My research is situated in the field of history education and centers around teachers' instructional practice.
The main focus lies on the integration of inquiry-based learning in class (i.e. activities during which learners investigate historical information in relation to a problem statement).
Topics that interest me include: cognitive processes central to inquiries, teacher thinking, technology enhanced learning, and teacher training.
Drawing on the theory of planned behavior, this study investigates how teachers prioritize goals.... more Drawing on the theory of planned behavior, this study investigates how teachers prioritize goals. A sample of 141 secondary school history teachers completed an interviewer-administered questionnaire about coverage of prominent goals in history education, and behavioral determinants associated with these goals. Multilevel analysis showed significant relations between goal coverage and two kinds of behavioral determinants: instrumental attitude and perceived behavioral control. In addition to outlining the way in which teachers prioritize goals, these findings suggest that existing divides between the goals emphasized by history education research, and those enacted in the classroom are the result of low perceived behavioral control.
The implementation of blended learning in higher education is increasing, often with the aim to o... more The implementation of blended learning in higher education is increasing, often with the aim to offer flexibility in terms of time and place to a diverse student population. However, specific attention for the diversity of this group, and how to cater individual needs, is still scarce. Therefore, this study explores instructors’ strategies for and beliefs about differentiated instruction in blended learning, together with how the differences between instructors can be explained. A total of 20 instructors working in two adult education centers participated in semi-structured interviews focusing on their (a) use of strategies for differentiated instruction, and (b) beliefs about designing blended learning to address student diversity. The findings reveal that the most commonly used differentiated instruction strategy in a blended learning context was providing students with additional support throughout product development. In addition, three instructor profiles about designing blended learning to address student diversity emerged from the data: (1) disregard: instructors considered no additional support in the blended learning arrangements to match students’ needs, (2) adaptation: instructors believed that increased support in the existing blended learning arrangements was sufficient to match students’ needs, and (3) transformation: instructors thought that blended learning arrangements should be designed in a completely different way, and be tailored to the characteristics of the students. The results show that half of the instructors considered a transformation of their blended learning arrangements in response to student diversity. Furthermore, instructors’ beliefs appear to be strongly connected to the organization and trajectory in which they work. A major implication of these findings is that professional support focusing on instructors’ beliefs is of crucial importance to unlock blended learning’s full potential. As such, it is important for organizations to develop a clear stance on this issue, which pays explicit attention to responding to learners’ needs in blended learning contexts.
Onderzoekstaken in de geschiedenisles zijn een goede oefenschool voor het nemen van geïnformeerde... more Onderzoekstaken in de geschiedenisles zijn een goede oefenschool voor het nemen van geïnformeerde beslissingen in het dagelijkse leven. Vandaag krijgen leerlingen weinig van die taken, maar opleidingen kunnen dit veranderen door in te spelen op hoe geschiedenisleraren tegen onderzoekstaken aankijken.
Even though studies have shown that the impact of professional development on inquiry-based learn... more Even though studies have shown that the impact of professional development on inquiry-based learning (IBL) tends to remain limited when it fails to consider teachers' beliefs, there is little known about how these beliefs influence teachers' adoption of IBL. In answer to this issue, the present study offers a framework that explains teachers' use of IBL through three constitutive dimensions of beliefs systems, covering the constructs of education, the self, and the context. This framework is empirically investigated through a survey study with 536 secondary school history teachers. The resulting data are used to estimate a structural equation model (SEM), which indicates that the framework is able to explain a relatively large portion (38%) of the variance in teachers' decision to implement IBL. Based on the findings, the implications for professional development and research on teachers' use of IBL in general, and within history education in particular, are discussed.
