Views are our own and aim to inform, debate and shape our thinking.
Previous findings suggested that achievement boosts motivation, and motivation itself may also boost academic achievement. A common view is that both the ‘motivation → achievement’ or ‘achievement → motivation’ links exist because motivation and achievement influence each other in a reciprocal manner over time. Yet, empirical research has not reached a full consensus because of three reasons. First, the frequently used classic cross-lagged panel modelling is unable to separate within- from between-person differences. Second, the correlational nature of the data makes it harder to establish causality. Finally, previous research has not provided a mechanistic explanation for how motivation can boost achievement.
In a new study (Vu et al. 2025[TV1] ), we followed the format of a registered report and ran an experiment to tackle these issues in previous research. Participants (first-year undergrads at the VU) performed a vocabulary learning task where they learned new English words for an hour. Multiple times during the learning task, their motivation, quantity and quality of learning behaviors and achievement were measured. About halfway through the experiment, to test causality between motivation and achievement, we told participants that their achievement dropped to below average. We expected that this fake feedback would influence their motivation and achievement in the next time point.
We modelled how motivation, behavior, and achievement affected one another over time using traditional cross-lagged panel models (CLPM) and random-intercept CLPMs. The reciprocity was found in the traditional CLPM. When using random-intercept CLPMs (done to account for between-persons differences), we only found a unilateral effect of achievement on motivation (i.e., no reciprocity). This finding dovetailed with those of independent labs and our own meta-analysis (Vu et al., 2024[TV2] ), which together strongly suggest that whether the reciprocity can be found is a function of modelling choices.
Our use of the fake feedback provided partial support for a causal interpretation of the relationship between achievement and motivation—specifically, the unilateral achievement → intrinsic motivation pathway. Finally, we found no evidence that quantity and quality of learning behaviors were the drive that boost achievement; however, this can be a task-specific finding. Overall, our findings underscore the importance of further exploration of behavioural mediation pathways, a broad operationalization of motivation, and the application of appropriate modelling strategies to investigate the motivation-achievement reciprocity.
TuongVan Vu (t.v.vu@vu.nl)
[TV1]https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjep.12731
[TV2]https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01443410.2024.2307960
Prof. Anders Schinkel (VU Amsterdam) and Prof. Johannes Drerup (VU Amsterdam/TU Dortmund) received a grant by the Volkswagen Foundation in the context of the program “Open Up – New Research Spaces for the Humanities and Cultural Studies”. The title of the project is “Expanding Consciousness in Education – East, West, North and South. Towards a Global Philosophy of Education” (GlobalPhilEd). The aim of the project, which will start on April 1st and last 18 months, is to move the anglophone field of Philosophy of Education beyond its western- and eurocentric bias, and establish the novel field of Global Philosophy of Education. This entails not the establishment of a global philosophy in the sense of a universal or hegemonic philosophical theory, but the development of a global practice of Philosophy of Education.
GlobalPhilEd is not an exercise in comparative philosophy, but focusses on the actual engagement with substantive issues based on a plurality of the world´s traditions in order to collaboratively develop a more clear and nuanced understanding of philosophical problems in education and ways to address them. The project explores and clarifies the methodological possibilities, challenges and limits of a GlobalPhilEd as well as its potential to radically rethink concrete problems and themes in the Philosophy of Education and its different branches (e.g., educational ethics, epistemology of education). This holds, for instance, for the theoretical conceptualization and justification of educational aims and practices. Research inspired by Buddhist conceptions of the self and the mind may help us better understand the nature and value of critical thinking and autonomy as aims of education as they are discussed in Western traditions and vice versa.
GlobalPhilEd is based on the assumption that in order to establish a better understanding of the educational dimensions of the escalating global crises we face today, we need to make use of the best of what the world’s different traditions in the Philosophy of Education have brought forth. In order to do so we will organize two international online research labs and a field-launching conference (which will take place at the VU), in which philosophers of education from different world philosophical traditions enter into conversation about specific concepts and issues. Moreover, we will start a yearbook, that will constitute a forum for debates about the Global Philosophy of Education and will be published open access from 2026 onwards.
Anders Schinkel (a.schinkel@vu.nl)
Johannes Drerup ( johannes.drerup@vu.nl)
Supporting patient decision-making requires strong interaction skills from healthcare professionals. However, despite additional training, many focus on providing information rather than actively involving patients. This leads to disappointment in maternity care due to poor communication and limited perceived choice. Autonomy-supporting consultation (ASC), based on self-determination theory, helps professionals meet patients' psychological needs—autonomy, competence, and relatedness—fostering self-regulation and informed decision-making. This thesis explores how maternity care professionals can enhance patient engagement through five studies, ultimately offering insights for training programs to improve consultation interactions and autonomy-supportive care with broader applications across healthcare settings.
Introduction
Supporting patient decision-making is fundamental to high-quality healthcare, requiring professionals to possess strong interaction skills. However, despite additional training, many healthcare professionals still prioritize providing information over actively engaging patients in decision-making. In maternity care, this imbalance can lead to dissatisfaction among patients, often due to perceived inadequate communication and lack of freedom in their choices.
To address these concerns, the concept of Autonomy-Supporting Consultation (ASC) has been introduced as a way to enhance patient engagement. Rooted in Self-Determination Theory (SDT), ASC emphasizes the importance of fulfilling three fundamental psychological needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. When these needs are met, patients are more likely to become autonomously motivated, actively involved in their healthcare, and better equipped to make informed choices.
This thesis explores how professionals in maternity care can optimize their interactions with patients to encourage self-regulated decision-making through five research studies in the Netherlands. This work provides valuable insights into improving professional-patient interactions and fostering a more autonomy-supportive healthcare environment.
Research Methods
To understand the impact of ASC in maternity care, five studies were conducted focusing on prenatal consultations in hospitals and midwifery practices. The research approach included both qualitative and quantitative methods:
Key Findings
The findings highlight a gap between professionals’ intended and actual communication approaches:
The research aligns with professionals’ views on good counselling, emphasizing freedom of choice and information provision as essential components.
Discussion and Implications for Practice
The findings suggest that healthcare professionals need targeted training to support autonomy, competence, and relatedness effectively. To improve autonomy-supportive interactions:
Conclusion
This research lays the groundwork for developing training programs to optimise interactions between maternity care professionals and patients. By making professionals more aware of how to meet patients’ psychological needs, they can better support patients in making autonomous and well-informed health decisions.
Training programs should focus on equipping professionals with skills to balance information provision with active patient involvement, ensuring that consultations are informative and empowering. Although this research was conducted within maternity care, its findings apply to broader healthcare contexts, offering valuable insights into improving patient-centred communication and decision-making support across different medical fields.
