Recently, more students have entered Dutch higher education. This is a consequence of the possibility to offer students to enter higher education, with a certificate from senior secondary education (SSVE). In earlier days most students in higher education had passed senior general secondary education (SGSE), or even pre-university education. It is to be expected that these 'new' students approach learning in a different way compared to the 'traditional' students in higher education. The goal of this study was to examine the possible differences between the two groups of students mentioned, and to gain insights in the role possible differences play in the way the two groups of students approach learning. Students' personality characteristics, regulation strategies, learning conceptions and motivational orientations were studied in relation to study approaches. It was assumed that patterns of relations between the variables mentioned would be different for the two groups of students. More specifically, it was expected to find stronger and more crystallised relations between variables within the group of SSVE-students. Indeed, when entering Higer Education, SSVE students scored higher than SGSE students on the personality variables autonomy and conscientiousness; as to their personal orientations on learning and instruction they were more self-test oriented and they scored higher on concrete processing and construction of knowledge. However, the strength and direction of the relations between the variables are the same for both groups. Our findings increase insights into relations between students' personalities and their approaches to learning when entering higher education; this concerns two groups of students from different educational backgrounds. Practically this implies that intake assessments considering personality and self-knowledge might help teachers, coaches and policy makers in advising students how to appraoch learning, when entering higher education. Copyright Elsevier Inc.
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While the importance of professional support following very preterm delivery (VP) is established, the parental experience of support still warrants deeper understanding. Evaluation of a Dutch one-year post-discharge responsive parenting intervention following VP suggested that parents with lower educational levels benefitted less from the program. This idiographic phenomenological study investigated the lived experiences of two mothers with differing educational backgrounds receiving professional support during hospitalization and post-discharge. In-depth interviews with the mothers were analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. We formulate three impressions: (1) How the mothers made sense of their experiences resonated with the findings of research on class differences in parenting. (2) The mothers valued professionals who struck a personalized balance between supporting their maternal agency and attending to their vulnerability and needs for help and perspective. (3) The mothers experienced greater trust in professionals who could suspend pre- conceived assumptions and take their personal characteristics into consideration. Practice suggestions are extrapolated for social work professionals. The study has relevance to educational diversity and recommends an overarching sensitivity to positionality in professional work with parents.
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This research explores the attitudes of children from different socio-economic backgrounds towards cars. This paper explores their projected choices and motivations in the context of (1) post-materialist values; (2) economic constraints; and (3) social status theories; and draws upon survey research among 140 upper elementary school children in the Netherlands between September 2010 and January 2011. Comparative analysis shows that there are significant differences in attitudes of children from different socio-economic backgrounds. Pupils from the affluent predominantly ethnically Dutch schools showed greater awareness of and concern about their parents’ and general use of cars, and less desire to own a car in the future, children from less economically advantaged schools demonstrated lower environmental awareness and concern and more desire to own a car in the future. This study is based on a small sample and indicates a need for large-scale follow-up study of children's attitudes towards cars. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2012.07.010 https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenkopnina/
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Energy transition is key to achieving a sustainable future. In this transition, an often neglected pillar is raising awareness and educating youth on the benefits, complexities, and urgency of renewable energy supply and energy efficiency. The Master Energy for Society, and particularly the course “Society in Transition”, aims at providing a first overview on the urgency and complexities of the energy transition. However, educating on the energy transition brings challenges: it is a complex topic to understand for students, especially when they have diverse backgrounds. In the last years we have seen a growing interest in the use of gamification approaches in higher institutions. While most practices have been related to digital gaming approaches, there is a new trend: escape rooms. The intended output and proposed innovation is therefore the development and application of an escape room on energy transition to increase knowledge and raise motivation among our students by addressing both hard and soft skills in an innovative and original way. This project is interdisciplinary, multi-disciplinary and transdisciplinary due to the complexity of the topic; it consists of three different stages, including evaluation, and requires the involvement of students and colleagues from the master program. We are confident that this proposed innovation can lead to an improvement, based on relevant literature and previous experiences in other institutions, and has the potential to be successfully implemented in other higher education institutions in The Netherlands.
