Teachers’ individual action theories about competence-based education: the value of the cognitive apprenticeship model

Seezink, A., Poell, R. F., & Kirschner, P. A. (2009). Teachers' individual action theories about competence-based education: The value of the cognitive apprenticeship model. Journal of Vocational Education & Training, 61, 203-215.Dutch prevocational secondary schools are reforming their educational programmes to make them more competence-based. This reform has substantial implications for the roles played by teachers. Yet, little empirical research has been conducted on teachers’ processes of competence development in vocational settings. This study explores teachers’ individual action theories regarding the introduction of competence-based prevocational secondary education. The cognitive apprenticeship model provides a conceptual framework for addressing this issue. The research questions addressed here are: How do teachers value elements of the cognitive apprenticeship model in designing and delivering competence-based prevocational secondary education?, and, What individual action theories do teachers have regarding competence-based prevocational secondary education? The study was designed in two phases. In the qualitative phase, interviews and concept map techniques were used, while the quantitative phase employed a questionnaire. Teachers valued elements of the cognitive apprenticeship model differently, and suggested two additional features: a custommade educational approach and the professionalisation of teachers

“This is not a test”:How do human resource development professionals use personality tests as tools of their professional practice?

Although human resource development (HRD) professionals enjoy the use of personality tests in their practice, the appeal of these tests to some is harshly criticized by others. Personality tests attract through optimistic descriptions and ease of use for individual and team development while often lacking predictive and discriminant validities. Despite those concerns, the personality‐testing market can be characterized as a dynamic industry, with many professionals using assessments in developmental settings such as management training and executive coaching. The aim of this article is to explore how individual meaning‐making and organizational sensemaking theories help to explain the widespread and sustained use of personality tests in developmental contexts among HRD professionals. Using grounded theory and inductive analysis, we distill meaning from semistructured interviews with 18 HRD professionals. Through pattern analysis, we establish six strategies that describe practical approaches in personality testing: 1. Ethical‐protective, 2. Scientific‐selective, 3. Cautious‐avoiding, 4. Cautious‐embracing, 5. User friendly‐pragmatic, and 6. Knowledgeable‐accommodating. We find that HRD professionals deal with cognitive dissonances and paradoxical situations in their professional personality test use practice on a regular basis. Research limitations and implications for practice and future research are discussed

SOAP in Practice: Learning Outcomes of a Cross-Institutional Innovation Project Conducted by Teachers, Student Teachers, and Teacher Educators

Seezink, A., Poell, R. F., & Kirschner, P. A. (2010). SOAP in practice: learning outcomes of a cross-institutional innovation project conducted by teachers, student teachers, and teacher educators. European Journal of Teacher Education, 33(3), 229-243.This paper reports on a case study investigating learning outcomes at the individual and organizational level of a cross-institutional innovation project based on the SOAP approach. SOAP integrates Schooling of teachers, Organizational development of schools, Action- and development-oriented research, and Professional development of teachers. The innovation project was aimed at combining teachers, student teachers, and teacher educators in an alliance to design and develop new competence-based vocational educational arrangements for pupils. An inductive qualitative analysis of 37 semistructured interviews among the participants revealed seven main categories of individual learning outcomes: attitudes, project design and management, collaboration, action theory, teaching practice, educational principles, and developments within secondary vocational education. Three main categories of organizational learning outcomes were identified: institution-level learning, project-level learning, and combining institution-level and project-level learning. A tension was identified between the participants’ individual interests in learning and personal development, and, the need for organizational learning aimed at improving organizational processes

The role of remediation in mitigating the negative consequences of psychological contract breach : a qualitative study in the banking sector

This study examined whether remediation (providing another inducement to compensate for an undelivered obligation in the psychological contract) was perceived as a useful way to deal with the consequences of a psychological contract breach in the context of organizational change. Data was collected by means of semi-structured face-to-face focus-group sessions and individual interviews in a restructuring organization in the Dutch banking sector. Fourteen focus groups and eight individual interviews were conducted with 30 non-managerial employees and 48 supervisors/professionals. The results bring the potential of offering compensating inducements to remedy psychological contract breach to the fore and highlight the role of other factors such as communication and the availability of job alternatives. Suggestions are provided for improving employee relations in situations of organizational change by taking the psychological contract into account

Relational climates moderate the effect of openness to experience on knowledge hiding:A two-country multi-level study

Purpose:  Understanding employee knowledge hiding behavior can serve organizations in better implementing knowledge management practices. The purpose of this study is to investigate how personality and work climate influence knowledge hiding, by examining the respective roles of openness to experience and relational (specifically, communal sharing and market pricing) climates.  Design/methodology/approach:  Multilevel modeling was used with two distinct samples, one from Vietnam with 119 employees in 20 teams and one from The Netherlands with 136 employees in 32 teams.  Findings:  In both samples, the hypothesized direct relationship between openness and knowledge hiding was not found. In the Vietnamese sample, only the moderating effect of market pricing climate was confirmed; in the Dutch sample, only the moderating effect of communal sharing climate was confirmed. The findings of the Vietnamese sample suggest that people with a high sense of openness to experience hide knowledge less under low market pricing climate. In the Dutch sample, people with high openness to experience hide knowledge less under high communal sharing climate. The authors conclude that, in comparison with personality, climate plays a stronger role in predicting knowledge hiding behavior.  Research limitations/implications:  Small sample size and self-reported data might limit the generalizability of this study’s results.  Practical implications:  The paper highlights how organizational context (relational climate) needs to be taken into account in predicting how personality (openness to experience) affects knowledge hiding.  Originality/value:  This paper contributes to a better understanding of the knowledge hiding construct by extending the set of known antecedents and exploring the organizational context in which such phenomena happen

Meaningful work and resilience among teachers: The mediating role of work engagement and job crafting

Research in the field of work and organizational psychology more and more highlights the importance of employees’ experience of meaningful work. Adding to this area of research, the present study among teachers examined the relationship between meaningful work and resilience and tested whether this proposed relationship is mediated by teachers’ work engagement and job crafting behaviour. Data for this study was collected among a group of Dutch teachers working in a school for primary education (N = 174). To test the hypothesized relationships, we conducted a bootstrapping analysis. The outcomes revealed that work engagement and job crafting fully mediated the relationship between meaningful work and teacher’s resilience. The insights provided in this study may be useful for the deliberate cultivation of teachers’ resilience and may help them to stay enthusiastic in their meaningful but demanding profession. Theoretical contributions, limitations, suggestions for future research and practical implications are discussed