Researchers continue to be interested in the evaluation of early childhood education programmes, their interventions, and the implementation of different types of evaluation. Their interest continues to increase and attract other researchers. In understanding the nature and appropriate use of evaluation in early childhood education and the basis…

The Science, Business and Policy Program (SBP) of the University of Groningen has been a work-based learning program for science master students since two decades. This program, a direct consequence of the Bologna declaration of education in Europe, has a distinctive position in European science curricula. Here, we use a web-based survey…

After the transition to secondary school around age 12, a well-known decline in young adolescents' motivation for learning causes particular concerns in the lowest level of secondary education, where the percentage of early school leavers is highest. This article focuses on a study of the effects of an intervention, designed to enhance motivation…

This paper compares and contrasts the program theory of the reenacted Supervision Act to the Supervision Act of 2003. We describe how the expectations about how schools should be inspected, the effect such inspections are expected to have, and how these effects should be realized have changed over the past years as a result of changing paradigms…

The research literature on parenting support typically focuses on English-speaking countries, such as England, the United States and Australia. This article draws on a review, commissioned by the English government, which examined policies and services to support parenting in five European countries: Denmark, France, Germany, Italy and the…

In this longitudinal study, we examined the effects of the use of English as the language of instruction in the first 4 years of secondary education in The Netherlands on the students' language proficiency in English and Dutch, and achievement in subject matters taught through English. Compared to a control group in regular secondary education,…

This study assessed the possibility of providing valid and reliable comparisons of the quality of higher education across national lines. The study compared college economics programs in Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom in a two stage process. First descriptive information about systems and study programs was gathered and analyzed.…

Presents the results of an evaluation of an experimental program designed to speed up the acquisition of Dutch by immigrant children in the Netherlands. In a longitudinal study that tracked both the experimental and a comparison group, both groups of children were pretested and posttested each year with curriculum-dependent and -independent…

Compares the academic achievement of students from two Dutch medical schools, one employing problem-based learning (PBL) and one using non-PBL methods. No systematic differences were found on total test scores. Differences were demonstrated only at the level of individual questions. Results indicate that PBL and non-PBL instructional methods have…

Since 1981, five Kursushuis ("course house") programs for delinquent youth have been established in the Netherlands. Although similar in many ways to Achievement Place (AP) programs, Kursushuis programs differ from AP programs in that they place fewer children in a course house and use a social competence model that allows task-specific…

Eight language curricula that are widely used in the Netherlands for children up to grade 8 were evaluated. Questions examined were: (1) whether the use of a particular curriculum results in greater achievement in specific language areas; (2) what differences and similarities exist among these curricula; (3) do differences exist in the ways in…

The first of three papers from this symposium on cross-cultural human resource development (HRD), "Determinants of Supply of Technical Training Opportunities for Human Capital Development in Kenya" (Moses Waithanji Ngware, Fredrick Muyia Nafukho) reports findings from interviews of technical training institute department heads in Kenya…