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Background: Reading comprehension is an interactive process. Yet, instructional needs are usually identified with isolated componential tests. This study examined whether a dynamic approach, in which componential abilities are measured within the same text and global text comprehension is facilitated via feedback, can help in understanding variation in children's reading comprehension. Objectives: With a pretest‐posttest control group design, componential abilities before and after feedback were related to growth in global text comprehension within the same text. Methods: At pretest, third to fifth graders read 30 short texts, each followed by one global text comprehension question. This was repeated at posttest, but additional questions were asked with feedback prior to each global text comprehension question. The vocabulary group received two vocabulary questions with feedback (n = 97). The vocabulary plus integration group received two vocabulary questions and one sentence‐integration question with feedback (n = 98). The control group (n = 98) only answered the global text comprehension questions. Results and Conclusion: Participants in the experimental conditions who needed feedback (i.e., lower‐skilled) experienced a decrease in global text comprehension, whereas this was not found for the control group and participants in the experimental groups who did not need feedback (i.e., higher‐skilled). There was also less decrease among those lower‐skilled participants who had profited from the feedback. Implications: It is concluded from explorative analyses that not feedback but the overall design caused the decrease. Conceptually, the dynamic approach is worth further research. Lay Description: What is already known about this topic: Reading comprehension is a complex interaction of several componential abilities at word level, sentence level, and text level (e.g., vocabulary and sentence‐integration).Instruction should adapt to the profile of strengths and weaknesses in componential abilities.Assessing componential abilities with isolated tests does not align with the interactive processes in reading comprehension.Measuring learning ability can help to identify children with low responsiveness to instruction. What this paper adds: Reading comprehension is profiled by asking questions on vocabulary, sentence‐integration, and global text comprehension for the same text in third to fifth graders (8–11 years olds).Feedback is provided after a mistake in a vocabulary and sentence‐integration question, and the feedback effect on global text comprehension is measured with a pretest‐posttest design.Children who receive feedback decrease in global text comprehension but children with higher skills in componential abilities decrease less.Explorative analyses and previous research indicate that the assessment design had a negative impact on performance, for example, via cognitive load, attention, self‐esteem, and motivation. Implications for practice and/or policy: Global text comprehension cannot always be facilitated by providing feedback on vocabulary and sentence‐integration within the same text.The design of the assessment and its influence on performance should be carefully considered by instructional designers, educators, and researchers, especially in case of young learners.It remains unclear from this study if facilitating global text comprehension via feedback with a dynamic approach is useful to understand variation in children's reading comprehension.The dynamic approach with a proper design may potentially still provide a useful insight in individual differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learners in the process of developing complex skills need a rich mental model of what such skills entail. Textual analytics rubrics (TR) are a widely used instrument to support formative assessment of complex skills, supporting feedback, reflection, and thus mental model development of complex skills. However, the textual nature of a rubric limits the possibility to deliver contextual and dynamic (time‐and behaviour‐oriented) information. In the Viewbrics online tool, we developed a version supporting the delivery of contextual and dynamic information by adding video‐modelling examples with embedded self‐explanation prompts to textual analytics rubrics. We called this combination as video‐enhanced rubrics (VERs). Our current study investigates whether the Viewbrics online tool supports complex skills development and whether either textual‐ or video‐enhanced rubrics best support complex skills' mastery. The study was a three‐group (VERS n = 49, TR n = 54, control n = 50) within‐subjects design. Learners' performance of complex skills was measured through expert, peer, and self‐assessment using the Viewbrics online tool. A multilevel regression analysis shows learners in the TR and VERS conditions consistently outperforming the control condition to varying degrees across skills. However, no differences have been found between the two experimental conditions. Positive results across different complex skills indicate the Viewbrics online tool can be used to support the development of a wide range of complex skills in secondary education. Lay Description: Known about the subject matter: The acquisition of cross‐curricular complex skills such is crucial for pupils in secondary education.It is important that students and teachers develop a concrete and consistent picture of (aspects of) these so‐called 21st century skills in order to streamline both their acquisition.Textual rubrics may still have room for improvement, as many aspects of desired behavior can hardly be put into