The affordances of Open Educational Resources (OER) have resulted in various initiatives around the world, but most of them cease to exist once the initial project funding stops. Communities might... Show moreThe affordances of Open Educational Resources (OER) have resulted in various initiatives around the world, but most of them cease to exist once the initial project funding stops. Communities might be a means to create sustainable practices, yet, such communities can only function if their members perceive these communities as valuable. We applied the value creation framework of Wenger, Trayner, and De Laat to examine the value teachers ascribe to their engagement with an inter-institutional community on OER. In this community, 15 universities of applied sciences collaborated on sharing knowledge and resources across their institutional barriers. We collected data through user statistics, an online questionnaire, and semi-structured interviews. Major value creation occurred from teachers' personal needs, with dominant immediate and potential values. Findings on applied and realized values denote that it became easier for teachers to connect with peers, and to initiate collaboration projects across institutes. The framework we used is helpful to inform actions to further promote value creation in communities on OER. Recommendations relating to communities' aspirations, its relations with the wider organization, and adoption of OER are formulated to inform sustainable practices of inter-institutional communities. Show less
The COVID-19 outbreak, and associated school restrictions affected the learning experience of students worldwide. The current study focused on the learning experiences of United Kingdom children... Show moreThe COVID-19 outbreak, and associated school restrictions affected the learning experience of students worldwide. The current study focused on the learning experiences of United Kingdom children with neurodevelopmental conditions, including autism and/or intellectual disability. Specifically, the aim was to examine families’ experience with school support for home schooling, families’ resources, and level of satisfaction with schools among families whose children engaged with home schooling, hybrid learning, and school-based learning during the pandemic. An online survey took place in 2021, approximately 1 year since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. Participants were recruited mostly through social media with support via several charities across the United Kingdom. Participants were 809 parents/carers of children with autism and/or intellectual disability aged 5 – 15 years. Of these, 59% were learning from home daily during home schooling, 19% spent some days in school (hybrid learning), and 22% were going to school daily during school restrictions. Parents/carers reported on the support received from schools, the resources accessed, and the resources needed but not accessed to facilitate learning. They also reported on their level of satisfaction with school support and school management of COVID-19 risks. Results indicated that learning during the COVID-19 pandemic was mostly via school-provided worksheets, in the home and hybrid learning group. Families had access to the internet/data and a laptop, computer, or tablet to facilitate learning. However, in both learning groups (i.e., home and hybrid learning) they needed but did not have access to special equipment, special software, and a printer. Importantly, 11% of families in home and hybrid learning groups reported not having access to a desk/table. Satisfaction with school support was low in the home and hybrid learning groups. Satisfaction with COVID-19 management was higher for families of children attending school daily (i.e., the school-based learning group). Future education policy decisions during public health crises should take into consideration the needs of children with neurodevelopmental conditions including autism and/or intellectual disability. Show less
This study explored the readiness of teachers to learn about learning and teaching supportive modes of ICT use with the lens of the Unified Model of Task-specific Motivation (UMTM). According to... Show moreThis study explored the readiness of teachers to learn about learning and teaching supportive modes of ICT use with the lens of the Unified Model of Task-specific Motivation (UMTM). According to the UMTM readiness for action is driven by feelings of activities and thoughts about the value of consequences of activities, which both can be positive and negative, and which in turn are influenced by aspects of autonomy and competence, by social relatedness, and by subjective norm. The twofold goal of this study was to test the merits of the model in general and for ICT integration in education in particular. A sample of 282 teachers provided answers about different aspects of their motivation to learn about the two types of ICT use. There were some differences between these two types of learning activities, but for both, thoughts about the value of the consequences of the activities were more important than feelings about them. Furthermore, although sense of competence was relatively more important for leaning about learning supportive ICT use than for learning about teaching supportive ICT use, teachers’ sense of autonomy, a variable that is completely ignored in research on ICT integration, was in general far more important for learning about ICT use than sense of competence. Show less
