Schools In Flanders Research Articles

Why do they want to teach? The multiple reasons of different groups of students for undertaking teacher education

In times of teacher shortage, well-considered, goal-oriented teacher recruitment is important. An understanding of the reasons why different groups of students undertake teacher training would be useful in developing targeted campaigns. Against this background, the research question is as follows: what are the motivations prompting students to enter primary teacher training and do these motivations vary according to student characteristics? A questionnaire based on the reasons and expectations included in the Learning and Studying Questionnaire was administered during a compulsory course. Participants were 1,805 pre-service primary education teachers starting their first year of study at 14 different schools in Flanders (Belgium). Results show that students mainly undertake teacher training for intrinsic and altruistic reasons such as developing skills and knowledge that will be useful in their future teaching career, attending interesting and well-taught courses, gaining an understanding of the subject and helping children and making a difference in the world. In addition, students also take into account extrinsic factors such as good working conditions, long holidays and the ability to balance work and family responsibilities. Significant differences in motivation were found to be related to student characteristics such as gender, age, educational background and self-reported academic achievement, suggesting that teacher recruitment could benefit from population-specific approaches aimed at increasing the attractiveness of teaching and teacher training.

Educational choice in secondary school in Flanders: the relative impact of occupational interests on option choice

The present study aims at unravelling the myriad of student-level (i.e., gender, socioeconomic status [SES], academic self-concept, achievement, ability, and occupational interests) and school-level (i.e., gender composition, maths composition, and SES composition) determinants of option choice in the academic track of secondary school in Flanders. We focused on 2 decisional thresholds in Flemish secondary education, namely, the transition from Grade 8 to Grade 9 (N = 2518) and from Grade 10 to Grade 11 (N = 2871). Data were analyzed through multinomial multilevel analysis. Our results strongly confirm Lent's (2005) jigsaw puzzle metaphor in that different factors go into a complex and dynamic interplay. Especially in the first grades, prior achievement is a major predictor of option choice in secondary education, whereas in the last years occupational interests become increasingly important. From a gender perspective, boys rather choose math/sciences-oriented options than girls. Option choice is mainly determined by student-level rather than school-level predictors.

The effect of track changes on the development of academic self-concept in high school: A dynamic test of the big-fish–little-pond effect.

Academic self-concept has received a great deal of attention in recent educational research because it mediates many other educational outcomes. Therefore, it is important to find out how students' academic self-concept develops. We examined the big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE) dynamically by investigating the effect of track changes in high school on changes in students' academic self-concept. A sample of 2,747 students from 50 high schools in Flanders (Belgium) was longitudinally followed up in a study with a four-wave design. Data were collected in Grades 7, 8, 10, and 12. Multilevel growth modeling for discontinuous change was performed. The results showed a general decline in academic self-concept across high school. In line with the BFLPE hypothesis, students who changed from a higher to a lower track during high school experienced an initial increase in their academic self-concept compared with students who remained in the same track. This effect was neither attenuated, nor exacerbated over time. These findings extend the BFLPE research by revealing that students' downward changes in educational reference groups over time (cascade effects) are generally related to upward changes in their academic self-concept over time. However, track dropping seems a double-edged sword because students' downward track changes simultaneously resulted in decreases in academic achievement. The results of the current study therefore call for more longitudinal and dynamic research in both the BFLPE and educational effectiveness literature.

