Lecture | Food for Thought
Food for Thought “Generation of the Future”
- Date
- Tuesday 19 May 2026
- Time
- Address
-
Agora
Wassenaarseweg 52
2333 AK Leiden - Room
- 1B.01 (Living Lab)
The Programme
| 12.00 | Welcome & introduction door Lenneke Alink (IPW) |
| 12.10 | Marian Hickendorff (IPW) When high expectations miss the mark: A critical look at achievement targets for primary school mathematics education. |
| 12.20 | Bianca Boyer (PSY) For Whose Brains Is Education Designed? Neurodiversity and Academic Equity. |
| 12.30 | Fred Janssen (ICLON) Good education has a thousand faces, but does it also have a common core? |
| 12.40 | Questions / discussion moderated by Lenneke Alink |
| 13.00 | Closing |
When high expectations miss the mark: A critical look at achievement targets for primary school mathematics education.
Dr. Marian Hickendorff, Institute of Education and Child Studies
In the Netherlands, the government not only decides what students should learn [kerndoelen], it also states which percentage of students should reach particular target levels at the end of primary school for language and mathematics [referentieniveaus]. However, these achievement expectations are based on unfounded assumptions, cannot be measured reliably, and they are unrealistically high. The current situation is therefore both undesirable and unfair. The government should have the courage not only to acknowledge these problems but also to address them in the short term.
For Whose Brains Is Education Designed? Neurodiversity and Academic Equity
Dr. Bianca Boyer, Institute of Psychology
Education is often organised as if there is one “normal” way to concentrate, plan, process information, and regulate effort. Students who deviate from this implicit norm typically receive individual accommodations, while the educational system itself remains largely unchanged. From a neurodiversity perspective, this raises a question of fairness: are our practices truly inclusive, or built around a narrow range of cognitive profiles? In this contribution, I examine educational quality and justice through the lens of neurodiversity, with ADHD as an example. Many difficulties experienced by neurodivergent students arise not only from individual characteristics, but from a mismatch between diverse cognitive styles and learning environments that strongly rely on sustained attention, self-regulation, time pressure, and text-heavy instruction. Common solutions, such as extra exam time, may help some students but leave structural issues untouched. In this contribution, I will explore what “academic equity” could mean in practice by examining how current supports function and where mismatches arise between diverse cognitive profiles and educational demands.
Good education has a thousand faces, but does it also have a common core?
Prof. dr. ir. Fred Janssen, ICLON
Everyone wants good education for all students. However, this does not mean that there is agreement about what education should aim to achieve. Social and scientific developments generate a wide range of competing claims about educational aims. Consider, for example: gender identity, AI, well-being, climate change, citizenship, language, mathematics, historical reasoning, talent development, culture-responsive teaching, differentiation, formative assessment, students’ basic needs, direct instruction, inquiry-based learning et cetera.
The most common response of educational system to these developments is twofold. They either try to do a bit of everything, or they alternate between one priority and another. Neither response contributes to high-quality education for all students. Almost a hundred years ago, Dewey advised that in situations where many viewpoints compete for priority, one should not choose one side over another, but instead examine how these seemingly conflicting positions can be integrated at a deeper level.
There is a long—yet largely forgotten—tradition in general pedagogy that has articulated the common underlying core of good education. In this contribution, I present this shared core of good education and show how it can function as a compass for shaping education from primary to university level.
What is Food for Thought?
During Food for Thought lunch meetings, researchers and interested colleagues can meet in an informal setting.
Two (or more) speakers from different institutes present their work in relation to a specific topic that is connected to the overarching FSW themes:
- AI for humans, society and science;
- Generation of the future;
- Health and well-being;
- Social transitions;
- Sustainability and biodiversity.
With this interdisciplinary approach, you get to know varying standpoints and methods, gain new perspectives and broaden your network. You can apply to this event until 10 May.
Do you want to contribute?
Do you want to present your own research next? Please, contact Susanne Roodhuyzen, the Food for Thought coordinator.