361 research outputs found
Islamic Schools in North America and The Netherlands: Inhibiting or Enhancing Democratic Dispositions?
No full textMuslims have resided in Western countries for decades, yet with the possible exception of Canada and the United States, public opinion, especially that of politicians and employers, for much of the twentieth century was that their residence would be a temporary one. In Europe, labor shortages, decolonization, and family reunification and formation over two or three generations would ensure permanent resettlement. In North America, since the late 1960s, expanded immigration policies have facilitated a large influx of Muslims from the Indian subcontinent and beyond. Consequently, for more than two decades, Islam has been one of the fastest growing religions in the West and is Europe’s second largest religion (Merry and Driessen, 2005; Driessen and Merry, 2006)
Opbrengsten van islamitische basisscholen Prestaties, attitudes en gedrag van leerlingen op islamitische scholen vergeleken
No full textIn opdracht van het ministerie van OCW heeft dr. Geert Driessen een onderzoek uitgevoerd naar de opbrengsten van islamitische basisscholen. Daarvoor is gebruik van gegevens die in de schooljaren 2002/03 en 2004/05 zijn verzameld in het cohortonderzoek PRIMA. In het onderzoek worden de opbrengsten van islamitische scholen vergeleken met die van andere ''zwarte'' scholen en met de gemiddelde basisschool. Centraal staan niet alleen de taal-, reken- en leesprestaties van de leerlingen, maar ook hun adviezen voor voortgezet onderwijs en attitudes en gedrag. Het onderzoek is een vervolg op eerdere studies onder islamitische scholen die de periode 1994/95 - 2000/01 beslaan. De resultaten laten zien dat islamitische scholen wat hun prestaties betreft in het algemeen wat beter scoren dan andere ''zwarte'' scholen, maar lager tot veel lager scoren dan de gemiddelde Nederlandse basisschool. Wat dit betreft is er sinds 1994 weinig veranderd
Optimal treatment regime estimation in practice: challenges and choices in a randomized clinical trial for depression
No full textAn important aspect of precision medicine is the tailoring of treatments to specific patient types. Nowadays, various methods are available to estimate for this purpose so-called optimal treatment regimes, that is, decision rules for treatment assignment that map patterns of pretreatment characteristics to treatment alternatives and that maximize the expected patient benefit. However, the application of these methods to real-life data has been limited and comes with nonstandard statistical issues. In search of best practices, we reanalyzed data from a randomized clinical trial for the treatment of dysthymic disorder. While the original objective of this trial was to detect a marginally best treatment alternative, we wanted to estimate an optimal treatment regime using 2 prominent estimation methods: Q-learning and value search estimation. An important obstacle in the dataset under study was the occurrence of missing values. This was handled with multiple imputation, a thoughtful implementation of which, however, implied several challenges. Other challenges were implied by the concrete implementation of value search estimation. In this paper, all the choices we have made in the analysis to handle the aforementioned issues are detailed together with a motivation and a description of possible alternatives. Accordingly, this paper may serve as a guide to apply optimal treatment regime estimation in data-analytic practice.This research was supported by the Research Foundation Flanders (G080219N). F.S. received funding from the Agentschap Innoveren & Ondernemen and Janssen Pharmaceutica (HBC.2022.0145). E.D. received funding from the Dutch Research Council (016.Veni.195.215 6806). The computational resources used in this work were provided by the Flemish Supercomputer Center, funded by the Research Foundation Flanders and the Flemish Government
Interinstitutional convention as checks and balances in EU law
No full textThis study investigates the extent to which arrangements concluded between European institutions contribute to the separation of powers underlying the European Union’s political system.
The point of departure is an analysis of different separation of powers models. The author posits that the European Union’s political system is best interpreted against the background of a ‘separation of institutions’, implying that no European institution should exercise its legal powers in an unchecked manner. This approach builds on the Court of Justice’ institutional balance doctrine. It differs from the more traditional constitutional law theory known as ‘trias politica’ according to which no government authority ought to combine two ‘governmental functions’. Seen from this perspective, separation of powers is a matter of autonomous institutions subject to ‘checks and balances’.