Professional development on inquiry-based learning (IBL) generally draws heavily on the principle... more Professional development on inquiry-based learning (IBL) generally draws heavily on the principle of providing instruction in line with what teachers are expected to do in their classroom. So far, however, relatively little is known about how this impacts teachers' educational beliefs, even though these beliefs ultimately determine their classroom behavior. The present study therefore investigates how immersion in inquiry-based learning affects student teachers' beliefs about knowledge goals, in addition to their self-efficacy for inquiry. In total, 302 student history teachers participated in a four-hour long inquiry activity designed within the WISE learning environment, and completed a pre-and posttest right before and after the intervention. Multilevel analyses suggest that the intervention had a significant positive effect on the value that student teachers attributed to procedural knowledge goals, or learning how historical knowledge is constructed, and on student teachers' self-efficacy for conducting inquiries. Despite these general positive results, however, the results also show that the impact of the intervention differed significantly across students. In particular, it appears that immersion in IBL had little effect on a subgroup of 25 student-teachers, who held largely content-oriented beliefs. Based on these findings, the present study discusses a number of implications for professional development on IBL.
The design of blended learning environments brings with it four key challenges: (1) incorporating... more The design of blended learning environments brings with it four key challenges: (1) incorporating flexibility, (2) stimulating interaction, (3) facilitating students' learning processes, and (4) fostering an affective learning climate. Seeing that attempts to resolve these challenges are fragmented across the literature, a systematic review was performed. Starting from 640 sources, 20 studies on the design of blended learning environments were selected through a staged procedure based on the guidelines of the PRISMA statement, using predefined selection criteria. For each study, the instructional activities for dealing with these four challenges were analyzed by two coders. The results show that few studies offer learners control over the realization of the blend. Social interaction is generally stimulated through introductory face-to-face meetings, while personalization and monitoring of students' learning progress is commonly organized through online instructional activities. Finally, little attention is paid to instructional activities that foster an affective learning climate.
Criticizing the common approach of supporting peer assessment through providing assessors with an... more Criticizing the common approach of supporting peer assessment through providing assessors with an explication of assessment criteria, recent insights on peer assessment call for support focussing on assessees, who often assume a passive role of receivers of feedback. Feedback requests, which require assessees to formulate their specific needs for feedback, have therefore been put forward as an alternative to supporting peer assessment, even though there is little known about their exact impact on feedback. Operationalizing effective feedback as feedback that (1) elaborates on the evaluation, and (2) to which the receiver is agreeable, the present study examines how these two variables are affected by feedback requests, compared to an explanation of assessment criteria in the form of a content checklist. Situated against the backdrop of a writing task for 125 first-year students in an educational studies program at university, the study uses a 2x2 factorial design that resulted in four conditions: a control, feedback request, content checklist, and combination condition. The results underline the importance of taking message length into account when studying the effects of support for peer assessment. Although feedback requests did not have an impact on the raw number of elaborations, the proportion of informative elaborations within feedback messages was significantly higher in conditions that used a feedback request. In other words, it appears that the feedback request stimulated students to write more focused messages. The use of a feedback request did, however, not have a significant effect on agreement with feedback.
The present study explores secondary school history teachers' knowledge of inquiry methods. In or... more The present study explores secondary school history teachers' knowledge of inquiry methods. In order to do so, a process model, outlining 5 core cognitive processes of inquiry in the history class room, was developed based on a review of the literature. This process model was then used to analyze think-aloud protocols of 20 teachers' reasoning during an inquiry task. It was found that less than half of the teachers used all cognitive processes during the inquiry. Based on the results, a distinction can be made between an integral, fragmentary and cursory approach to inquiry. Further analysis suggest that there exists no clear pattern in the relation between teachers' beliefs about the subject of history and their approach to inquiry. The implications for teacher training are discussed, and outline how the process model could serve as an instructional tool that can contribute to a comprehensive training program for history teachers.
The present study investigates a training program aimed at preparing pre-service history teachers... more The present study investigates a training program aimed at preparing pre-service history teachers for organizing inquiry-based learning (IBL) in class. This program consisted of a workshop and an assignment during the teaching internship period. Pre-and posttests indicate that the workshop had a significant effect on self-efficacy and attitude toward IBL, but also that most student teachers' attitudes had again changed after the assignment. Related to this, student teachers' lesson plans revealed three different templates, representing distinct interpretations of 'inquiry'. An analysis of reflection papers and interviews describes how the context of the teaching internship further shaped student teachers' thinking.