words.Many schools in secondary education are struggling with how to teach and assess cross‐curricular skills. What their paper adds to this: So, we designed a online (online) formative assessment methodology, with textual rubrics and the video‐enhanced rubrics.And measured complex skill performance in two secondary, pre‐university education schools for 24 weeks and compared with existing educational practice.Both experimental groups perform significantly better in the three complex skills compared to the control group.However, the video‐enhanced group did not outperform the textual rubric group. The implications of study findings for practitioners: Supporting the formative assessment of complex skills is a recommendable activity for practitioners, that will likely bear fruit.However, incorporating video modeling examples into an online assessment methodology does not result in improvement in complex skill mastery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although learning is generally perceived as a way to improve employees' current job performance, so far, no research has been conducted to explore the possible relationships between formal and informal learning, on the one hand, and employability, on the other. Though contemporary views stress the importance of the job as a powerful learning site, considerable research evidence underpinning these views is lacking. This paper goes into the impact of formal and informal learning upon employability. The influence of employee characteristics and organizational factors is also taken into account. An e-questionnaire was used to collect data among 215 Dutch non-academic university staff members. Our findings emphasize the necessity of Human Resource Development strategies that encompass a mix of formal and informal learning opportunities. In particular, participation in networks appears to be an important predictor for employability. With the outcomes of this study, we aim to contribute to the further development of theoretical insights regarding employability enhancement through learning possibilities embedded in the workplace. It seems that strategies that focus exclusively on enhancing informal on-the-job learning should not be encouraged. Our study is limited to one context and further research is required to investigate the generalizability of the findings to other occupations and/or countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study investigates the causal relationships between reading and print exposure and investigates whether the amount children read outside school determines how well they read, or vice versa. Previous findings from behavioural studies suggest that reading predicts print exposure. Here, we use twin‐data and apply the behaviour‐genetic approach of direction of causality modelling, suggested by Heath et al. (), to investigate the causal relationships between these two traits. Method: Partial data were available for a large sample of twin children (N = 11,559) and 262 siblings, all enrolled in the Netherlands Twin Register. Children were assessed around 7.5 years of age. Mothers completed questionnaires reporting children's time spent on reading activities and reading ability. Additional information on reading ability was available through teacher ratings and performance on national reading tests. For siblings reading test, results were available. Results: The reading ability of the twins was comparable to that of the siblings and national norms, showing that twin findings can be generalized to the population. A measurement model was specified with two latent variables, Reading Ability and Print Exposure, which correlated.41. Heritability analyses showed that Reading Ability was highly heritable, while genetic and environmental influences were equally important for Print Exposure. We exploited the fact that the two constructs differ in genetic architecture and fitted direction of causality models. The results supported a causal relationship running from Reading Ability to Print Exposure. Conclusions: How much and how well children read are moderately correlated. Individual differences in print exposure are less heritable than individual differences in reading ability. Importantly, the present results suggest that it is the children's reading ability that determines how much they choose to read, rather than vice versa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Earlier research found that the mere sight of tears promotes the willingness to provide support to the person shedding the tears. Other research, however, found that deliberate responses towards tearful persons could be more negative as well. We think this is because tears have ambivalent effects on person perception: We predicted that tearful people are seen as warmer, but also as less competent. In three studies, we asked participants (total N = 1,042) to form their impression of someone based on a picture. The depicted person either displayed visible tears, or the tears had been digitally removed. Tearful individuals were perceived as being warmer, but also as less competent. In Study 2, we also added a measure of perceived sadness. Seeing a tearful face increased perceived sadness, and this (partially) explained the reduction in perceived competence of the target person. There was no such indirect effect of the tear on perceived warmth via perceived sadness. Study 3 found that people would be more likely to approach a tearful person to offer help than a tearless individual. At the same time, tearful individuals would be more likely to be avoided in situations in which the observer needs assistance for an important task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]