The aim of the Top Institute for Evidence Based Education Research (TIER) is to conduct excellent scientific research and to make the results of this research available and applicable to practicing education and for influencing and informing education policy. TIER develops knowledge of 'evidence based education' that can be used by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the education sector, parents, and students.
If evidence-based education is to gain general currency, teachers will have to know what it is and how to use it. This includes familiarity with research and research methods. Teachers must be able to gauge the value of research findings, have a degree of insight into research processes and be able to assess the methodological quality of research and the research set-up.
The ‘evidence-based education academy’ focus area envisions developing and offering courses (including continuing education courses) for teachers in primary, secondary and higher education. Teacher training programmes will be assisted in developing curricula that pay specific attention to research organisation and execution and to working with evidence-based education. The research institute will seek links with existing initiatives (including the Dutch Teacher College) throughout the Netherlands.
As a partner in the evidence-based education research network, Maastricht University will contribute towards the development of a Teacher Academy, to which end the university will draft a separate business plan. The role of the research network will for the time being be confined to that of social mediator, transferring research findings to education practice within context of the Teacher Academy.
'Evidence based education' is the philosophy that educational policy and educational practice are to be based on the best evidence of 'what works'. This means that specific educational interventions, educational strategies and educational policies are to be evaluated scientifically before they are recommended or adopted on a large scale.
A one-year “pre-master’s” programme designed to ensure that participants have the right competences to successfully complete the MEBIT master’s programme. The programme stresses basic statistics and a scientific attitude and mentality. The programme also stresses educational and research methods.
Evidence-based education means that teachers should be led by facts rather than suppositions or prejudices. Ideas for educational innovation abound, but the question that forms MEBIT’s starting point is: What works? The 2-year, Dutch-language, part-time programme is flexible and uses e-learning intensively, enabling students throughout the Netherlands to participate.
Centre for Evidence-based Lifelong Learning (CELL) is an initiative of TIER / DTPA. The programme is intended for teachers, policymakers and staff who wish to undertake scientific research to evaluate the effectiveness of policy interventions and innovations in education.
Write a PhD dissertation on a project of your own choice and interest, analyse the effectiveness and efficiency of educational innovations, become part of an international and multidisciplinary research group, and receive training and supervision from international professors in applying advanced quantitative analysis, developing research designs, and conducting systematic literature reviews.
“Analogous to the situation in healthcare, education practitioners should have access to academic proof. Education practice and policy are not sufficiently based on academic evidence and there’s a large gap between research and practice.”
“Bringing together researchers from three universities with different and complementary backgrounds is particularly enriching and inspiring. And even here within TIER-UM, I’m always crossing paths with psychologists and educationalists, which also gives my work an extra dimension.”
“Our country is in the worldwide top three for the issue of care per capita. But that’s primarily due to the high costs of long term care, the disabled and the elderly: care sectors not subject to market forces.”
Just like last year, students were generally quite positive about the Maastricht University (UM) study programmes. Fourteen of the seventeen themes showed increased appreciation compared to last year, with UM doing particularly well and scoring above average with regard to the new theme of 'internationalisation'.
Rodica Ernst (Udens College) and the META team, consisting of Plonie Nijhof (Hermann Wesselink College) and Joris Ghysels (Maastricht University) won the NRO education prize for their research on the META method they have developed.