Alltagssituationen und Experimente: Was sind geeignete naturwissenschaftliche Lerngelegenheiten für Kindergartenkinder?

Natural sciences are an educational topic in kindergartens. At the same time, little is known about how to promote and facilitate the learning of natural sciences for children in kindergarten. This contribution reports on a quasi-experimental study with 245 children, which compares the learning situations ‘experiments’ with ‘discussions on the relevance of the natural sciences in daily life’. Three experimental groups, in which the learning situations were varied, where compared with a control and a baseline group. Children in the last year of kindergarten took part in three 90-minute learning settings on the topics ‘melting and freezing water’, ‘evaporation and condensation of water’ and ‘solubility and insolubility in water’. Learning gains were measured using a pre-post-design with a Rasch-scaling. Cognitive performance and family background were controlled for. A significant benefit in comparison to the control and baseline groups could only be found for a combination of both learning situations.     

Successful development programs for experienced doctoral supervisors – What does it take?

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we focus on professional development for senior academic staff, in particular, doctoral supervisors. Using an authentic case as an example of a long-term, comprehensive, and mandatory development program for senior staff, we analyse the challenges and benefits of such a program and identify issues for consideration. The main issues include: 1) the need for strong incentive structures initiated by the top management; 2) teaching principles that are aligned with the group of senior academics; and 3) a well-evaluated course that, in the long term, encourages supervisors to participate due to their inner motivation.     

Writing proficiency level and writing development of low-achieving adolescents: the roles of linguistic knowledge,fluency, and metacognitive knowledge

In a longitudinal design, 51 low-achieving adolescents’ development in writing proficiency from Grades 7 to 9 was measured. There were 25 native-Dutch and 26 language-minority students. In addition, the roles of (1) linguistic knowledge, (2) metacognitive knowledge, and (3) linguistic fluency in predicting both the level and development of writing proficiency were assessed. Low-achieving students improved in writing proficiency, the language-minority students more so than the native-Dutch students. Regarding the level of writing proficiency, individual differences between low achieving adolescents could be accounted for by receptive vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, and speed of sentence verification, suggesting that these are important components in low-achieving adolescents’ writing. Regarding development in writing proficiency, grammatical knowledge predicted variation between low-achieving students. Explanations and educational implications of these findings are discussed.     

Child Care Quality in The Netherlands Over the Years: A Closer Look

Research Findings: We assessed the quality of child care in a nationally representative sample of 200 Dutch child care centers using the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale–Revised and/or Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale–Revised and compared it with a previous assessment in 2005. The Caregiver Interaction Profile (CIP) scales were used to rate the quality of caregiver–child interactions. Results showed a significant and substantial decline in quality compared to 2005, with 49% of the groups now scoring below the minimal level. The CIP scales showed relatively high scores for the basic caregiver interactive skills of sensitive responsiveness, respect for autonomy, and structuring and limit setting but much lower scores for the more educational skills of verbal communication, developmental stimulation, and fostering positive peer interactions. Caregiver sensitive responsiveness was significantly lower in infant groups (0–2 years) than in preschool groups (2–4 years); caregiver respect for autonomy, verbal communication, developmental stimulation, and fostering positive peer interactions were significantly lower in infant groups than in preschool groups and mixed-age groups (0–4 years). Practice or Policy: Quality of child care is not stable across the years, and regular quality assessments are therefore needed to monitor child care quality. The low scores on the more educational versus the more basic caregiver interactive skills indicate that these skills deserve more attention in caregiver education and training. Training programs should be attuned to the individual interaction skill profile of caregivers.     

Coaching doctoral students – a means to enhance progress and support self-organisation in doctoral education

In this paper we focus on individual coaching carried out by an external coach as a new pedagogical element that can impact doctoral students’ sense of progress in doctoral education. The study used a mixed-methods approach in that we draw on quantitative and qualitative data from the evaluation of a project on coaching doctoral students. We explore how coaching can contribute to the doctoral students’ development of a broad set of personal competences and suggest that coaching could work as a means to engender self-management and improve relational competences. The analysis of the participants’ self-reported gains from coaching show that doctoral students experience coaching as an effective method to support the doctoral study process. This study also provides preliminary empirical evidence that coaching of doctoral students can facilitate the doctoral study process so that the doctoral students experience an enhanced feeling of progress and that they can change their study behaviour in a positive direction. The study discusses the difference between coaching and supervision, for instance power imbalances and contrary to earlier research into coaching of doctoral students this study indicates that coaching can impact the supervisor–student relationship in a positive way.     

The process of early self-control: an observational study in two- and three-year-olds

Metacognition and Learning - Early individual differences in self-control are predictive of numerous developmental outcomes, such as physical health and risk-taking behaviours. Therefore, it is...     

Black Stockings and Pot Pourri: Gender Issues in Design and Technology

Product designers are an integral part of bringing technology to life and it is predominantly males as designers who ‘clothe’ technology in the designs which utilise it. Consequently products used by and identified with women are in fact designed by men. One of the guiding precepts of design as it is taught and practised, is that people buy particular artefacts in order to express and/or confirm their identity. It has been argued that the success of gendered designs in the late nineteenth century reflected the social construct of gender difference. I argue that this has remained unchallenged to date and that the gender stereotyping of products further stereotypes technology. The theoretical debates about gender and technology are rarely introduced to product design students because the predominantly male lecturers are reluctant to deal with the issues themselves.     

Showing results? An analysis of the perceptions of internal and external stakeholders of the public performance communication by the Belgian and Dutch Railways

Performance measurement and communicating about it with the broader public is not self-evident if one looks at public services organizations (Hernon, P., 1998. The government performance and results act. Government Information Quarterly, 15: 153–156). In Belgium and the Netherlands, one organization that has been under constant surveillance from its stakeholders is the railroad company. Originally a national public service, it has changed through a European directive to operate in a liberalized transportation market. In this paper, we present the results of a qualitative study into what the Belgian and Dutch railway companies measure about their performance towards travelers, how they measure it, and specifically how they communicate it to their employees and stakeholders. Although we might expect the Dutch railway company (NS) to be more transparent than the Belgian railway company (NMBS/SNCB), in reality the two organizations do not differ that much from each other.     

需更多考虑最终用户的利益

IETF第69次会议提出不像以前的IETF会议那样,IETF第69次全体会议并不是以技术演示为特色。Olaf Kolkman解释说,很难找到既有趣又与整个IETF团体都很相关的演讲者和话题。后来的开放MAC讨论上提出了一些建议,包括互联网研究任务组(IRTF)主席Aaron Falk提出的应该包含进更多的研究议题,这样可能会鼓励更多的研究者参与到IETF的工作中来。