Professional community and student achievement

Het concept van de professionele gemeenschap heeft de afgelopen dertig jaar in theorie en praktijk duidelijk aan terrein gewonnen. Dit proefschrift heeft zich gericht op het verhelderen van de definitie van het concept van de professionele gemeenschap en op het opnieuw onderzoeken van het beschikbare empirische bewijs dat de veronderstelling van een positief verband met de leerlingprestaties op middelbare scholen ondersteunt. Daarnaast fungeerde het operationaliseren en meten van het concept in een Nederlandse middelbare schoolomgeving als een test om te bepalen of de professionele gemeenschap (vakgroepen wiskunde en op schoolniveau) ook in deze onderzoekscontext toepasbaar is en of er ook hier een samenhang bestaat met leerlingprestaties. Onze resultaten, gebaseerd op informatie verstrekt door leerkrachten uit verschillende vakdomeinen, hebben een veelbelovend scala aan inzichten opgeleverd met betrekking tot de specifieke kenmerken van activiteiten gerelateerd aan het concept van de professionele gemeenschap. Op Nederlandse middelbare scholen kwamen deze activiteiten voornamelijk voor in de vorm van de reflectieve dialoog en gedeelde doelgerichtheid. Over de mogelijke relatie tussen het vόόrkomen van professionele gemeenschappen en leerlingprestaties kan in het algemeen worden geconcludeerd dat er sprake is van een klein direct positief effect en deze positieve relatie wordt in het bijzonder bevestigd voor het VWO

The Design of Incentive Systems in Digital Game-Based Learning:How Primary School Children Interact with It

Digital game-based learning builds on the general characteristics of games. The incentive system (points, scores, stars, levels, and performance feedback) integrates design elements to keep a learner engaged. In the work described here, we investigated which elements of the incentive system design—rewards, penalties, or feedback—have the potential to trigger students’ motivation to play the game. We used eye tracking of eight primary school children, aged 8–11 years, as they interacted with the incentive system of a mathematics game-based item and its specific design, followed by a semi-structured interview. Eye-tracking results show that students paid minimal visual attention to the incentive system during the game, regardless of their level of performance in the game or their age group. The feedback at the end of the game attracted more of their visual attention and provided a good opportunity to inform them about their performance. The semi-structured interviews revealed a high level of self-reported excitement about playing the game, mainly related to the design of the incentive system. Elements of the incentive system triggered students’ wish for student-to-student competition, which has been shown in the literature on traditional tangible rewards to stifle intrinsic motivation under certain conditions. The results of this study show that the design of the incentive system has the potential to promote extrinsic motivation with the game through rewards and penalties, and open the reflection on its possible spillover effect on intrinsic motivation in digital game-based learning.</p

The effects of classroom socioeconomic composition on students' civic knowledge in Chile

In Chile, the influence of the socioeconomic make-up of classrooms on achievement has been extensively studied in mathematics and language, but less in currently important non-traditional subjects such as civic knowledge. This paper analyses the effects of the socioeconomic composition of classrooms on students’ civic knowledge achievement in Chile, using the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study 2009 and a multilevel methodology. This research finds positive influences of higher socioeconomic intakes of 36% of one standard deviation in test scores. These results suggest that in the socioeconomically segregated Chilean education system, these effects would contribute to widening the civic knowledge attainment gap between pupils attending affluent and less affluent schools. In addition, this research finds that, on average, students with a higher individual socioeconomic status are more sensitive to these influences and that socioeconomic composition effects are more acute in the private-voucher sector than in the public sector.status: publishe

Perceived magnitude of unemployment: A dark horse in the literature on public attitudes towards governmental responsibilities to the unemployed

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Implementing ICT in classroom practice: what else matters besides the ICT infrastructure?

Abstract Background The large-scale International Computer and Information Literacy Study (2018) has an interesting finding concerning Luxembourg teachers. Luxembourg has one of the highest reported level of technology-related resources for teaching and learning, but a relatively lower reported use of ICT in classroom practice. Methods ICT innovation requires a high initial level of financial investment in technology, and Luxembourg has achieved this since 2015. Once the necessary financial investment in ICT technology has been made, the key question is what else matters to increase the use of ICT in teaching. To identify the relevant factors, we used the “Four in Balance” model, aimed explicitly at monitoring the implementation of ICT in schools. Results Using data for 420 teachers in Luxembourg, we identify that within such a technology-driven approach to digitalization, teachers’ vision of ICT use in teaching, level of expertise, and the use of digital learning materials in class are significant support factors. Leadership and collaboration, in the form of an explicit vision of setting ICT as a priority for teaching in the school, also prove to be important. Conclusions Through these findings, we show that the initial investment in school infrastructure for ICT needs to be associated in its implementation with teachers’ ICT-related beliefs, attitudes, and ICT expertise

The relationship between departments as professional communities and student achievement in secondary schools

Secondary school teaching is organized in departments and effective departments functioning as collaborative teams have been associated with effective schools. Therefore, this study investigates the relationship of mathematics departments perceived as professional communities and student achievement in Dutch secondary schools. Cluster analysis and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) were used on a sample of around 3000 students, 130 schools, and 130 teachers that participated in this study (TIMSS-2003 data). The significant effects found (effect size >.20) show that those departments that focus on reflective dialogue, collaborative activity, shared vision and student achievement are associated with successful schools and higher student achievement. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Professional communities and student achievement - a meta-analysis

In the past 3 decades, the concept of professional community has gained considerable momentum in the theoretical and empirical studies in this field. At the same time, the concept has faced conceptual and methodological difficulties in that as yet no universal definition has been formulated and that its operationalization differs in the various empirical studies conducted on the subject. This study presents a comprehensive synthesis of the theories currently available and their implications for the conceptualization and operationalization of the professional community concept including a meta-analysis of the studies that investigated the effect of professional community on student achievement. Our meta-analysis reported a small but significant summary effect (d=.25, p.05), indicating that within a school environment professional community could enhance student achievement. Furthermore, the need for the conceptual and empirical validation of the concept's key dimension was discussed