In this paper we present data on 407 homeless adults who have just entered theDutch social relief system. We examined their personal goals of homeless adults and the association between their perceived goal related self-efficacy and their quality of life. Based on a hierarchical regression analysis we analyzed the association between quality of life and goal related self-efficacy, relative to factors contributing to quality of life, such as demographic characteristics, socio-economic resources, health and service use. We found that the majority of homeless adults entering the social relief system have personal goals regarding socio-economic resources and their goal related self-efficacy is positively related to quality of life. Based on these findings we argue that it is important to take the personal goals of homeless people as the starting point of integrated service programs and to promote their goal related self-efficacy by strengths-based interventions.
Torpedo is a digital learning environment for developing mathematical problem-solving ability through self-study for pre-service teachers in primary teacher education. To achieve this, Torpedo supports and challenges pre-service teachers’ reflection during and after solving non-routine mathematics problems. To investigate the feasibility of the Torpedo approach, 271 pre-service teachers used Torpedo during one month in a pilot study. They used and evaluated Torpedo’s reflective elements differently. The results varied from pre-service teachers who experienced that reflection really contributed to the development of their problem-solving ability, to pre-service teachers who hardly reflected. The last group consisted of those who found the problems too difficult to reflect upon and those who used Torpedo to prepare for the National Mathematics Test and preferred to do so by drill and practice. As a conclusion, the study provides clues for improving Torpedo so that it invites more reflective self-study behaviour. For pre-service teachers who consider reflection valueless, however, self-study in a digital learning environment may be insufficient to change this attitude.