Adopting a differentiated and domain-specific view of educational technology, the present study f... more Adopting a differentiated and domain-specific view of educational technology, the present study focusses on the case of school history. It argues that, in this particular context, one of technology’s main assets is its ability to support inquiry-based learning activities, during which students interpret the past through historical reasoning. As little is known about how history teachers use technology in the classroom, an exploratory study was carried out with 22 teachers in fourth grade of secondary education in Flanders (Belgium). Semi-structured interviews were used to investigate beliefs about technology, ways in which technology was implemented, and factors influencing the adoption process. The results suggest that most teachers held positive beliefs about technology, and that use of technology was driven by several rationales. Although a significant group of teachers was thoughtful of how their own use of technology could support students’ learning, student use remained limited to instances where technology served as a resource for the task, rather than a tool for supporting cognitive or social activity. It appears that teachers were not yet aware of technology’s ability to scaffold inquiry activities. Furthermore, limitations in school infrastructure often prevented them from experimenting with more pervasive student uses of technology.
The present study provides a comprehensive picture of history teachers' conceptions of inquiry-ba... more The present study provides a comprehensive picture of history teachers' conceptions of inquiry-based-learning (IBL), based on interviews with 22 secondary school teachers. The results indicate that, although most teachers' beliefs about the nature of history were conducive to teaching historical reasoning, their conceptions of IBL often remained limited to critically evaluating information, instead of using the available information to conduct inquiries into the past. Furthermore, teachers' conceptions of IBL appeared to be strongly connected to the context in which they worked. Based on these findings, several implications for supporting history teachers' adoption of IBL are discussed.
Developing authentic learning environments in higher education calls for pedagogical
approaches t... more Developing authentic learning environments in higher education calls for pedagogical approaches to foster online collaborative learning. The main aim of this study was to investigate the effect of a collaboration script for a wiki task. A collaboration script is a set of instructions to improve collaboration between learning partners. Participants were first-year university students in Educational Sciences (N=186) collaborating in groups of five during a three-week period to create a wiki on peer assessment in education. Two conditions were contrasted: a scripted and a non-scripted condition. The effect of scripting was measured in four ways (questionnaires, log-file analyses, group product scores, and individual pre- post- test scores). Results show significant positive effects of scripting with respect to the collaborative group processes and students’ feelings of shared responsibility. No significant effects of scripting were found with respect to the developed wiki products. As for students’ individual learning outcomes, results showed a significant increase from pre- to post-test for all students. Although the increase was higher in the scripted condition, the difference between the conditions was not statistically significant.
International handbook of inquiry and learning, 2021
This chapter provides an introduction to research on inquiry learning in history, through a discu... more This chapter provides an introduction to research on inquiry learning in history, through a discussion of several central themes within the field. The chapter starts by addressing the question as to how inquiry learning is conceptualized within history education and, in particular, what sets it apart from inquiry learning in other domains. After considering the potential benefits of inquiry learning in history, the chapter then continues with a discussion of instructional approaches that have been shown to be effective in supporting inquiry learning in history. Finally, the chapter also addresses the role of the history teacher in inquiry learning, through an overview of research on history teachers’ adoption of inquiry learning, and teacher training with a focus on inquiry learning in history. Based on the discussion of these themes, the chapter outlines important challenges for future research in the field and the implementation of inquiry learning in history education.
Drawing on the theory of planned behavior, this study investigates how teachers prioritize goals.... more Drawing on the theory of planned behavior, this study investigates how teachers prioritize goals. A sample of 141 secondary school history teachers completed an interviewer-administered questionnaire about coverage of prominent goals in history education, and behavioral determinants associated with these goals. Multilevel analysis showed significant relations between goal coverage and two kinds of behavioral determinants: instrumental attitude and perceived behavioral control. In addition to outlining the way in which teachers prioritize goals, these findings suggest that existing divides between the goals emphasized by history education research, and those enacted in the classroom are the result of low perceived behavioral control.
