This paper focuses on the perceptions and uses of mobile technologies by 118 Belgian teachers in foreign language teaching and learning in secondary education. The purpose of the study is to analyze the teachers' attitudes towards the use of mobile technologies in- and outside the classroom via an online questionnaire. The preliminary findings…

This paper focuses on the collegial relationship between school leaders and teachers, and describes the very specific policies behind the school leader's influence on teachers' professional development. In the first phase, 39 teachers from 11 schools were interviewed regarding the teachers' perceptions of their personal professional development…

The paper reviews Belgian philosophy toward the education of learning disabled students and cites the differences between American behaviorally-oriented theory and Belgian emphasis on identifying the underlying causes of the disability. Academic methods observed in Belgium (including psychodrama and perceptual motor training) are discussed and are…

The network of causal relations between academic self-concept and academic achievement was examined using five waves of the Flemish longitudinal research in secondary education project (J. Van Damme, et al, 1997). Participants were 6,411 students in 59 secondary schools in Flanders, followed for 7 years. Correlational and regression analyses were…

In Belgium, as in many countries, there is an increasing emphasis on school self-management, accompanied by school self-evaluation. A study was conducted to analyze the interpretations of school members involved in a self-evaluation process. The tool was a structured questionnaire of 13 Likert-type scales. As a first test stage, the questionnaire…

This public opinion poll examined the public's esteem for and beliefs about the responsibilities and social status of K-12 teachers in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, focusing on gender issues. Interviews were conducted with 982 people age 18-70 years from April-June 2001. Results indicated that all teachers were highly valued, particularly…

In the context of large-scale primary and secondary school innovation projects in Belgium and the Netherlands, this paper examines the adaptation and construction of a version of the SoC-Questionnaire (SoC-Q) for Teachers. The SoC-Q was adapted from the Concerns-Based Adoption Model designed to identify teachers' concerns about an innovation. The…

This study had four objectives: (1) an empirical validation of a conceptual framework about the cognitive functioning of beginning teachers, including the role of the concepts of subjective theory, professional self, self-image, self-esteem, job motivation, task perception, and future perspective; (2) trial and refinement of a semi-structured…

The effects of large-scale improvement projects and the trend toward decentralization on the principal's role in primary and secondary schools in Belgium are explored in this paper. Particular focuses are on the ways in which sociopolitical change influences the nature of school-level leadership and on strategies that principals use in response to…

This paper explores the development of policy to facilitate self-examination by schools. The context is that of Flanders (Belgium), although there are implications for other school systems. In Flanders, more and more schools are becoming autonomous as they are being given some responsibility for providing high quality education, the supervision of…

The concept "learning to learn" assumes that teachers help students develop study skills and that students are encouraged to use higher order cognitive strategies. Fifty-four teachers of Dutch and mathematics in five secondary schools in Flemish Belgium were interviewed regarding their subjective interpretations of "learning to…

In Flemish education, there is an ongoing debate regarding the implementation of the concept of student centered education within educational settings. In order to investigate student teachers' beliefs about the learning environment within the learning to teach process, this case study, conducted within two departments of preservice and inservice…

Most of the middle schools in Belgium are 2-year schools that form a link between the 6 years of elementary education and the last 4 years of secondary education. In Flanders they are regarded as an example of the more global reform of the secondary educational system in a comprehensive sense. First, this document outlines the new system of…

The investigation reported sought to discover: (1) whether the problems faced by children of favored socio-economic backgrounds residing in countries other than those of origin are the same as or different from those faced by less favored groups, and (2) whether the techniques and programs provided for these privileged children can give any…

This paper questions the practical application of the audiovisual method in FL instruction in Belgian secondary schools. Some of the reasons for the lack of success of the audiolingual method are given as: the large size of the classes; the young age and poor motivation of the students; the small number of weekly hours devoted to FL instruction;…