Some checks and balances find their basis in EU law. However, many others are based on arrangements between the European institutions. Many of such arrangements are not based on law. An enquiry into the possible general legal bases for such interinstitutional agreements finds all of them unsound.
Driessen argues that interinstitutional arrangements without a legal basis (‘interinstitutional conventions’) cannot be legally enforceable. Although there are differences, to a certain extent they can be equated to the ‘constitutional conventions’ known in British constitutional law. An analysis of such interinstitutional conventions suggests their omnipresence in European constitutional practice.
The study analyses the effects of interinstitutional arrangements on different fields of EU law. This includes, inter alia, an analysis of the political responsibility of the Commission and of its members towards the European Parliament, of the interinstitutional conventions that govern the Parliament’s rights of oversight, and those governing legislative procedures, the budgetary procedure and external relations.
The analysis shows that many interinstitutional conventions are important instruments for the daily management of the Union. Other interinstitutional conventions concern the details of the relations between the institutions. They can tangibly affect the balance of influence between the European institutions. For example, in the budgetary field, the European Parliament successfully used interinstitutional agreements to ensure that about one half of expenditure is subject to its approval as non-compulsory expenditure. Additionally, it acquired some control over the remainder through the financial perspectives, which are equally based on interinstitutional conventions.
Driessen researches the limitations on the use of such interinstitutional arrangements. Although they certainly cannot replace the procedures foreseen in European law, they can affect such them. Jurists often fail to notice the extent to which this happens. The study is based on current law but also takes on board the changes proposed in the Constitutional Treaty.status: Publishe
Effecten van de feminisering van het basisonderwijs: opinies of feiten?
No full textIn a number of countries policy measures have been taken to increase the number of male teachers at schools. The underlying idea is that because of the feminization of education boys' achievement, attitudes and behaviors deteriorate. This article concludes that the theoretical underpinning of this policy is weak and the empirical proof absent. The results of a large-scale study of Dutch primary schools show that there are no effects of the teachers' gender on the pupils' cognitive and non-cognitive competencies
Maatschappelijke participatie van ouders en de cognitieve en niet-cognitieve onderwijspositie van hun kinderen
No full textIn this paper various aspects of societal participation such as cultural, political and labour participation are viewed as indicators of integration into society. On the basis of theoretical notions of Bourdieu and Coleman regarding social and cultural capital it is assumed that the more parents participate in society the better this is for their children's educational functioning. To test this hypothesis descriptive and multilevel analyses were performed on data from 10,680 grade 2 pupils at 583 Dutch primary schools. The results showed that after controlling for socioeconomic and ethnic family background characteristics only effects of cultural participation on language and math achievement remain. No effects on noncognitive aspects such as social position, well-being and self-esteem were found
De totstandkoming van de adviezen voortgezet onderwijs: invloeden van thuis en school
No full textIn the last grade of Dutch primary school, pupils receive a recommendation regarding the type of secondary school that is most appropriate for them to subsequently attend. Analysis of variance was performed on data from nearly 5700 grade 8 pupils and 500 classes. The focus was on the role of the parents and schools concerning this recommendation. More specific topics were: the interests, expectations and possibilities of parental support; the factors that determine the recommendation; the parents' role in the decision making process; and both parental and juvenal (non)conformity with the recommendation. For each of these topics the relationships with pupil characteristics (sex, SES and ethnicity) and class/school characteristics (e.g., socioethnic composition) were analyzed
Cognitieve competenties van jonge kinderen en structurele en culturele gezinskenmerken: ontwikkelingen en samenhangen?
No full textIn this paper three questions are answered: 1) are there developments in the language and math performance of young children; 2) are there developments in a number of family characteristics (parental educational level, ethnicity, home language, proficiency level in Dutch, and reading behavior); and 3) are there relations between the children's competencies and their parents' characteristics? Data from three waves of the PRIMA cohort study (1996, 1998 and 2000) were analyzed with one-level and multilevel techniques. The sample included a total of 24,130 pupils at 688 primary schools. The results showed there to be just one development, namely a slight rise in language performance between 1996 and 1998
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