Data from whole-class discussions in Dutch upper primary school show that teachers occasionally explicitly take downgraded epistemic stances through epistemic disclaimers such as 'ik weet het niet' (English: "I don't know (it)"), which contrasts with their institutionally assigned epistemic authority. In the current study, we have…

This longitudinal study examined bidirectional associations between special education pupils' teacher-child relationship characteristics (quality, satisfaction, and conflict), classroom structure, and behavioral problems (externalizing and attention-hyperactivity). A secondary goal was to investigate the extent to which severity of behavioral…

The aim of this study is to gain empirical knowledge about how the Bible functions in the context of Protestant Christian primary schools in the Netherlands. It presents the results of an empirical explorative and qualitative study on the perceptions of teachers and school administrators (directors and internal supervisors) on the goals of Bible…

Many children who are victimized by their peers do not tell their teachers. Subsequently, teacher intervention and support are not likely to take place. To investigate the role teachers can play to promote disclosure by victimized students, we examined (1) the prevalence of disclosure to teachers, and (2) the extent to which teachers' responses…

This study addresses teachers' practices of collaborating with parents on upbringing. It was inspired by the understanding that teachers contribute to upbringing in their day-to-day interaction with students and by the renewed interest in the upbringing-related goals of education in Western societies. The study aimed to learn more about the topic…

Previous research showed that strong religious communities wish for cohesion and cooperation between pedagogical environments in religious socialization. This explorative and descriptive study examines what Dutch orthodox Protestant primary school teachers perceive to be their role in comparison with others, such as parents. We extensively…

Research Findings: The parental role in supporting young children's oral language development at home is crucial for children's language and literacy development. However, there is limited expertise in how teachers can support lower-educated parents effectively to enhance their interactions with their children and stimulate the use of language.…

This article focuses on the moral values that teachers consider important for their teaching practice. First, we investigated the tensions experienced and questions raised by teacher's experience of the moral matters that arise in their profession. These moral tensions and questions arise in three different areas of interactions with pupil(s): (1)…

This article tests the tenability of a Unified Model of Task-specific Motivation (UMTM). The UMTM integrates task-specific components from several theories of motivation. Core of the model are four interacting but relatively independent types of valences. Affective and cognitive valences represent feelings while doing an activity and thoughts…

Data-based decision-making has the potential to increase student achievement results. Data-based decision-making can be defined as teachers' systematic analysis of data sources in order to study and adapt their educational practices for the purpose of maximizing learning results. Teachers must apply the findings from their data use to their…

The aim of this pilot study was to investigate to what extent elementary school teachers were prepared to tackle bullying. Interview data from 22 Dutch elementary school teachers (M[subscript age]?=?43.3, 18 classrooms in eight schools) were combined with survey data from 373 students of these teachers (M age?=?10.7, grades 3-6, ages 8- to…

Inquiry-based science education (IBSE) has been promoted as an inspiring way of learning science by engaging pupils in designing and conducting their own scientific investigations. For primary school teachers, the open nature of IBSE poses challenges as they often lack experience in supporting their pupils during the different phases of an open…

In the project "Learning for Life" we developed a hermeneutical--communicative model for worldview education that answers the European challenges of worldview diversity and worldview illiteracy. We implemented the model in a participatory action research project at nine schools for primary education in the Netherlands and monitored the…

This article reports on a qualitative-interpretative study about how Dutch primary teachers understand socialisation at school, which pedagogical tasks and activities they perform and how they fit this within their professional identity. Teachers unanimously report socialisation to be part of their job. Four types of views on the pedagogical…

Teachers play a key role in realizing successful changes in education. Among them are real "change agents" at both classroom and school level. To obtain insights into what characterizes these teachers, an exploratory study has been conducted by interviewing external experts, principals, and teachers (n = 20). An analysis of data resulted…