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Background: Mastering fractions seems among the most critical mathematical skills for students to acquire in school as fraction understanding significantly predicts later mathematic achievements, but also broader academic and vocational prospects. As such, identifying longitudinal predictors of fraction understanding (e.g., mastery of numbers and operations) is highly relevant. However, almost all existing studies identifying more basic numerical skills as predictors of fraction understanding rest on data acquired in face‐to‐face testing—mostly in classrooms. Objectives: In this article, we evaluated whether results obtained in these previous studies generalized to data from the curriculum‐based online learning environment Bettermarks for mathematics used in schools in the Netherlands. Methods: We considered data from more than 5000 students who solved over 1 million mathematical problem sets on basic mathematical skills, fractions, but also algebra. Results and Conclusions: In line with previous findings, we found that fraction understanding was predicted significantly by more basic mathematical skills. Our analyses also indicated that algebra achievement was predicted significantly by fraction understanding beyond influences of more basic mathematical skills. Implications: Together, these findings generalized previous results based on face‐to‐face testing to the context of data from online learning environments and thus, indicate that data from such large‐scale online learning environments may well qualify to provide significant insights into the hierarchical development of mathematical skills. Lay Description: What is already known about this topic: Understanding fractions is one of the most difficult mathematical skill for students to learn in school.Longitudinal studies using face‐to‐face testing indicated that fraction understanding as well as achievements in algebra can robustly be predicted by prior mathematics skills. What this paper adds: We evaluated data from more than 5,000 Dutch students who performed over 1 million curriculum‐based mathematical problem sets in an online learning environment.Our analyses showed that fraction understanding as well as achievements in algebra and can be predicted by prior mathematics skills. Implications for practitioners: These results indicated that previous results from face‐to‐face testing generalize to data obtained from large‐scale online learning environments.Thus, these results open up a new avenue for research using online learning environments on the development of mathematical skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Online and blended learning need an appropriate assessment strategy which ensures academic integrity. During the pandemic, many universities have chosen for online proctoring. Although some earlier examples suggest that online proctoring may reduce cheating, the potential side‐effects of proctoring are largely unknown. Objectives: Therefore, this study aims to identify the effects of proctoring on students' self‐reported temptation to cheat and potentially undesirable side‐effects, including test anxiety, perceived exam difficulty, and performance. In addition, we examine which contextual and student characteristics affect test anxiety during online exams. Methods: For this, we collected four waves of survey data throughout a year of teaching during the pandemic at one faculty of a Dutch university, resulting in a total sample of 1760 students within 105 courses. Results and Conclusions: Multi‐level analyses showed that while proctoring had no effect on the temptation to cheat, exam difficulty or performance, students reported higher levels of test anxiety. Some learning strategies, internet literacy, access to a reliable technology and a dedicated study space as well as gender and financial stress affect their test anxiety. To conclude, the decision to use online proctoring needs to consider the undesirable side‐effect on test anxiety. We discuss practical implications for university administrators, educational designers and teachers to reduce test anxiety. Lay Description: What is already known about this topic: Proctoring is often used to ensure academic integrity in online exams.Some evidence shows that proctoring reduces cheating.Little is known about the potential negative side‐effects of proctoring. What this paper adds: The use of proctoring has no effect on the temptation to cheat.The use of proctoring results in increased test anxiety.Several student characteristics and contextual factors reduce text anxiety. Implications for practice: Consider potential negative side‐effects when choosing for proctoring.Time management and internet literacy training might reduce test anxiety.Simulating the exam environment might be used to reduce test anxiety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, virtually no studies have examined toddlers' non‐response in developmental tasks. This study investigates data from 3667 toddlers to address (1) whether two aspects of non‐response (completion and engagement) are separable, (2) how stable these aspects are from ages two to three, (3) how non‐response relates to background characteristics, and (4) whether non‐response at ages two and three predicts early academic skills at age six. Structural equation modelling shows that completion and engagement are separable constructs, relatively stable across age, and related to several background characteristics. Especially engagement predicts later academic performance. Results show that non‐response in behavioural tasks in