How to keep teachers healthy and growing:The influence of job demands and resources

Purpose – Education depends on high-quality teachers who are committed to professional development and do not get burned out. The purpose of this paper was to investigate how job demands and resources can affect the health and cognitive development of teachers using the Demand-Induced Strain Compensation model. Design/methodology/approach – A cross-sectional sample of 120 teachers in vocational education was used to investigate the proposed relationships and hypotheses with Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression method. Findings – In terms of teacher health and development, significant main effects were found for several predictors. Autonomy was significantly and negatively related to emotional exhaustion. Autonomy, emotional supervisor and colleague support were significantly and positively related to teachers’ development. However, little support was found for matching hypotheses, suggesting that matching demands and resources do not offer more explanatory power for occupation outcomes than other types of interaction effects. Research limitations/implications – More powerful analyses techniques like structural equation modeling could be used in future research with a larger sample size. A second limitation is common method variance. Practical implications – Schools in vocational education should provide sufficient job resources, such as autonomy and emotional support, but possibly also put a limit on teacher task variety. Originality/value – Job demands and resources have until now mainly been related to negative outcomes such as poor health and ill-being, while the relationship with learning has also been hypothesized and is therefore meaningful to examine. In addition, it was investigated whether interaction effects of matching demands and resources, better explain these outcomes

Wikiwijs professionalisation portal:Studying teacher needs for using and arranging OER

Hummel, H. G. K., Van Amersfoort, D., Van Buuren, H. J., & Jansen, D. (2010, 2-4 November). WikiWijs professionalisation portal: studying teacher needs and tools for developing and arranging OER. Presentation at the OpenEd 2010 Conference, Barcelona, Spain.In order to better functionally design the ‘professionalisation portal’ for Wikiwijs we have carried out both desk research and an additional survey study. We carried out desk research into most relevant, existing studies that (partially) dealt with this issue, and carried out another - more recent and more tailored - survey study that also questioned the needs and preferences for using digital OER in the future

BO-Bodemdiensten pilot Schokland : een methodiek voor maatwerk bij vergoedingen

De Nederlandse bodem bevat veel waardevolle archeologische en aardkundige objecten die zich voor een groot deel in agrarisch gebied bevinden. Agrarische activiteiten kunnen een bedreiging vormen voor het behoud van deze objecten, maar boeren kunnen ook een bijdrage leveren aan het in stand houden van deze waardevolle objecten. De Nederlandse Catalogus Groen Blauwe Diensten (GBC) is geschikt om de vergoeding van bodemdiensten op te nemen. Dit onderzoek stelt een methodiek voor die provincies en gemeentes kunnen gebruiken om vergoedingen vast te stellen op de locaties waar archeologische en aardkundige waarden liggen

Design of the muscles in motion study: a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy and feasibility of an individually tailored home-based exercise training program for children and adolescents with juvenile dermatomyositis

BACKGROUND: Juvenile dermatomyositis (JDM) is a rare, often chronic, systemic autoimmune disease of childhood, characterized by inflammation of the microvasculature of the skeletal muscle and skin. Prominent clinical features include significant exercise intolerance, muscle weakness, and fatigue. Despite pharmacological improvements, these clinical features continue to affect patients with JDM, even when the disease is in remission. Exercise training is increasingly utilized as a non-pharmacological intervention in the clinical management of (adult) patients with chronic inflammatory conditions; however no randomized controlled trials (RCT) have been performed in JDM. In the current study, the efficacy and feasibility of an exercise training program in patients with JDM will be examined. METHODS/DESIGN: Subjects (n = 30) will include 8–18 year olds diagnosed with JDM. The intervention consists of an individually tailored 12-weeks home-based exercise training program in which interval training on a treadmill is alternated with strength training during each session. The program is based on previous literature and designed with a defined frequency, intensity, time, and type of exercise (FITT principles). Primary outcome measures include aerobic exercise capacity, isometric muscle strength, and perception of fatigue. The study methodology has been conceived according to the standards of the CONSORT guidelines. The current study will be a multi-center (4 Dutch University Medical Centers) RCT, with the control group also entering the training arm directly after completion of the initial protocol. Randomization is stratified according to age and gender. DISCUSSION: The current study will provide evidence on the efficacy and feasibility of an individually tailored 12-week home-based exercise training program in youth with JDM. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Medical Ethics Committee of the University Medical Center Utrecht, the Netherlands: 11–336; Netherlands Trial Register (NTR): NTR 3184