This paper describes a research about the changing role and competences of teachers and the willingness of the teachers to change. The researchers developed and conducted a survey at Fontys University of Applied Sciences department engineering to find out how teachers teach and how they would want to teach. The conclusion drawn from this research results in five subjects of attention: 1 To investigate new teaching competences 2 To investigate new teaching strategies 3 To develop collaborating professional environments for teachers 4 To develop a formal declaration of how companies can participate effectively in the process of the transition of youngsters to professional practitioners 5 To investigate how the organization should change their culture and structure towards a professional learning environment for students and teachers. The above mentioned items will be subject of further research in the coming study year. The main goal is to develop a business case or strategic plan on how to implement change in teaching engineering education.
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In the Netherlands, and in many other countries, teacher policy and teacher education are strongly focused on ensuring that teachers meet certain minimum standards. As all student teachers need to meet these standards, teacher education programmes might put the main emphasis on the ‘average’ student and pay little attention to students who can perform better, which would lead to a middle-ofthe-road perspective on teachers and teacher education curricula. However, there is a growing awareness within higher education of the diversity of students with respect to their abilities and ambitions. In the Netherlands, there are initiatives to develop excellence programmes and honours programmes that recognize and accept student diversity. Such programmes offer ‘excellent’ students new challenges in the development of their excellence. But as ‘excellence’ is not centrally defined, higher education institutes can define the concept independently. Here, we present two examples of teacher education institutes that have developed honours programmes that emphasize excellent student teachers. While traditionally honours programmes in universities are focused on stimulating outstanding research performance of excellent students, in both examples a different focus is taken. The honours programmes in these universities for applied sciences do not focus on academic performance, but focus more directly on the roles of outstanding teachers in schools. One of these institutes focuses on primary teacher roles, the other on secondary teacher roles. Both use research in the content of the honours programmes and in the evaluation of the programmes. Here, an analysis of the two programmes is related to developments in teacher policy and the teaching profession with respect to teacher excellence, e.g. the recent recommendation from the Netherlands Education Council to nominate the top 5% of teachers as ‘excellent teachers’ – a recommendation that was received with mixed feelings by teachers, teachers’ unions and school leaders
We conducted a descriptive study among first-year engineering students at the Anton de Kom University of Suriname. We analyzed students’ errors regarding necessary prior knowledge in a calculus A exam. We found that the stage of the solution in which prior knowledge is required impacts the importance of prior knowledge. We also found that many errors concerned basic algebra and trigonometry concepts and skills. We concluded that even though the required prior knowledge concerns basic algebra and trigonometry, the stage of the solution in which prior knowledge is needed is of great importance.
Codarts, as a University of the Arts, develops practice-oriented research to enhance artistic development, the arts practice and arts education. Performing arts, specifically dance, music and circus, enable us to communicate beyond geographical, cultural, linguistic and religious boundaries and helps us connect our common values and dreams. The performing arts are universal in their capacity to unite and inspire, providing an excellent opportunity for us to expand our research to an international level. However, the current research strategy at Codarts does not sufficiently match our European research ambitions, even though our education is inherently international and there are multiple strong connections to relevant themes in the European Research Area. Accordingly, with this project, we aim to bridge the gap between our current national research activities and our European ambitions by aligning our research focus with the European Research Area. The aim is to develop a strategy that enriches the arts practice, arts education and our research, creating a stronger connection to the European Research Area and to relevant European networks. Expanding the scope of our practice-oriented research towards European projects is essential to increase research opportunities, improve the applicability and societal impact of our research outcomes and provide more opportunities for students, teachers and researchers to learn and exchange knowledge and insights. Additionally, it is necessary to create a sustainable future for our institution. Strategic brainstorm sessions, benchmark studies, detailed action plans and viability assessments need to make sure that we become aware of our current position in the European research field, as well as identify potential partners and networks to collaborate with. This project will eventually work towards participation in a relevant European project proposal as the first step towards strengthening our position as a leading University of the Arts in Europe.
CRYPTOPOLIS is a project supported by EU which focuses on the financial management knowledge of teachers and the emerging field of risk management and risk analysis of cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrency has shown to be a vital and rapidly growing component in today’s digital economy therefore there is a need to include not just financial but also crypto literacy into the schools. Beside multiple investors and traders the market is attracting an increasing number of young individuals, viewing it as an easy way to make money. A large pool of teenagers and young adults want to hop on this train, but a lack of cryptocurrency literacy, as well as financial literacy in general amongst youth, together with their inexperience with investing makes them even more vulnerable to an already high-risk investment.Therefore, we aim to increase the capacity and readiness of secondary schools and higher educational institutions to manage an effective shift towards digital education in the field of crypto and financial literacy. The project will develop the purposeful use of digital technologies in financial and crypto education for teaching, learning, assessment and engagement.
The growing use of digital media has led to a society with plenty of new opportunities for knowledge exchange, communication and entertainment, but also less desirable effects like fake news or cybercrime. Several studies, however, have shown that children are less digital literate than expected. Digital literacy has consequently become a key part within the new national educational policy plans titled Curriculum.nu and the Dutch research and policy agendas. This research project is focused on the role the game sector can play in the development of digital literacy skills of children. In concrete, we want to understand the value of the use of digital literacy related educational games in the context of primary education. Taking into consideration that the childhood process of learning takes place through playing, several studies claim that the introduction of the use of technology at a young age should be done through play. Digital games seem a good fit but are themselves also part of digital media we want young people to be literate about. Furthermore, it needs to be taken into account that digital literacy of teachers can be limited as well. The interactive, structured nature of digital games offers potential here as they are less dependent on the support and guidance of an adult, but at the same time this puts even more emphasis on sensible game design to ensure the desired outcome. The question is, then, if and how digital games are best designed to foster the development of digital literacy skills. By harnessing the potential of educational games, a consortium of knowledge and practice partners aim to show how creating theoretical and practical insights about digital literacy and game design can aid the serious games industry to contribute to the societal challenges concerning contemporary literacy demands.
