In search for teacher excellence. Honours programs and recognition of teacher excellence in the Netherlands.

In mei 2011 leverden Marco Snoek en Sanne Spil, samen met Ellen van den Berg en Edmee De Lima de Prado van de Hogeschool Edith Steyn, door middel van bijgaande paper een bijdrage aan de jaarlijkse conferentie van het netwerk Teacher Education Policy in Europe TEPE. In deze paper schetsen ze de ontwikkelingen t.a.v. excellentieprogramma's in het hoger onderwijs in Nederland en vergelijken ze de aanpak bij de HvA en de Hogeschool Edith Steyn. "Here, we present two examples of teacher education institutes that have developed honours programmes that emphasize excellent student teachers. While traditionally honours programmes in universities are focused on stimulating outstanding research performance of excellent students, in both examples a different focus is taken. The honours programmes in these universities for applied sciences do not focus on academic performance, but focus more directly on the roles of outstanding teachers in schools. One of these institutes focuses on primary teacher roles, the other on secondary teacher roles. Both use research in the content of the honours programmes and in the evaluation of the programmes."