Joyce Kors (Joyce.Kors@INHOLLAND.nl)
Ever since I started university, I was drawn to scientific research—the challenge of tackling real-world problems in a structured environment, the stimulation of being surrounded by curious and intelligent people, and the opportunity to become an expert in a specific field. However, after graduating, I decided it would be valuable to gain experience beyond the university lab. This decision led me to continue my career in secondary education, eventually guiding me into a job as an educational consultant in psychiatry education.
As I advanced in this field, I realized that an academic hospital would be the ideal setting to further develop my skills and explore additional career opportunities. One year after starting a position in Amsterdam UMC, I was given the chance to dedicate half of my time to pursuing a PhD on clinical nursing education under the supervision of Rashmi Kusurkar, head of team research in education pf the faculty of medicine. This arrangement allowed me to integrate my practical experience with my research interests. I benefited greatly from access to a strong professional network, which enabled me to test early research ideas, conduct pilot interviews and surveys, and brainstorm ways to translate research findings into practical solutions. The other way around, many colleagues got to see up close what the research process entails.
Of course, this dual role came with its challenges. Identifying issues in practice is not the same as formulating a research agenda. Balancing practical and scientific relevance while ensuring feasibility is demanding for a new PhD student. Time management was also crucial, as I had to be very protective of my schedule, having to miss out on quite some interesting PhD defenses, meetings or workshops to stay on track. Finally, being close to your research subject requires a lot of reflexivity and team collaboration to maintain the necessary distance to your topics.
Fortunately, both the research process and its outcomes were seen as valuable to my organization. As a result, my manager encouraged me to continue research after completing my PhD, working together to build a research agenda, explore ways to involve colleagues in the research process, and, not unimportantly, apply for grants. Throughout this process I have been fortunate to have supportive managers. However, for anyone in education with research interests who gets such a chance, I highly recommend this intertwinement of practice and research—it can be an incredibly rewarding experience.
Malou Stoffels (m.stoffels@amsterdamumc.nl)
What Protects Students from Exam Stress? Insights from VU University Research
As educational researchers, we’ve been observing a troubling trend: the mental health of students in higher education has been steadily declining over the past decade. While much attention has been paid to risk factors that exacerbate exam stress, far less is known about the protective factors that help students thrive under pressure.
This knowledge gap is what inspired my current research at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU). Over the academic years 2023-2024 and 2024-2025, I’ve undertaken an ambitious project to uncover potential protective factors that shield students from the impact of exam stress.
How We’re Investigating Exam Stress
My study uses a mixed-method approach, combining questionnaire data, Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA), and wearable technology to capture the nuances of student experiences. During a 28-day period around examinations, we collected data from 154 students, including:
Additionally, 70 students opted to wear the VU Ambulatory Monitoring System (VU-AMS 7fs) during one of their exams, providing detailed physiological data along with additional pre- and post-exam questionnaires.
Making Data Open and Accessible
Transparency and collaboration are at the heart of this project. All questionnaire and EMA data from the 2023-2024 academic year is publicly available on the project’s OSF page. This repository includes a detailed project description and variable list. While some wearable and VU-AMS data require individual requests due to file size, we aim to make as much data accessible as possible. An updated dataset incorporating data from the 2024-2025 academic year will be added in February.
Collaboration Opportunities
Beyond sharing insights, this project also seeks to foster collaboration. Researchers are welcome to use the data to explore their own questions, although some topics are already being investigated by PhD candidates and master’s students.
Closed projects:
Open Projects:
If you’re interested in collaborating or using this data, please feel free to reach out to me directly at d.j.vander.mee@vu.nl.
Let’s Build a Resilient Student Community
By understanding the protective factors that mitigate exam stress, we can design targeted interventions to support student mental health and well-being. This research is a step toward that goal, and I invite you to join me in exploring these exciting possibilities.
For questions or collaboration inquiries, you can contact me via email (d.j.vander.mee@vu.nl). Let’s uncover the science of resilience—together!
“Does a poor home environment cause children to struggle in school?”
That was the central question of the research seminar of January 28th by Alexandra Starr (Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences, Biological Psychology, VU Amsterdam). In this seminar, the developmental interplay between factors in the home environment and educational achievement was discussed.
Children differ in their learning ability and there is substantial variance in learning ability even before starting school. Family background is a major source of this variance and encompasses both genetic and environmental factors. Twin studies are a natural experiment when investigating the contribution of these genetic and environmental factors. More specifically, comparing identical twins versus fraternal twins tells us about the relative contributions of genes and the environment.
In her research, Alexandra uses twin studies with the aim to examine causal influences on learning, cognition and educational achievement. Two factors of the home environment that are relevant for children’s learning are cognitive stimulation and household chaos. Cognitive stimulation is an umbrella term that includes parental efforts to engage children in activities that promote learning. Household chaos refers to the degree of structure and predictability of the home environment. In Alexandra’s research, longitudinal data from twins aged between 3 and 16 years was used to examine whether household chaos and cognitive stimulation are related to educational achievement and cognitive ability because of causal effects or because of a common cause.
Results showed that the association between cognitive stimulation and cognitive ability was explained by bi-directional genetic and shared environmental factors. Furthermore, the association between household chaos and achievement was mainly due to shared environmental factors independent from family SES.
Altogether, the results demonstrate that common genetic and environmental factors related to both, the home environment and children’s learning, act as confounders of potential causal influences on educational achievement and cognitive ability. This is important to acknowledge when we aim to draw causal inferences in the context of education and cognition. Yet, these findings do not suggest that intervention efforts aimed at eliminating inequalities in learning are per pointless. Alexandra argued that behavioural genetic models show what is but not what could be. While we study variation in learning in a specific group at a specific time, we cannot predict how this variation might change if the environmental conditions change, for example due to systematic interventions or unsystematic changes.
From these findings there are three points to take way:
Luck and Inequality in Education
Thijs Bol’s LEARN! Seminar Talk in December dealt with the interplay of luck and inequality in education. The talk opened with pointing out the construction of success in our societies which are filled with hierarchies such as status, income, and performance. The question is what the factors determining an individual’s place within these hierarchies are.
Thijs outlined Two Perspectives on Inequality:
Thijs distinguished between two types of luck:
Educational Inequality
Educational inequality manifests in both outcomes and opportunities, driven by both genetic capacity and socialization. Parental influence plays a critical role through:
Compensatory mechanism
Thijs highlighted structural factors that compensate for situational disadvantages. Two examples stood out:
Implications and Discussion
Bol emphasized the unequal distribution of luck and its role in perpetuating inequality. Despite increasing belief in meritocracy, societal success is far from meritocratic.
The seminar concluded with a lively Q&A session addressing how educators and systems can better address these inequalities and the implications of belief in meritocracy. One of the questions was what should a teacher in a brugklas do and Thijs’s answer was that teachers should have as much high expectations in their school children as possible instead of reinforcing the stereotypical idea of how school children from lower SES backgrounds can achieve.
