In response to challenges emerging in society, universities are searching for ways to innovate their courses through novel institutional educational policies and practices. Those efforts, however, are often not informed by knowledge about course innovation characteristics university-wide, and are often not supported by processes of reflection…

This paper presents a multi-faceted analytical Course Innovation Framework (CIF) that can help institutes of higher education analyze multiple aspects of course innovation. The CIF was constructed by integrating insights from literature, policy documentation and course-innovation practices at Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands.…

The delivery of planetary health education continues to grow across many disciplines, institutions, and geographical regions. To equip students with the transformative competencies needed to become agents of change in the planetary health field, educators must adopt innovative educational approaches. The course Planetary Health and Climate…

The importance of teaching twenty-first-century competencies has increasingly been emphasised. Little is known, however, about how schools actually approach teaching such competencies. We investigated (1) how innovative and innovating secondary schools in the Netherlands implement a focus on self-regulation, collaboration and creativity in their…

This analytical report was prepared by the OECD Higher Education Policy Team as part of the Education and Innovation Practice Community (EIPC), an action of the European Union's New European Innovation Agenda, flagship 4 on "Fostering, attracting and retaining deep tech talent". EIPC seeks to bring together peers from policy and practice…

In this study, we explored the relationships between teachers' self-articulated professional learning goals and their teaching experience. Although those relationships seem self-evident, in programmes for teachers' professional development years of teaching experience are hardly taken into account. Sixteen teachers with varying years of experience…

In this study, we examine a professional learning community of primary school teachers developing a joint school-based curriculum for science and technology (S&T) education. Team meetings were observed over the course of one school year and the participating teachers and school head were interviewed. An essential factor in the team's…

In this study, questions in context-based and traditional chemistry textbooks were analysed from two perspectives that are at the heart of chemistry curricula reforms: a content perspective and a learning activities perspective. To analyse these textbook questions, we developed an instrument for each perspective. In total, 971 textbook questions…

Innovation is essential for the education sector. The ways in which curriculum decision making is organised reflects different implicit approaches on how educational systems pertain to promote innovation in education. Curriculum holds an outstanding place when seeking to promote innovation in education, as it reflects the vision for education by…

Despite several years of successfully applying problem-based learning at Maastricht University, the Faculty of Medicine observed a slow erosion of problem-based practices and "PBL fatigue" among themselves and students. In response to this fatigue and new research into the development of the young adult brain, Active Self-Directed…

This article describes the complex nature of collaborative relationships, the difficulties of conducting research with others, and the complications of partnerships in educational research. To create and sustain a communicative space in which participants can collaborate to innovate education and curriculum, time and opportunity to develop trust…

The concept of competence is increasingly the basis for (re)designing VET. In competence-based VET academic disciplines are no longer starting points for curriculum development. Competence needed for working in practice, however, is. Competence-based learning is a dominant trend in VET in several countries because of fewer expected problems in the…

A team of secondary school language teachers and a teacher trainer developed a new method for Dutch writing instruction. The principles underlying the method were derived from insights regarding activating instruction and self-directed student learning. The development entailed two phases. In the first phase, the exploration of actual problems in…

Interviews in five Dutch printing/communications firms, survey responses from 462 of 1069 managers, and a DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) process identified technical changes, skill needs, and management tasks in the industry. A new structure was developed for training managers in these roles: producer, innovator, motivator, administrator,…

To reduce the multiplicity of secondary schools, broaden students' educations, allow later career choices, and increase educational equality, the Netherlands in 1975 established several experimental comprehensive secondary schools. Opposition at the time led to the separation of the schools from the regular school system. Development of the…