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\"Literary Praxis: A Conversational Inquiry into the Teaching of Literature explores the teaching of literature in secondary schools. It does this from the vantage point of educators in a range of settings around the world, as they engage in dialogue with one another in order to capture the nature of their professional commitment, the knowledge they bring to their work as literature teachers, and the challenges of their professional practice as they interact with their students. The core of the book comprises accounts of their day-to-day teaching by Dutch and Australian educators. These teachers do more than capture the immediacy of the here-and-now of their classrooms; they attempt to understand those classrooms relationally, exploring the ways in which their professional practice is mediated by government policies, national literary traditions and existing traditions of curriculum and pedagogy. They thereby enact a form of literary 'praxis' that grapples with major ideological issues, most notably the impact of standards-based reforms on their work. Educators from other countries then comment on the cases written by the Dutch and Australian teachers, thus taking the concept of 'praxis' to a new level, as part of a comparative inquiry that acknowledges the richly specific character of the cases and resists viewing teaching around the world as though it lends itself unproblematically to the same standards of measurement (as in the fetish made of PISA). They step back from a judgmental stance, and try to understand what it means to teach literature in other educational settings than their own. The essays in this collection show the complexities of literature teaching as a form of professional praxis, exploring the intensely reflexive learning in which teachers engage, as they induct their students into reading literary texts, and reflect on the socio-cultural contexts of their work.\"--Publisher's website.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Excellence Model on education and its contribution to ensuring high-quality education equality. Design/Methodology/Approach: A systematic literature review was conducted based on data from three academic publishers (Taylor & Francis, Emerald, and Elsevier Science Direct). Of the 69 journal articles, 61 were published between 2003 and 2023 and documented the results of the EFQM quality tool, and 8 articles were removed. Findings: The study highlights the results of applying the EFQM Excellence Model in the educational sector. Based on the bibliographic review, the feasibility of using the model in primary, secondary, and tertiary education is identified. We examine the findings related to using the model to ensure equality in high-quality education and the challenges faced by educational systems, with the ultimate goal of meeting student expectations. Research limitations/Implications: An important limitation is that the data were only drawn from three major publishers and the authors did not have access to all the relevant databases, since the search for articles was carried out in English only. The search for articles was limited by the keywords, as the EFQM Excellence Model was originally designed for the private sector. Practical implications: The results and limitations recorded in the study and the presentation of the 88 articles motivate academic researchers to conduct further study and fill the gap left by the limited number of publications on the application of the EFQM Excellence Model in the educational sector. Originality/Value: The EFQM Excellence Model has not been widely implemented in the high-quality educational sector and the existing literature reviews are limited. More research in the field of education is needed to determine the contribution of the excellence model to the evaluation of high-quality education.

To identify the key determinants for implementing and utilizing a digital intensive care unit (ICU) diary among ICU professionals. Despite the advantages of digital diaries over traditional paper ones, their implementation presents challenges that necessitate tailored strategies considering the influencing factors. A multicentre, cross-sectional survey study. A self-developed questionnaire was administered from March to May 2023, targeting ICU professionals across four hospitals in the Netherlands. Participants rated the relevance of 34 determinants on a 5-point Likert scale across four domains: (1) Digital diary introduction and use, (2) Education and information dissemination, (3) Offering the digital diary to patients’ relatives, and (4) Professionals’ engagement in diary writing. Responses were received from 214 professionals. The most commonly agreed-upon determinants promoting implementation were seamless accessibility (n = 200; 93.5 %), enthusiastic and motivating champions (n = 190; 88.8 %), and comprehensive information and education (n = 184; 86 %). The preferred method for disseminating information was direct instruction from champions in the teams (n = 194; 90.7 %). Promoting factors for providing digital diaries to relatives included understanding its utility (n = 203; 94.9 %) and recognizing its added value (n = 193; 90.2 %). Additionally, 132 professionals (61.7 %) expressed a positive attitude towards co-writing the digital diary. This study identified key determinants promoting the implementation and utilization of digital diaries in ICUs among professionals. These findings lay a foundation for developing strategies to address challenges and enhance the successful implementation of digital diaries in ICU settings. To maximize the impact of digital diaries, it is essential to involve end users early and tailor the design for ease of use. Selecting influential champions is key, and they should receive training to lead and mentor others. Clear communication of the benefits for patients and families will foster professionals’ understanding and motivation, ultimately enhancing patient care.