Written by TuongVan Vu (t.v.vu@vu.nl)
During the LEARN! Seminar on September 17, Prof. Gonneke Stevens presented findings from the Health Behavior in School-Aged Children (HBSC) study, which has tracked adolescent health and well-being since 1983. Now encompassing over 50 countries, the study surveys adolescents aged 11-15 every four years, focusing on mental health, substance use, social media, and relationships within their social contexts. Each country contributes national data, allowing for both core and context-specific insights.
One key finding is that adolescents attending schools with higher average socioeconomic status (SES) report more psychological symptoms, particularly those from lower SES families (Brons et al., 2024). Another study linked higher SES schools to increased hyperactivity and inattention (Brons et al., 2023), possibly due to greater academic pressure. Since 2010, mental health issues, particularly among girls, have risen significantly, with a sharper increase observed between 2018-2022, likely influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic (Cosma et al., 2024). This period also saw a widening gender gap in psychological complaints (De Looze et al., 2024; Stevens et al., 2024).
Social media use was another area of focus. While problematic social media use remains relatively low, its intensity has increased, especially among girls. Problematic use is linked to internalizing problems (Boer et al., 2020), though the Netherlands reports lower levels of problematic use compared to other countries. This suggests that other factors beyond social media are contributing to the decline in adolescent mental health.
An important hypothesis explored was the "prevalence inflation hypothesis," which suggests that rising mental health issues may be due in part to increased awareness and overinterpretation. Additionally, findings indicated that the gender gap in psychological complaints is wider in more gender-equal countries (De Looze et al., in press), though this is likely due to complex factors beyond gender equality measures. Overall, the HBSC study highlights the importance of considering both individual and contextual factors, such as school and national environments, when addressing adolescent mental health. The rising mental health concerns, particularly among girls, require further investigation into the complex interplay of societal processes.
Written by TuongVan Vu (t.v.vu@vu.nl)
Does education make students smarter? And is education a tool to combat social inequalities?
Such questions were addressed in the LEARN! Seminar of April given by Dr. Bruno Sauce.
Bruno started his talk by reciting the debate about the possibility of improving cognitive abilities in the history of psychology. While one camp was convinced that cognitive abilities could not be improved by education; the other camp completely refuted the heritability of intelligence. According to Bruno, much progress in the field has shown that the picture is more intricate and nuanced.
He then outlined the difficulty of disentangling education, intelligence and socio-economic status (SES) since SES is known as a strong predictor for educational attainment while education attainment can be predicted by genetic make-up.
In the large IMAGEN consortium study, Bruno and colleagues tried to isolate the effect of natural brain maturation to study the effect of socioeconomic inequalities on educational attainment. The data from over 500 participants at 14 and 19 years of age showed that both socio-economical background and genetic factors impacted the development of cognitive abilities and brain maturation.
See: https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2001228117
In addition to educational attainment, Bruno and colleagues delved deeper in the actual learning process by conducting an intervention study comparing a group of participants receiving 25 days of intense cognitive training with a control group assessed over long time spans. Their findings suggested that cognitive gains from 2 years of development and from 25 days of learning are related to the same genetic factors: flexible genes that interplay with experiences. This means that children develop partly from cognitive challenges (for example, schooling or playing an educational app), and not from purely natural maturation.
See: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41539-021-00096-6
To further investigate causal evidence, Bruno and colleagues capitalized on the American schooling system where children with birthdays only a few days apart might enroll in different grades because of an arbitrary cut-off for entry. These children are the same biological age but might have a different number of years of education. This provided a natural experiment setting to study the effect of schooling separate from that of natural development. They found that schooling caused a larger difference in intelligence than either SES or genetic factors.
See: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36522329/
He ended his talk with the question whether schools lessen or widen the initial gaps in cognitive abilities due to genetic and economic inequalities? In the same study, Bruno and colleagues then looked for whether the effect of genes or SES could be different depending on the amount of education one gets. Their findings indicate that schooling, at least in their dataset, was not a major driving force for either increasing or decreasing the differences due to genetic make-up or socio-economic background. Overall, Bruno’s studies indicate rather convincing evidence that education makes us smarter but there’s currently weak support for that education is the remedy for social inequalities.
In the highly interactive April Learn! session, Rashmi Kursukar brought to the attention of the audience a very important topic, namely the equity, diversity and inclusion perspective in education and educational research.
The seminar started with the question: What is diversity?
According to the audience, diversity means that people come from different backgrounds, in terms of socioeconomic status, ethnicity and religion. This is in line with the actual definition of diversity, which talks about the representation of individuals of varied backgrounds in the society in specific contexts.
Next, it was discussed what equity stands for and the difference between equity and equality was discussed. The audience highlighted the differences by giving an example: if two people of different heights are standing behind a fence, equality means giving each individual a box to stand on of the same size in order to get a better view. Equity means giving each individual a box adjusted to their height, so everyone can get the same view. Equity can thus be defined as the practice of embedding systems that ensure equal opportunities to all, regardless of their background or personal characteristics, and with the aim of promotion of fairness, impartiality and access.
Everyone then took a moment to reflect on what inclusion stands for. The audience gave a whole variety of answers to this question, which is also reflected in the literature where inclusion is defined in many different ways. Although there is no clear definition of inclusion, its two most important parts are a sense of belonging and empowerment to be able to make meaningful contributions. Thus, equity, diversity and inclusion form an interrelated system and they should always be considered together.
Finally, positionality was discussed, which refers to the reflection on and understanding of one’ s personal values and perspectives which are shaped by social identities and experience. Positionality can vary across situations. For instance, your positionality is probably different in your country of origin compared to your positionality abroad. It is important to understand your positionality in order to help others in settings such as the classroom and health care. People with privilege can sometimes find it hard to visualise or understand the barriers faced by an underprivileged person.
More about the definitions discussed above can be found here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10331846/
The second part of the seminar was devoted to equity, diversity and inclusion in education and educational research. Here, research about the ethnic minority background students in medicine was discussed. Numerous studies have shown that ethnic minority background students are less likely to be selected for or admitted to study medicine. Furthermore, they are less likely to become specialists in medicine.
Example studies on the topic can be found here:
In order to achieve more equity, it is important to strive for equity, diversity, inclusion policies and inclusive educators and leadership in education. Furthermore, it is important to be aware of the blind spots in education and health care research, such as colonisation of healthcare education curricula and stereotyping.
To conclude the seminar, Rashmi left the audience with some food for thought by asking everyone to reflect on some very important questions. Now we invite you, the reader, to ask yourself the following:
Perspective taking is a technique that can help teachers to meet the student’s needs and improve teacher sensitivity. Teachers often experience situations in which they struggle with students with behavioral problems, such as hyperactive, oppositional, aggressive or anxious behavior. In the moment itself, and influenced by stress, time pressure or emotions, it is often difficult to observe what the reason behind the behavior was and what the student felt. Therefore, teachers act based on their momentary appraisal of the situation, which is not necessarily correct.
