Personal and social development constitutes an important goal of physical education (PE) curricula worldwide. Few studies have analysed how PE teachers perceive and operationalise personal and social development goals in their lessons. This study sought to investigate the implemented curriculum of in-service PE teachers, that is, how PE teachers…

Though teachers in schools are increasingly being asked to take responsibility for the education and training of prospective and practicing teachers, little empirical research has been undertaken into the support that they require to perform their duties effectively. This study provides an international needs analysis of the professional learning…

Autonomy-supportive activities are understood to promote students' autonomous forms of learning motivation, educational outcomes and well-being. In the current study, two learning labs in one Dutch secondary school have been studied. In these learning labs--each lasting one entire school year--students' autonomy during their learning process have…

Accreditation can serve as an accountability mechanism for higher education, ensuring institutions meet specific standards, which can be impacted by various factors including the regulatory environment of each country or local jurisdiction as well as an institution's mission, enrollment, and student success trends. In addition, higher education…

This article tests the tenability of a Unified Model of Task-specific Motivation (UMTM). The UMTM integrates task-specific components from several theories of motivation. Core of the model are four interacting but relatively independent types of valences. Affective and cognitive valences represent feelings while doing an activity and thoughts…

The aim of this study was to assess whether children's development benefited from teacher-and child-managed academic activities in the preschool and kindergarten classroom. Extensive systematic observations during four half-days in preschool ("n"?=?8) and kindergarten ("n"?=?8) classrooms revealed that classrooms differed in…

It is commonly understood that teachers in secondary school should develop throughout their career in order to stay as an essential factor in student learning. Schools can offer opportunities to link teachers' professional learning to their school practice with a positive impact on teachers' motivation to learn and the effectiveness of their…

Election simulations are considered a viable tool to instigate democratic learning in schools. This paper reports an explorative qualitative inquiry into one type of simulation project: mock-elections (ME). Main objective was to gain an insight into the organization of ME-practices in eight schools in the Netherlands in 2012. Thematic analysis of…

The present study focused on the involvement of Dutch kindergarten teachers in curriculum (design and) implementation of PictoPal activities in three different roles: executor-only, re-designer, and co-designer. PictoPal refers to ICT-rich on- and off-computer activities for early literacy. In the executor-only role, teachers were not involved in…

Using data in a professional learning community is a promising form of professional development. In this study, we followed a data team of teacher educators, who systematically tried to improve the education of student teachers (by decreasing first year drop-out). By conducting a single case study, we investigated the data team participants'…

Although kindergarten teachers often struggle with implementing technology, they are rarely involved in co-designing technology-rich learning activities. This study involved teachers in the co-design of technology-rich learning activities and sought to explore implementation and pupil learning outcomes. A case-study method was used to investigate:…

Though popular among children outside of school, Dutch teachers often struggle to offer technology integrated activities in the kindergarten classroom. Because involving teachers in development of technology integrated activities can support their implementation, this study examines teachers in the role of re-designing such activities. Two case…

In a statistics course for bachelor students in econometrics a new format was adopted in which students were encouraged to study more actively and in which cooperative learning and peer teaching was implemented. Students had to work in groups of two or three students where each group had to perform certain tasks. One of these tasks was: explaining…

This study explores educators' reflections on professional childcare practice in different national contexts. The data were collected by showing video clips of classroom activities in Japanese, Dutch and German pre-schools to experienced German and Dutch pre-school teachers. The clips were used to elicit their opinions on playing and learning in…

In the Dutch Vocational Education and Training (VET) system, competence-based education is the leading paradigm for innovation, both at the system level and at the level of learning environments. This article provides an historical analysis of the development of competence-based education in various countries and explores the concept of competence…