. These outcomes emphasize the importance of the human factor in explaining variance between inspectors, and highlight the significance of training inspectors in the use of regulatory instruments. The effect of increasing the number of inspectors per case was calculated. This increased the reliability and validity of the regulatory judgments.

The primary aim of this study is to provide information on how effective institutes for Dutch as a foreign language organise their education. As many teachers still seem to be left to fend for themselves in their efforts to improve their teaching, examples of good practice are provided through six case study descriptions of effective institutes. These descriptions are set into the context of the theoretical approaches concerning Dutch studies and the effectiveness of the institutes. It is hoped that this thesis will give these teachers clues as to how to improve their teaching of Dutch as a foreign language. This curriculum study is based upon five sources used to a different extent during its three phases, namely: an extensive questionnaire filled in at the institutes labelled as effective in teaching Dutch as a foreign language; interviews with teachers; interviews with students; observations of classroom practice, and publications/websites concerning the institutes. Great attention has been paid to the triangulation of the data, i.e. the extent to which information originating from these sources leads to a specific perception of the given area, making the description more complete and objective. The choice of the effective institutes is based upon the results of the lowest level of the Certificate of Dutch as a Foreign Language (CNaVT; A2-level CEFR) examination as the students, typically without any existing knowledge of Dutch, reach this level within the first year of their studies. To describe the video/audio recordings of an “as-normal-as possible” teaching week, an adapted version of the taxonomy of the Dutch Inspectorate for Education is used. In the descriptions short transcriptions of these recordings are provided in order to give as accurate as possible a picture of the lessons that were delivered. In the last chapter the future trends are also described. The pillars of this study are: the didactic preconditions, organisational setting, content of the curriculum, and didactic approach of the teacher. Regardless of the history, size, sort, or specialisation of the institutes, the key to their effectiveness seems to be the combination and the complementary character of these pillars. It was concluded that there are many ways in which an institute can be effective. It can be seen e.g. that the selection of students prior to their study of Dutch plays an important role in five of the institutes and three of the institutes have stringent selection criteria during the study period as well. However, there is still one effective institute for the teaching of Dutch as a foreign language where no explicit selection procedures are applied. The general conclusion reached is, then, that what matters and should be greatly stimulated is the quality of the teachers. Even though they do have their reservations e.g. with regard to making/applying institutional policies, they make a great effort to improve the effectiveness of their teaching. At the end of the day the teachers are the ones in contact with the students and the ones who are (or should be) making sense of the teaching. That is why it is essential to have good and motivated teachers who are able to compensate for the missing or insufficiently realised elements of the teaching programme.

This chapter aims to give an overview of relevant questions related to the measurement of first language written text quality. Referring to the relevance of standardized assessment in current educational research, various formats of measurement are introduced. Focusing on the field of writing research, the question of text quality is depicted as depending on the particular discipline and theoretical grounding. Using different text assessment studies as examples, advantages and disadvantages of numerous coding procedures (e.g. holistic, analytical, mixed models) will be discussed. Possible applications of the different methods are examined in the light of the corresponding research contexts and questions (e.g. large-scale assessment vs. individual learning support), methodical issues of measurement and cost-benefit aspects. Also, desiderata and possibilities for integrating information from formative assessment into educational settings, that is, instructional support, are considered, indicating ideas for future theory and praxis in writing research, assessment and teaching.

