Ruben Vanderlinde

The gap between educational research and practice: views of teachers, school leaders, intermediaries and researchers

The relation between educational research and practice is a growing point of interest and has produced numerous lively debates. Although many reports and position papers have been published on this topic, little empirical data are available. The aim of this study is to explore the gap between educational research and practice and to assess the views of different key actors. After reviewing the literature, focus group interviews were organised with teachers, school leaders, researchers, and intermediaries. Questionnaire data were obtained from educational research professors in Flanders. Results indicate that the gap between educational research and practice should be approached as a complex and differentiated phenomenon. All participants agreed that more cooperation between researchers and practitioners is necessary. This could be achieved by establishing ‘professional learning communities’ or by promoting a ‘design‐based research’ model.

ICT policy planning in a context of curriculum reform: Disentanglement of ICT policy domains and artifacts

Researchers and policy makers around the world are increasingly acknowledging the importance of developing a school-based ICT policy plan to facilitate the integration of information and communication technology (ICT) in education. Despite this interest, not much is known about how schools can develop their local ICT policy capacity and how to establish an ICT policy plan. In order to fill the gap in research on ICT policy planning, a multiple case study analysis with a mixed-method design was carried out with three Flemish primary schools. Primary schools in Flanders are encouraged by the government to develop local ICT policy planning in a context of ICT curriculum reform. Data from multiple sources (e.g. interviews with school leaders and ICT coordinators, focus group interviews with teachers, school policy document analysis, and a teacher questionnaire) were gathered and analyzed. The results indicate that ICT policy planning in schools should be considered as a multifaceted phenomenon grounded in school culture. ICT policy consists of different policy domains: vision development, financial policy, infrastructural policy, continuing professional development policy, and curriculum policy. Each policy domain can be described in terms of policy artifacts (tools, routines, and structures), and differences exist between schools concerning the involvement of teachers in the policy planning process and in the distribution of management tasks. As such, the study illustrates a distributed leadership perspective on ICT school policy planning. The results are of particular importance for school leaders, ICT coordinators and professional development trainers, and illustrates that ICT school policy is as much about developing shared meanings among stakeholders for ICT, and coordinating their relations and interactions in keeping with the schools culture as it is about content related decisions.

Identifying multiple roles of ICT coordinators

This study reports on the development and validation of measurement scales to study the different roles fulfilled by ICT coordinators. Based on a review of the literature, a 24 item questionnaire was constructed and administered to a sample of 177 Flemish ICT coordinators working in primary education. Exploratory factor analysis revealed a four-factor solution: the ICT coordinator as a planner, a budgeter, a technician, and an educationalist. Qualitative data corroborated these roles. This study provides a quantitative measure of the different roles assumed by ICT coordinators in practice. The implications of our findings for schools, researchers and policy makers are discussed.

Teacher Educators’ Professional Development: Towards a Typology of Teacher Educators’ Researcherly Disposition

ABSTRACT Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, the need for teacher educators’ – or those who teach the teachers – professional development became increasingly recognised in both policy and research literature. In this respect, a growing body of publications highly stress the teacher educators’ task of engaging in research and becoming a teacher educator-researcher. This article assumes that teacher educators’ professional development can be conceptualised as the development of a ‘researcherly disposition’. A researcherly disposition is defined as the tendency to engage in research, and involves an inclination towards research (affective aspect), an ability to engage in research (cognitive aspect) and a sensitivity for research opportunities (behavioural aspect). Twenty in-depth interviews with teacher educators were conducted and analysed in order to empirically explore the concept and assess differences in teacher educators’ researcherly disposition. The findings indicate a typology with three types of teacher educators: ‘the enquiring teacher educator’ (Type 1), ‘the well-read teacher educator’ (Type 2) and ‘the teacher educator-researcher’ (Type 3). Based on the proposed definition of a teacher educator’s researcherly disposition, each type’s disposition towards research is presented. Finally, implications for further research and for future programmes that focus on teacher educators’ professional development are discussed.

The Role of ICT in Early Childhood Education: Scale Development and Research on ICT Use and Influencing Factors.

Nowadays, more and more authors are convinced that ICT (information and communication technology) in early childhood education provides multiple possibilities for young children. The current study, conducted in Flanders, aims to get a clearer picture of ICT use in Flemish preschools. For this purpose, a questionnaire was composed consisting of newly developed and existing scales. Based on the answers of 232 preschool teachers, two types of ICT use are distinguished in early childhood education, ‘ICT use supporting basic ICT skills and attitudes’, and ‘ICT use supporting contents and individual learning needs’. ‘ICT use supporting basic ICT skills and attitudes’ occurs more frequently and is related to the grade of the preschoolers, teachers’ self-perceived ICT competences and the number of years of experience with ICT at school. ‘ICT use supporting contents and individual learning needs’ is strongly related to the grade of the preschoolers, teachers’ self-perceived ICT competences, ICT professional development and teachers’ attitudes towards the possibilities of ICT for teachers in early childhood education. This indicates that professional development is a crucial factor in stimulating ICT use that transcends teaching basic ICT skills and attitudes.

