Critical issues in supporting self-study

In this article, we focus on an analysis of critical issues in supporting teacher educators conducting a self-study. As data, we have used the digital logbooks written by the participating teacher educators, the outcomes of the interviews we held at the end of the support process, and of a follow-up questionnaire answered by the participating teacher educators six months later. We have found seven issues critical to enhancing the chances of self-studies being beneficial to the practice of teacher education as well as to the further development of a knowledge base for teacher education. In addition, our study points to four themes for further attention and research.     

Association between socio-economic status and physical activity is mediated by social support in Brazilian students

This study evaluated whether the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) is mediated by social support of peers and parents. A cross-sectional study included students (n = 1182) aged 11 to 18 years who were recruited in 2014 from public schools in Fortaleza, Brazil. Participants completed a questionnaire to assess all variables. Mediation analyses were performed to determine the role of parental support and peer support on the relationship between SES and MVPA. Also, moderated-mediation analyses with estimating of conditional indirect effects were performed in order to identify whether gender is a moderator of the mediating effect. A positive and significant association between SES and MVPA was found among Brazilian students, and social support of parents and peers were significant mediators of this relationship. Conditional indirect effects showed that both parental and peer support had a significant indirect effect among boys; only parental support had a significant indirect effect among girls. These results suggest that improving social support can help reduce the impact of SES on physical activity among Brazilian adolescents.     

体育院校工会在构建和谐校园中的作用

体育院校工会工作是高等教育事业不可或缺的重要组成部分,工会作为教职工利益的代表者和维护者,要从维护教职工的合法权益、保证教职工的民主权利、提高教职工队伍素质、营造和谐校园文化和推进自身建设等方面加强高校工会在构建和谐校园中的积极作用。     

Between Pragmatism and Legitimacy: Developments and dilemmas in teacher education in The Netherlands

In this paper, we describe how the shortage of teachers accelerates the development of Dutch teacher education in a more competence- and school-based direction. We address three themes. First, we note that Dutch teacher education institutes are taking initiatives to develop competence-based curricula and assessment. However, until now these developments have had a weak foundation. Secondly, it is clear that schools are developing and carrying out teacher improvement plans, but that student teachers are seldom part of these plans. Thirdly, the teacher educators in schools cannot meet the professional standards yet. Teacher educators in teacher education institutes also need time and support to adapt to new circumstances. However, there are promising developments in the right direction. Notre paper analyse les conséquences de la pénurie d'enseignants sur la formation des professeurs aux Pays-Bas. Cette formation est de plus en plus tournée vers l'école et s'oriente davantage dans une direction qui privilégie la compétence. Dans une première partie, nous constatons qu'aux Pays-Bas les instituts de formation des enseignants prennent des initiatives pour développer des programmes et des contrôles basés sur les compétences. Pour l'instant cependant, les fondements de cette évolution restent encore assez fragiles. Deuxièmement, on se rend compte que les écoles développent et mettent en place des projets d'amélioration de la profession d'enseignant, mais ceux qui forment les étudiants collaborent rarement à ces projets. Troisièmement, les formateurs d'enseignants dans les écoles ne peuvent pas encore satisfaire au niveau professionnel que l'on veut atteindre. Les formateurs des enseignants dans les instituts de formation pour enseignants ont aussi besoin de temps et de soutien pour s'adapter àla nouvelle situation. Pourtant, il y a des progrès et l'on va dans la bonne direction. En este artículo describimos cómo la escasez de profesores está acelerando en Holanda un proceso en el que la formación de profesores se basa cada vez más en las competencias y en el que hay una mayor participación de las escuelas. Abordamos tres temas. En primer lugar, constatamos que los centros de formación de profesores en Holanda están tomando iniciativas para elaborar evaluaciones y currículos basados en las competencias. Sin embargo, hasta ahora estas iniciativas no han tenido una base sólida. En segundo lugar, está claro que las escuelas, por su parte, están elaborando y ejecutando planes para mejorar el nivel de los profesores, pero que los profesores en formación rara vez forman parte de esos planes. En tercer lugar, los formadores de profesores en las escuelas no pueden cumplir aún las normas profesionales y los formadores de profesores en los centros de formación también necesitan tiempo y apoyo para adaptarse a las nuevas circunstancias. Sin embargo, existen signos prometedores de mejoramiento de estos aspectos. In diesem Artikel beschreiben wir, dass der Lehrermangel die Entwicklung einer Ausbildung von niederländischen Lehrern in eine mehr kompetenz- und schulbezogene Richtung beschleunigt. Wir beschäftigen uns mit drei Themen: Erstens sehen wir, dass die Lehrerausbildungsinstitute der Niederlande Initiativen zur Entwicklung von kompetenzbezogenen Curricula und zur Erfolgsbewertung ergreifen. Bis jetzt haben diese Entwicklungen allerdings ein schwaches Fundament. Zweitens ist klar, dass Schulen Professionalisierungspläne entwickeln und ausführen. Die Praktikanten sind jedoch selten in diese Pläne einbezogen. Drittens können die Lehrerausbilder in Schulen den akademischen Normen noch nicht Genüge leisten. Lehrerausbilder in Lehrerausbildungsinstitute brauchen auch Zeit und Unterstützung, um sich neuen Verhältnissen anzupassen. Es gibt jedoch vielversprechende Entwicklungen in die richtige Richtung.     