Standardized surveys are used in many contexts to measure people’s opinions and attitudes. Although it is widely assumed that survey answers represent the ‘true values’ of the concepts measured, a large body of research has shown that seemingly irrelevant question characteristics influence how respondents report their attitudes. The research presented in this dissertation revolved around on one of these characteristics: whether the question is worded positively (This is an interesting book. Yes/No.) or negatively (This is an uninteresting book. Yes/No.). A first aim of the current dissertation was to investigate whether the choice for a positive or a negative wording systematically affects survey answers. Results show that there is an effect of question polarity on survey answers: irrespective of the word pair used, the answering scale offered, and the question asked, respondents are more likely to answer no or disagree to negative questions than to answer yes or agree to equivalent positive ones. Hence, respondents express their opinions more positively when the question is worded negatively (Chapter 2, 4, 5). Even though the choice for a positive or a negative wording was shown to affect survey answers systematically, we also observed variation between word pairs in the size of the effect. A second aim of the current dissertation was to explain this variation using a semantic classification of antonyms in absolute versus relative types (Kennedy & McNally 2005). Unfortunately, we were unable to explain variation between word pairs using this typology (Chapter 3). The third and last aim of the current dissertation was to explain cognitively why respondents, in general, answer positive and negative attitude questions differently. To do so, we used eye-tracking as a method to measure the temporal aspects of the question-answering process for positive versus negative questions. In order to relate the observed time differences to cognitive processes of question answering (Tourangeau, Rips & Rasinski 2000), we used a combination of theoretical insights about the question-answering process, experimental designs in which that knowledge was used, and newly designed eye-tracking measures that are relevant for these specific purposes. With this combination of strategies we were able to demonstrate that positive and negative questions cause similar information to be retrieved from memory and a similar attitude to be formed. Therefore, contrastive questions measure the same underlying attitude, and hence, are equally valid. Wording effects arise only late in the question-answering process, when respondents translate their own opinion into the response options to the question. This is due to the fact that respondents assign a meaning to the response options that is not absolute, but relative to the polarity of the evaluative term used in the question. Hence, although response options like yes and no are straight opposites, the meaning of yes in answer to a positive question is not the same as the meaning of no in answer to a negative question. This dissertation concludes with a discussion of the implications of these results for survey theory and suvey practice, as well as the methodological implications about the use of eye-tracking for measuring cognitive processes

This thesis is about writing proficiency among students of secondary education. Due to globalization, the ability to express oneself in a language other than the first language (L1) is increasingly becoming a condition for educational success. In The Netherlands, this ‘other’ or second language (L2) is usually English. Although secondary school students are already quite able to express themselves in English, their L2 essays are often of lower quality than L1 essays, in terms of language use, but also in terms of organization. The research reported in this thesis was aimed at explaining this quality difference by comparing L1 and L2 relations between essay quality and writing processes. Analyses of writing processes involved cognitive activities such as reading the assignment, process planning, content planning, evaluating and revising. Results show that, in general, cognitive activities are relevant to essay quality at different stages of task execution during L1 and L2 writing. This means that writers need to distribute their attention differently across task execution during L1 and L2 writing. However, additional analyses show that if students’ general language proficiency levels are included in the analyses, this L1/L2 contrast disappears. For students with high general L2 proficiency, the demands of L2 writing in terms of how often cognitive activities are applied during certain stages of task execution are similar to the demands of L1 writing.

The writing skills of students in primary education show large defects. It has been shown that they do not practice frequently nor are they provided with enough guided instruction in employing writing strategies. In the Netherlands the computer program TiO-schrijven (Bok, 2003) aims to offer this support to pupils in order to enhance their writing performance. It is examined experimentally whether the claims of TiO-schrijven can be empirically supported. With this purpose in mind the writing performance of students of the eighth grade in primary education is compared in three conditions, that differ from each other in intensity of training, with or without a computer and in scaffolded help in all stages of the writing process. By using more writing assignments per measuring moment it is possible to get a better indication of the quality of the writing samples. The texts were assessed by means of a so-called holistic scale scoring, each test has been rated by multiple raters. It has become clear that positive effects are detected when students write weekly using the computer program TiO-schrijven. Unfortunately, this study does not demonstrate whether any of the didactic principles in TiO-schrijven are individually tenable. Global judgments about text quality cannot indicate precisely what features of the writing-process have caused those effects. As part of an analytical assessment an extra condition was added. This was done because data of a national study were available. By reviewing this analytical assessment it could be asserted that the sample is representative of the total population. The measurement of writing is problematic not only due to the variability of writers (i.e. a writer may write a very good text on one occasion, but a poor text at the other occasion), but is also due to the variability of raters. If different raters give different ratings to the same product, not only reliability, but validity issues are at stake as well. Therefore it has been suggested that many of these problems could be circumvented by measuring writing with a multiple choice test. However, such a multiple choice test appears to correlate poorly with observed global writing scores. Hence, we have to conclude that there is serious doubts about the validity of multiple choice tests to evaluate students’ writing ability. The computer program TiO has shown to be an effective approach to the teaching writing. The writing performance of students who have worked with this computer program during one school year is very hopeful. Future research should focus on strengthening the writing pedagogy as well as on the teacher education and training. Given the importance of good writing for students’ school success it is important that future research on designing effective writing lessons will be performed. It is possible that the computer in general and TiO-schrijven in particular can contribute to so-called 'blended learning': the teacher scaffolds the writer in the communicative situation; TiO-schrijven can be employed as a crafty tool to write

