Design of educational and ICT conditions to integrate differences in learning: Contextual learning theory and a first transformation step in early education.

Educational differentiation and ICT can be designed to better recognize and integrate learning differences across students particularly by assisting instructional management and the self-regulation of students. A conceptual framework for such practice is elaborated here. First, learning as an interactional co-constructive process at various levels is considered. The diagnostic, instructional, management, and system aspects of the learning process can be stimulated and maximized. Second, differentiation of learning procedures and materials, design of integrating ICT support, and improvement of development and learning progress are recommended as contextual conditions to optimize the learning process. The combination of the learning aspects with these contextual conditions provides theoretical guidelines for the transition from a nondifferentiating system of education to a differentiating, ICT-based system of instructional management for all students. Information is given about the realization of two of the differentiation guidelines and all ICT design guidelines. The first products were used in kindergarten, to start the improvement of educational practice. This occurred in co-development with kindergarten teachers of three Dutch kindergartens. Information is given about the process and outcomes of this first transformation step in practice. Finally, next co-development steps are discussed

National campaign effects on secondary pupils’ bullying and violence

Background. Research on pupils' bullying (1991) and violence (1993) motivated the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science to initiate a national campaign on school safety. The government campaign was undertaken from 1995 to 2000. Aim. To test for differences in secondary pupils' bullying and violence before and after the campaign while controlling for different contextual variables. Samples. In 1991, a representative survey on bullying was conducted in 36 secondary schools with 1,055 pupils from Year 2 and 4 classes (age range 13-16 years). In 1993, a survey on violent behaviour took place in 71 secondary schools with 1,998 pupils from Year 3 and 4 classes (age range 14-16 years). In 2000, a survey on bullying and violence was conducted in 60 secondary schools with 9,948 pupils from Year I to 6 classes (age range 12-18 years). Methods. The data from pupils in identical school years were compared with respect to bullying (1991-2000) and violence (1993-2000). The statistical relations were analysed in two stepwise multiple regression analyses. Year of investigation (1991- 2000, 1993-2000) was the respective dependent variable. The independent variables were pupils' bullying or violence scores, sex, school year, contextual lesson, school, and community variables. Results. In both regression analyses, the contextual lesson and school variables discriminated between the measurement years. Also, compared with 1991, the pupils in 2000 scored lower for being a bully and higher for being bullied directly. Compared with 1993, the pupils in 2000 scored lower for being a victim of intentional damage to property or emotional violence, lower for being a perpetrator of disruptive behaviour in school, and higher for being a perpetrator of intentional damage to property. Conclusions. The differences between the contextual variables measured before and after the campaign reflect changes in educational and instructional situations. Independent of these differences, the national campaign appears to have helped improve the awareness of pupils' social behaviour and elicit, in particular, a decrease in pupils' violent behaviour. However, more specific pedagogical and preventative support for pupils socially at risk appears to be needed to have a. more prosociai impact on the behaviour of secondary school pupils

European Educational Research Quality Indicators (EERQI): A first prototype framework of intrinsic and extrinsic indicators

Mooij, T. (2011, 15-16 March). European Educational Research Quality Indicators (EERQI): A first prototype framework of intrinsic and extrinsic indicators. Paper presented at the final EERQI conference, Brussels, University Foundation.The goal of the project ‘European Educational Research Quality Indicators’ (EERQI) is to improve upon citation-only based assessments of the quality or impact of educational and other research. In this conference paper two research questions will be answered: 1) What are the results of applying the ‘intrinsic criteria’ rigour, originality, significance, integrity, and style, in a peer review evaluation of educational research articles? 2) What are the results of analysing the relationships between both intrinsic and extrinsic indicators, to construct an example of a prototype EERQI framework? The first question is answered by a pilot in which 78 peer reviewers assess 117 research documents according to rigour, originality, significance, integrity, style, and miscellaneous. In a second pilot, peer reviewers evaluate 20 intrinsic indicators of 177 research documents written by 268 authors. Extrinsic indicators of the same documents contain various types of web-based information. Structural model analysis using Mplus results in a measurement model with three intrinsic and two extrinsic latent factors. The outcomes support the hypothesis that the more the reviewed document is related to the reviewer‘s own area of research, the higher the document is evaluated with respect to 1) significance, originality and consistency and 2) methodological adequacy. No relationships exist between the reviewer‘s own area of research and the two extrinsic factors. These effects may reflect some subjective evaluation bias that seems to take place in peer reviewing. The outcomes support the validity of the EERQI conceptual framework and the related research.This European project was funded by the EC Seventh Framework Programme, under the Socio-Economic Sciences and Humanities Theme (SSH

