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Dutch Research Council Programming Council for Educational Research
Contact: Drs. C. Margreet Bouma,
International Section, Dutch Research Council: Educational Research (NWO/PROO)
Board Member: Prof. Dr. Hetty Dekkers
E-mail:
Programme
Website: http://www.nwo.nl/subsidiewijzer.nsf/pages/NWOA_4XLGR5?Opendocument&su=no
Framework for the activities of the Netherlands Programme Council for Educational Research (PROO)
The framework of the activities of the PROO is based on the commission granted by the State Secretary of Education to the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) in 1995. Its task is to realise a research programme in the field of Educational Research.
The PROO focuses on fundamental and strategic research, application-based medium-term or long-term research, international comparative research and evaluation research. The sphere of activity of the PROO concerns primary education, general secondary education as well as pre-vocational and senior secondary vocational education, but does not include higher education and scientific education, with the exception of teacher training institutes.
The PROO applies a permanent pattern to the research programming. The research programme is updated annually and based on previous programmes. The PROO follows relevant, new scientific and social developments and incorporates them in the programme. The results of completed research are also taken into account by the PROO in the programme. External experts from the field of research, policy and practice of education play an important role in the programming. Usually the PROO explores new developments together with experts. After this the PROO commissions a renowned researcher to carry out a review or programming study in the field in question. Next, the council submits the study to a forum of experts, so that the PROO can also base its decision on their views.
Since 1996 annual programmes have been published every year. However, from 2004 onwards the PROO will publish programmes once every four years instead. The decision to publish the programme every four years does not alter the fact that the relevance of the programme will be constantly monitored with regard to the topicality of the research and education, and that the programming activities will be updated continuously. PROO will provide information with regard to the changes that will be introduced in the four-yearly programme.
PROO Programme 2004-2007
The Educational Research Programme 2004-2007 differs from the programmes
of previous years. The changes particularly concern the four year duration
of the programme, the underlying policy and the research fields. PROO considered
the following characteristics for the new programme to be important:
With this programme the PROO wants to generate proposals that will lead to new revealing research, that is to say, revealing from a conceptual theoretical and methodical perspective, but also with regard to its impact on the innovative educational practice.
The demands that the (proposals for) research projects have to meet are the following:
Scientific innovation: The PROO aims at receiving project proposals that capitalise on new methodological and theoretical developments and which contain a plan for research, that is embedded in theory.
Applications of real-life knowledge in research, and use of research knowledge in practice: PROO focuses on issues in the practice of education and educational policy and on social problems that are relevant for education. In addition, the question is how valuable real-life knowledge can be applied in research. In various programme lines the PROO-programme refers to the importance of the methodology of design experiments, design-based research and intervention studies.
The results of fundamental and strategic educational research should also show their value in practical policy situations, however often in the longer term. Research proposals must therefore examine the dissemination of the research results and the use that can be made of these results, and also the possible use and new construction of knowledge in practice.
Interdisciplinarity: The increasing complexity of social developments that are important for education requires the input of expertise of various disciplines. The focal points illustrate that it is necessary for educational research to permanently use new scientific insights from bordering disciplines.
Integration: The focal points refer to sectors in education on the one hand and to research fields and themes on the other hand. While preparing the programme the PROO paid special attention to the integration of themes in focal points. These nodes in the programme are particularly interesting: research proposals that overlap themes from different focal points and actually integrate these themes in the research itself are considered to be extremely interesting.
Internationalisation: PROO acknowledges the relevance of a targeted internationalisation policy. According to the PROO, the chance of obtaining research results that open up new horizons, set a trend or create a major spin-off with regard to applications, is greater with projects that are planned and implemented by researchers with an international orientation. The international dissemination of results also do not only offer a better exposure to Dutch research, but also offers the greatest chance of receiving intrinsic and methodological feedback in the form of theoretical considerations or empirical research that can add or refute certain aspect.
PRIMA and VOCL are two longitudinal data collections, in primary and secondary education respectively, which are funded by the PROO. PROO explicitly refers to the starting points offered by the focal points in the PROO Programme 2004-2007 in order to achieve that research will be performed using these data collections.
The focal points of the PROO Programme 2004-2007
The research fields in the programme are called 'focal points'. The Programme 2004-2007 distinguishes six focal points. They are discussed in chapters 2 - 7 of the programme brochure. Each focal point consists of a number of themes that the PROO would like to stimulate. The current focal points and their specific research themes are:
The preschool and early-school period
Individual and cultural differences in development and the structure of developing school skills
Development and co-construction of school skills in preschool and early-school educational programmes
Dynamic and action-based assessment procedures and instruments
Methodological recommendations
Innovative learning arrangements
Teaching methods of new forms of learning
Learning processes and individual differences
Assessment of educational performance
Teaching methods for vocational education
The integrated learning environment in vocational education
Participants as co-designers of learning environments
Virtual didactic scenarios and digital playing forms
Competence development of teaching staff
Modern craftsmanship
Designing new training arrangements
ICT competencies of teaching staff
The school as a learning context
The school as a learning context for learning and developmental processes of pupils
The school as a learning and working community for teaching staff
Schools with a rich ICT environment
Schools and social cohesion
Schools and citizen competencies: objectives
Schools and citizen competencies: resources
Schools and their environment
For more information please see the full text of the PROO programme 2004 -
2007 - also offered on this website.here
www.onderwijsonderzoek.nl
All Netherlands Projects .