One of the milestones in children’s language development is the ability to construct a discourse. In order to construct a discourse, children must learn to set up coherence relations between clauses. In this study, we focused on the acquisition of causal relations, and in particular on children’s development of causal connectives, such as because, that are used to mark causal relations. For example, children can use because to mark the objective cause-consequence relation in (1) or the subjective claim-argument relation in (2). (1) He’s so fat because there’s uh baby inside. (Shem, 3;00.05) (2) He’s a baby because he goes in a stroller. (Nina, 3;00.10) In this study we tracked young children’s production of causal connectives by running growth-curve analyses on longitudinal corpora. We investigated the role of two factors that have been hypothesized to influence the course of connective acquisition: parental input and cognitive complexity. We took a cross-linguistic approach by studying English because as well as its German counterpart weil and the Dutch equivalents want and omdat. In addition, we tested young children’s comprehension of causal relations in an innovative eye-tracking experiment that used the preferential looking paradigm. Results revealed that both cognitive complexity and parental input play a role during connective acquisition. We showed that the cognitive complexity of objective and subjective relations determines the acquisition order of these relations: the comprehension and production of the least complex objective causal relations develop ahead of that of the more complex subjective causal relations. We also showed that both parental connective input and parental scaffolding through why-questions influence the course of acquisition. In fact, our analysis of parental scaffolding through why-questions showed that effects of input and complexity are intertwined: parents adapt the complexity of these question-answer routines to their child’s cognitive ability. Our findings allowed us to construct a model of causal connective development. It consists of four phases that are cumulative in nature, each phase adding an extra ability to the previous one(s). First, children start out by developing an understanding of causality in which their comprehension of objective causality develops ahead of that of subjective causality. Second, parents start to scaffold connective production by asking why-questions. Children give a causal response to these questions, but do not use a connective to mark the relation. Third, children start to include connectives in their responses to why-questions, and they start to use connectives independently (on their accord). When we look at the type of relations they produce, we find that objective relations develop before subjective relations. Fourth, children start asking why-question themselves. While answering these questions, parents make use of causal connectives, and thereby provide input ‘on demand’. In this study we have used converging evidence – with different languages and different methods – to investigate causal connective acquisition. We have shown that connective acquisition is an intricate system in which parental input and cognitive complexity play an important role.

What do children know about communication? In the increasingly globalized world we live in, nowadays children more often come into contact with multiple languages at different ages and in variable contexts. Consequently, children may at times be required to communicate in situations in which they lack sufficient understanding of the language used. These situations of communication are characterized by an uneven proficiency of the language used and can lead to breakdowns in communication if there is not a sufficient willingness to bring forth the exchange and make use of communication strategies. Knowing about communication, that is, being aware of the interaction, of the potential obstacles and of different strategies to overcome them, is essential to bring exolingual situations of communication to a successful end. Understanding how children perceive, control and handle exolingual situations of communication is essential in order to help teachers and children cope with these situations and more specifically, in order to help all bilingual children have access to the school's knowledge. This thesis was carried out to explore the extent to which the learning of an additional language at an age when the child can be conscious of this learning process may influence the course of exolingual interpersonal communication. Children’s perceptions and treatment of exolingual situations of communication are measured through the identification of the children’s willingness to communicate and of their strategy use. Reactions of children who learned a new language at an age and in a context in which they were able to be conscious about and reflect upon their learning (abbreviated LLE, i.e. Language Learning Experience) are compared to those of children who learned a new language in a less conscious way, from birth onwards (abbreviated, nLLE, i.e. without a Language Learning Experience). In each chapter a different approach is adopted to evaluate the child’s metacognitive awareness, assessing different outcome measures and using different exolingual situation test paradigms. The perspectives range from a focus on the perception that children have of this particular communicative scenario to an analysis of their capacity to consider the outcome of the exchange. LLE children outperformed the nLLE children on these various measures of metacognitive awareness, thus suggesting that children may benefit from a Language Learning Experience regardless of whether they are already bilingual or not. The learning of a new language at an age that children may be conscious of the learning process helps to improve their metacognitive awareness and may enhance their confidence in exolingual situations of communication