The implementation of blended learning in higher education is increasing, often with the aim to o... more The implementation of blended learning in higher education is increasing, often with the aim to offer flexibility in terms of time and place to a diverse student population. However, specific attention for the diversity of this group, and how to cater individual needs, is still scarce. Therefore, this study explores instructors’ strategies for and beliefs about differentiated instruction in blended learning, together with how the differences between instructors can be explained. A total of 20 instructors working in two adult education centers participated in semi-structured interviews focusing on their (a) use of strategies for differentiated instruction, and (b) beliefs about designing blended learning to address student diversity. The findings reveal that the most commonly used differentiated instruction strategy in a blended learning context was providing students with additional support throughout product development. In addition, three instructor profiles about designing blended learning to address student diversity emerged from the data: (1) disregard: instructors considered no additional support in the blended learning arrangements to match students’ needs, (2) adaptation: instructors believed that increased support in the existing blended learning arrangements was sufficient to match students’ needs, and (3) transformation: instructors thought that blended learning arrangements should be designed in a completely different way, and be tailored to the characteristics of the students. The results show that half of the instructors considered a transformation of their blended learning arrangements in response to student diversity. Furthermore, instructors’ beliefs appear to be strongly connected to the organization and trajectory in which they work. A major implication of these findings is that professional support focusing on instructors’ beliefs is of crucial importance to unlock blended learning’s full potential. As such, it is important for organizations to develop a clear stance on this issue, which pays explicit attention to responding to learners’ needs in blended learning contexts.
Onderzoekstaken in de geschiedenisles zijn een goede oefenschool voor het nemen van geïnformeerde... more Onderzoekstaken in de geschiedenisles zijn een goede oefenschool voor het nemen van geïnformeerde beslissingen in het dagelijkse leven. Vandaag krijgen leerlingen weinig van die taken, maar opleidingen kunnen dit veranderen door in te spelen op hoe geschiedenisleraren tegen onderzoekstaken aankijken.
Even though studies have shown that the impact of professional development on inquiry-based learn... more Even though studies have shown that the impact of professional development on inquiry-based learning (IBL) tends to remain limited when it fails to consider teachers' beliefs, there is little known about how these beliefs influence teachers' adoption of IBL. In answer to this issue, the present study offers a framework that explains teachers' use of IBL through three constitutive dimensions of beliefs systems, covering the constructs of education, the self, and the context. This framework is empirically investigated through a survey study with 536 secondary school history teachers. The resulting data are used to estimate a structural equation model (SEM), which indicates that the framework is able to explain a relatively large portion (38%) of the variance in teachers' decision to implement IBL. Based on the findings, the implications for professional development and research on teachers' use of IBL in general, and within history education in particular, are discussed.
Professional development on inquiry-based learning (IBL) generally draws heavily on the principle... more Professional development on inquiry-based learning (IBL) generally draws heavily on the principle of providing instruction in line with what teachers are expected to do in their classroom. So far, however, relatively little is known about how this impacts teachers' educational beliefs, even though these beliefs ultimately determine their classroom behavior. The present study therefore investigates how immersion in inquiry-based learning affects student teachers' beliefs about knowledge goals, in addition to their self-efficacy for inquiry. In total, 302 student history teachers participated in a four-hour long inquiry activity designed within the WISE learning environment, and completed a pre-and posttest right before and after the intervention. Multilevel analyses suggest that the intervention had a significant positive effect on the value that student teachers attributed to procedural knowledge goals, or learning how historical knowledge is constructed, and on student teachers' self-efficacy for conducting inquiries. Despite these general positive results, however, the results also show that the impact of the intervention differed significantly across students. In particular, it appears that immersion in IBL had little effect on a subgroup of 25 student-teachers, who held largely content-oriented beliefs. Based on these findings, the present study discusses a number of implications for professional development on IBL.
