| “The research within the Chair of Evidence Based
Education will mainly focus on the development
and evaluations of effective educational
interventions and innovations. In the Netherlands
there is hardly any evidence based research in this
field. Internationally, however, this type of research
is carried out, but in general the results cannot be
applied to the Dutch educational situation.
Moreover, the aim of the Chair is to study the social
context of education: what is the effect of
investments in education in other areas, such as
criminal behaviour, health, labour market
opportunities, the number of benefits recipients,
etc. The intriguing question is whether these
educational investments for example result in
better health, lower crime rates and fewer benefits
for recipients?
A third objective of the Chair is the synthesis and
integration of research production. We will set up a
portal that contains the most important reviews,
meta analyses and studies in the field of
educational research. We will categorize these
studies based on the nature of the study, methods,
subject, etc... This portal will be built in
collaboration with the Ministry of Education,
Culture and Science and the Universities of
Amsterdam and Groningen.
A good example of implementing evidence based
research and measuring effectiveness of a new
policy measure is the recent schooling fund for
teachers. Eighty million euros have been reserved
for further training of schoolteachers. The aim is to
follow that policy measure from the start and
measure its effect on quality of teaching. We will
study the effect of investments in training for
teachers who have and have not been trained. In
this way numerous measures are taken in the
world of education. We will study how effective
they are.
A very important element of the activities of the
Chair is the establishment of the Teachers
Academy: a coherent set of programmes, ranging
from schooling of teachers in their professional
field to promotional activities for teachers and
management training for school board members.
One of the objectives of the Chair is to transfer
within the Teacher Academy evidence based
research results to teachers in primary, secondary
and higher education and to stimulate evidencebased
working in education. The Teachers Academy
will offer both an MSc in Evidence Based
Innovation of Education and an MSc in Evidence
Based Policy for policy-making officials.
For several reasons the Chair and the Teachers
Academy are important for economics of
education and educational research in the
Netherlands. The Netherlands are lagging behind
in the development of evidence-based education
compared to England and the United States. First
of all, economics of education does not have
enough mass in the Netherlands. Only a few
economists of education work with ROA at UM and
at TIER/SCHOLAR at the University of Amsterdam.
With this new Chair we want to create more mass
and train researchers and PhD’s in the field of
education economics. Secondly we want to
combine research into educational effects with
economic research into their cost-effectiveness.
A third argument is that the available evidence
based research practically always comes from
abroad and is not suitable for the educational
situation in the Netherlands. Our goal is to
assemble and produce a great amount of research
that provides the hardest possible evidence for
both educational effects of educational
interventions and innovations as for their costeffectiveness.
A great challenge.”
Additional functions:
- Professor of Education and Labour Economics at the
University of Amsterdam
- Chair of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific
Research (NWO), division Social and Behavioural
Sciences (MaGW)
- Member of the Advisory Council for Education
(Onderwijsraad)
- National coordinator Education and Labour Market
Research of NICIS (Institute for Urban Research and
Practice)
- Scientific coordinator of TIER (Top Institute for Evidence
Based Education Research, University of Amsterdam,
Maastricht University and University of Groningen)
- Columnist for Het Financieele Dagblad, Economisch
Statistische Berichten and Zorgvisie
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