Zoekresultaten

One size does not fit all - mapping informal and formal professional development activities of vocational teachers

Vocational teachers continuously tailor their teaching to changes in occupational practice, technologies, and student diversity. Teacher professional development is crucial for dealing with these changes. A longitudinal study was conducted to study the professional development activities of vocational teachers in the Netherlands. It resulted in a typology of formal and informal professional development activities. This typology consolidates preceding typologies, and specifies these for the context of vocational education. During a two-and-a-half year period, 26 experienced teachers detailed their informal and formal professional development activities in learner reports. The 386 activities identified were grouped in six categories of informal professional development activities and in five categories of formal activities. In total, three quarters of the activities could be characterised as informal, embedded in daily practice. Our typology could encourage vocational schools in facilitating professional development more effectively.

Technological and architectural solutions for Dutch nursing homes

There is an increasing call in society for the improvement of well-being for nursing home residents and the support of care professionals through a wide array of architectural and technological solutions that are available in modern nursing homes. This study investigated which of these solutions are considered essential by stakeholders from healthcare and technology. Data were gathered via 22 simultaneously held multidisciplinary mind map sessions with 97 stakeholders, resulting in 43 mind maps. These, in turn, were grouped into a single mind map of the nursing home in general, the private rooms for residents with somatic or psychogeriatric health problems, and the group living room. A prioritization of solutions was added. The contents of the mind maps reflect a Dutch consensus on the necessary architectural and technological features for the design of nursing homes.

Final market system maps - assessments of barriers to WATERMINING technologies and how to clear these

The WATERMINING project aims to bring solutions to improve the circularity of water treatment and the resulting by-products of these processes. Achieving a deep understanding of the barriers potentially hindering the development of circular water solutions is crucial to design policies that enable the deployment of these techniques. To do this, the WATERMINING project organizes Communities of Practice (CoPs), where stakeholders from the WATERMINING case study projects analysed these market barriers and proposal (policy) measures to clear these.CoPs in the case studies of Lampedusa in Italy and Almería in Spain focused on sea water desalination. The case studies of Faro-Olhão in Portugal, Larnaca in Cyprus and La Llagosta in Spain have been discussed by CoP stakeholders in terms of barriers in circular urban wastewater treatment. The CoP in the Netherlands focused on circular industrial waste water treatment at the Westlake plant at Rotterdam. The barriers defined by the stakeholders in the CoPs were discussed by the WATERMINING partners at the consortium meeting in Palermo (Italy, September 2022), and presented at the WATERMINING Market and Policy workshop in Brussels (Belgium, February 2023).Addressing the three above-mentioned categories of circular water solutions, common barriers identified across all WATERMINING’s case studies are the following. First, stakeholders report a lack of incentives to implement circular solutions, as mainstream linear practices are generally cheaper.This could be addressed by de-encouraging linear techniques by making the disposal of their byproducts (such as brine) more expensive. Another solution could be to provide added value to circular solutions through the monetization of their additional products and services. Subsidies can support in lowering production costs or prices of materials recovered from sea- and wastewater treatment to level the playing field with conventionaly derived material.Another commonly mentioned barrier is the difficulty to introduce products obtained from circular water treatment in the market, both because of a lack of public acceptance and legal constraints stemming from products being regarded as waste. Information campaigns and the revision of current regulatory frameworks to allow these products entering the market would expand the revenue sources from these techniques and improve the circularity of the system. Standardising the circular water treatment technologies in the market could support this, whereby best available techniques reference documents of the EU (BREFs) could be an effective instrument, especially when tapping into an ongoing BREF writing or updating process.Across the case studies and replication studies it has been mentioned that current legislation in case study countries exclude ‘watermined’ products from food and/or other applications. Criteria for endof-waste status of ‘watermined’ products, which would determine whether a product, such as Kaumera which is produced from urban wastewater treatment, is eligible as a fertiliser in agriculture, are usually determined at the level of the EU, but Member States could interpret these more stringently (Member State-level criteria cannot be weaker than the EU-level ones). In this respect it has been recommended to enhance knowledge exchange across Member States, e.g., by creating anEU-based unit (or competencies within an existing unit) to promote cooperation among EU Member States and regional authorities concerning the production, sale and use of products recovered from wastewater treatment.Another common perception stakeholders report is the widespread conservatism in the water sector. Water treatment actors traditionally have a focus on purifying water and supplying this to the market. Generating products from waste streams is often something that market actors are less familiar with. Among other solutions, the ‘Dutch model’ has been recommended as a way to create national centres for the development of knowledge and technology for water management, which would serve as an R&D accelerator.

“Is there a fit?”

Doing Research Online (How-to Guides)

Locative mapping with smartphones is the process of collecting geo data using mobile applications that tells something about a place, based on user input. Results are typically visualized using maps. Usually when such data is collected, the researcher is interested in more than just the location of a person. Perhaps the researcher would like to ask some questions, add a photo or make a voice recording. Questions such as what types of data you want to collect and with whom greatly influence how to design this data collection process. In this HowTo we aim to guide you through such a process and help you make the best decision what software is best for your project. We further elaborate on how such a data collection process can be paired with participatory methods to get a deeper level of understanding of the data collected.

Optimization of military garment fit

In the Dutch armed forces clothing sizes are determined using 3D body scans. To evaluate if the predicted size based on the scan analysis matches the best fit, 35 male soldiers fitted a combat jacket and combat pants. It was shown that the predicted jacket size was slightly too large. Therefore, an adjustment was proposed. The predicted and preferred pant size matched rather well. We further investigated discrepancies between predicted and preferred sizes using virtual fitting analysis. Colour maps showing the difference between garment and body circumference illustrated that some soldiers selected a garment size that was obviously too small or too large. In order to minimize the effect of personal preference and maximize standardize ease, we recommend to maintain the current size prediction (with minor corrections for jackets) and use virtual fitting selectively as a control measure.