Teachers’ appraisals may be colored by earlier experiences with this specific student, or other students with comparable behavior. On the one hand, teachers appraisals facilitate acting quickly in complex situations. However, looking through a colored lens may also hinder teachers to accurately assess what a student actually needs. This may lead to feelings of incompetence.
Actively taking the perspective of the student, that is, actively trying to understand the students thoughts and emotions, can foster sensitivity of teachers. To support teachers’ perspective taking Hinke Endedijk (Leiden University), together with Fanny de Swart (LEARN!, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), Marjolein Zee (Erasmus University Rotterdam), Tim Mainhard (Leiden University), and educational partners, developed BeGRP. BeGRP is a tool that teachers can use as in an intervision context together with a colleague, and supports perspective taking in six steps. Hereby, teachers develop new explanations for students’ behavior, and how to support the student. In the study we aimed to test whether BeGRP 1) improved perspective taking of teachers, 2) increased teacher sensitivity, and 3) enhanced teacher efficacy. A total of 75 teachers and student teachers used BeGRP and filled out surveys. Initial findings show that BeGRP supports teachers to take the perspective of the student and increases teacher efficacy. Furthermore, teachers seem to generalize their skills to other students in the classroom (see NRO report, April 2024). Perspective taking is thus a potentially powerful mechanism to support teachers in addressing problem behavior in classrooms, and meet students’ needs.
One of the most prominent hypotheses in educational psychology is that academic motivation and school achievement have a reciprocal relationship, and this idea has been put through empirical testing throughout the past 30 years. It suggests that academic motivation has a positive effect on achievement which in turn fuels motivation. In a recently published paper* in Educational Psychology, our team of Elise van Triest, prof. Nienke van Atteveldt, prof. Martijn Meeter, other collaborators, and I (TuongVan Vu) reported our multilevel meta-analyses and systematic review in which we revisited the empirical evidence for this reciprocity.
Our multilevel meta-analyses and systematic review encompass 47 studies of motivation and academic achievement, but we chose specifically the ones that had longitudinal data and were conducted in primary and secondary education. Given that previous meta-analyses focused on the self-belief type of motivational constructs such as academic self-concept, self-efficacy, and the likes, we therefore also selected studies that used the non-self-belief type of motivation constructs such as achievement goal orientation, interest, etc..
Our findings offered mixed support for reciprocity. Overall, the pooled effect of achievement on motivation was nearly twice as strong as that of motivation on achievement. The effect of achievement on motivation held across different types of motivation constructs, albeit exhibiting more robust reciprocity for self-belief constructs than for other constructs. The effect of motivation on achievement was exclusively found for self-belief type of motivation and not for the non-self-belief type of motivation.
Furthermore, we also investigated other factors that could influence the reciprocity, namely participant age, time between measurements and study population (given a high prevalence of studies performed in Germany). Regarding the effect of achievement on motivation, studies investigating older populations found significantly smaller effect sizes than those in younger populations. Conversely, time between measurements was the only significant moderator, suggesting that the effect of motivation on achievement gets smaller as the two measurements are spread further apart. Overall, the medium-to-high heterogeneity between studies and within studies suggests that pivotal factors in the motivation-achievement dynamics may not have been captured yet.
The asymmetric reciprocal relationship also has implications for teachers and practitioners. We recommend, based on our results, to first focus on assisting students in mastering learning materials and building academic skills. Subsequently, it becomes crucial to help students integrate these achievements into their academic self concept instead of providing positive feedback solely to boost self-belief.
*You can read the research article here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01443410.2024.2307960
Female leadership is a much-discussed topic, including at VU Amsterdam. Underrepresentation of women in leadership positions creates a shortage of female role models – in academia and beyond. Women have to work harder to be seen and heard. At the Women at the Top symposium, women at VU Amsterdam underscore the importance of female leaders in our society.
Women in leadership positions from VU Amsterdam, including Melanie Ehren (LEARN!), were invited to have a say on this topic. What expertise do they have that we can learn from? And what lessons can we take away from their experiences? Whether it’s about groundbreaking HIV research or development of the university’s education policy, expertise in new technologies or dialogue in times of polarisation... they all testify to the importance of gender equality at the top.
Can you tell us a little about yourself?
“I’ve always been interested in education. I studied Applied Educational Sciences at the University of Twente and subsequently worked in various policy positions. These included at the Faculty of Medicine at AMC, at Colo (now the Knowledge Centre for Vocational Education and Business) and at the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences.
I’ve been involved in educational supervision in all these positions. Through supervision, the education inspectorate checks whether education meets predetermined standards and expectations, so that students and pupils receive the best possible learning experience.
When a vacancy came up at the University of Twente for a PhD position on the effects of educational supervision, it was a unique opportunity for me, as a scientist, to examine the question of whether educational supervision also contributes to the functioning of schools and educational institutions as well as the learning of children and young adults.
“What I find both fun and fascinating about researching educational supervision is that you need multiple disciplines within it. Psychology, because you’re investigating the relationships between supervisors and school management. Public administration, because you need to know how supervision fits within our democratic system. And sociology, because you need to understand how supervision influences the education system and how supervision guidelines have a normative effect on the content of education and the development of organisations. In short, it comes down to understanding human relationships, politics and the way our education system works.”
What’s your research about?
“The effect of educational supervision on schools and school improvement has always been an important theme in my work. I’m currently conducting research into how supervision and external quality standards influence the work of teachers, and how they interpret these standards in six countries: South Africa, Honduras, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nepal. In collaboration with a team of researchers, we try to understand why some teachers strictly follow the rules of how to teach, while others adapt these rules to the needs and abilities of their students. We see that the school management plays a major role in this, but also the parents of students, the time, resources and knowledge available at schools, and the professional background and views of the teachers about their own profession.”
How could you inspire other young female scientists with your story and your career so far?
“I’m very happy with the variety of positions I’ve held so far, and more especially with the valuable experiences I’ve had abroad. Through these experiences, I’ve gained many ideas for my own education and how we can properly train students to become critical and well-informed thinkers. This also helped me build my network, which I still benefit from today.
“I hope that all young scientists, not just women, are able to take those opportunities too. Leave your comfort zone – that’s where you’ll discover what you can do and how to move forward.”
What advice would you give yourself if you were 18 years old?
“Sometimes you miss opportunities or take a wrong turn, but that’s part of life and in the end you have to make the best of it. Every phase of life comes with different wishes and expectations about what interests you and what you find important. It’s nice to be able to grant space to those things.”