Students’ Sense of Belonging in Technical/Vocational Schools versus Academic Schools: The Mediating Role of Faculty Trust in Students

BackgroundSince the late 1960s, research has demonstrated repeatedly that students in lower tracks achieve less as they develop an antischool culture to overcome the status deprivation resulting from being in a lower track. In quantitative large-scale research, this anti-school culture is usually assessed using poor academic attitudes or study disengagement because antischool norms disengage students from the learning process. The extent to which students in different tracks feel embedded in their school communities—their sense of school belonging—has rarely been examined, although academic engagement and sense of belonging are related to each other and to achievement.ObjectiveThis article examines students’ sense of belonging in secondary schools that offer different tracks, and the role played by the faculty's trust in the students.ParticipantsThe study is based on data from 3,475 students and 754 teachers in 28 technical/vocational schools and 3,376 students and 461 teachers in 22 academic schools in Flanders, the northern, Dutch-speaking part of Belgium.Research DesignUse is made of (stepwise) multilevel analyses (HLM6).ResultsThe analyses show that students in technical/vocational schools have a significant lower sense of belonging than students in academic schools. This association disappears if we take into account faculty trust in students. The association between school type and perceived teacher support, a subdimension of the sense of belonging, is not mediated by faculty trust, but is due to the lower GPA of students in technical/vocational schools.ConclusionsThe results indicate that teachers play a crucial role in the divergent nature of students’ social integration across different types of schools. In terms of strengthening students’ connectedness to a technical/vocational school environment, our results indicate that strengthening teachers’ level of trust in students could be crucial.

The role of teacher and faculty trust in forming teachers' job satisfaction: Do years of experience make a difference?

This study relates trust at the level of both the teacher and the faculty to teachers' job satisfaction. Teaching experience is explored as a moderator of the trust–satisfaction relationship. Multilevel analyses on data of 2091 teachers across 80 secondary schools in Flanders (Belgium) revealed positive associations between teacher trust in students, parents, colleagues, and the principal and satisfaction. Although faculty trust did not affect job satisfaction and teaching experience did not moderate the trust–satisfaction relationship, our findings highlight the social dimension of teaching. Improving the quality of teachers' social relationships in the workplace should enhance their job satisfaction.

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 school's culture as it is about content related decisions.

Collegial Trust and the Organizational Context of the Teacher Workplace: The Role of a Homogeneous Teachability Culture

This study explores how structural, compositional, and cultural characteristics of the teacher workplace affect an individual teacher’s trust in colleagues. In particular, we investigate whether a homogeneous staff culture facilitates trust among teachers. Multilevel analyses on data of 2,104 teachers across a representative sample of 84 secondary schools in Flanders (Belgium) reveal that collegial trust is fostered when teachers agree on the teachability of the students in school. A mesomediation model demonstrates that the presence of a less homogeneous teachability culture explains the lower levels of collegial trust in socioeconomically disadvantaged schools. Our findings suggest that school leaders should focus on developing similar and positive conceptions among their teachers about students’ teachability, in order to build social capital within the teaching staff to benefit student learning.

School‐based ICT policy plans in primary education: Elements, typologies and underlying processes

AbstractSchools are more and more encouraged to write a school‐based information and communication technology (ICT) policy plan. In such a plan, a school describes its expectations, goals, content and actions related to the future role of ICT in teaching and learning. Although this is encouraged by researchers and policy makers, the literature on ICT policy plans and ICT policy planning is rather general and underdeveloped. In this study, the content of school‐based ICT policy plans and underlying policy processes is explored. Data were gathered in 31 primary schools in Flanders: the schools' ICT policy plan was submitted to a content analysis, and a semi‐structured interview was administered to the school leader or the ICT coordinator. Using a framework of ICT leadership practices to guide the analysis (setting direction, developing people and making the organization work), we identified three types of ICT policy plans: (1) an ICT policy plan as a vision blueprint, (2) a technical inventory and (3) a comprehensive ICT policy plan. Although the last type takes into account all ICT leadership practices, we found a variety of different approaches in the processes used to create and execute such plans, such as the support of ICT training activities, data‐driven decision‐making processes and monitoring activities.

