This report is the second in a series of three reports named Value Added Planning, consisting of three unique, but interconnected tools, namely the Green Credit Tool, the Workbench Method and Value Added Planning, These tools have been developed and/or tested in the context of the European INTERREG programme: VALUE (INTERREG IVB North West Europe - Valuing Attractive Landscapes in the Urban Economy), in which the municipality of Amersfoort is involved. Aim of this programme is to understand how green space in urban centres can become more competitive with other urban functions. In this context, the municipality of Amersfoort has introduced the interactive method named Workbench Spatial Quality (Werkbank Ruimtelijke Kwaliteit in Dutch) in their spatial design in several areas in their municipality. The Workbench Spatial Quality (to be referred to as Workbench) has been applied on two cases in Amersfoort: Park Randenbroek and Vathorst NW. In this report the Workbench as applied in Amersfoort is evaluated. Research was done on the basis of literature research, case-material and interviews performed with several experts. Furthermore, research was done by students at the Wageningen University and Research Centre (WUR). Part of the evaluation in this report makes use of a quick scan of 19 Dutch cases. The question addressed in this report is: 1.How was the Workbench Spatial Quality applied in Amersfoort? 2.Can the Workbench contribute to sustainable spatial planning?
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The quality of teaching has a clear impact on student success, but how can good teaching be defined? The European QualiTePE research project, funded by the Erasmus+ programme and involving ten European countries, seeks to adress this question specifically for Physical Education (PE). The QualiTePE instrument was designed for use in teacher training and further training to enable criteria-based observation and assessment of the quality of Physical Education lessons. The instrument is designed for diverse PE teaching and learning scenarios, alongside teacher resources, facilitating the practical assessment of teaching quality in PE. The QualiTePE instrument quantifies teaching quality by assessing specific, observable teaching characteristics via questionnaire items. Each assessment is conducted by three different population groups: 1) the students 2) the PE teacher 3) an observer. The comparative analysis of the data collected from these three perspectives enables systematic and criteria‐based feedback for (prospective) teachers, identifies areas of improvement, and informs content development for PE across Europe. The QualiTePE digital web-based evaluation tool for assessing the “Quality of Teaching in Physical Education” is now available in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Slovenian, Czech and Greek.
This article explores the criteria for ‘good research’ employed by lecturers in traditional universities and institutes of higher professional education. The implementation of research-related activities in the latter created a repositioning of both types of Dutch institutions, similar as in many European higher education systems. The higher education institutes state their mutual difference is based on different types of research and research education, being more fundamental (or ‘Mode 1’) versus being more applied (or ‘Mode 2’). Lecturers’ criteria for‘good research’ potentially have a considerable influence on the research character in different higher educational types, both in education and research. Hence, this study assumes that the presumed institutional differences can be seen in their lecturers’ criteria for ‘good’ research. In a focus group and interview study, participants were asked to elaborate on personal examples of ‘good’ and ‘nongood’ research. A thematic analysis resulted in six themes on ‘good research’. The differences between both groups of lecturers found are related to the value of the research, and do not reach the core of research quality. This shows how the policy intent to steer on institutional differences actually is successful, but also limited. Implications are discussed.
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Smart city technologies, including artificial intelligence and computer vision, promise to bring a higher quality of life and more efficiently managed cities. However, developers, designers, and professionals working in urban management have started to realize that implementing these technologies poses numerous ethical challenges. Policy papers now call for human and public values in tech development, ethics guidelines for trustworthy A.I., and cities for digital rights. In a democratic society, these technologies should be understandable for citizens (transparency) and open for scrutiny and critique (accountability). When implementing such public values in smart city technologies, professionals face numerous knowledge gaps. Public administrators find it difficult to translate abstract values like transparency into concrete specifications to design new services. In the private sector, developers and designers still lack a ‘design vocabulary’ and exemplary projects that can inspire them to respond to transparency and accountability demands. Finally, both the public and private sectors see a need to include the public in the development of smart city technologies but haven’t found the right methods. This proposal aims to help these professionals to develop an integrated, value-based and multi-stakeholder design approach for the ethical implementation of smart city technologies. It does so by setting up a research-through-design trajectory to develop a prototype for an ethical ‘scan car’, as a concrete and urgent example for the deployment of computer vision and algorithmic governance in public space. Three (practical) knowledge gaps will be addressed. With civil servants at municipalities, we will create methods enabling them to translate public values such as transparency into concrete specifications and evaluation criteria. With designers, we will explore methods and patterns to answer these value-based requirements. Finally, we will further develop methods to engage civil society in this processes.
Quality criteria for patient documentation have to be developed based on research evidence. This project addresses the process of gathering patient information, processing information, and using information in the chain of care.
The research results, the identified success factors for the Innovation Lab HIBO, will make it clear what is needed for the Innovation Lab HIBO in order to succeed: (a) with regard to design and further development of the Innovation Lab HIBO, as well as (b) with regard to conditions that need to be created and prerequisites that need to be followed for the successful functioning of the Innovation Lab HIBO. From September 2020 the follow up research is planned into operationalization of success factors, definition of performance criteria, performance evaluation, development of suggestions for improvement of performance, and development of a blueprint. In fulfilment of interinstitutional agreements on educational quality, specifically, the Agreement on Quality 2.6 [Kwaliteitsafspraak 2.6: “het faciliteren van docenten om te onderzoeken wat de succesfactoren zijn van leergemeenschappen en hun onderwijspraktijk, inclusief het leren van docent-onderzoekers”], the sub-theme No.7 “Valorisatie van de effecten van IWP’s. Succesfactoren IWP's”, the research on success factors for the Innovation Lab Hanze International Business Office (HIBO) will be carried on in the period from February 1, 2020, till August 30, 2020.