Creativity is often connected to imagination; it is the ability to produce original or unusual ideas and to make something new or imaginative (Cambridge University Press, n.d.). The term tends to be linked to artistic practices such as painting, composing music, or writing poetry. But what if the act of being creative is more than an artistic one? In this post, I will argue that creativity is a multifaceted practice that goes hand in hand with learning and the development of critical thinking skills, adaptive behaviour, and exploration.
In education and other learning environments, creativity is often linked to the ability of a learner to problem-solve and approach tasks and projects with flexibility, originality, and novelty. It includes a wide variety of categories such as the making of products, expression of creative traits, and engagement in creative thinking, behavior and accomplishment (Kaufman, Plucker, & Baer, 2008). An example of creative expression in an academic context may involve a student developing or sharing a unique method to approach a math problem, or the implementation of a solution to a social problem at school by a group of students (Beghetto et al., 2021). Creativity can also be endorsed in other learning domains, such as language. For instance, by encouraging expression through writing in the form of letters, poetry, comics, and more, students can learn to reflect, express themselves, and take perspective. Likewise, structured reading activities can foster idea generation and exploration (Marcos et al., 2020). These practices have been shown to positively impact learning, improving academic achievement (Gajda, Karwowski & Beghetto, 2017, Karwowski et al., 2020).
Beyond providing a platform for personal expression and academic achievement, creative thinking and behavior are associated with two very important yet overlooked elements: risk and failure. While these may sound negative at first, they are, in fact, crucial elements to the success of learning. Allowing for an environment in which students can explore their ideas, think outside of the box, and approach problems from new perspectives involves creative risk. This is a form of positive risk-taking that allows students to explore their environment using their creativity, thereby expanding their boundaries, and testing their strengths and limitations. Positive risks such as creative exploration can result in productive failures: setbacks that enhance learning and create opportunities for improvement (Henriksen et al., 2021). Productive failures are integral to the learning process, given that learning often involves multiple rounds of thinking, re-thinking, reworking, and adjusting. Giving space to creative risks allows students to learn that failures provide new insight that can be used in future endeavors. This can greatly increase students’ ability to learn from mistakes and challenges, ultimately allowing them to become resilient, adaptive learners.
Increasing creative practices in the school setting is thus relevant on multiple levels: it creates a platform for personal development, familiarizes students with positive risks and productive failures that foster learning, and enhances deep, critical thinking and acting. To foster creativity in students, schools can begin by establishing a supportive environment where students feel safe to make and learn from mistakes. This can be done by establishing an atmosphere that focuses on the learning process rather than the product, integrates multidisciplinary approaches, and allows students to express ideas. For instance, teachers can apply guided inquiry as a teaching strategy, in which students get the possibility to explore ideas, discuss, and articulate their thoughts. These autonomy-encouraging activities can, in turn, support the development of student’s growth mindset, in which they view ability as adjustable and in their own control (Yu, Kreijkes & Salmela-Aro, 2022). Another way of fostering creativity is by using theater exercises in history lessons, or by connecting natural sciences to the humanities. Likewise, collaboration and cooperation in projects may enhance the exchange of ideas, providing students the ability to see the power of teamwork and fostering inclusivity and perspective-taking. Most importantly, we can begin by recognizing the power of creativity in learning. Creativity is an integral part of development and a catalyst for positive risk that can ultimately help us grow and navigate an ever-changing, complex world. We could start actively endorsing our own creative side, value the creative practice around us, and allow for this exploratory behavior and cognition in our learning environments. If we decide to embrace the creativity inside of us all, it may not only nurture our potential but also equip us to handle the challenges in our daily lives with ingenuity and resilience.
Originally published at: https://www.gutsproject.com/the-power-of-creativity-in-learning/
On Friday 22nd of March, Merel van Vroonhoven delivered the 2024 Kohnstamm Lecture, a collaborative initiative between the Kohnstamm Institute, the Hogeschool van Amsterdam, Universiteit van Amsterdam, and Institute LEARN! (Vrije Universiteit) on topics of education and child-rearing. Merel van Vroonhoven, a trained engineer, spent 20 years on the boards of various large companies (NN, NS, ING). In 2019 however, she made a big, lateral career switch and became a special education teacher. In her lecture, she passionately argues that the craft of teaching needs to return to the center of attention, in an educational world focused on policymakers and in which bureaucracy rules. Only when teachers are once again at the heart of education will the appeal to start and stay in the profession return.
In her speech, Van Vroonhoven draws her audience in immediately. She reminds us of the power of teaching, by bringing us back to our own time at school and to those teachers that had the biggest impact on us. With this, she opens powerfully with a message that will color the rest of her talk: ‘everything stands and falls with the teacher’. In a fast, performance-oriented educational world where inequality reigns, she believes that teachers have a crucial role in fighting for a better future. When teachers create an inclusive learning climate and see beyond the differences in their student’s backgrounds, they can have huge impact. However, a crisis in the teaching world, with many leaving the profession and a chronic shortage of teachers, hinders this.
When Van Vroonhoven meets with ex-colleagues from before her time in the classroom, they often comment that teaching must have led to a more laid-back workweek for her. However, this could not be further from the truth. In fact, the burden of workload in combination with increasing stress in the profession are the top reasons for teachers to leave the classroom. Limited opportunities for personal and professional development come in at a close second. As a result, many teachers close to or with burnout choose to leave the profession permanently or in pursuit of self-employment. While this problematic state of the educational world, together with drops in student literacy and numeracy, may briefly reach headlines, it quickly returns to the back of our collective mind.
Here, Van Vroonhoven highlights the inspiring work of Afghan activist Laila Haida, whom even a corrupt government cannot stop in bringing education to adolescent girls. Education is worth risking your life for. But why then are we taking it for granted? With education receiving little to no attention during the recent elections and current formation of government, a society in which low literacy and numeracy are increasing steadily, should be cause for major concern.
Van Vroonhoven believes our approach to education is part of the problem. She argues that we created a system where bureaucratic burden and overwhelming workload put high pressure on teachers. Furthermore, we use limited criteria captured in multiple choice tests, designed to optimally track average development in school, as a base to determine societal status. Based on these criteria, children are sorted into categories from a very early age. Van Vroonhoven argues that this system leads to winners and losers, in which a university degree is idolized, and vocational education is stigmatized. This is unjustified and dangerous: our society needs craftsmen. More importantly, it creates the risk of young individuals developing rigid ideas regarding their worth, simply based on where they grow up or the wealth of their parents.
