The effectiveness of alternative education: a comparison between primary Dalton schools and traditional schools on outcomes of schooling

ABSTRACT

With approximately 800 schools, alternative education is a substantial part of primary education in the Netherlands. With nearly 400 schools, Dalton education is the largest form of alternative education in the Netherlands. Given the size and popularity of Dalton education, it is rather remarkable that the effects of these schools have hardly been subject of empirical research. The aim of this study is to compare the cognitive and noncognitive outcomes and citizenship competencies of students attending Dalton schools with those of students from traditional schools. The scores of students in kindergarten, third grade, and sixth grade on language, math (cognitive outcomes), wellbeing, self-efficacy, task motivation (noncognitive outcomes), and citizenship competencies were compared. The results from multilevel analyses show that there are hardly any significant differences between Dalton schools and traditional schools on these measures.

KEYWORDS:

• Alternative education
• Dalton education
• school effectiveness
• cognitive and noncognitive outcomes
• citizenship competencies

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

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Funding

The authors reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Patrick H. M. Sins

Patrick H. M. Sins, PhD, is professor of Alternative Education at the Schools of Education at Saxion and Thomas More University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands. In his research he aims at developing and optimizing innovative perspectives on education based on critical scientific syntheses, on the one hand, and on conducting practice-based scientific research, on the other. He coordinates the research that takes place within his research group focusing on: educational effectiveness, teacher professional development, self-regulated learning, and citizenship education.

Symen van der Zee

Symen van der Zee, PhD, is a professor in Science and Technology Education at the Saxion University. His focus is on the professional development of primary and secondary school teachers with regards to innovative STEM education and the development and testing of educational practices aimed at stimulating and motivating pupils for a career in the STEM fields.

Jaap A. Schuitema

Jaap A. Schuitema, PhD, is an associate professor in the Research Institute of Child Development and Education at the University of Amsterdam. His research interests include student motivation, self-regulated learning, and higher order thinking and reasoning skills. Other areas of research concern the moral development of students and citizenship education. He has studied the effectiveness of teaching strategies and learning environment on students’ critical thinking, science skills, moral reasoning, and self-regulated learning and has published several articles in these areas in leading international journals.