The Relation Between School Leadership From a Distributed Perspective and Teachers’ Organizational Commitment

Purpose: In this study the relationship between school leadership and teachers’ organizational commitment is examined by taking into account a distributed leadership perspective. The relation between teachers’ organizational commitment and contextual variables of teachers’ perceptions of the quality and the source of the supportive and supervisory leadership function, participative decision making, and cooperation within the leadership team are examined. Research Design: A survey was set up involving 1,522 teachers from 46 large secondary schools in Flanders (Belgium). Because the data in the present study have an inherent hierarchical structure, that is, teachers are nested into schools, hierarchical linear modeling techniques are applied. Findings: The analyses reveal that 9% of the variance in teachers’ organizational commitment is attributable to differences between schools. Teachers’ organizational commitment is mainly related to quality of the supportive leadership, cooperation within the leadership team, and participative decision making. Who performed the supportive leadership function plays only a marginally significant positive role. The quality of the supervisory leadership function and the role of the leadership team members in this function were not significantly related to teachers’ organizational commitment. Conclusions: The implications of the findings are that to promote teachers’ organizational commitment teachers should feel supported by their leadership team and that this leadership team should be characterized by group cohesion, role clarity, and goal orientedness. Recommendations for further research are provided.

Efficiency and equity in private and public education: A nonparametric comparison

We present a nonparametric approach for (1) efficiency and (2) equity evaluation in education. Firstly, we use a nonparametric (Data Envelopment Analysis) model that is specially tailored to assess educational efficiency at the pupil level. The model accounts for the fact that typically minimal prior structure is available for the behavior (objectives and feasibility set) under evaluation. It allows for uncertainty in the data, while it corrects for exogenous ‘environmental’ characteristics that are specific to each pupil. Secondly, we propose two multidimensional stochastic dominance criteria as naturally complementary aggregation criteria for comparing the performance of different school types (private and public schools). While the first criterion only accounts for efficiency, the second criterion also takes equity into consideration. The model is applied for comparing private (but publicly funded) and public primary schools in Flanders. Our application finds that no school type robustly dominates another type when controlling for the school environment and taking equity into account. More generally, it demonstrates the usefulness of our nonparametric approach, which includes environmental and equity considerations, for obtaining ‘fair’ performance comparisons in the public sector context.

The Quality of School Life: Teacher-Student Trust Relationships and the Organizational School Context

In exploring the quality of schools’ social system, this study provides insight into in which types of schools students may encounter barriers in developing supportive teacher-student relationships because of teachers exposing low levels of trust in students. Student culture and teachability perceptions are assessed as incentives for teachers’ perceptions of students’ trustworthiness. Information was gathered from 2,104 teachers across a representative sample of 84 secondary schools in Flanders (Belgium). A measure for trust in students was derived from the trust scales developed by Hoy and Tschannen-Moran. Multilevel analyses reveal that teacher perceptions of students’ teachability strongly predict teacher trust. This underscores the importance of teacher perceptions of students’ ability to meet the expectations imposed on them with regard to the formation of trust. Additionally, we show that teacher trust is affected by the organizational school context, although the academic orientation of the student culture plays no role.

Beginning teachers’ job experiences in multi‐ethnic schools

Multi‐ethnic schools in Flanders are frequently portrayed – both in popular media and research – as highly problematic working environments for (beginning) teachers. This article reports on an exploratory study of beginning teachers’ experiences in one secondary multi‐ethnic school in Flanders. Based on data from questionnaires, document analysis and semi‐structured interviews with both six beginning teachers and two mentors, the study concluded that the structural and cultural working conditions as well as the personal belief systems of the teachers were essential to understand the actual impact of the multi‐ethnic character of the school on new teachers’ job experiences. Due to the mediating role of these factors, beginning teachers do not consider the multi‐cultural character of their working environment as problematic as such.

