POINT: bridging the gap between science and practice

Education is an often-researched field. Valuable insights from research are not sufficiently embedded in practice, yet, because not all studies are in line with educational practice. This is a missed opportunity for both science and practice. POINT brings these worlds together in order to improve the value of research and to enhance tailored education.

POINT means ‘Passend Onderwijs voor Ieder Nieuw Talent’ [Tailored Education for Every New Talent]. POINT is a fieldlab for educational research where primary school teachers, teacher-educators and researchers cooperate to improve education for all pupils - including gifted pupils - and to link educational practice and scientific research. Almost 40 schools, 3 research universities, and the largest teacher training institute of the Netherlands participate in POINT.

Our goals are the following:

• Shaping a sustainable professional learning community, in which teachers, teacher-educators and researchers work together on themes that are in line with tailored education for gifted pupils.
• Knowledge development and knowledge sharing by teachers, teacher-educators, and researchers on the theme of giftedness.
• Development of a research-oriented attitude and capacity among the participating POINT-teachers. Development of a practice-sensitive attitude among the participating POINT-researchers.

Monthly, POINT-participants gather at one of the POINT-schools. We share good practices by teachers and teacher-educators and lectures/presentations by experts and researchers. In addition, collective research is set up and conducted by all participants:

• Practice-oriented research by teachers in collaboration with researchers and teacher-educators. This small-scale research is based on an issue from teachers' own educational practice and is conducted in their own classroom or school.
• Overarching research by researchers in collaboration with teachers and teacher-educators. This large-scale research is based on issues that teachers bring from their schools and is conducted in all involved schools of POINT.

© Pictures by Larissa Rand.

The collaboration within POINT results in many useful national and international outcomes such as a professionalization boardgame concerning giftedness for professionals in education (enIQma), descriptions of learning materials for gifted pupils, short videos on the topic of giftedness and scientific- and practical articles.

All participants of POINT learn something of the collaboration between research and practice: teachers learn to work more research-oriented, researchers learn to work more practice sensitive, and teacher-educators come to know new insights to embed in their education for teachers-in-training.

Did we make you curious about POINT? Hear more about the fieldlab during our presentation at the Award session at the EAPRIL conference!

POINT is one of the award nominees for the EAPRIL Best Practice-based research award 2021.

article written by

• Anouke Bakx, is professor of Giftedness at Radboud University and associate professor at Fontys University of applied Sciences.
• Elise Samsen is a junior researcher in POINT. She is interested in gifted education, special educational needs and sensory processing sensitivity.
• Kim Smeets is a junior researcher of the educational research lab POINT. She is interested in gifted education, equal opportunities and teacher professionalization.