This paper presents a special issue on writing around the globe. Researchers from across the world describe writing practices in their country using a wide variety of methodology. The paper show that while there are many similarities in writing instruction from one country to the next, there are also many differences. As a result, the authors call for a new international study of writing, one that takes more descriptive rather than a comparative approach.

This review examines the kinds of relationship between research and practice that have been envisaged in programmes designed to provide opportunities for beginning teachers to engage in 'research-informed clinical practice'. Although the terminology varies, scope for inclusion is defined by an intention to facilitate and deepen the interplay between the different kinds of knowledge that are generated and validated within the different contexts of school and university. A variety of approaches have been taken to achieving this kind of integration; not merely extending the time that beginning teachers spend in school, but focusing on the processes by which professional knowledge is created, for example, by equipping beginning teachers to act as researchers, adopting a problem-solving orientation to practice. A range of approaches within and beyond the UK are examined, acknowledging the policy contexts in which they have been developed and comparing the rationales advanced in support of them. Finally the paper examines the claims advanced for the impact of such research-based clinical practice and the quality of the evidence that underpins them, in relation both to beginning teachers' professional learning and to student outcomes.

The present strong position of the humanities in the Netherlands is under pressure. There are structural problems which are connected with financial shortfalls and a lack of clear-cut strategic choices. This report outlines the prerequisites for sustainable development of the humanities, describing the value and position of the humanities in the Netherlands in an international perspective, including recommendations for all parties involved.

Background The exact risk of developing QTc-prolongation when using a combination of QTc-prolonging drugs is still unknown, making it difficult to interpret these QT drug-drug interactions (QT-DDIs). A tool to identify high-risk patients is needed to support healthcare providers in handling automatically generated alerts in clinical practice. The main aim of this study was to develop and validate a tool to assess the risk of QT-DDIs in clinical practice. Methods A model was developed based on risk factors associated with QTc-prolongation determined in a prospective study on QT-DDIs in a university medical center inthe Netherlands. The main outcome measure was QTc-prolongation defined as a QTc interval > 450 ms for males and > 470 ms for females. Risk points were assigned to risk factors based on their odds ratios. Additional risk factors were added based on a literature review. The ability of the model to predict QTc-prolongation was validated in an independent dataset obtained from a general teaching hospital against QTc-prolongation as measured by an ECG as the gold standard. Sensitivities, specificities, false omission rates, accuracy and Youden’s index were calculated. Results The model included age, gender, cardiac comorbidities, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, renal function, potassium levels, loop diuretics, and QTc-prolonging drugs as risk factors. Application of the model to the independent dataset resulted in an area under the ROC-curve of 0.54 (95% CI 0.51–0.56) when QTc-prolongation was defined as > 450/470 ms, and 0.59 (0.54–0.63) when QTc-prolongation was defined as > 500 ms. A cut-off value of 6 led to a sensitivity of 76.6 and 83.9% and a specificity of 28.5 and 27.5% respectively. Conclusions A clinical decision support tool with fair performance characteristics was developed. Optimization of this tool may aid in assessing the risk associated with QT-DDIs. Trial registration No trial registration, MEC-2015-368.