Clustering of multiple lifestyle behaviours and its relationship with weight status and cardiorespiratory fitness in a sample of Flemish 11- to 12-year-olds

The aim of the present study was to explore the existence of clusters in multiple lifestyle behaviours, including physical activity (PA), sedentariness and food habits, in young adolescents. The present study also investigated whether the identified groups could be characterised by gender and components of health-related physical fitness, especially weight status and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF). A cross-sectional survey. Leisure-time PA, sedentary behaviour and food consumption were assessed by a questionnaire. Overweight prevalence was estimated using BMI (kg/m2) calculated from self-reported height and weight. CRF was measured using a 20 m shuttle-run test. The study was conducted in four middle schools in Flanders, Belgium. The sample size was 317 seventh grade students aged 11-12 years. Four reliable and meaningful lifestyle clusters could be identified, labelled as 'Sporty media-oriented mixed eaters' (boys: n 34; girls: n 16), 'Academic healthy eaters' (boys: n 30; girls: n 58), 'Inactive healthy eaters' (boys: n 38; girls: n 57) and 'Inactive media-oriented unhealthy eaters' (boys: n 35; girls: n 49). The lifestyle clusters could not be characterised by adolescents' weight status. Among boys, the 'Sporty media-oriented mixed eaters' group performed significantly better on the shuttle-run test than those in clusters with the lowest levels of PA (clusters 3 and 4). Our results showed that healthy and risk-related behaviours may coexist in some groups of young adolescents. Isolated unhealthy behaviours, such as high levels of screen-based media use or high consumption of energy-dense food items, are not necessarily related with negative health outcomes, on the condition that these risk-related behaviours co-occur with more health-enhancing behaviours such as PA.

Faculty Trust and Organizational School Characteristics

Purpose: Teachers trusting other groups of actors in their school enhances a school’s functioning. Research relating teacher trust to school context has proven scarce, however. This study explores the extent to which teachers from a same school share a level of trust. Organizational value culture, size, and group composition are associated with faculty trust in students, parents, colleagues, and the principal. Research Design: Data were gathered via anonymous surveys completed by 2,104 teachers in 84 secondary schools in Flanders in the 2004-2005 school year. Measures for individual teachers’ trust were based on the scales developed by Hoy and Tschannen-Moran. To explore the existence of faculty trust, an index of mean rater reliability based on the intraclass correlation coefficient from a one-way analysis of variance was used. Findings: Faculty trust exists within Flemish secondary schools and is composed of four dimensions relating to four separate referents of trust. Organizational value culture, size, and composition affect the level of organizational trust in schools. Socioeconomic school composition heavily determines staff trust. Trust in colleagues is higher in private schools than in public schools. A high proportion of immigrant students lowers teachers’ trust in parents. Conclusions: Relating a staff’s academic culture and students’ study culture to teacher trust is advisable. For a successful implementation of reform initiatives, schools with the described characteristics should adopt programs to enhance teacher trust. Principals and leaders should be aware of organizational characteristics affecting trust in schools.

Understanding structural and cultural school characteristics in relation to educational change: the case of ICT integration

This study builds on the idea that school characteristics affect educational change, such as ICT integration. The goal of this inquiry is to explore both structural school characteristics (i.e. infrastructure, planning and support) and cultural school characteristics (i.e. leadership, goal orientedness and innovativeness) and how they contribute to ICT integration in the classroom. A survey of 527 teachers in 68 primary schools in Flanders (Belgium) was conducted that focused on teacher perceptions about structural and cultural school characteristics and their use of ICT in the classroom. In order to study the variables at school level, teacher responses were aggregated. The next step was to delineate school profiles originating from structural and cultural school characteristics by using a cluster analysis. Finally, the relationship between these school profiles and ICT integration was studied. The results suggest that (1) structural and cultural school characteristics fit together and (2) are relevant catalysts for ICT integration in the classroom.

