Two aspects of formative assessment practices in the Dutch and Flemish educational context were explored: the degree to which secondary mathematics teachers implement a variety of assessment techniques in their classrooms, and the extent to which their students are involved in assessment practices. By developing profiles based on the combination…

Many schools aim to implement Assessment for Learning (AfL) to stimulate students to take more ownership of their learning and develop self-regulatory skills. This survey-based study is among the few in the field showing how students experience the extent of implementation of AfL, here in English language and mathematics classes in 12 Dutch…

Assessment for Learning (AfL) is complex requiring teacher competences for collecting, analysing and interpreting evidence of student progress, and for adapting instruction and learning accordingly. In this study, the four-component instructional design (4C/ID) model for complex learning was used to design a teacher professional development (TPD)…

We investigated French primary school teachers' assessment practice in mathematics. Using an online questionnaire on teachers' background, teaching, and grading practice, we were able to determine assessment profiles of 604 primary school teachers. As evidenced by the teachers' scores on the latent factors Assessment purposes, Assessment…

Objective: In the past decade, several authors have advocated that formative assessment programmes have an impact on teachers' knowledge. Consequently, various requirements have been proposed in the literature for the design of these programmes. Only few studies, however, have focused on a direct comparison between programmes with respect to…

High-quality elaborative peer feedback is a blessing for both learners and teachers. However, learners can experience difficulties in giving high-quality feedback on complex skills using textual analytic rubrics. High-quality elaborative feedback can be strengthened by adding video-modeling examples with embedded self-explanation prompts, turning…

Because of the improvement-oriented nature of peer-feedback activities, students have to deal with errors (e.g., spelling and argumentation errors) when providing and processing peer-feedback on writing assignments. Despite the central role of errors in feedback activities, it is uncertain how students deal with errors and whether the dealing with…

The principle-based approach is at the heart of the inspection philosophy of the Netherlands Inspectorate of Education. In this paper, we present the results of complementary qualitative and quantitative studies analysing the impact of this approach. In the first study, we apply a system dynamics approach to provide insight on the impact of the…

This quasi-experimental study investigates the effects of using an electronic development portfolio (PERFLECT) with teacher-guided student self-coaching on the development of students' self-directed learning skills and motivation. In a 12-week program in senior vocational education, students in the PERFLECT group used the portfolio to help…

Coaching is increasingly emphasised as a promising feature of professional development, yet concrete understanding of this complex process is lacking. This study investigates an observation-based coaching process by interviewing coaches and teachers from a three-year longitudinal PD programme. Findings indicate that coaches often supplemented…

Assessment for learning (AfL) can facilitate students' development of metacognition. However, teachers often struggle with the implementation of AfL in their classroom. The dynamic approach can help teachers develop professionally in the complex competency that is AfL. The dynamic approach is based on four principles: (a) addressing the…

Intercultural competence in foreign language teaching has gained importance in recent times. Although current work has highlighted the advantages of content and language integrated learning (CLIL) for intercultural development, little is known about its potential for teaching literature in secondary schools. Treating literature itself as an art…

Giving feedback to peers can be a powerful learning tool because of the feedback provider's active cognitive involvement with the products to be reviewed. The quality of peers' products is naturally an important factor that might influence not only the quality of the feedback that is given, but also the learning arising from this process. This…

We wanted to assess the quality of research conducted by Dutch secondary education teachers. We therefore needed to investigate the criteria for evaluating teacher research. The research timeline of this study covered four school years. We analyzed research reports and evaluation forms. We found that five quality criteria are useful for assessing…

This study focuses on teachers' group decision making during Dutch allocation meetings. A previous interview study showed that teachers question the objectivity of decisions due to negative interaction experiences and a lack of structure during these meetings. To characterize the structure and interaction of these meetings, 33 student allocations…