With these convincing arguments, Van Vroonhoven criticizes our current educational system. But how can we change the system and create a better, and more equal future for our youth? Van Vroonhoven makes the plea to radically change the value of the craftsmanship that is teaching. Additionally, she demands a fundamental reversal of the current educational system: switching from a focus on the administrator to the teacher. With this, Van Vroonhoven suggests that the teaching profession be put central to education, focusing on content and craftmanship rather than the fulfilling of rules and administrative tasks. She argues that for good teaching, we need to start relying on the expertise of those professionals directly engaged in the craft. She demands of teachers: ‘take your profession back into your own hands!’. Only when teachers stop merely performing bureaucratic rules made by administrators that often don’t have first-hand experience, and rather, start demanding time for the craft itself, can we move towards higher quality and satisfaction in the teaching field. For her, this switch in focus entails more time for professional development, to prepare classes and focus on teaching content rather than completing bureaucratic tasks. She thereby asks teachers to take responsibility for their own profession, to ‘raise the bar’. Importantly, van Vroonhoven highlights a potential ‘medicine’ to the current system: a strong teacher alliance, which currently is lacking in the field. With this, she believes a system in which both teacher and student curriculum are centralized and quality-controlled, can arise. With these words, she gives teachers a will to fight for their craft and a method to do so.
To those in government, Van Vroonhoven has sharp advice: ‘flip the system’. Rather than focusing on the administrator, she argues that the teacher should be central in the educational system. She also demands that vague propositions in education reports be replaced with specific advice. For instance, teacher education should focus on training quality, rather than quantity of trainees. She explains that creating strict requirements for teachers and school management through consistent, external assessment can prevent lack of expertise and effective leadership.
Finally, Van Vroonhoven speaks to those who, perhaps, have the most immediate impact: those in school boards and policy making. She implores them to fight for teachers to come back to their profession again, and to ensure that our youth sees a future in teaching again. Though she is not a fan of ‘curling parents’, she wishes for more ‘curling school boards’ - school boards that remove bureaucratic and practical obstacles to excellent teaching.
To conclude her lecture, Van Vroonhoven comes back to those that inspire her every day, that fuel her fire: her students. With an anecdote, she powerfully demonstrates that the questioning of her decision to move from the financial world to the teaching profession only makes her passion for the field grow. And it is not only her own passion that is sparked. After her lecture, the audience buzzed with new inspiration and a will to fight the system. In the audience’s often emotional questions to her, it became clear that her words gave space to feelings that have been growing in many for a long time. With her speech she strengthens a movement that she started by turning her back to the finance world and opening her heart to education. A movement towards equality in education, and a path towards the passion of teaching.
The full text and recording of the lecture can be found on the website (in Dutch).
First of all, what do we actually mean by “interest”?
Maartje opened her talk introducing models of interest development such as the four-phase model of interest development which states that interest is a response to certain external triggers from the environment and can grow into a more stable characteristic.
Next, Maartje introduced a more dynamic theoretical framework about interest development and network models which can help us better understand how a change might be facilitated. This more dynamic point of view suggests that if somebody is interested in something, you have some knowledge about the topic, you think it has value (could be societal value, but also personal value) and you have certain positive emotions about it. Behaviour, value, emotion and knowledge are all influencing the interest in a certain topic such as climate change, wicked problems or science.
Topic 1: Interest in climate change
In a psychometric network study, it was examined what determines whether young people engage with climate change. This study showed that the Locus of control seems to be one of the central nodes and predicts seeking information on climate change in young adults. So, people who believe to have an influence, are more likely to engage with climate change.
Topic 2: Wicked problems in the science museum (NEMO)
The question was: How can NEMO entice a broad and diverse audience to develop their own perspective on these complex topics? What background variables and what interest dimensions predict participants’ interest? It was found that “finding it important for society to participate in scientific research” was quite important for this. No effect was found for predictors such as socioeconomic status or educational level.
Link to the article
Link to the project.
Topic 3: citizen science primary school
Here the project: “alle scholen verzamelen” was mentioned. How can we identify interest in doing research? It appears that there was a stronger developed interest for doing research after the intervention since there was a better connected network. Also, a positive change in the relation between school weight and interest in doing research was found!
Link to the project.
Rashmi Kusurkar is a professor and research programme leader at Amsterdam UMC. In her research, she focuses on diversity and inclusion in Health Professions Education and how these relate to students' motivation. Recently, she was nominated as a role model from Amsterdam UMC for the Equals campaign. Please continue reading to find out more about the campaign and Rashmi's experiences with integratign the Dutch and Indian identity on her path to a professorship.
Could you briefly introduce yourself and give an overview of your background and experience?
By background I've been trained as a medical doctor in India, and I completed my specialisation in physiology. I was teaching for about 7 years in Mumbai, India, and then my husband took up a job in Amsterdam. That's how we moved to Amsterdam. I wanted to do a PhD in medical education, but it wasn’t possible to do that in India at that point. When I came to the Netherlands, I had a desire to pursue my dream PhD position, but because I didn’t know anyone in this country, it was really difficult to get started. On top of that, there was hardly any information available in English, all the websites were in Dutch. That is when my husband suggested I should start reaching out to people in real life. I wasn’t proficient at using PubMed, because in India we didn't have those resources back then. In the end I found some papers in which I found potential names I could reach out to, and that’s what I did. I went through 7 to 8 interviews to get the position at the UMC Utrecht. I was very satisfied with it because I got the opportunity to choose my topic and research what I wanted. Drawing onto my former teaching practice in India, I had questions about students' motivation, academic performance and learning. This is what I decided to do for my PhD studies. After 3 years of research, I graduated from UMC Utrecht. At that time, my second supervisor moved to the VU as the director of medical education and invited me to join. I then got a wonderful opportunity to create my own group in education research. I started with two PhD students and then slowly the group expanded. Seven PhD students have graduated from my research programme and currently I am supervising around 12 students, also international.
What is the focus of your research group within Learn?
The name of my group is Developing students for life - Motivation for lifelong learning. Developing students for life means that we try to nurture students to become intrinsically motivated, to constantly learn from the practice and be dedicated to continuing professional development. We focus on students from the moment they start thinking about joining health professions education, which is also our domain, throughout their undergraduate and postgraduate education, as well as during their practice. There are two main research themes within the program: one is about motivation and all the factors that influence motivation, such as gender or background, and at the same time about all the things that motivation influences, like academic performance, professional identity, engagement or even burnout. The other theme focuses on inclusion, equity, diversity and accessibility. Here we look at the basis of people’s background and other factors to see whether people get equitable chances or not in professional development. Through my research group I succeeded in connecting the two themes which have always been connected in my mind. My point of view is that if a person doesn't feel included in the educational or professional environment, they cannot have intrinsic motivation for their work.
The role of inclusion in motivation was also the theme of your inaugural lecture. Could you elaborate more on this topic?