The design of blended learning environments brings with it four key challenges: (1) incorporating... more The design of blended learning environments brings with it four key challenges: (1) incorporating flexibility, (2) stimulating interaction, (3) facilitating students' learning processes, and (4) fostering an affective learning climate. Seeing that attempts to resolve these challenges are fragmented across the literature, a systematic review was performed. Starting from 640 sources, 20 studies on the design of blended learning environments were selected through a staged procedure based on the guidelines of the PRISMA statement, using predefined selection criteria. For each study, the instructional activities for dealing with these four challenges were analyzed by two coders. The results show that few studies offer learners control over the realization of the blend. Social interaction is generally stimulated through introductory face-to-face meetings, while personalization and monitoring of students' learning progress is commonly organized through online instructional activities. Finally, little attention is paid to instructional activities that foster an affective learning climate.
Criticizing the common approach of supporting peer assessment through providing assessors with an... more Criticizing the common approach of supporting peer assessment through providing assessors with an explication of assessment criteria, recent insights on peer assessment call for support focussing on assessees, who often assume a passive role of receivers of feedback. Feedback requests, which require assessees to formulate their specific needs for feedback, have therefore been put forward as an alternative to supporting peer assessment, even though there is little known about their exact impact on feedback. Operationalizing effective feedback as feedback that (1) elaborates on the evaluation, and (2) to which the receiver is agreeable, the present study examines how these two variables are affected by feedback requests, compared to an explanation of assessment criteria in the form of a content checklist. Situated against the backdrop of a writing task for 125 first-year students in an educational studies program at university, the study uses a 2x2 factorial design that resulted in four conditions: a control, feedback request, content checklist, and combination condition. The results underline the importance of taking message length into account when studying the effects of support for peer assessment. Although feedback requests did not have an impact on the raw number of elaborations, the proportion of informative elaborations within feedback messages was significantly higher in conditions that used a feedback request. In other words, it appears that the feedback request stimulated students to write more focused messages. The use of a feedback request did, however, not have a significant effect on agreement with feedback.
The present study explores secondary school history teachers' knowledge of inquiry methods. In or... more The present study explores secondary school history teachers' knowledge of inquiry methods. In order to do so, a process model, outlining 5 core cognitive processes of inquiry in the history class room, was developed based on a review of the literature. This process model was then used to analyze think-aloud protocols of 20 teachers' reasoning during an inquiry task. It was found that less than half of the teachers used all cognitive processes during the inquiry. Based on the results, a distinction can be made between an integral, fragmentary and cursory approach to inquiry. Further analysis suggest that there exists no clear pattern in the relation between teachers' beliefs about the subject of history and their approach to inquiry. The implications for teacher training are discussed, and outline how the process model could serve as an instructional tool that can contribute to a comprehensive training program for history teachers.
The present study investigates a training program aimed at preparing pre-service history teachers... more The present study investigates a training program aimed at preparing pre-service history teachers for organizing inquiry-based learning (IBL) in class. This program consisted of a workshop and an assignment during the teaching internship period. Pre-and posttests indicate that the workshop had a significant effect on self-efficacy and attitude toward IBL, but also that most student teachers' attitudes had again changed after the assignment. Related to this, student teachers' lesson plans revealed three different templates, representing distinct interpretations of 'inquiry'. An analysis of reflection papers and interviews describes how the context of the teaching internship further shaped student teachers' thinking.
Adopting a differentiated and domain-specific view of educational technology, the present study f... more Adopting a differentiated and domain-specific view of educational technology, the present study focusses on the case of school history. It argues that, in this particular context, one of technology’s main assets is its ability to support inquiry-based learning activities, during which students interpret the past through historical reasoning. As little is known about how history teachers use technology in the classroom, an exploratory study was carried out with 22 teachers in fourth grade of secondary education in Flanders (Belgium). Semi-structured interviews were used to investigate beliefs about technology, ways in which technology was implemented, and factors influencing the adoption process. The results suggest that most teachers held positive beliefs about technology, and that use of technology was driven by several rationales. Although a significant group of teachers was thoughtful of how their own use of technology could support students’ learning, student use remained limited to instances where technology served as a resource for the task, rather than a tool for supporting cognitive or social activity. It appears that teachers were not yet aware of technology’s ability to scaffold inquiry activities. Furthermore, limitations in school infrastructure often prevented them from experimenting with more pervasive student uses of technology.