Attitudes of Flemish secondary school students towards euthanasia and other end‐of‐life decisions in minors

The aim of the study was to investigate attitudes of secondary school students towards acceptability of requests by minors for end-of-life decisions (ELDs) with a possible life-shortening effect: non-treatment decisions, potentially life-shortening alleviation of pain and symptoms (APS) and euthanasia. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among second and fourth grades students in 20 secondary schools in Flanders, Belgium. An anonymous structured questionnaire was administered to measure attitudes towards acceptability of requests for euthanasia and other ELDs, towards the right to be informed about terminal prognosis and their own desire to be informed. In total, 1769 students participated. In case of a terminal patient, 61% found a request for euthanasia acceptable, 60% a request for APS and 69% a request for non-treatment decision, compared with 18% (euthanasia) and 50% (APS) in case of a non-terminal patient. Acceptance was highest among: boys, participants older than 14 years and participants from general as opposed to technical and vocational education. Sixty-six per cent said the parents' opinion not being asked was a circumstance that should hold back a physician from administering a lethal drug. Ninety per cent of participants thought a minor has the right to be informed about terminal prognosis of a disease while 78% would like to be informed themselves. Attitudes towards ELD requests varied with case and participant characteristics and type of ELD. The studied adolescents have a clear wish to be informed about terminal prognosis. Physicians and caregivers should adequately involve adolescents in decision making and tailor prognosis-related information to their needs and level of competency.

A multidimensional approach to determinants of computer use in primary education: teacher and school characteristics

AbstractThe central aim of this study was to test a model that integrates determinants of educational computer use. In particular, the article examines teacher and school characteristics that are associated with different types of computer use by primary school teachers. A survey was set up, involving 527 teachers from 68 primary schools in Flanders. A separate questionnaire was administered to information and communication technology (ICT) coordinators from the same schools to gather additional information about cultural and contextual school characteristics. The combined impact of both teacher and school characteristics was explored through a multilevel analysis. Besides the importance of school characteristics, the results reveal differential effects of specific characteristics on specific types of computer use. Cultural school characteristics for instance, such as the schools’ openness to change and the availability of an ICT school policy plan, are positively related to the use of computers as a learning tool and to the adoption of ICT in view of basic computer skills. In contrast, no cultural school characteristic seem to be associated with the use of computers as an information tool. In a comparable way, teacher characteristics are associated with specific types of computer use, e.g. the variable gender. In general, male teachers report integrating computers more often. In this study, it appears that gender differences only exist in relation to the adoption of computers as an information tool. The results demonstrate that a multidimensional approach provides more insight into the characteristics affecting computer use.

The importance of pre-measurements of wellbeing and achievement for students’ current wellbeing

Educational effectiveness research focuses not only on cognitive output but also on affective student outcomes. Student wellbeing has to be addressed as an important output variable of the educational process. The focus in this study is on student wellbeing at the end of Grade 10 and its relationship to current achievement, and pre-measurements of student wellbeing and achievement. Student characteristics and motives for attending school are taken into account. Moreover, within classroom environment research, student perceptions of psychosocial characteristics within the classroom are considered as an important factor in the explanation of student wellbeing. Data from 429 students at 13 different secondary technical and vocational training schools in Flanders (Belgium) are used. The results indicated that pre-measurements of student wellbeing and achievement are positively related to student wellbeing at the end of Grade 10. No relationship was found between student wellbeing and achievement when both are measured at the end of Grade 10. Furthermore, students feel better when they perceive their teacher's interpersonal behaviour in the classroom as tolerant / authoritative and not as authoritarian.

Why Have Come Here? The Jesuits and the First Evangelization of Native America by Nicholas P. Cushner