This dissertation reports on experimental research into the effects of text- and reader- characteristics on text comprehension and text appreciation of less-skilled readers of the vmbo (Dutch Prevocational Education) for their study texts at school. In the first study we investigated to what extent the common assumption that vmbo-pupils have a negative reading motivation and reading attitude is true. In the second study we examined to what extent the reading attitude of vmbo-pupils affects their comprehension skills. The results show no causal effect between reading attitude and text comprehension scores. Pupils do not become better readers if they like reading, and a good comprehension of study texts does not lead to a better reading attitude. In the third study, we reported an empirical study of the effects of integrating structure characteristics in the text comprehension and appreciation of vmbo-pupils. We used eight experimental texts which we based on the real study texts from the vmbo-study books. We constructed two versions of each text: one fragmentized (without connectives and structure signals and with each sentence starting on a new line) and one integrated version (with connectives, structure signals and integrated sentences). The content of the text was kept constant in both versions. A large group (582) of pupils of the vmbo had to read three text versions of different texts and they answered appreciation questions and three different types of comprehension questions. The results show that vmbo-pupils score higher on comprehension questions after reading an integrated text than after reading a fragmentized text. The results do not show an influence of text manipulation on text appreciation. In the fourth study, we examined the effect of identification increasing characteristics (the presence of a (fictive) person, the description of emotions these persons have, a personal point of view (eye-witness), and use of the present tense) in the text comprehension and the text appreciations of vmbo-pupils. We constructed an reading experiment with eight texts, all based on real study texts. For each text we constructed two versions, a formal version and an identification version. Vmbo-pupils had to read three different text versions and they answered appreciation and comprehension questions. The results show that vmbo-pupils score higher on comprehension questions after reading a formal text than after reading a text with identification increasing characteristics. The results also show that vmbo-pupils appreciate a text with identification increasing characteristics more. In a second reading experiment we predicted an interaction effect between integrating structure characteristics and identification increasing characteristics. The results do not point towards an interaction between style and structure characteristics. In a third experiment we examined to what extent the characteristics point of view and narrative time (use of past or present tense) attribute to the effects we found for identification increasing characteristics. The results show no effect of point of view and narrative time on text comprehension. However, we do find an effect on appreciation: pupils are most appreciative of texts that are set up in the past tense with an eye-witness point of view.

This study was carried out in order to advance our understanding of the writing process by linking process and product characteristics to each other. The underlying question was: how does the way in which writers use different cognitive activities, such as planning, generating ideas, and formulating, during the writing process influence the quality of the texts they produce? The main aim was to compare how writers write in L1 (Dutch) and L2 (English), in order to investigate the influence of a specific task variable, language, on the writing process and on the relationship between the writing process and the quality of the text produced. Therefore, a group of twenty students wrote multiple texts in their L1 and L2 under think-aloud conditions. Results indicate that L1 and L2 writing differ in a number of ways. First of all, writing in L2 influences the moment at which cognitive activities are carried out during the writing process. Second, writing in L2 also seems to alter the moment at which these activities appear positively related to text quality. Finally, writers appear to vary their behaviour less between tasks when writing in L2 than in L1, perhaps because an increase in cognitive load inhibits them from doing so. The research presented in this thesis is potentially of interest to researchers in many fields, including cognitive psychology, discourse studies, education, language teaching, text linguistics, and writing process research.