Self-evaluation - Technische Universiteit Eindhoven

Self-evaluation research programme ESoE
1992 5 ; Ketelaar, 2012 6 ) as they have to adapt and develop themselves in order to meet and
implement the changing demands (Day, 1999 7 ).
The central aim of the research programme of ESoE is to understand and promote teacher
learning and professional development as well as to understand the roles that teachers play in
educational innovations, and the effects that such learning and roles have on their
competencies and the ways they implement innovations. In ESoE’s research programme,
teaching and teacher learning are studied from a STEM-based perspective as well as from a
more general educational perspective (e.g. den Brok, 2011 8 ). Obviously, the focus of the
research programme on both the general education domain as the more specific STEM
domain(s) is needed to support one of the major tasks of ESoE, namely to educate student
teachers in the Master of Science Education and Communication.
In the domain of STEM, it is expected that teachers prepare students for a society that is
becoming more and more dependent on STEM and that they attract and motivate a larger
group of (more diverse) students for the STEM subjects (van Eijck, 2012 910 ). For teachers,
this means that they have to be competent in interpersonal, pedagogical, moral and subject
communication, in linking STEM content to the backgrounds of their students and vice versa
and in using diversity as a resource to capitalize on, among other things (den Brok, 2011; van
Griethuijsen, van Eijck, Haste & den Brok, 2012 11 ). They have to act as brokers between the
culture of the subject and the identity of students (Taconis & Kessels, 2009 12 ).
The particular attention for the STEM domain also has a more practical reason. ESoE is part
of the Eindhoven University of Technology, one of Europe’s leading universities in the
domain of science and engineering. Consequently, ESoE finds itself in a science and
technology oriented environment. The city of Eindhoven and its surroundings hosts a
concentration of knowledge in the field of science and technology both at TU/e and at other
educational institutions, and for instance at the High Tech Campus Eindhoven. In addition,
ESoE prepares students to become STEM teachers and to help teachers in motivating students
for a STEM profession. Within the country and the region, a high demand for STEM teachers
and STEM educated people exists.
ESoE research studies teacher (professional) learning during the entire career in order to
contribute to professional development programmes or support of teachers that are effective.
The teacher education institutes educate beginning teachers who still need to learn a great deal
after completion of their training (Berliner, 2001 13 ). The way in which teachers in training are
being prepared for their future profession has a strong influence on their post-graduate
professional learning. After teacher education, teachers learn via professional development
5 Duffee, L; Aikenhead, G. (1992). Curriculum Change, Student Evaluation, and Teacher Practical Knowledge. Science
Education, 76 (5), 493-506.
6 Ketelaar, E. (2012). Teachers and innovations: on the role of ownership, sense-making and agency. Doctoral dissertation.
Eindhoven: ESoE/TUe.
7 Day, C. (1999). Developing teachers: The challenges of lifelong learning. London, Philadelphia: The Falmer Press.
8 Brok, P. den (2011). De docent in perspectieven. [The teacher in perspective(s).] Inaugural speech. Eindhoven: ESoE/TUe.
9 Eijck, M. van (2012). Capturing the dynamics of science in science education. In K. Tobin, B. J. Fraser & C. McRobbie
(Eds.), International handbook of science education, 2 nd edition (pp.1029-1039). Dordrecht: Springer.
10 Eijck, M.W. van & Roth, W.-M. (2012). Imagination of science in science Education: from experts to novelization.
Dordrecht: Springer.
11 Griethuijsen, R.A.L.F. van, van Eijck, M.W., Haste H. &, Brok, P.J. den (2012). Differences between Western and nonwestern
students in views of science and interest in science. In J. R. McGinnis, S. J. Lynch, W. C. Kyle, & T. A. Sondergeld
(Eds.), Re-imagining research in the 21 st century: science education for a diverse global community, proceedings of the 2012
NARST conference (pp.117). Indianapolis: NARST.
12 Taconis, R., & Kessels, U. (2009). How choosing science depends on students’ individual fit to ‘science culture’.
International Journal of Science Education, 31(8), 1115-1132.
13 Berliner, D. C. (2001). Learning about and learning from expert teachers. International Journal of Educational Research,
35, 463-482.
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