Although self-directed learning is considered important in both educational practice and theory as a 21st century skill and as a means to motivate students, most teachers find it difficult to integrate self-directed learning into their practice. An instrumental case study was conducted to investigate how teachers at four innovative Dutch secondary…

Students' learning environments often change during school career, due to school transitions and the introduction of educational innovations, causing discontinuity in teaching and learning. Success of students entering a new learning environment depends in part on their prior expectations of education, as these influence later perceptions.…

The aim of this observational study is to explore how history teachers promote historical contextualisation in their lessons. Historical contextualisation is the ability to situate phenomena and individuals' actions in the context of time, historical location, long-term developments, or specific events to give meaning to these phenomena and…

This article presents the findings from a teacher intervention in Dutch kindergartens aimed at improving teachers' differentiation practices (DP) to better anticipate student differences. The intervention was designed to improve the match between student levels and curricular activities, in particular for high-ability students and consists of…

In the last two decades Dutch primary school students scored below expectation in international mathematics tests. An explanation for this may be that teachers fail to adequately assess their students' understanding of learning goals and provide timely feedback. To improve the teachers' formative assessment practice, researchers, curriculum…

This study aims to assess the impact of systematic academic instruction on academic progress and behavioural problems of students with emotional and/or behavioural disorders (EBD) in special education. Earlier studies have noted the importance of a systematic approach as well as the significance of focusing on academic instruction instead of on…

The aim of this study was to describe how teacher educators design and implement group learning activities (GLAs). We used the Group Learning Activities Instructional Design (GLAID) framework to analyse their descriptions. The GLAID framework includes eight components: (1) interaction, (2) learning objectives and outcomes, (3) assessment, (4) task…

Research on motivation has mainly concentrated on the role of goal orientation and self-evaluation in conducting learning activities. In this paper, we examine the relative importance of teachers' teaching and their efficacy beliefs to explain variation in student motivation. Questionnaires were used to measure the well-being, academic…

Central in this study is the degree to which the pedagogical-didactical approach in undergraduate programmes aligns with the pedagogical-didactical approach in secondary schools, and how this is related to first-year achievement. Approaches to teaching at secondary schools and in first-year university programmes were examined by interviewing…

School quality care has become important in many Western countries. Expectations are high, but little is known about the nature and extent of the use of self-evaluation instruments within schools. From this longitudinal study into the use of a Dutch school self-evaluation instrument, it became clear that schools vary in the extent to which they…

In this study, the implementation effects of a staff development program on cooperative learning (CL) for Dutch elementary school teachers were studied. A pre-test-post-test non-equivalent control group design was used to investigate program effects on the instructional behaviours of teachers. Based on observations of teacher behaviour during…

This study examined whether stimulation of immigrant and national pupils' use of high-quality helping behaviour (experimental condition) during cooperative learning (CL) in classrooms boosts their maths-related talk more than in an educational situation in which such stimulation is largely absent (control condition). A total of 59 elementary-age…

Studies effects of an instructional program for deriving word meanings from context and through morphological analysis for primary school students with poor-to-average reading comprehension. Shows that it has a significant effect on the ability of students to derive word meanings, but found little evidence of transfer to general reading…

Investigates the effects of a pre-service training course for secondary education teachers in the Netherlands. The training course featured two direct instructional models: executive acting, directed at well-structured skills, and strategic acting, directed at higher-level thinking strategies. Observation revealed significantly more effective…

Reports on a study of 350 student teachers and the use of a preservice training course on effective instruction. Findings indicate that student teachers who used the recommended instructional methods elicited more student engagement and were rated higher by student teaching supervisors. (CFR)