Teachers’ positioning towards an educational innovation in the light of ownership, sense-making and agency

The positioning of eleven teachers towards an innovation was studied in the light of ownership, sense-making and agency. Semi-structured and video-stimulated interviews were used for data collection. The findings show that these three concepts are useful for describing similarities and differences between teachers in terms of their positioning towards the innovation. Considerable differences were found between teachers regarding their ownership, sense-making, and agency. Exploring the relations between these concepts revealed that a high degree of agency often went together with a high degree of ownership, but seemed to be moderated by the sense-making proces

Leraren en hun professionele ruimte (Empowerment in a Teachers’ Learning Environment)

korte omschrijving van het onderzoeksprogramma Het is een breed gedragen idee in het publieke debat dat leraren meer professionele ruimte zouden moeten krijgen. Professionele ruimte heeft betrekking op de mogelijkheid om invloed uit te oefenen op de inhoud en de inrichting van het werk. Het is de ruimte die de leraar heeft om te beslissen over onderwijsinhoud, onderwijsinrichting (didactisch, pedagogisch en organisatorisch) en zijn professionele ontwikkeling. Professionele ruimte kan ook breder opgevat worden als de ruimte waarbinnen een leraar werkt en zich ontwikkelt. Professionele ruimte is direct gekoppeld aan vraagstukken rond de professionele ontwikkeling van leraren. In dit onderzoeksprogramma staan de volgende onderzoeksvragen centraal: Hoe wordt de professionele ontwikkeling van leraren beïnvloed door de leeromgeving ofwel professionele ruimte van de leraar en door de manier waarop de leraar deze ruimte beleeft en inzet? Wat is een krachtige leeromgeving die rekening houdt met de loopbaan- en identiteitsontwikkeling van de leraar en die leraren voldoende ruimte voor ontwikkeling biedt? Hoe kan een leraar zelf deze leeromgeving beïnvloeden? Kernconcepten zijn: professionele ontwikkeling, professionele ruimte en beleving van die ruimte. Hieronder geven we aan welke betekenis wij aan deze kernconcepten geven. We onderzoeken de leeromgeving van de leraar op twee manieren. Enerzijds vatten we deze leeromgeving op als een sociaal netwerk dat de leraar leermogelijkheden biedt door de hulpbronnen die het bevat en de verhalen en manieren van reageren (discursieve praktijken) die erin dominant zullen zijn. Anderzijds gaat het om de schoolorganisatie waarvan kenmerken als schoolcultuur, schoolstructuur en leiderschap de ontwikkeling van de leraar faciliteren. De perspectieven van waaruit we de professionele ruimte analyseren, maken duidelijk dat de professionele ontwikkeling van een leraar wordt ‘voorgestructureerd’ door het sociale netwerk en de schoolorganisatie van de leraar en de verhalen en praktijken die zich in dat netwerk en die schoolorganisatie afspelen. Naast deze ‘voorstructurering’ van professionele ontwikkeling is ook van belang hoe de leraar deze voorgestructureerde ruimte beleeft, gebruikt, beïnvloedt en verandert. Hiermee zijn concepten als ‘agency’, leerconceptie en leergedrag aan de orde. Daarbij is belangrijk om te onderzoeken hoe een leraar zelf zijn professionele ontwikkeling proactief kan vormgeven en hoe de omgeving zo ingericht kan worden dat leraren zoveel mogelijk ‘agency’ ervaren om hun ontwikkeling en eigen loopbaan aan te sturen. Sociale media kunnen hierbij ook een belangrijke rol (gaan) spelen. Juist in en door die wisselwerking tussen de voorgestructureerde omgeving van een leraar en de beleving daarvan door de leraar krijgt de professionele ontwikkeling van de leraar vorm. Professionele ontwikkeling gaat dan om het ontwikkelen van specifiek leergedrag (bijvoorbeeld leren door onderzoek te doen), maar ook om loopbaan- en nog breder, om identiteitsontwikkeling. Loopbaan en identiteit vatten we daarbij op als biografische verhalen die zich continu en in voortdurende wisselwerking met de omgeving en de professionele ruimte ontwikkelen

Understanding and using comparative healthcare information; the effect of the amount of information and consumer characteristics and skills