This dissertation focused on teachers’ comprehension of student progress graphs from a progress-monitoring system called Curriculum-based Measurement (CBM). CBM is designed for teachers to... Show moreThis dissertation focused on teachers’ comprehension of student progress graphs from a progress-monitoring system called Curriculum-based Measurement (CBM). CBM is designed for teachers to monitor the progress of students with learning disabilities and to evaluate instructional effectiveness for these students (Deno, 1985, 2003). Within CBM, short measures are administered to students frequently, and scores on those measures are depicted in individual progress graphs. Teachers inspect the graphs to evaluate student progress and effects of instruction. When teachers use CBM to monitor student progress and when they respond to the data by making instructional changes, student achievement improves; however, teachers often do not use the data (Stecker, Fuchs, & Fuchs, 2005). One potential reason might be that teachers have difficulty reading and interpreting the graphs. This dissertation focused on teachers’ ability to read and interpret – to comprehend – CBM graphs. We employed think-aloud and eye-tracking methodologies to examine how teachers described and inspected CBM graphs. We also examined approaches for improving teachers’ CBM graph comprehension. Results revealed that teachers experience difficulties with inspecting CBM graphs, and with reading, interpreting, and linking CBM data to instruction, but that teachers’ CBM graph comprehension can be improved via relatively short CBM instructional videos. Show less
The research in this thesis was conducted in the context of an innovation implemented at a school for secondary education that aimed to further develop students' talents at school. Since... Show moreThe research in this thesis was conducted in the context of an innovation implemented at a school for secondary education that aimed to further develop students' talents at school. Since differentiated instruction (DI) was encouraged in this innovation, and because DI appears to be a complex approach to implement, we studied teachers' implementation of DI, teachers' interactive cognitions of DI, and their sense-making of the innovation. We therefore conducted a systematic literature review, and studied 4 secondary school teachers using stimulated recall interviews and 15 secondary school teachers using questionnaires with open-ended questions. The literature review provided an overview of how many different factors in the teachers' daily working environment influenced teachers' implementation of DI: for example, the school principal appears to be important in providing support to teachers to change their practices towards more DI. The stimulated recall interviews and questionnaire showed that the context of the innovation might provide the teachers with more freedom to experiment with DI, since they did not have to follow the regular curriculum in this innovation. In addition, the stimulated recall interviews provided the insight that teachers mainly take student readiness into account and that their DI resembles convergent DI. Show less
For a successful implementation of an educational reform, teachers need to regard the proposal as being practical. I used a modular, success-oriented approach to make a context-based reform... Show moreFor a successful implementation of an educational reform, teachers need to regard the proposal as being practical. I used a modular, success-oriented approach to make a context-based reform practical for implemtentation in Duthc biology education. educational reform, modular, teachers, biology, success-oriented, implementation, professional development Show less
Students' and teachers' perceptions of the level to which Assesment for Learning (AfL) is practiced in classrooms are largely incongruent. Teachers perceived more practice of AfL than students.... Show moreStudents' and teachers' perceptions of the level to which Assesment for Learning (AfL) is practiced in classrooms are largely incongruent. Teachers perceived more practice of AfL than students. Congruency in perceptions of AfL predicted higher student intrinsic motivation. In accordance with Self-Determination Theory (Ryan, 2000), the differences in intrinsic motivation were explained by students' lower feelings of competence and autonomy and relatedness towards their teacher. Congruency in AfL perceptions were explained by student Dutch language proficiency and teachers’ efficacious beliefs about their teaching skills. Teachers' positive impact on motivational interpersonal factors was partly offset by their own possible over-efficaciousness, which might have limited the degree to which they reflected on their own teaching. This relationship seems to hold for students regardless of their ethnic background. Teacher-efficacy associated with intrinsic motivation in a dualistic fashion: high teacher efficacy negatively related to congruence, but positively to fulfillment of the needs for competence and relatedness. Even though teachers may be conducive to the maintenance and emergence of feelings of competence in their classrooms, and are perceived as having good relationship with their students, there is also a negative relation between efficacy and the perception of congruencies. Show less
De ontwikkeling van instrumenten voor het beoordelen van docentcompetenties staat volop in de belangstelling. Uit onvrede met bestaande procedures, worden momenteel nieuwe beoordelingsprocedures... Show moreDe ontwikkeling van instrumenten voor het beoordelen van docentcompetenties staat volop in de belangstelling. Uit onvrede met bestaande procedures, worden momenteel nieuwe beoordelingsprocedures ontwikkeld, ook wel __authentieke performance assessments__ genoemd. Een belangrijk kenmerk van deze beoordelingsprocedures is dat ze beogen recht te doen aan het complexe en contextgebonden karakter van lesgeven. Deze nieuwe vormen van beoordelen brengen nieuwe bedreigingen van de betrouwbaarheid en validiteit met zich mee. Om die bedreigingen te reduceren, worden in de literatuur verschillende maatregelen aangedragen die in het design van de beoordelingsprocedure zouden kunnen worden opgenomen. Voorafgaand aan dit onderzoek werd er op basis van deze maatregelen een beoordelingsprocedure ontwikkeld genaamd __videodossiers__. De centrale vraag in het proefschrift luidt: in welke mate zijn beoordelingen op basis van een videodossier betrouwbaar, generaliseerbaar en valide? Deze onderzoeksvraag is in drie deelstudies onderzocht. Het belangrijkste resultaat dat werd gevonden, is dat beoordelaars een acceptabel tot hoog niveau van overeenstemming bereikten voor het toekennen van cijfermatige competentiebeoordelingen op basis van een videodossier en dat er op basis van twee beoordelaars al een acceptabele interbeoordelaarsovereenstemming te verkrijgen was. Verder bleek dat beoordelaars de toegekende cijfermatige beoordelingen baseerden op uiteenlopende bewijzen en argumenten. Show less
