The first part of this paper will start with an introduction of the general context of the education system in The Netherlands. This is followed by a presentation of the general characteristics of the teacher education system, of the balance between school autonomy and government control, and of the general policies concerning teacher quality. The second part will give an elaboration of the system of teacher education by introducing five major developments that have shaped teacher education in the past twenty years, and by giving a more detailed description of each type of teacher education. In the third part, I reflect on the role of the government in steering innovations and quality improvement in the area of teacher education
Career opportunities play an important role in keeping teachers passionate and motivated in their profession. As such opportunities contribute to growth, challenge, variation and recognition, they can both attract high quality candidates to the profession and keep talented teacher in the profession for a longer time. However, the traditional view on the teacher profession can be considered as static with little career opportunities. This raises the questions: how teacher careers can be understood, and what the implications for such a more dynamic understanding are for education systems, school heads, teachers and for teacher education.Taking into account this questions, six international reports on teacher careers that aim to support national systems to strengthen career opportunities for teachers are explored in this chapter. These reports from the European Commission’s Working Groups on Schools, the Commissions data network Eurydice, OECD and UNESCO, all emphasize the importance of strengthening career opportunities for teachers, but vary in their focus, as most report focus on formal career structures that are embedded in national legislation, while the EC’s Working Group Schools report from 2020 takes a somewhat wider perspective, taking the perspective of teacher more as a starting point in identifying career options. From the reports the implications for teachers, school heads and teacher education can be derived, including the need for a wider and more dynamic view on the profession, leading to a wider professional identity, the need for the development of career competences for teachers and the need for initial teacher education institutes to actively support teachers not only during their initial development, but throughout the different stages of their career.
Mathematics teacher educators in primary teacher education need expert knowledge and skills in teaching in primary school, in subject matter and research. Most starting mathematics teacher educators possess only part of this knowledge and skills. A professional development trajectory for this group is developed and tested, where a design based research is used to evaluate the design. This paper describes the professional development trajectory and design. We conclude that the professional development design should focus on mathematical knowledge for teaching, should refer to both teacher education and primary education, should offer opportunities for cooperative learning, and need to use practice based research as a developmental tool.
Advances in technology are opening up new learning opportunities, consequently having an impact on conventional teaching and learning concepts. The roles of teachers, students and universities are also being transformed worldwide. The Academy for Leisure & Events of BUas has always been part of the above quest.Therefore, it is crucial that teaching methods and learning experiences in higher education are dynamic and continuously incorporate innovative approaches as well as integrate new technologies. After all, it is essential to be prepared for the way students learn nowadays and for the future demand coming.It is now more important than ever, especially considering the challenging coronavirus times we are in, for Breda University of Applied Sciences – as a partner of this project – to actively contribute to strengthening staff capacities in innovative teaching and learning methods and digital skills. For instance by offering training courses in a blended model, combining face-to-face teacher training with MOOCs and e-learning.As designing meaningful experiences has always been at the heart of the mission and work ofthe Academy for Leisure & Events, this project builds upon further extension of networks in teaching and learning innovation in national and international higher education contexts.Partners:FH Joanneum University of Applied Sciences, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Universidad de Lima, Universidad Catolica San Pablo, Universidad de Piura, Universidad Austral de Chile, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Universidad Vina del Mar
Within TIND, Christian Roth studies the training of interactive narrative designers with the goal of developing teaching methods and learning tools for artists and designers to enable the creation of more effective artefacts. Interactive Narrative Design (IND) is a complex and challenging interdisciplinary field introducing new affordances in technique and user-experience. This requires practice-based research for further development of the educational format, demonstrating its potential while identifying and overcoming common learners’ challenges. This project aims to develop a framework for the design and evaluation of meaningful interactive narrative experiences that effectively stimulate a variety of cognitive and emotional responses such as reflection, insight, understanding, and potential behavior change. It provides tools, methods and activities to enable aspiring or practicing narrative designers through an interdisciplinary approach, including game design, immersive theatre, behavioral and cognitive psychology, and the learning sciences. HKU education means to prepare students for success in the creative industries and IND plays an important role for current and future jobs in education, arts and entertainment. IND has the potential to create an emotional impact and spark transformative change by offering agency, defined as the ability to influence narrative progression and outcomes in a meaningful way. This enables interactors to feel the weight of their own choices and their consequences, to explore different perspectives, and to more thoroughly understand complex multi-stakeholder issues, which could have significant impact on the success of emerging artistic, and learning applications. The research project is directly embedded in the curriculum of the HKU school Games & Interaction with annual educational offerings such as the Minor Interactive Narrative Design (MIND) and HKU wide broad seminars. Course evaluation and literature research will be used to create new and adjusted training for different HKU schools and the industry. Outcomes will be shared via an interactive website and events.
The continuous monitoring of health indicators in biofluids such as sweat, saliva, blood, and urine has great potential for preventive medicine. Techniques that continuously monitor biomarkers still remain a major technological challenge. Recently, a concept of dynamic biosensing was published that is based on mediator particles. Such mediator particles exhibit rapid switching between a bound and unbound state during interaction with a probing structure to which they are connected through a molecular tether (like a balloon on a string). Although the concept of using mediator particles for dynamics biosensing is very promising, the used detection method is not a viable solution as it is not miniaturizable. We propose to use a photonic ring resonator (RR) or Mach-Zender interferometer (MZI) as the probing structure in combination with a highly miniaturizable readout scheme. In this project, we perform preliminary experiments to prove that this photonic approach can be used for the detection of the mediator particles tethered to the photonic waveguide. To bridge the gap with the practical application by health professionals, we will enrich the envisioned solution through OnePlanet's OpenEd program. OpenEd aims to share technology and innovations (e.g. prototypes) with educational institutes (MBO, HBO) that want to further innovate their courses or work methods, such that current and future professionals are well prepared to work with new (digital) technologies. By presenting our use-case as a 'challenge' to teachers, students and practitioners, OpenEd also allows enriching the use-case by involving (future) health professionals that can provide feedback on - or further investigation of - the practical application of our new technology from the health professional's perspective.
