Martin Mulder

Research of Yvette Baggen et al showed that the field of cognitive research contributes to the field of entrepreneurship research; it provides a deeper understanding of the initial steps of the entrepreneurial process. More specifically, it is argued that those who excel in opportunity identification, share core characteristics with high-level complex problem solvers.

The results will be published in Baggen, Y., Mainert, J., Lans, T., Biemans, H. J. A., Greiff, S., & Mulder, M. (in press). Linking complex problem solving to opportunity identification competence within the context of entrepreneurship. International Journal of Lifelong Education. Doi: 10.1080/02601370.2015.1060029. (special issue: Problem solving – facilitating the utilization of a concept towards lifelong education).

Interested in fostering argumentation competence via online group learning? See the publication of Omid Noroozi et al, entitled: ‘ Facilitating argumentative knowledge construction through a transactive discussion script in CSCL’. The results of this study showed that transactive discussion scripts facilitate argumentative knowledge construction. Furthermore, learners assigned to the scripted condition acquired significantly more domain-specific and domain-general knowledge on argumentation than learners assigned to the unscripted condition. Source: Noroozi, O., Weinberger, A., Biemans, H.J.A., Mulder, M., & Chizari, M. (2013). Facilitating argumentative knowledge construction through a transactive discussion script in CSCL. Computers and Education, 61(2), 59-76.

The research on strategies for self-regulated learning in hands-on simulations is published online. Full reference: Khaled, A., J. Gulikers, H.J.A. Biemans & M. Mulder (2015). Occurrences and quality of teacher and student strategies for self-regulated learning in hands-on simulations, Studies in Continuing Education, DOI: 10.1080/0158037X.2015.1040751

This week the site visit of the peer review committee of Graduate School WASS took place. Last Wednesday the committee shared its impressions, first results and tentative conclusions. The results regarding the whole Graduate School seem to be quite promising. Continue reading Peer review Graduate School WASS completed

Jurian Meijering won the prestigious ‘Most Promising WASS publication’ Award of Graduate School WASS this year. Congratulations! The full reference to the article is: Meijering, J.V., K. Kern and H. Tobi (2014). Identifying the methodological characteristics of European green city rankings. Ecological Indicators (43), 8, pp. 132–142. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2014.02.026

The article titled “Teacher interpersonal behaviour and student motivation in competence-based vocational education: Evidence from Indonesia”, by Zainun Misbah et al, published in Teaching and Teacher Education, is now available online: DOI information: 10.1016/j.tate.2015.04.007. Check: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/teaching-and-teacher-education/recent-articles/

The pictures of the AIAEE and ESEE 2015 conference in Wageningen University made by Bart de Gouw are now posted! Enjoy!!! Continue reading Pictures AIAEE ESEE 2015

Pierre Gorissen reported on the Symposium on MOOCs research organized by the VOR Divisions ICT and Higher Education in Wageningen on May 26. He posted:”During the day, the #VORMOOC hashtag was used for tweets and it managed to get in the trending topics list for the day.
An overview of the tweets was collected in this Storify report: https://storify.com/PeterMcAllister/vor-divsion-ict-and-he-symposium-research-on-moocs. The slides for all the presentations during the symposium are now available online: http://kortelink.com/VOR_26-5-2015″. Thanks Pierre for facilitating this.

On September 204 the International VET Conference ‘Crossing Boundaries in Vocational Education and Training: Innovative Concepts for the 21st Century’ will take place at the ITB in Bremen, Germany. See the programme on http://www.itb.uni-bremen.de/ccm/navigation/events/conference-2015/programme/

The Europea conference announced as ‘Sustainable Vocational Education for the Labor Market’, but which was on the spot implemented as ‘Competitive and Sustainable Vocational Education and Training: Achievements and New Goals’, which is actually a different topic, took place in Riga, Latvia, on May 11 and 12. The conference took place within the framework of the Latvian EU Presidency, and featured speakers such as the Minister for Education and Science of Latvia, the Secretary of State for Agriculture of Latvia, the EUROPEA International president, the Director General of the Employers’ Confederation of Latvia, the Chairman of the Free Trade Union Confederation of Latvia and the Chairman of the Vocational Education Association of Latvia. The theme of the conference elaborated was about generic VET issues such as attractiveness of VET. Strategic Policy Recommendations for VET were tabled and will be signed by the stakeholders involved. These recommendations are all about good quality VET in the EU in general, and not specific for agricultural or life sciences VET. A surprise was that the Minister of Education appeared to be a former student of mine. Congratulations with a brilliant career.