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Consumers are increasingly exposed to comparative healthcare information (information about the quality of different healthcare providers). Partly because of its complexity, the use of this information has been limited. The objective of this study was to examine how the amount of presented information influences the comprehension and use of comparative healthcare information when important consumer characteristics and skills are taken into account.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In this randomized controlled experiment, comparative information on total hip or knee surgery was used as a test case. An online survey was distributed among 800 members of the NIVEL Insurants Panel and 76 hip- or knee surgery patients. Participants were assigned to one of four subgroups, who were shown 3, 7, 11 or 15 quality aspects of three hospitals. We conducted Kruskall-Wallis tests, Chi-square tests and hierarchical multiple linear regression analyses to examine relationships between the amount of information and consumer characteristics and skills (literacy, numeracy, active choice behaviour) on one hand, and outcome measures related to effectively using information (comprehension, perceived usefulness of information, hospital choice, ease of making a choice) on the other hand.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>414 people (47%) participated. Regression analysis showed that the amount of information slightly influenced the comprehension and the perceived usefulness of comparative healthcare information. It did not affect consumers’ hospital choice and ease of making this choice. Consumer characteristics (especially age) and skills (especially literacy) were the most important factors affecting the comprehension of information and the ease of making a hospital choice. For the perceived usefulness of comparative information, active choice behaviour was the most influencing factor.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The effects of the amount of information were not unambiguous. It remains unclear what the ideal amount of quality information to be presented would be. Reducing the amount of information will probably not automatically result in more effective use of comparative healthcare information by consumers. More important, consumer characteristics and skills appeared to be more influential factors contributing to information comprehension and use. Consequently, we would suggest that more emphasis on improving consumers’ skills is needed to enhance the use of comparative healthcare information.</p

Excellence in creative-technical upper secondary VET:characteristics of excelling students

This paper reports on a study into the characteristics of excelling students in creative-technical upper secondary VET. Excellence is defined as dynamic and continuously under development. Excelling students in upper secondary VET are a diverse and heterogeneous group. Yet these excelling students have some things in common. Using literature and a multiple case study (N=4), a framework was developed containing five overarching characteristics of excelling students in creative-technical upper secondary VET: drive, agency, collaboration, craftsmanship, and innovation. Students who participated in the four excellence programmes central in this study, possessed these characteristics to a lesser or greater extent. These characteristics should always be seen in interaction between the students and their excellence programme. The different programmes require different aspects from students. Using these characteristics of excelling students can help in developing programs tailored to the needs of students

Teachers’ perceptions of the coaching role in secondary vocational education

Ketelaar, E., Den Brok, P., Beijaard, D., & Boshuizen, H. P. A. (2012). Teachers’ perceptions of the coaching role in secondary vocational education. Journal of Vocational Education & Training, 64(3), 295-315. doi:10.1080/13636820.2012.691534This article describes a study on teachers’ perceptions of the coaching role in innovative secondary vocational education (SVE) in the Netherlands. Data from 109 teachers were collected by means of an online questionnaire, asking for their associations with the coaching role, goals concerning the coaching role, and typical coaching activities. Using multiple correspondence analyses, it was explored whether underlying dimensions could be found in teachers’ perceptions of the coaching role. Relations between teachers’ perceptions of the coaching role and background variables were also explored. The outcomes revealed that dominant themes in the teachers’ perceptions were promoting and supporting students’ meta-cognitive skills, creating a positive learning and working atmosphere, and guiding and actively supporting students. Two underlying dimensions regarding the perceptions of the coaching role could be detected. The extremities of these dimensions were interpretable in terms of learning environment and learning process on the one dimension, and general development and domain-specific development on the other. Teachers’ background variables were not significantly related to their perceptions of the coaching rol

Excellence in creative-technical upper secondary VET: characteristics of excelling students

This paper reports on a study into the characteristics of excelling students in creative-technical upper secondary VET. Excellence is defined as dynamic and continuously under development. Excelling students in upper secondary VET are a diverse and heterogeneous group. Yet these excelling students have some things in common. Using literature and a multiple case study (N=4), a framework was developed containing five overarching characteristics of excelling students in creative-technical upper secondary VET: drive, agency, collaboration, craftsmanship, and innovation. Students who participated in the four excellence programmes central in this study, possessed these characteristics to a lesser or greater extent. These characteristics should always be seen in interaction between the students and their excellence programme. The different programmes require different aspects from students. Using these characteristics of excelling students can help in developing programs tailored to the needs of students