The purpose of the present study was to explore Dutch spelling development throughout the elementary grades. Two issues were considered (a) dimensional structure over time, and (b) rate of change. Whether the rate of change differs depending on gender, ethnicity, or word reading skill was examined in particular. A pseudolongitudinal dataset with…

The purpose of the paper is to assess the theory that the downside risk insurance provided by more generous welfare states generates long run efficiency gains, which counterbalance the short run efficiency losses caused by work disincentives in these states (Feldstein 1974, 1976; Sinn 1995, 1996). Testing downside risk theory requires long term…

Data from three studies were used to investigate whether the establishment of a no-smoking agreement is related to lower odds of adolescent smoking. The prevalence of a no-smoking agreement was first explored by using a national sample involving 4,501 Dutch adolescents. Second, data from a longitudinal study among 595 early adolescents and their…

The literature on the re-use of learning materials has largely focused on the development of materials. This paper explores how re-use can be stimulated after learning materials have been developed and made available. We searched for and developed guidelines that support staff and/or management most frequently adopt in cases of (un)successful…

In this article, the authors explore if and how knowledge communities have the potential to help improve the communal efforts of practitioners, intermediaries and researchers to change education. An explorative study was conducted with a survey that was distributed among 187 workers in the Dutch educational field to investigate if and how…

The three different perspectives on reflection in education are embedded in the philosophical traditions of pragmatism, critical social theory and Kant. We aimed to describe the pedagogical practices of reflection, and to develop a descriptive model of the practices of reflection in tertiary dance education which can be used by dance educators to…

This paper tries to depict important elements of the professional career of Bert P.M. Creemers. Starting from his early work on teaching styles and its effects on students' initial reading, it is shown that there are consistent patterns in his work. These come to the fore in his widely cited "The Effective Classroom" (1994) but also in…

All executives strive for better results in their organisations and they are always dependent on others to achieve these results. This article is concerned with the ways in which these better results might be achieved and the role senior management might play in this process. The traditional view is that senior executives design and control the…

The effects of school inspections on school improvement have been investigated only to a limited degree. The investigation reported on in this article is meant to expand our knowledge base regarding the impact of school inspections on school improvement. The theoretical framework for this research is partly based on the policy theory behind the…

Purpose: E-portfolios, which document and facilitate learning and performance, have recently attracted interest in the USA, UK, and Europe as means to increase employability and support lifelong learning. This article aims to critically examine these objectives in order to guide the future e-portfolio practice. Design/methodology/approach: Social…

Several years ago the authors, a professor from The Netherlands and another professor from the United States, met over coffee and discussions about teacher education at an international conference. With mutual interests in the role of teacher educators' development of their professional identity, the authors developed an intellectual relationship…

In primary teacher education, using a multimedia learning environment, we challenge student teachers to develop narratives of paradigmatic classroom situations. In this digital environment they observe footage of classroom practice (mathematics lessons) and discuss, analyse, and interpret these episodes. The environment will stimulate student…

Public health is a major focus of government policy worldwide and an expanding area of practice that includes an array of professionals and disciplines. Since the 1980s "empowerment" of individuals and communities to gain greater control over the factors that influence their health has become the focus of many national and local policies…

Concepts from organizational theory are used to interpret and review major findings of school effectiveness research to develop a broader perspective for understanding school effectiveness. Results of school-effectiveness research in the Netherlands are compared with those from research in the United States and England. A more-or-less established…

The purpose of this paper is to explore how experienced teachers learn informally, and more specifically, how they learn through the activities they undertake when teaching classes. Regarding these activities we studied four aspects: behaviour, cognition, motivation and emotion. During one year, data were collected through observations of and…