Schools and Moral Education: Conformism or Autonomy?

In pluralistic Western societies, schools have a specific task in moral education. This task is to be understood neither as the transmission of specific values, nor as the development of moral reasoning skills or universal values, but as teaching pupils to handle plurality in an autonomous way. The concept of autonomy is interpreted from a Vygotskian and Deweyan position, where learning in school means learning to participate in cultural activities in a reflective and critical way. Participation has both intellectual and moral aspects, and thus moral education can never be separated from cognitive education.     

Instructions for authors

Instructions for Authors

Instructions for authors     

Denominational School Identity and the Formation of Personal Identity

Three important factors determine the institutional identity of denominational (Christian) schools: their interpretation of the religious truth claim, their conception of the nature of education, and their view of cultural differences as content of education. We investigate conceptually which of these interpretations of identity are consonant with a view of education as a place where the personal identity of students is constructed. We interpret personal identity in a narrative way, as a permanent process of reflexive construction where consistency over time is not seen as an ideal, given the plurality of postmodern culture.     

Personalization in the public sector: An inventory of organizational and user obstacles towards personalization of electronic services in the public sector

The public sector more and more deploys personalized e-government services. Personalization offers great opportunities to make communication more effective and efficient, to infer and predict citizens' behavior and to even influence behavior. However, some drawbacks must be considered. Important organizational barriers hinder the implementation of personalized e-government services and important user obstacles, such as access, trust, control, and privacy, have to be overcome to make fruitful use of those personalized e-government services.     

School and teacher factors associated with frequency of ICT use by mathematics teachers: Country comparisons

This paper explores school and teacher factors that are associated with the frequency of use of ICT by mathematics teachers. The SITES 2006 data base was used to compare countries with a relative high percentage of frequently ICT-using mathematics teachers (HIMA countries) with countries with a relative low percentage of frequently ICT-using mathematics teachers (LOMA countries). Meaningful effect sizes (≤?0.5 or ≥0.5) for 29% of the items in the SITES 2006 database were found. The findings suggest that mathematics teachers in HIMA countries, more than in LOMA countries apply a learner-centered approach in their educational practice and have a focus on life long learning competencies. In addition, compared to LOMA countries, school leaders in HIMA countries, are active in stimulating the use of ICT and encouraging teachers to apply new ways of teaching and learning. The school level items of the SITES 2006 database with meaningful effect size were factor-analyzed resulting in five factors: 1. active communication, 2. school leadership development, 3. assessment orientation, 4. ICT use by school leaders and 5. Bottom–up change orientation. Country profile scores for HIMA and LOMA countries and for culturally comparable countries were generated to illustrate how these country profiles can be used to inform ICT policy.     

Knowledge sharing in inter-unit cooperative episodes: The impact of organizational structure dimensions

We study how classic organizational structure dimensions should be altered to be more adapted to organizational knowledge sharing. In particular, we look at the dimensions: coordination, centralization, formalization, and specialization, in their relationship to the concept of knowledge sharing. Empirical data was collected by means of a questionnaire in two companies. Our findings indicated that expected relationships, such as the negative effect of centralization or the positive effect of lower formalization, were not found. Interdependency and knowledge complexity, caused by specialization, had an important interacting effect on the relationship between coordination and knowledge sharing. A comparison between the two companies revealed that the organization-specific context in which the coordination is applied influences the potential of this coordination for knowledge sharing.     

Objects of study, objectivity and objectivation in attribution research

These short comments try to develop an argumentation in favour of broadening perspectives in attribution research in academic settings. A distinction is made between research purposes that merely aim at developing existing attribution paradigms, or that on the contrary aim at a better understanding of the function of these attributions in a broader societal context. According to the author such a broadening of perspectives also necessitates an analysis of different positioning in society.     

The Pooled Data Approach for the Estimation of Split-Ballot Multitrait–Multimethod Experiments

Saris, Satorra and Coenders (2004) proposed a new approach for estimating the quality of survey questions, which combines the advantages of the following two existing approaches: the multi-trait-multi-method (MTMM) approach and the split-ballot (SB) approach. In practice, this new approach led to frequent occurrences of non-convergence and improper solutions in the case of a two-group design (Revilla &; Saris, 2013 Revilla, M., &; Saris, W. E. (2013). The split-ballot multitrait-multimethod approach: Implementation and problems. Structural Equation Modeling, 20(1), 27–46.[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). This was very problematic because this approach had been used in many experiments to determine the reliability, validity and method effects of questions that are used in the European Social Survey, which is used in approximately 30 countries. In this article, we propose a new estimation procedure, which we call estimation using pooled data (EUPD), to overcome the problems with this experimental design. We show that EUPD can also be applied in a general setting of structural equation modeling when the sample size is too small for precise estimation but several similar data sets are available.     

Investigation of angiogenesis genes with anterior cruciate ligament rupture risk in a South African population

The angiogenesis-signalling pathway is a physiological response after mechanical loading to promote matrix remodelling and thereby maintain tissue homeostasis. Studies have shown increased expression of angiogenic molecules in response to loading and in ruptured ligaments. Recently, polymorphisms within the vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA) and kinase insert-domain receptor (KDR) genes were associated with risk of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) ruptures and Achilles tendinopathy in Caucasian study groups. A case-control genetic association study was conducted on 100 controls and 98 participants with surgically-diagnosed ACL ruptures; of which 51 participants reported non-contact mechanism of injury (NON). All participants were genotyped for five functional polymorphisms: VEGFA (rs699947, rs1570360, rs2010963) and KDR (rs2071559, rs1870377). Haplotypes were inferred. In the male participants, the KDR rs2071559 AG genotype was significantly over-represented (P = 0.048, OR: 1.90, 95% CI: 1.00–3.59) in the controls. Furthermore, the GG genotype was significantly under-represented in the male controls compared to the male ACL group (P = 0.018, OR: 2.77, 95% CI: 1.17–6.55) and the male NON subgroup (P = 0.013, OR: 3.26, 95% CI: 1.24–8.58). Haplotype analysis implicated the KDR gene in all participants and in male participants separately. Collectively, these results implicate the angiogenesis-signalling pathway as a potentially key biological pathway contributing to ACL injury susceptibility.     

Inter-rater and test–retest (between-sessions) reliability of the 4-Skills Scan for dutch elementary school children

In The Netherlands, the 4-Skills Scan is an instrument for physical education teachers to assess gross motor skills of elementary school children. Little is known about its reliability. Therefore, in this study the test–retest and inter-rater reliability was determined. Respectively, 624 and 557 Dutch 6- to 12-year-old children were analyzed for test re-test and inter-rater reliability. All tests took place within the school setting. The outcome measure was age-expected motor performance (in years). Results showed a small practice effect of .24 years for re-test sessions and assessment of motor skills was possible with acceptable precision (standard error of measurement = .67 years). Overall, intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was .93 (95% confidence interval: .92–.95) for test–retest reliability and .97 for inter-rater reliability. For the repeated measures, the smallest detectable change (SDC) was 1.84 and limits of agreement were –1.60 and 2.08 years. It can be concluded that the 4-Skills Scan is a reliable instrument to assess gross motor skills in elementary school children.