ObjectiveTo assess the diagnostic value of existing clinical prediction models (CPM; ie, statistically derived) in febrile young infants at risk for serious bacterial infections.MethodsA systematic literature review identified eight CPMs for predicting serious bacterial infections in febrile children. We validated these CPMs on four validation cohorts of febrile children in Spain (age <3 months), France (age <3 months) and two cohorts in the Netherlands (age 1–3 months and >3–12 months). We evaluated the performance of the CPMs by sensitivity/specificity, area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) and calibration studies.ResultsThe original cohorts in which the prediction rules were developed (derivation cohorts) ranged from 381 to 15 781 children, with a prevalence of serious bacterial infections varying from 0.8% to 27% and spanned an age range of 0–16 years. All CPMs originally performed moderately to very well (AUC 0.60–0.93). The four validation cohorts included 159–2204 febrile children, with a median age range of 1.8 (1.2–2.4) months for the three cohorts <3 months and 8.4 (6.0–9.6) months for the cohort >3–12 months of age. The prevalence of serious bacterial infections varied between 15.1% and 17.2% in the three cohorts <3 months and was 9.8% for the cohort >3–12 months of age. Although discriminative values varied greatly, best performance was observed for four CPMs including clinical signs and symptoms, urine dipstick analyses and laboratory markers with AUC ranging from 0.68 to 0.94 in the three cohorts <3 months (ranges sensitivity: 0.48–0.94 and specificity: 0.71–0.97). For the >3–12 months’ cohort AUC ranges from 0.80 to 0.89 (ranges sensitivity: 0.70–0.82 and specificity: 0.78–0.90). In general, the specificities exceeded sensitivities in our cohorts, in contrast to derivation cohorts with high sensitivities, although this effect was stronger in infants <3 months than in infants >3–12 months.ConclusionWe identified four CPMs, including clinical signs and symptoms, urine dipstick analysis and laboratory markers, which can aid clinicians in identifying serious bacterial infections. We suggest clinicians should use CPMs as an adjunctive clinical tool when assessing the risk of serious bacterial infections in febrile young infants.

Schools across Europe are experiencing a growing number of multilingual pupils; however, teachers claim to be generally underprepared for dealing with this everincreasing linguistic and cultural diversity. Initial teacher education often pays insufficient attention to multilingualism, thus there is a call for research on what pre-service teachers learn about the topic during training. Against this background, this small-scale exploratory study sets out to explore pre-service primary teachers’ (a) views of multilingualism in education in general, (b) experiences of multilingualism in education as trainee teachers, and (c) self-perceived knowledge and skills acquired and developed during training, in the context of the Netherlands. Based on 195 survey responses, descriptive statistical analyses indicate that the sampled pre-service primary teachers have slightly positive views of multilingualism in education, specifically regarding their opinions on the role of multilingualism in education, focusing on school and home languages, and their tolerance of multilingualism in the classroom and at school. A qualitative content analysis reveals that several pre-service primary teachers have had general experiences of teaching pupils with migrant backgrounds, such as in transition classes (Dutch: schakelklassen), and of teaching pupils who communicate with each other only in their home languages. Challenges in teaching multilingual pupils are also reported, such as the implications of being unable to understand pupils’ home languages. Regarding their self-perceived knowledge and skills, the content analysis shows that some pre-service primary teachers in this study are aware of how to encourage collaboration between multilingual pupils to involve their languages in their learning, and have knowledge of language comparison and awareness approaches that can be implemented in multilingual classrooms. A concerning finding, however, is that according to pre-service primary teachers’ self-reported communication skills for multilingual pupils, there is a tendency to use simplified language, which may have a negative impact on pupils’ language development. These findings highlight the need for further research that employs a mixed-methods longitudinal approach to gain insights into the depth of knowledge and skills acquired during training and how views of multilingualism in education influence classroom practices. This study further reveals shortcomings of primary teacher education in the Netherlands regarding the topic of multilingualism, which are followed up by preliminary recommendations for improving training programmes; for instance, training institutions should aim to collaborate with more multilingual schools where pre-service teachers can gain first-hand practical experience.

The goal of this longitudinal study was to examine how lexical quality predicts the emergence of literacy abilities in 169 Dutch kindergarten children before formal reading instruction has started. At the beginning of the school year, a battery of precursor measures associated with lexical quality was related to the emergence of letter knowledge and word decoding. Confirmatory factor analysis evidenced five domains related to lexical quality, i.e., vocabulary, phonological coding, phonological awareness, lexical retrieval and phonological working memory. Structural equation modeling showed that the development of letter knowledge during the year could be predicted from children’s phonological awareness and lexical retrieval, and the emergence of word decoding from their phonological awareness and letter knowledge. It is concluded that it is primarily the accessibility of phonological representations in the mental lexicon that predicts the emergence of literacy in kindergarten.