Exploring a prototype framework of web-based and peer-reviewed “European Educational Research Quality Indicators” (EERQI)

Digitization, the Internet, and information or webometric interdisciplinary approaches are affecting the fields of Scientometrics and Library and Information Science (LIS). These new approaches can be used to improve citation-only procedures to estimate the quality and impact of research. A European pilot to explore this potential was called “European Educational Research Quality Indicators” (EERQI, FP7 # 217549). An interdisciplinary consortium was involved from 2008-2011. Different types of indicators were developed to score 171 educational research documents. Extrinsic bibliometric and citation indicators were collected from the Internet for each document; intrinsic indicators reflecting content-based quality were developed and relevant data gathered by peer review. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and structural modeling were used to explore statistical relationships among latent factors or concepts and their indicators. Three intrinsic and two extrinsic latent factors were found to be relevant. Moreover, the more a document was related to a reviewer’s own area of research, the higher the score the reviewer gave concerning 1) significance, originality, and consistency, and 2) methodological adequacy. The conclusions are that a prototype EERQI framework has been constructed: intrinsic quality indicators add specific information to extrinsic quality or impact indicators, and vice versa. Also, a problem of “objective” impact scores is that they are based on “subjective” or biased peer-review scores. Peer-review, which is foundational to having a work cited, seems biased and this bias should be controlled or improved by more refined estimates of quality and impact of research. Some suggestions are given and limitations of the pilot are discussed. As the EERQI development approach, instruments, and tools are new, they should be developed further

Hoogbegaafde leerlingen in school: van gedwongen onderpresteren naar ‘Optimaliserend Onderwijs’.

In deze keynote voor professionals uit onderwijs en jeugdzorg wordt aandacht besteed aan de volgende punten: 1. Voorbeelden: cognitief hoogbegaafde leerlingen 2. Begrip hoogbegaafd; leerpsychologische kenmerken 3. Leerlingverschillen bij intrede PO 4. Oorzaken onderpresteren cognitief hb leerlingen 5. Regulier onderwijs en leerlingproblemen 6. Noodaanpak en systeemmaatregelen 7. ‘Optimaliserend Onderwijs’ voor elke leerling 8. Multiniveau beleids- en schoolontwikkeling 9. Vragen en discussie 10. Referenties & repositorie

Optimising ICT effectiveness in instruction and learning: Multilevel transformation theory and a pilot project in secondary education

Specific combinations of educational and ICT conditions including computer use may optimise learning processes, particularly for learners at risk. This position paper asks which curricular, instructional, and ICT characteristics can be expected to optimise learning processes and outcomes,and how to best achieve this optimization. A theoretical multilevel framework is developed to specify instructional, learning, and ICT conditions that may transform and optimise both teaching and learning. The empirical part of the paper reports on and analyses a participatory, user- oriented pilot study carried out in Dutch secondary education in the period 1999–2002. The goal was to explore how teachers can develop and practice computer-supported instructional and learning processes that are qualitatively more transparent, more flexible, and more sensitive to differences between learners, than most currently prevalent teaching practices. The pilot also resulted in a multilevel software prototype LINE which was developed to support the instructional management of learners, teachers, and school management. The outcomes of the pilot study are used to specify more transformation conditions which are required within and outside schools to optimise instruction and learning in both qualitative and quantitative ways. Finally, software functions to construct more generalised ‘Diagnostic, Instru ctional, and Management Systems’ (DIMS) are modelled and discussed

Relevance of student and contextual school variables in explaining a student’s severity of violence experienced