Teaching and Learning with Mobile Technology: A Qualitative Explorative Study about the Introduction of Tablet Devices in Secondary Education

This paper investigates teachers’ and students’ perceptions concerning the impact of using tablet devices for teaching and learning purposes. An explorative focus group study was conducted with teachers (n = 18) and students (n = 39) in a secondary school that has implemented tablet devices since 2012. The general finding of this study shows that the use of tablet devices in the classroom setting has an impact on both teaching and learning practices. The results suggest that teachers can be divided into two categories: the innovative teachers and the instrumental teachers. Innovative teachers attempt to shift from a teacher-centered to a learning-centered approach. They have changed their teaching style by transforming lessons in accordance with the advantages tablet computers can offer. Instrumental teachers seem to use the device as a ‘book behind glass’. The distinction between the two groups has consequences for both the way courses are given and how students experience them. In general, the introduction of tablet devices entails a shift in the way students learn, as the devices provide interactive, media-rich, and exciting new environments. The results of this study indicate that policy makers should consider introducing technical and pedagogical support in order to facilitate both teachers’ and students’ understanding of the full potential of this kind of technology in education.

Researchers and Teachers Learning Together and from Each Other Using Video-Based Multimodal Analysis.

This paper discusses a year-long technology integration project during which teachers and researchers joined forces to explore childrens collaborative activities through the use of touch screens. In the research project discussed in this paper, 16 touch screens were integrated into teaching and learning activities in two separate classrooms; the learning and collaborative processes were captured by using a video, collecting over 150 hours of footage. By using digital research technologies and a longitudinal design, the authors of the research project studied how teachers and children gradually integrated touch screens into their teaching and learning. This paper examines the methodological usefulness of video-based multimodal analysis. Through reflection on the research project, we discuss how, by using video-based multimodal analysis, researchers and teachers can study childrens touch-screen supported collaboration and how researchers and teachers can learn together.

Implementing an ICT curriculum in a decentralised policy context: Description of ICT practices in three Flemish primary schools

Ruben Vanderlinde is research assistant at the Department of Educational Studies at Ghent University – Belgium. Johan van Braak is professor at the Department of Educational Studies at Ghent University – Belgium. Address for correspondence: Ruben Vanderlinde, Ghent University, Department of Educational Studies, Henri Dunantlaan 2, 9000 Ghent, Belgium. Tel: +32 9 264 86 30; email: Ruben.Vanderlinde@UGent.be

ICT research and school performance feedback: a perfect marriage?

An important step towards the successful integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in schools is to facilitate their capacity to develop a school based ICT policy. However, one of the biggest challenges for schools is to gather data that could help shape such policy development. In this context, ICT researchers can be very useful as they can use the data gathered from their research projects to give feedback to schools. In this article, we present an electronic school performance feedback system (e‐SPFS) we developed for schools that participated in our survey research. This e‐SPFS illustrates how researchers can collaborate with practitioners; and how schools use data to examine their performance, their strengths and their weaknesses in shaping ICT policy decisions and practice. We appeal the ICT research community to carry out more research that is grounded in a school performance feedback cycle.

Development and evaluation of a new occupational medicine teaching module to advance self-efficacy and knowledge among medical students.

Objectives: Self-efficacy is defined as a persons beliefs in his or her abilities to successfully complete a task, and has been shown to influence student motivation and academic achievement. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of a new European teaching module in occupational medicine on undergraduate students’ self-efficacy and knowledge in the subject matter. Methods: Pre-, in-between, and posttraining tests were used to assess self-efficacy and knowledge building of 261 third-year medical students on occupational health issues. Determinants of self-efficacy and knowledge were also identified. Repeated measurement data were analyzed with multilevel statistical procedures. Results: The level of self-efficacy and knowledge in occupational medicine increased after the training. Students who frequently attended the lectures scored significantly higher than sporadic attendees. There was no relation between the level of self-efficacy and the final knowledge score. Conclusions: Teaching with the new occupational medicine module was effective. Lecture attendance is an important determinant of self-efficacy and performance. Self-efficacy was not associated with knowledge score. Encouraging classroom participation may enhance student achievement.