The title of my oration was The ABC of inclusion and motivation, with which I aimed to answer the question of how to bring students to flourish. I use Self-determination theory while talking about motivation. The backbone of that theory is that everyone can flourish with the optimal motivation, meaning that everyone can grow to their potential. But to be able to flourish, you need the desirable type of motivation, namely autonomous motivation; you either have to be genuinely interested in something, or find it important. The other type of motivation is called controlled motivation, and it appears when you are doing something out of internal pressure, for instance because you want to become famous or earn a lot of money, or because someone in the family is pressuring you to do something.
How can you make sure that students and employees are autonomously motivated?
This is exactly why I connect the two themes in my research. Inclusion is an important part of it, because if you don't feel included in your learning or working environment, you can never be autonomously motivated. What the Self-determination theory talks about is 3 basic psychological needs, which are called autonomy, belongingness and competence. This is what the ABC stands for in the title of my oration. According to that theory, for anyone to be autonomously motivated, they need to feel a sense of autonomy or choice in their actions. When a person asks themselves, 'Why do I want to do it?’, the answer should be: ‘because I want to’ and not ‘because someone else wants me to do this’. This is what autonomy is about.
Other important factors are belongingness, which is the need to feel a sense of belonging to peers, to the learning and working environment, and competence. What follows, when people don't feel competent, they will not be autonomously motivated. These are the three basic psychological needs in ABC, but I personally also connect it to inclusion.
"For me, inclusion means the sense of belongingness combined with the empowerment to make meaningful contributions."
So it is possible that someone may feel a sense of belonging, but may not have the power to contribute. That process is called assimilation, where someone from a different culture comes to the majority culture and is accepted only when they exhibit the behaviours of the majority culture. They have a sense of belonging to the group, but their individual characteristics are not valued. This is not inclusion, but rather assimilation.
I always talk about inclusion in the context where you feel a sense of belonging plus the empowerment to contribute meaning. Furthermore, our research shows that if people don’t feel included, it has a negative effect on their motivation, because these three basic ABC needs are not met. People will lose their sense of autonomy, stop feeling competent, and lose the sense of belonging. And because of that, they will no longer be autonomously motivated, but controlled motivated. As we have shown in our previous studies, controlled motivation is more associated with burnout, lower engagement and lower academic performance as compared to autonomous motivation. Thus, in conclusion, what I tried to show is that inclusion is necessary for someone to feel optimally or autonomously motivated, and therefore it is also necessary for our well-being.
Could you give some practical examples of how you can evoke these ABC factors in everyday educational practices?
When you are teaching a group of students, the best you can do is to give them lots of choices. You should be asking questions like: What do you want to study? How do you want to study it? How do you want to assess it? What types of activities do you enjoy doing? There are obviously things which are restricted by the curriculum, like the reading or writing material, but you could always plan a nice activity around it. For example, have a debate in the class with someone speaking for and against a topic, or you could actually ask students how they want to handle a particular topic.
And how does it work on an individual level?
For instance, if there is a very bright student who might want something more than others, I, as a teacher, can address those needs and give the student a more challenging exercise. To give an example, the student can look for an article related to a topic discussed in class and can later explain it to the rest of the students. As a result, there is no additional burden for the rest of the class or the teacher, but the person who wants extra gets extra.
This example concerned the possible adjustments on different levels regarding what to learn or study. However, it can also be about how to learn. Think of a student preparing for a test who wants to effectively revise the information. The student’s task can therefore be to look for real life examples where this can be used and to write it down. The student could also give a presentation about what they have learned so far, followed by a discussion. What is important is that the ideas should come from the students; they are the ones who should decide how they want to learn a certain topic. These are all ways of passing the responsibility to the students, which makes them feel like they have autonomy while the teacher also holds the accountability for facilitating the learning process. So it is possible to give autonomy to students within an already existing structure or curriculum.
The second aspect is competence. Students often receive feedback, however, it is important that the feedback focuses on the activity instead of evaluating them as a good or bad student. Teachers can give such feedback by outlining the aspects that the students did well and pointing out possible areas for improvement. Furthermore, having a one to one relationship with a student or creating activities in the class where they start feeling like a group stimulates that relatedness or belongingness within the group.
The topic of equality and inclusion really shines through in all aspects of your work. Why are these factors so important to your research?
After my PhD, I had meetings with a lot of teachers and people who were working in education. And every time I would start to say something about how things are done in India, people would immediately say something like: but that is in India, that's not relevant for the Dutch context. I find it strange that people say that because students are the same everywhere. Of course there are differences, but there are also overarching similarities. Sadly, few wanted to hear about these similarities. Thus, I was not able to share my knowledge because people could be too close-minded. And whenever I talked about motivation, people would say that in Indian or other collectivistic cultures, students' motivation comes from the parents’ pressure, which is a stereotype. It triggered me and I started wondering why people think like this. And then I started observing things around me and I saw that students who came from collectivistic cultures or people of colour constantly had to face so many barriers and face the same kind of rejection or exclusion everywhere.
This is when I realised the true importance of the topic and decided to write a grant proposal on it. Ironically, my grant proposal wasn’t accepted because they didn't even recognize it as a topic. Nonetheless, I found a possibility to convert it into a PhD project which was taken up by my student Ulviye Işik, who did research on academic motivation and performance of ethnic minority students.In the study we found that the ethnic minority students actually had higher autonomous motivation and that their academic performance did not differ. We were intrigued by the results and wanted to find an explanation. We carried out two qualitative studies where we came to know that students from other backgrounds face everyday discrimination - like people making fun of their names, doubting their abilities and competence in their learning, work and professionalism, giving them poor grades in their clinical performance and judging them as unprofessional in their behaviour. There is a lot of implicit bias, for instance an assumption that their quality of learning is low, which they have to face everywhere. We observed that even though it had a negative effect on their situational (at the moment) motivation, they were so determined and so resilient that they overcame the initial dip in motivation so that the long term motivation to become a doctor was not affected. They went on, they faced all barriers and kept going without giving up, which was amazing to us. And on the basis of that we wrote a consortium grant proposal about the unintended effects of selection on the student population and the applicant pool. We analysed the pipeline from childhood to becoming a medical specialist, and then we expanded it to health professions education, so not just specialists. We found that women with ethnic minority backgrounds have the lowest chances of becoming a medical specialist.
"Overall you could say that I found the topic of motivation, but inclusion found me. It wasn’t my initial intention to do research on inclusion, but I got there because of my experience."
What are the key challenges that you face in promoting inclusion and diversity and education?
The topic of inclusion and diversity is a very uncomfortable one because it is related to the history of slavery and colonisation. I noticed that if you want to make equitable chances for people who are of a different ethnic minority, the majority starts feeling threatened because they think their chances and opportunities will decrease. We faced a lot of challenges when we were presenting our research, in the sense that people were really resistant. At some point I realised that talking about exclusion is not helping me create an impact. And that's when I move towards the story of inclusion. And suddenly there was a change in how people looked at it because everyone wanted to be inclusive. It was surprising how the change of frame and terminology opened doors for our work.