Teachers conceptualise and interpret violent behaviour of secondary students in different ways. They also differ in their estimates of the relevance of student and contextual school variables when explaining the severity of violence experienced by students. Research can assist here by explicating the role of different types of contextual school variables. The research question is twofold: 1) Do contextual school variables, in addition to a student’s personal, family, and educational variables, explain a student’s violent behaviour? 2) If so, what is the role of student composition variables compared with variables indicating the social cohesion of the school? A hypothetical model was developed in which personal, family-related, educational, and school variables of different types simultaneously explain the severity of violence experienced by a student. The method used to test the model empirically is secondary analysis of data collected in a Dutch national survey on school safety in secondary education (N students = 78,840; N schools = 219). Severity of violence experienced is assessed by the Mokken Scale on Severity of Violence Experienced (MSSVE). Multiple regression analyses reveal that a student who is older, a young male, born in the country of residence, feels at home in another country, does not have an intact family, is not religious, is enrolled in the highest educational track, and is achieving lower marks in the school subjects of language and mathematics, experiences more severe violence than other students (explained variance 3.4%). Simultaneously, different types of contextual school variables are differently relevant. Mean severity of violence experienced by students at school indicates clearly more variance (2.3%) than the combination of student composition variables (0.4%). The conclusion is that the theoretical model is empirically supported, which also underlines the validity of the MSSVE. The discussion focuses on a comprehensive multilevel approach to stimulate and check improvement of social cohesion at school

Schoolontwikkeling en optimaliseren van leerprocessen

Mooij, T. (2011, 26 mei). Schoolontwikkeling en optimaliseren van leerprocessen. Gastcollege ‘Jeugd-, Gezins- en Onderwijsbeleid’, Nijmegen / Heerlen: Radboud Universiteit, ITS / Open Universiteit, Celstec.Deze presentatie is gegeven in het kader van een pedagogische collegecyclus betreffende jeugd-, gezins- en onderwijsbeleid (Gerris, Veerman, & Tellings, 2010). Een gebrek aan afstemming tussen individueel ontwikkelings- en leerniveau en het feitelijke onderwijsaanbod resulteert in een ‘repressie’ van het individuele kind, hetgeen kan leiden tot cognitieve, sociale en motivationele problemen bij de leerling. Theoretisch en empirisch wordt verhelderd waarom deze problemen kunnen ontstaan en hoe deze kunnen worden voorkomen. Ingegaan wordt op systematieken en werkwijzen die in de schoolpraktijk worden ontwikkeld en ingezet om voor elk kind een leerpsychologisch en pedagogisch juiste, optimaliserende ontwikkel- en leersituatie te realiseren

Hoogbegaafdheid, excellentie en onderpresteren: inrichting van 'optimaliserend onderwijs'

Mooij, T. (2013, 20 februari). Hoogbegaafdheid, excellentie en onderpresteren: inrichting van 'optimaliserend onderwijs'. Voordracht en discussie tijdens een vakconferentie van onderwijswerkgroep ‘Breinbaas’, Restaurant ‘Ruimzicht’, Zeddam, Nederland.In de presentie wordt verhelderd welke leerverschillen er tussen leerlingen zijn, hoe de reguliere onderwijsorganisatie aan deze verschillen deels voorbijgaat en hoe hierdoor problemen (kunnen) ontstaan bij leerlingen die duidelijk voor- of achterlopen op hun leeftijdgenoten. Verhelderd wordt hoe onderwijsinhouden en -organisatie kunnen worden ingericht opdat elke leerling relatief optimaal onderwijs kan genieten

ICT supporting the assessment, explanation, and reduction possibilities of severity of violence experienced by secondary pupils

Mooij, T. (2012, 19 September). ICT supporting the assessment, explanation, and reduction possibilities of severity of violence experienced by secondary pupils. Presentation at the ‘European Conference on Educational Research’ (ECER) of the ‘European Educational Research Association’ (EERA), Cádiz, Spain.Assessment of violence can be complex for reasons of conceptual clarity and data collection. Mokken Scale Analysis can be used to improve violence assessment, whereas large-scale data gathering by ICT can support differentiated and situational measurement. Both Mokken Scaling and large-scale procedures for digital data collection and feedback to schools are used to estimate the relevance of individual pupil and contextual school variables in the explanation of severity of violence experienced by secondary school pupils. A theoretical two-level model has been developed in which personal, family and educational variables explain the severity of violence experienced by pupils as assessed by Mokken Scaling. The model is tested by doing Multiple Regression Analysis on data collected in a Dutch national survey in secondary education (N pupils=78,840; N schools=219). The results reveal that a pupil who is older, a boy, and born in the Netherlands, who feels at home in another country, does not have an intact family, is not religious, is enrolled in the highest educational track, and is getting lower marks in the school subjects Dutch and mathematics experiences more severe violence than other pupils. Relevant school variables are various composite or mean pupil variables; mean severity of violence experienced at school is most important in relative terms. The conclusion is that, in line with expectations, specific pupil and school-based variables explain the Mokken score on severity of violence experienced. ICT is used to feedback both national and school level results to the schools participating in the research