toddlers is not random, increasing the likelihood of sampling bias and lack of generalizability in developmental studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context Ethnic minority students find that their ethnicity negatively affects the evaluation of their capacities and their feelings in medical school. This study tests whether ethnic minority and majority students differ in their 'self‐regulatory focus' in clinical training, that is, their ways to approach goals, due to differences in social learning experiences. Self‐regulatory focus consists of a promotion and prevention focus. People who are prone to stereotypes and unfair treatments are more likely to have a prevention focus and conceal certain identity aspects. The objectives of the study are to test whether ethnic minority students, as compared with ethnic majority students, are equally likely to have a promotion focus, but more likely to have a prevention focus in clinical training due to more negative social learning experiences (Hypothesis 1), and whether the relationship between student ethnicity and clinical evaluations can be explained by students' gender, social learning experiences, self‐regulatory focus and impression management (Hypothesis 2). Methods: Survey and clinical evaluation data of 312 (71.2% female) clerks were collected and grouped into 215 ethnic majority (69.4%) and 95 ethnic minority students (30.6%). Students' social learning experiences were measured as perceptions of unfair treatment, trust in supervisors and social academic fit. Self‐regulatory focus (general and work specific) and impression management were also measured. A parallel mediation model (Hypothesis 1) and hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used (Hypothesis 2). Results: Ethnic minority students had higher perceptions of unfair treatment and lower trust in their supervisors in clinical training. They were more prevention focused in clinical training, but this was not mediated by having more negative social learning experiences. Lower clinical evaluations for ethnic minority students were unexplained. Promotion focus in clinical training and trust in supervisors positively relate to clinical grades. Conclusion: Student ethnicity predicts social learning experiences, self‐regulatory focus and grades in clinical training. The hidden curriculum plausibly plays a role here. van Andel et al. demonstrate that systematic differences between ethnic minority and majority students can be predicted based on social learning experiences, self‐regulatory focus and clinical grades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The roles and identities of professionals have undergone significant transformation in an ever‐globalising world shaped by neoliberal values. In the field of education, standardisation and outcome‐based quality measures have become the norm. Teachers are held accountable through their students' results, with their work subject to ongoing surveillance (performance‐based accountability). This has changed the nature of teachers' tasks, and what it means to be a "good teacher". Based on 20 teacher interviews across six primary schools in the Netherlands, this study examines teachers' practices and beliefs, asking: do they experience role discrepancy? What responses do we see as a result? And, what does this reveal about teachers' sense of professionalism today? Findings show that all teachers experience the pressure of high workloads and the need to prioritise tasks. Whereas a small minority of respondents understand performative tasks as having a crucial function of supporting student learning and achievement, others experienced a discrepancy between these performative tasks and the tasks they believed to be at the heart of good teaching. Confronted with this, teachers responded in different ways; either incorporating all tasks into their schedule, or feeling forced to choose between them. Beyond this, findings indicate that teachers' understandings of key aspects of the profession, such as autonomy, are changing in response to the policy environment. This supports conceptualisations of professions and professionalism as not only "being changed by" external reform, but changing from within. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The motivation for this article was the main finding of an earlier study, which concludes that choice‐driven education systems—in the study represented by England and Sweden—are particularly beneficial for immigrants in that they provide them with many opportunities to pursue their generally high educational ambitions. We extend this analysis by including two countries with performance‐driven education systems: Germany and the Netherlands. Our study specifically aims to explore whether it is true that choice‐driven systems are more beneficial for immigrants or whether immigrants can also succeed in more stratified and selective education systems. Using longitudinal data from the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey in Four European Countries (CILS4EU), we show that there are no differences in (gross) transition rates between immigrants and natives in Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden, but immigrants' optimistic choices are more pronounced in England. However, these differences diminish once we account for achievement and students' socioeconomic background in the analyses. Regarding the underlying mechanisms, we find that educational aspirations have an (equally) strong, universal impact, while anticipated discrimination plays a minor role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]