I actually have ethical dilemmas sometimes because I feel like I'm ignoring the people who have exclusion and discrimination experiences while I'm moving forward on inclusion. I feel like I'm not doing justice to them. It's a difficult dilemma to live with because I know I'm doing it for the long term gain since everyone wants to join the movement of inclusion which I'm happy with. But there are times when it really bothers me.
Recently you became a role model from Amsterdam UMC for the Equals campaign. Could you explain what the goals of the campaign are and how you got chosen?
On my way to becoming a professor, I had a lot of experiences about which I talked with the Committee Talent Assessment and the Executive Board to help them understand that it is harder for a person of colour to become a professor. It was sort of expected of me that I would find a sense of belonging in a homogeneous group of white, male professors, but I didn't want to lose my Indian roots. I went through an identity struggle while going through my career path and I chose not to give up my true identity. I actually even have a visual of what it felt like, which is a painting that my sister-in-law made for me. It shows an Indian rose which is at the centre of a painting, which represents my Indian identity, and my Dutch identity is represented by tulips built around it. It was a difficult journey, but I was successful in maintaining my values and still becoming a professor. Then I was invited to join the Steering Committee on Diversity and Inclusion at Amsterdam UMC, meaning that I could finally give input based on my experiences and perspective. When I talk about these things now, people take it more seriously, than when I was an associate professor. Getting the professor position made all the difference in the world, which I knew would happen and that was my main motivation to become one. I was never interested in the title, but in what it could bring further for my group and our research work.
Coming back to the question, Equals is a company that conducts a campaign about equality between men and women, which they have been doing for the last 4 years. Every year, they interview and photograph women from the bigger cities like Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht, and they advertise it with posters placed all around the city. It is actually the company who has to sign up to become part of the campaign in order to show that they really value equality. It is the first time that Amsterdam UMC participated. I got nominated because of my perspective on diversity and inclusion and became a role model on equality.
After my photoshoot, they asked me to talk about my motivation and why I think that role modelling is important. It connects very well to my research, because we have found that role models are very important particularly to minority students who often don’t see people working in healthcare who look like them. Because of that they think they cannot reach those positions, which is sadly also true. We found that they often don't get into a specialisation because all the supervisors want to pick students who look like them. It has a lot of exponential effects. In our research we have seen that having visible role models is important for students, especially of ethnic minorities, so that they can imagine a future for themselves. So when they asked me to become part of the campaign, I immediately said yes. And then I came to know that there is going to be a poster of me in the centre of Amsterdam, next to the National Opera, which is a very beautiful location. I had never dreamt in my entire life that there would be a poster of me at such a crossroad, especially after all the difficulties I had to go through on my career track to become a professor resulting from the systemic expectations.
My daughter experiences school-related stress on a regularly basis. She often comes home telling me she had to work really hard, with almost no time for fun or games. The many tests and grades make her nervous. Of course, this type of stress is not uncommon and not necessarily a concern. However, my daughter is 10 years old. I find that far too young for the pressure and stress that she experiences at school. Why can’t learning be more fun? And why can’t schools focus more on children’s motivation and well-being, rather than on their grades? To find answers, we need to look beyond one single research discipline...
Many issues related to our children’s education are complex and rooted in different intertwined layers. In science, these layers are called levels and we distinguish between, for example, the individual, social and societal levels. Each individual child goes through a unique developmental trajectory during their school period. Their neurobiological developmental processes are strongly shaped by their social environment: interactions with peers, siblings, parents and teachers. Influences are also exerted at the macro level by teaching practices (school systems) and the dominant values and goals within a society (the sociopolitical context).
Let’s go back to the example of my daughter. I remember her starting primary school as a happy and confident little girl who was eager to learn. Over the years, we have seen her losing motivation for schoolwork and becoming more worried about her performance. And my daughter is not an isolated case, as the Dutch Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) study convincingly demonstrates. HBSC’s 2022 report shows a concerning tripling of experienced performance pressure among Dutch youth over the last two decades. This increased pressure is accompanied by mental health problems, especially in girls.
Because of the complex and multi-levelled nature of a child’s development during the school period, we need to connect research from different fields and traditions to get to a better understanding of wicked problems such as performance pressure.
Connecting neuroscience, education and society: why?
To understand why many children feel more stressed about their performance than they enjoy learning, we need to understand the interplay between the development of their brains and minds, school practices and societal values. During the entire school period, important developmental processes occur in a child’s brain, shaping their behaviour and learning mechanisms. At the same time, brain development is influenced by the inputs a child receives, often in interaction with others. During this developmental interplay, certain children maintain their intrinsic motivation to learn new things, while others start to focus more on performing well and comparing themselves to peers. This focus is also shaped by their social context: the norms in their classrooms for example, and the messages they get at home. What do teachers and parents emphasise? In the current western meritocratic societies, the emphasis is often on measurable achievements, or in other words, getting good grades in comparison to others, instead of improving against a child’s own benchmark.
The influences at the diverse levels are often studied in isolation, but this inevitably leads to incomplete answers. This is because the interactions between the different levels lead to emergent properties. This means we cannot understand the complete problem by understanding its isolated parts. In other words, only studying brain development will not provide answers, and neither does only studying sociological processes.
The risk of focusing on one level and being blind to other levels can be exemplified again by my daughter. Cases like hers might urge research at the individual level, for example to investigate predictors of stress resilience, and interventions to increase it. But is it really an individual problem? Shouldn’t the research be focused on why so many children experience performance pressure, with the aim to intervene at a more societal level? To find the right questions to address, and the right impacts to pursue, we need to integrate research on all the relevant levels, from the start.
Connecting neuroscience, education and society: how?
Although the need to combine forces in interdisciplinary research has long been recognised, this is easier said than done. To integrate different disciplines and traditions, scientists first of all need to get out of their comfort zones and be exposed to different perspectives. But being exposed to different ideas does not automatically lead to synthesis. We need to know what to make of these ideas and how to combine them with our own. For this, we need to ask a lot of questions. Do the same terms have the same meaning in different fields? What assumptions are being made?
An even more essential counterpart of asking questions, is listening. Very inspiring in this context is Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits Model, in particular habit 5: ‘Seek first to understand, then be understood’. Too often, we are focused on being understood and making ourselves heard. But the order suggested by Covey, to first understand the other, is essential for interdisciplinary work.
In conclusion, only through connecting the individual and context levels of research can we achieve the interdisciplinarity required to reduce performance pressure and improve the well-being of our youth. In the meantime, I will continue to juggle all levels of influence in an effort to prevent a downward spiral, at least for my daughter.
The above text was originally published as part of the Connected World - Insights from 100 Academics on How to Build Better Connections. You can read and download the original publication here.
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