Offering and discovering domain information in simulation-based inquiry learning

The present study investigated how presenting domain information influences scientific reasoning and knowledge acquisition in low prior knowledge students. Fifty-five college freshmen received an inquiry task in an unfamiliar domain and were randomly assigned to a condition in which domain information was available before and during the task, before the task, or not at all. Students in the first two conditions exhibited more hypothesis-driven behavior and acquired more knowledge than students without access to domain information. The comparison among the two conditions with domain information yielded similar results in favor of the before and during condition. Together these findings confirm the predicted superiority of the before-plus-during format.     

Supporting the professional development of teacher educators in a productive way

This study reports on what 13 teacher educators going through a procedure to become registered as a teacher educator in 2011–2012 learned, what goals they formulated for their further professional development and what activities they planned to achieve these goals. The methods used in this study are mainly the same as were used at the time the first cohort went through the registration procedure in 2002. The 2012 cohort participated in a supportive programme, whereas the 2002 cohort did not. This enables a comparison of the results of both studies and thus some insight into the possible benefits of integrating a registration procedure with a supportive programme for the professional development of teacher educators.     

Adaptive research supervision: exploring expert thesis supervisors' practical knowledge

Several researchers have suggested the importance of being responsive to students' needs in research supervision. Adapting support strategies to students' needs in light of the goals of a task is referred to as adaptivity. In the present study, the practice of adaptivity is explored by interviewing expert thesis supervisors about diagnosing student characteristics in order to determine students' needs and concurrent adaptive support strategies. The findings suggest that next to competence, supervisors also diagnose elements of students' determination and context. With respect to support strategies, it is suggested that supervisors adapt to student needs in terms of explicating standards, quality or consequences, division of responsibilities, providing more/less critical feedback and sympathising. The complexity of the relationship between diagnosing student characteristics and adapting support strategies is illustrated and needs further study.     

Does students' machismo fit in school? Clarifying the implications of traditional gender role ideology for school belonging

How much students feel at home in school predicts academic outcomes. In view of the gender achievement gap, it is worth examining the gendered pattern of this school belonging. Studies on school belonging, however, have barely acknowledged possible obstructive effects of traditional gender role attitudes of individual students and student cultures. This study examines the relationship between gender role attitudes and a sense of school belonging among a sample of 6380 students from 59 Flemish schools at the start of their secondary education. The results of multilevel analyses indicate that boys show less sense of school belonging than girls, as do students with more traditional beliefs about gender roles. Moreover, student attitudes related to gender roles are strongly shared at the school level, so that we can speak of a gender role student culture. Students enrolled in more traditional gender role student cultures reveal less school belonging.     

Tool-use in a content management system: a matter of timing?

Given the rising popularity of content management systems (CMSs) in higher education, we investigated how students use the available CMS tools, as well as whether the moment of using a CMS tool affects students’ learning. This temporal dimension has been neglected in current research on CMS use. More insight into students’ tool-use is particularly important from an instructional design perspective because research has repeatedly revealed that a learning environments’ effectiveness depends heavily on students’ adaptive tool-use. Data were collected by logging the frequency and the time students (158) use the available tools within a CMS. Repeated-measures analyses revealed that students’ tool-use changed throughout the course, a dynamism that was different for each tool and was related to course-specific deadlines. Significant temporal student differences were found for some types of tools. Furthermore, students’ course performance was significantly impacted by the moment students used the course material outlines and the discussion board. In line with expectations, effects were different dependent on the tool. Hence, by examining students’ tool-use from a temporal perspective, this study highlighted that the timing of use matters. Furthermore, this timing depends on tool functionality. Consequently, the results have interesting implications for designing CMSs and they suggest implications for releasing some type of CMS tools at specific moments in the learning process.