Evaluating the New Secondary Informatics Curriculum in The Netherlands:The Teachers’ Perspective

Since the introduction of Informatics as an elective course in secondary education in the Netherlands in 1998, the implemented curriculum is being regularly monitored. The results of the large 2013 secondary Informatics teachers survey contributed to the revision of the Informatics curriculum. This revised curriculum came into effect in 2019. In line with regular curriculum monitoring practices, the Netherlands Institute for Curriculum Development is polling the secondary Informatics teachers to understand their views and opinions on the intended curriculum and to learn about their implemented curriculum The results indicate that the majority of the respondents find the new Informatics curriculum better than the old one and that it offers a solid foundation for their teaching practice. A minority either misses some content in the curriculum or considers it overloaded with content, and some find it not to be up to date. Furthermore, the results of this survey are compared to the results of the 2013 survey to assess to what extent the new Informatics curriculum meets the teachers’ needs and recommendations better.</p

Science parks and technological innovation.

Science;

Educational strategies in data journalism: A comparative study of six European countries

The article explores training programs in higher education with regard to data journalism from a multi-national perspective. By carrying out a comparative analysis in six European countries (Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Italy, Poland, and the United Kingdom), it covers different models of media systems and journalistic cultures envisaged by Hallin and Mancini. Based on a desk review and in-depth interviews with instructors of data journalism in each country, the article identifies different approaches to the way data journalism is taught. In Europe, such programs are offered by four types of organizations: academic, vocational, professional, and civic. The role played by those organizations can be explained as a result of the peculiarities of national media systems. But there are also commonalities, for example, non-academic institutions (such as the European Journalism Center or the Center for Investigative Journalism) and major international news outlets (such as The Guardian and The New York Times) seem to take over a leading role in all of the analyzed countries. Generally speaking, data journalism education appears to be a very young discipline that frequently neglects fundamental journalistic topics such as ethical issues, transparency, accountability, and responsiveness although they are crucial in a journalistic field as sophisticated tools to reveal hidden aspects of reality

Multidisciplinary integrated parent and child centres in Amsterdam: a qualitative study

Background: In several countries centres for the integrated delivery of services to the parent and child have been established. In the Netherlands family health care service centres, called Parent and Child Centres (PCCs) involve multidisciplinary teams. Here doctors, nurses, midwives, maternity help professionals and educationists are integrated into multidisciplinary teams in neighbourhood-based centres. To date there has been little research on the implementation of service delivery in these centres. Study Design: A SWOT analysis was performed by use of triangulation data; this took place by integrating all relevant published documents on the origin and organization of the PCCs and the results from interviews with PCC experts and with PCC professionals (N=91). Structured interviews were performed with PCC-professionals (health care professionals (N=67) and PCC managers N=12)) and PCC-experts (N=12) in Amsterdam and qualitatively analysed thematically. The interview themes were based on a pre-set list of codes, derived from a prior documentation study and a focus group with PCC experts. Results: Perceived advantages of PCCs were more continuity of care, shorter communication lines, low-threshold contact between professionals and promising future perspectives. Perceived challenges included the absence of uniform multidisciplinary guidelines, delays in communication with hospitals and midwives, inappropriate accommodation for effective professional integration, differing expectations regarding the PCC-manager role among PCC-partners and the danger of professionals' needs dominating clients' needs. Conclusions: Professionals perceive PCCs as a promising development in the integration of services. Remaining challenges involved improvements at the managerial and organizational level. Quantitative research into the improvements in quality of care and child health is recommended

Innovate Magazine / Annual Review 2008-2009

https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/innovate/1003/thumbnail.jp

Review of Professional Doctorates

This review concerns the range and type of Professional Doctorates offered in Ireland and internationally. It looks at their growth, fields of study, structure of programmes and distinctions between them and the PhD

Scarcity of science and engineering students in the Netherlands

In this report, we investigate whether policies that stimulate enrolment in S&E-studies are effective at increasing R&D-activity. Scarcity of science and engineering (S&E) graduates could potentially call for government intervention, because of the role of S&E's in R&D, and because R&D in turn is characterised by positive spillovers. First, we analyse the situation on the Dutch labour market for S&E graduates. We do not find evidence for scarcity of S&E graduates. Rather, the labour market position vis-à-vis other graduates weakened. A possible explanation to reconcile this conclusion with a widely felt concern of S&E shortages among employers is increasing internationalisation of the S&E labour market. Concerning policy, we argue that expanding the stock of S&E graduates is not very effective for boosting R&D activity. More than half the number of S&E graduates do not end up working in R&D. De increasing internationalisation of the S&E labour market can diminish the attractiveness of S&E courses.

Infrastructural Work in Child Welfare: incommensurable politics in the Dutch Child Index

The Dutch Child Index is a nationwide information system (IS) designed to alert professionals about each other’s involvedness with at-risk children, enabling identification of individual at-risk children, improvement of multidisciplinary collaboration and timely interventions. In this paper, we study the infrastructural work and complexities engaged in making the collaborative system of the Child Index function in real life and in care situations. We use the information infrastructure perspective as an analytical lens and describe the infrastructural work that is performed to make the Child Index become part of actual practices. We also identify flexibility, heterogeneity and the connection to existing platforms as difficulties participants have had while performing infra- structural work. The paper makes two main contributions. First, it provides an in-depth empirical analysis of this specific collaborative and preventive infrastructure. Second, based on this empirical analysis, we argue that when developing and understanding infrastructures, it is important to identify limits to the integrative capacity and disciplining power of ISs as result of conflicting infrastructural work due to incommensurable politics. perspective as an analytical lens and describe the infrastructural work that is performed to make the Child Index become part of actual practices. We also identify flexibility, heterogeneity and the connection to existing platforms as difficulties participants have had while performing infrastructural work. The paper makes two main contributions. First, it provides an in-depth empirical analysis of this specific collaborative and preventive infrastructure. Second, based on this empirical analysis, we argue that when developing and understanding infrastructures, it is important to identify limits to the integrative capacity and disciplining power of IS’s as result of conflicting infrastructural work due to incommensurable politics