The present study provides a comprehensive picture of history teachers' conceptions of inquiry-ba... more The present study provides a comprehensive picture of history teachers' conceptions of inquiry-based-learning (IBL), based on interviews with 22 secondary school teachers. The results indicate that, although most teachers' beliefs about the nature of history were conducive to teaching historical reasoning, their conceptions of IBL often remained limited to critically evaluating information, instead of using the available information to conduct inquiries into the past. Furthermore, teachers' conceptions of IBL appeared to be strongly connected to the context in which they worked. Based on these findings, several implications for supporting history teachers' adoption of IBL are discussed.
Developing authentic learning environments in higher education calls for pedagogical
approaches t... more Developing authentic learning environments in higher education calls for pedagogical approaches to foster online collaborative learning. The main aim of this study was to investigate the effect of a collaboration script for a wiki task. A collaboration script is a set of instructions to improve collaboration between learning partners. Participants were first-year university students in Educational Sciences (N=186) collaborating in groups of five during a three-week period to create a wiki on peer assessment in education. Two conditions were contrasted: a scripted and a non-scripted condition. The effect of scripting was measured in four ways (questionnaires, log-file analyses, group product scores, and individual pre- post- test scores). Results show significant positive effects of scripting with respect to the collaborative group processes and students’ feelings of shared responsibility. No significant effects of scripting were found with respect to the developed wiki products. As for students’ individual learning outcomes, results showed a significant increase from pre- to post-test for all students. Although the increase was higher in the scripted condition, the difference between the conditions was not statistically significant.
International handbook of inquiry and learning, 2021
This chapter provides an introduction to research on inquiry learning in history, through a discu... more This chapter provides an introduction to research on inquiry learning in history, through a discussion of several central themes within the field. The chapter starts by addressing the question as to how inquiry learning is conceptualized within history education and, in particular, what sets it apart from inquiry learning in other domains. After considering the potential benefits of inquiry learning in history, the chapter then continues with a discussion of instructional approaches that have been shown to be effective in supporting inquiry learning in history. Finally, the chapter also addresses the role of the history teacher in inquiry learning, through an overview of research on history teachers’ adoption of inquiry learning, and teacher training with a focus on inquiry learning in history. Based on the discussion of these themes, the chapter outlines important challenges for future research in the field and the implementation of inquiry learning in history education.
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Papers by Michiel Voet
approaches to foster online collaborative learning. The main aim of this study was to
investigate the effect of a collaboration script for a wiki task. A collaboration script is a set of
instructions to improve collaboration between learning partners. Participants were first-year
university students in Educational Sciences (N=186) collaborating in groups of five during a
three-week period to create a wiki on peer assessment in education. Two conditions were
contrasted: a scripted and a non-scripted condition. The effect of scripting was measured in
four ways (questionnaires, log-file analyses, group product scores, and individual pre- post-
test scores). Results show significant positive effects of scripting with respect to the
collaborative group processes and students’ feelings of shared responsibility. No significant
effects of scripting were found with respect to the developed wiki products. As for students’
individual learning outcomes, results showed a significant increase from pre- to post-test for
all students. Although the increase was higher in the scripted condition, the difference
between the conditions was not statistically significant.
Thesis Chapters by Michiel Voet
Books by Michiel Voet
approaches to foster online collaborative learning. The main aim of this study was to
investigate the effect of a collaboration script for a wiki task. A collaboration script is a set of
instructions to improve collaboration between learning partners. Participants were first-year
university students in Educational Sciences (N=186) collaborating in groups of five during a
three-week period to create a wiki on peer assessment in education. Two conditions were
contrasted: a scripted and a non-scripted condition. The effect of scripting was measured in
four ways (questionnaires, log-file analyses, group product scores, and individual pre- post-
test scores). Results show significant positive effects of scripting with respect to the
collaborative group processes and students’ feelings of shared responsibility. No significant
effects of scripting were found with respect to the developed wiki products. As for students’
individual learning outcomes, results showed a significant increase from pre- to post-test for
all students. Although the increase was higher in the scripted condition, the difference
between the conditions was not statistically significant.