Hetty Dekkers

Cross‐national differences in participating in tertiary science, technology, engineering and mathematics education

In many western countries attention is currently being given to the participation of students in tertiary Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education. This is a result of internationally competing economic ambitions, coupled with acute shortages on the STEM labour market, a declining interest among students for STEM education and a long‐lasting under‐representation of women. However, despite similarities concerning policy attitudes and identified problems, western countries differ considerably from each other concerning the percentages of students that choose STEM education and the proportion of female students included here. Based on an in‐depth study in Sweden, the UK, the US and the Netherlands, this article investigates the reasons for these cross‐national differences. At the heart of the explanations lie the accessibility of the STEM pipeline, the level of broad‐based interdisciplinary studies as opposed to compartmentalization and early specialization, labour market characteristics, social traditions and government policies.

Developing secondary students’ conceptions of chemical reactions: the introduction of chemical equilibrium

This article describes an empirical study concerning the introduction of the chemical equilibrium concept in chemistry classrooms in a way which challenges secondary students’ initial conceptions of chemical reactions. The objectives of this study were to identify the types of reasoning students use in this context and to develop teaching strategies which promote conceptual change in this respect. As a grounded theory approach was adopted, the study included three research cycles. In each cycle, a field experiment was carried out which involved the design and implementation of an experimental course. Data consisted mainly of audiotapes of classroom situations and the written responses of groups of students. The results indicated that carefully designed chemical experiments contributed to students’ dissatisfaction with respect to their present conceptions of chemical reactions. The concept of a dynamic chemical equilibrium was offered as an explanatory model to account for the anomalous data. This model wa...

Exploring cross-national differences in gender gaps in education

Although the participation rates of females in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (or STEM) education is poor in most Western countries, considerable differences across countries exist as well. This may be due to differences in the so-called gender achievement gaps, that is, delays of one sex with respect to the other. The variation in gender gaps in mathematics, science, and reading literacy, both across countries and across schools within countries, is explored in the present study using the PISA data. The results of multilevel analyses show the participation of women in tertiary STEM education to increase as the relative achievements of girls with respect to boys in secondary education improve. When the characteristics of schools and countries are examined in relation to the size of the gender achievement gaps, integrated educational systems are found to be more favourable to the achievement of girls than differentiated educational systems.

Sex-related differences in the determinants and process of science and mathematics choice in pre-university education

The more science and mathematics subjects that pupils in pre‐university education include in their final examination package, the more future academic routes are available to them. Equality of educational opportunity is thus threatened when groups of pupils, distinguished by sex and family background but otherwise of equal capacities and achievement, are found to differ in their choices. This proposition is examined using data from a large Dutch cohort. Multilevel analyses show that the choice of science and mathematics subjects by girls is influenced by their family background while the choice by boys is not. The influence of various pupil and family variables on the subject selection process is explored via path analyses. The results confirm the importance of viewing subject choice as a chronological process that progresses differently for boys and girls.

Dropout in the lower tracks of Dutch secondary education, predictor variables and variation among schools

This study analyses the data from a large-scale longitudinal investigation into the effect of both school and student characteristics on the dropout rate for students in lower secondary education in The Netherlands. Dropout rates were found to vary significantly between schools, but only a single school variable was identified that correlated significantly with dropout rate. The effect of relevant student characteristics (gender, achievement, parents’ level of education, minority status) did not vary significantly among schools, but for some variables the effect was found to differ between boys and girls or between minority and non-minority students.

Dropouts - disadvantaged by definition? A study of the perspective of very early school leavers

Conducted interviews with 39 young adults in the Netherlands who left school very early and followed their career development for an average of 5.5 years after dropping out. Approximately one in five students returned to school and achieved the educational attainment desired by the Dutch government. A similar number returned to schooling but did not achieve the desired level of education.

Educational Opportunities in the Netherlands: Policy, Students' Performance and Issues

Since 1985 the Educational Priority Policy (EPP) has been in effect in the Netherlands. This policy is aimed at reducing the educational disadvantage of children due to their social, economic and cultural circumstances. The first section of this article describes the outlines of the EPP. The second section presents the results of an EPP evaluation study conducted in secondary education among 20,000 students from nearly 400 schools. The emphasis is on test performance in relation to three student characteristics: gender, social class and ethnic background. The analyses show that the test results are largely determined by social class. Gender hardly plays a role, while the influence of ethnic origin is also limited. It should however be added that the performance of two migrant groups, the Turks and Moroccans, is the worst of all. As most Turks and Moroccans belong to the lowest socioeconomic category, the factor of ethnic origin is so closely interwoven with the factor of social class, that it is not really possible to distinguish the two. In the final section of the article these findings are related to three theoretical perspectives regarding the explanation of differences in educational performance. This is followed by a discussion on possible consequences for the EPP.

School Differences in Producing Gender‐Related Subject Choices

ABSTRACT Gender differences in mathematics are well‐documented. This article reports the results of a longitudinal study on the development of mathematics achievement and choice behaviour of both boys and girls between 12 and 15 years of age in higher general secondary education. First of all, it is shown that there are differences in the development of mathematics achievement between schools. There are, however, no gender‐related differences between schools in these development patterns. The main issue is that differences in choice behaviour between boys and girls can only partially be explained by differences in mathematics achievement. It therefore seems worthwhile to assess the role of schools in this process. Results indicate that schools neither differ in gender differences in choice behaviour, nor in their potential to transform initial achievement differences between boys and girls into an inclination to choose mathematics as a final examination subject. In other words: differential school effects...

Decentralisation and Combating Educational Exclusion

The main question in our study was: which success factors and obstacles can be expected in the Netherlands when implementing a new, decentralised policy relating to educational disadvantage? Part of this research was to look at international experiences of decentralised policies to combat educational disadvantage. Thus three countries were studied in this context and their policies analysed and compared via a literature study and interviews with various experts. In this article we first report on changes in Dutch policy to combat educational disadvantage and then we describe the decentralised educational-disadvantage approach in the three countries chosen: England/Wales, the United States and Australia. Evaluation of the processes and results in these countries leads to predictions of the success of the Dutch policy reforms.

An evaluation of the educational priority policy in relation to early school leaving

In the Netherlands, just like in other EU countries and in the United States, early school leaving is considered to be a major problem. Early school leaving has traditionally largely been approached from the point of view of social inequality and social integration. It has been known for some time that it is largely working-class children and immigrant children that tend to drop out of school early. Since the early eighties there has been somewhat of a shift in policy with regard to early school leavers, away from the problem of social inequality towards the problem of labour market and qualification needs. This has resulted in an entirely new definition of early school leaving, based on the concept of basic qualification: the minimum qualification level which all students (and all people looking for work and in work) should attain. These two perspectives have been incorporated in all of the studies into early school leaving that were carried out within the framework of the evaluation of the Dutch Educational Priority Policy (EPP). In this article we will describe the results of the studies into early school leaving within the first five years of secondary education. Within the framework of the Educational Priority Policy research is regularly carried out among more than 5000 students in secondary education; these students are part of the cohort that was also monitored in primary education. Since 1993, attention has also been paid to drop-outs within these secondary education studies and these drop-outs are now also being monitored. A ftrst study focused on drop-outs during the first four years of secondary education. It was noted that the problem was less serious than initially assumed, in terms of both scale and the kind of situation the drop-outs tend to end up in (de Wit & Dekkers, 1994). A follow-up study was recently carried out into the drop-out rates within