Qualities of instructional-learning episodes in different domains: The subjects Care and Technology

This paper focuses on the question, 'What kind of learning processes are intended in the subjects Care and Technology in the Dutch common curriculum?' Arguments for the introduction of the subjects in the common curriculum pointed out their practical nature. However, the concept 'practical' was used to refer to different dimensions: to 'learning domains' (cognitive, psychomotor, social-affective), and to 'learning outcomes' (knowledge-skills). We analyse these subjects in relation to these dimensions as well as the dimensions 'productive-reproductive learning', 'extent of metacognition', and 'near- or far-transfer'. The findings show that Care and Technology are not 'practical' subjects in either the learning-domain dimension or in the learningoutcome dimension. Like other subjects in secondary education, relatively little attention is paid to metacognition and far-transfer.     

Media Use and the Sexual Propensities of Emerging Adults

This study explored connections between media use and college students' attitudes of acceptance towards homosexuality (AATH). Data were collected from 1,761 undergraduates (62.7% female, M_Age = 19 years). Results varied by the gender, ethnicity, and religiosity of the participants. Overall, greater media consumption among men and those who are highly religious was associated with greater AATH, whereas the reverse was true among women and those who are less religious. Although the associations were modest, the results support evidence of a mainstreaming effect, whereby increased media exposure may draw groups with disparate attitudes towards a more similar viewpoint on homosexuality.     

The role of interest and text structure in professional reading

Students can be regarded as professional readers: they have to attend to, comprehend and remember the most important information in instructional texts, often about topics they are not readily interested in. Optimising such instructional texts has been the subject of much reading research. This research has shown robust effects for the influence of text structure: information highlighted by a strongly organising structure is retained better than seemingly less important information. Hidi and Baird (1986) suggest that such effects of structure are artefacts, because of the dullness of texts used in such experiments. They argue that readers mainly use interest instead of structure as their guide for attention and learning. In this article three related experiments using Dutch instructional texts are reported. Both interest and text structure were manipulated as within-item factors, and on-line as well as off-line methods were used to measure effects on the reading process and product. The outcomes show no support for the hypothesis of Hidi and Baird: students learn better from texts that are well structured, regardless of the interest of the text or its topic.     

The leeway of qualitative educational research: A case study

This article presents a case study into the question of how research-internal and research-external factors influence the leeway of qualitative research, and ultimately determine which questions can and cannot be addressed in research. First an overview is presented of the position of qualiative research in the field of education in The Netherlands. This position is then analysed by situating educational research in the particular research political context. In the second part of the article the authors focus on effective schools research, one of the strongest research programmes in Dutch educational studies, in order to show the consequences of the lack of a qualitative tradition.     

Using multiple calibration indices in order to capture the complex picture of what affects students' accuracy of feeling of confidence

The present study used multiple calibration indices to capture the complex picture of fifth graders' calibration of feeling of confidence in mathematics. Specifically, the effects of gender, type of mathematical problem, instruction method, and time of measurement (before and after problem solving) on calibration skills were investigated. Fourteen classes (N = 389 fifth graders) were randomly selected from two school mathematics programs, namely the gradual program design and the realistic program design. Students completed two different types of mathematical problems (a set of computation problems and a set of application problems) and reported their feeling of confidence (that they would find the right solution) when first reading the problem statement and again after they had produced the solution of each of the problems. Students' calibration skills were measured using three indices of calibration. Effects on the calibration of feeling of confidence due to gender, instruction method, type of mathematical problem, and time of measurement were found and are discussed.     

Guided work-based learning: Sharing practical teaching knowledge with student teachers

Building quality work-based learning opportunities for student teachers is a challenge for schools in school-university partnerships. This study focused on the guidance of student teachers by means of a mentoring approach aimed at sharing practical knowledge, with student teachers’ learning needs as an emphasis. The approach was built on collaborative lesson planning, enactment, and evaluation.The study followed three triads (student teacher, mentor, school-based teacher educator) and examined participants’ appreciation of the effectiveness of the approach and their perception of relevant conditions. The approach was considered effective: deeper conversations appeared and new issues emerged earlier than in regular mentoring conversations.     

Promoting teacher scaffolding in small-group work: A contingency perspective

Given the scarcity of scaffolding in classrooms, we developed a professional development program (PDP) focusing on scaffolding. The PDP was based on a model of contingent teaching consisting of three steps: diagnostic strategies, checking the diagnosis and intervention strategies. The development of four social studies teachers’ scaffolding knowledge, use of scaffolding in practice and reflections on practice were analyzed. Insights regarding openness, students’ understanding, and co-construction - that occurred while reflecting with the model of contingent teaching - appeared to foster teachers’ scaffolding development. A fourth step, checking students’ learning, is suggested as an additional step in contingent teaching.     

The role of invented spelling on learning to read in low-phoneme awareness kindergartners: a randomized-control-trial study

The goal of the present intervention research was to test whether guided invented spelling would facilitate entry into reading for at-risk kindergarten children. The 56 participating children had poor phoneme awareness, and as such, were at risk of having difficulty acquiring reading skills. Children were randomly assigned to one of three training conditions: invented spelling, phoneme segmentation, or storybook reading. All children participated in 16 small group sessions over 8 weeks. In addition, children in the three training conditions received letter-knowledge training and worked on the same 40 stimulus words that were created from an array of 14 letters. The findings were clear: on pretest, there were no differences between the three conditions on measures of early literacy and vocabulary, but, after training, invented spelling children learned to read more words than did the other children. As expected, the phoneme-segmentation and invented-spelling children were better on phoneme awareness than were the storybook-reading children. Most interesting, however, both the invented spelling and the phoneme-segmentation children performed similarly on phoneme awareness suggesting that the differential effect on learning to read was not due to phoneme awareness per se. As such, the findings support the view that invented spelling is an exploratory process that involves the integration of phoneme and orthographic representations. With guidance and developmentally appropriate feedback, invented spelling provides a milieu for children to explore the relation between oral language and written symbols that can facilitate their entry in reading.