Book Reviews 143 Nicholas P. Cushner. Why Have You Come Here? The Jesuits and theFirst Evangelisation ofNative America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Pp. 255. Bibliography. Index. Notes. Paper, $29.95. Known for his work on Spanish colonialism and the labors of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in the Spanish colonies, former Jesuit Nicholas P. Cushner has applied his knowledge of Jesuit spirituality and approaches to a survey of that religious order's evangelizing work across theWestern Hemisphere. Why Have You Come Here? covers the colonial period from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Avid letter writers and record keepers, the Jesuits came to the New World as self-conscious agents of the Counter-Reformation Catholic Church and as missionaries with a fundamentally optimistic view of human nature whose Tridentine theology stressed the necessity of baptism and other sacraments. Typically, they interpreted opposition to their efforts as the work of the evil spirit rather than as a fundamental failing of the Natives themselves. Cushner covers the abandoned mission in Florida (1566-1571), the missions inMexico and Peru, the reductions (communal settiements) in Paraguay, and the missions in French Canada and English Maryland. Vivid personal narratives bring his interpretation to life. Of particular interest to students of midwestern history will be the twenty-one-page section on the French missions to the Hurons and others, including a gripping account of the journey of Jesuit Paul Le Jeune with a hunting party of twenty Montagnais over the autumn, winter, and spring of 1633-1634?a baptism of fire for the priest that brought greater familiarity with the Native language, surprising experiences of kindness from his hosts, frequent clashes with a shaman in the group, and a gratifying growth in self-knowledge born of experience. The book's principal strength is its comparative analysis?a study of the Jesuits' work under the aegis of Spanish, French, and English secular rule. The Spanish overlords were the most committed to evangelization; the English Catholic Calverts, the least. The efforts, ends, and means of the Jesuits were strongly influenced by these secular sponsors. Nothing emerged inNorth America to rival the society's educational and pastoral efforts in Peru or the Christian communities of the Paraguay reductions. One weakness in Cushner's book is the lack of individual maps of the various missions to illustrate the extent and progress of those missions. A second weakness is a certain unevenness: The chapter on art, architecture, and theater is limited to Latin America and neglects the music that also characterized Jesuit efforts. Long Spanish passages in the 144 Michigan Historical Review same section are untranslated. And these sections might also have more closely connected New World efforts with Old World support, e.g., the many Catholic Marylanders (including John Carroll and Charles Carroll) who attended the English Jesuit school in Flanders. In summary, Cushner offers awelcome introductory text on Jesuit efforts in the New World, based on an understanding of Jesuit spirituality and missiology, and comparative analysis that brings each aspect of the book into focus. Anthony J.Kuzniewski College of the Holy Cross George W. Geib and Donald B. Kite, Sr. Federal Justice in Indiana: The History of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society Press, 2007. Pp. 350. Glossary. Index. Notes. Cloth, $29.95. This book details the history of federal courts in Indiana from the territorial period through the present. It was not until 1925 that Indiana's federal courts were divided into a northern district and a southern district, so the book necessarily includes the history shared by Indiana's two districts. The first chapters do an excellent job of intertwining local and regional histories with the formation of Indiana's federal court. Familiar topics like slavery and the Civil War appear in relation to court events. President Jackson's appointment of former Indiana Supreme Court Judge Jesse Holman to the federal bench, for example, demonstrates how national concerns over slavery played a role in the history of Indiana's federal courts. The authors recount how Holman traveled all the way to Washington, D.C, to meet with President Jackson in order to lay to rest...

Equity and Efficiency in Private and Public Education: A Nonparametric Comparison

We present a nonparametric approach for the equity and efficiency evaluation of (private and public) primary schools in Flanders. First, we use a nonparametric (Data Envelopment Analysis) model that is specially tailored to assess educational efficiency at the pupil level. The model accounts for the fact that minimal prior structure typically available for the behavior (objectives and feasibility set) under evaluation, it reckons with outlier behavior in the available data, while it corrects for ‘environmental’ characteristics that are specific to each pupil. Second, we propose first- and second-order stochastic dominance (FSD and SSD) criteria as naturally complementary aggregation criteria for comparing the performance of different school types (private and public schools) in Flanders. While FSD only accounts for (Pareto) efficiency, SSD also takes (Pigou-Dalton) equality into consideration. We find that private schools outperform public schools in terms of SSD.