Despite the increase in the number of entrepreneurship initiatives and interventions, there is a poor understanding of the range of entrepreneurship programs in secondary education and their learning objectives. This study provides insight into the current supply of entrepreneurship programs and their underlying pedagogy in secondary education in the Netherlands. To examine existing offerings and their underlying pedagogy, we used the 11 design principles of Baggen, Lans, and Gulikers (2021). Data were collected from three different sources for triangulation purposes - data from Vecon Business Schools (VBS) application forms, interviews with VBS schools, and documents and additional information (student ratings, learning goals, missions, and visions). Our findings show that schools offer mostly causation-oriented and traditional entrepreneurship programs, in which there is little room for effectuation-oriented education. Also, due to the lack of a clearly stated mission, vision and learning goals of entrepreneurship education, schools pay little attention to the effect of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurship skills/intentions. However, we observe that schools acknowledge this and slowly design and offer entrepreneurship programs more consciously.
Abstract Purpose The primary aim of this study was to investigate the effect of including the Dutch National Pharmacotherapy Assessment (DNPA) in the medical curriculum on the level and development of prescribing knowledge and skills of junior doctors. The secondary aim was to evaluate the relationship between the curriculum type and the prescribing competence of junior doctors. Methods We re-analysed the data of a longitudinal study conducted in 2016 involving recently graduated junior doctors from 11 medical schools across the Netherlands and Belgium. Participants completed three assessments during the first year after graduation (around graduation (+/−4 weeks), and 6 months, and 1 year after graduation), each of which contained 35 multiple choice questions (MCQs) assessing knowledge and three clinical case scenarios assessing skills. Only one medical school used the DNPA in its medical curriculum; the other medical schools used conventional means to assess prescribing knowledge and skills. Five medical schools were classified as providing solely theoretical clinical pharmacology and therapeutics (CPT) education; the others provided both theoretical and practical CPT education (mixed curriculum). Results Of the 1584 invited junior doctors, 556 (35.1%) participated, 326 (58.6%) completed the MCQs and 325 (58.5%) the clinical case scenarios in all three assessments. Junior doctors whose medical curriculum included the DNPA had higher knowledge scores than other junior doctors (76.7% [SD 12.5] vs. 67.8% [SD 12.6], 81.8% [SD 11.1] vs. 76.1% [SD 11.1], 77.0% [12.1] vs. 70.6% [SD 14.0], p<0.05 for all three assessments, respectively). There was no difference in skills scores at the moment of graduation (p=0.110), but after 6 and 12 months junior doctors whose medical curriculum included the DNPA had higher skills scores (both p<0.001). Junior doctors educated with a mixed curriculum had significantly higher scores for both knowledge and skills than did junior doctors educated with a theoretical curriculum (p<0.05 in all assessments). Conclusion Our findings suggest that the inclusion of the knowledge focused DNPA in the medical curriculum improves the prescribing knowledge, but not the skills, of junior doctors at the moment of graduation. However, after 6 and 12 months, both the knowledge and skills were higher in the junior doctors whose medical curriculum included the DNPA. A curriculum that provides both theoretical and practical education seems to improve both prescribing knowledge and skills relative to a solely theoretical curriculum.
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The use of robots as educational tools provide a stimulating environment for students. Some robotics competitions focus on primary and secondary school aged children, and serve as a motivation factor for students to get involved in educational robotics activities. But, in most competitions students are required to deal with robot design, construction and programming. Although very appealing, many students cannot participate on robotics competitions because they cannot afford robotics kits and their school do not have the necessary equipment. Because of that, several students have no access to educational robotics, especially on developing countries. To minimize this problem and contribute to education equality, we present a proposal for a new league for the robotics competitions: The Junior Soccer Simulation league (JSS). In such a league, students program virtual robots in a similar way that they would program their real ones. Because there is no hardware involved, costs are very low and participants can concentrate on software development and robot's intelligence improvement. Finally, because soccer is the most popular sport in the world, we believe JSS will be a strong motivator for students to get involved with robotics. In this paper we present the simulator that was developed (ROSOS) and discuss some ideas for the adoption of a Junior Soccer Simulation competition.
