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The Ecuadorian Amazon holds more biodiversity than most other places on Earth. Palms are a particularly dominant component of the vegetation; however, it remains unknown to what degree the pattern has persisted through time. Here, we investigate the persistence of palm dominance through time and the degree to which past human activities (e.g., fire, cultivation, and forest opening) have affected changes in palm abundances across five regions of the Ecuadorian Amazon. We analyzed soil cores (40–80 cm depth) from each region for charcoal (evidence of past fire) and phytoliths (evidence of past vegetation change). The timings of fires (based on 14C radiocarbon dates), the occurrence, recurrence, and number of fires (based on charcoal presence and abundance in samples), and the amount of change in palm abundances (based on phytoliths) varied within and between the studied regions. The charcoal and phytolith results indicate the presence of low levels of past human activity at all sites. Our results show that patterns of modern palm hyperdominance found in Amazonian forests have not been persistent through time, and that even low levels of past human activities can affect palm abundance.

The presence and level of faecal indicator bacteria are important factors in estimating the microbiological quality of surface water and the risk of human infection upon exposure to this water. Until 2014, ISO 9308-1:2000 was available and used to enumerate faecal indicator Escherichia coli in bathing water. In 2014, this ISO was technically revised and replaced by ISO 9308-1:2014. This ISO introduced a less selective method for enumeration of E. coli that allows non-specific growth from waters containing high levels of bacteria, such as surface waters. This implies that currently there is no suitable reference membrane filtration method for the compliance monitoring of official bathing sites for E. coli according to the European Bathing Water Directive. Here, the performance characteristics of three chromogenic culture media, namely Tryptone Bile X-glucuronide (TBX) agar, Chromogenic Coliform Agar (CCA), and CHROMagar E. coli/Coliform (ECC) were investigated at 44 °C for water with varying levels of bacteria according to ISO 13843:2017. Based on performance characteristics, colony counts, and practical usage, TBX appeared the most suitable culture medium for the enumeration of E. coli in bathing water and other waters with high levels of background bacteria, such as surface water in agricultural areas and wastewater discharge points. HIGHLIGHTS Performance characteristics at 44 °C, after resuscitation at 36 °C, were comparable for the tested chromogenic culture media TBX, CCA, and ECC.; Based on performance characteristics, colony counts, and practical usage, TBX was selected as the preferential culture medium.;

Abstract Background Underutilization of and lack of access to low vision services (LVS) has been reported internationally. The purpose of this study was to identify barriers and facilitators in LVS referral procedures and service delivery from both the perspective of people with visual impairment and professionals from different eye care providers in the Netherlands. Methods A qualitative study in the Netherlands was conducted. Barriers and facilitators were explored through semi structured interviews with older adults with macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy and/or glaucoma (n = 14), and healthcare professionals including ophthalmologists and LVS professionals (n = 16). Framework analysis was used for analyzing the interviews with Atlas.ti software. Results According to both patients and professionals, facilitators in LVS access and utilization are having motivation, self-advocacy, high participation needs and social support, as well as being negatively impacted by the impairment. Both samples found having good communication skills and informing patients about LVS as a healthcare provider to facilitate access. A long patient-provider relationship and the Dutch healthcare system were also mentioned as facilitators. Professionals additionally found long disease duration and the presence of low vision optometric services in the ophthalmic practice to promote access. Barriers that were reported by patients and professionals are lack of motivation, self-advocacy and acceptance of the impairment in patients. In addition, having low participation needs as a patient, lack of information provision by providers and time constraints in the ophthalmic practice were mentioned as barriers. Professionals also reported lack of social support, short disease duration of patients, a short patient-provider relationship and lack of coordination of care in the ophthalmic practice to hinder access. Conclusions Findings suggest that providers’ lack of information provision about LVS, especially to patients who are less assertive, hamper referral to LVS. Providers should have attention for patients’ LVS needs and actively inform them and their social network about LVS to facilitate access. Educating and training providers about how and when to address LVS may help to reduce barriers in the referral pathways. In addition, referral procedures may benefit from tools that make providers more aware of LVS.

Despite the consensus about the importance of self-regulated learning for academic as well as for lifelong learning, it is still poorly understood as to how teachers can most effectively support their students in enacting self-regulated learning. This article provides a framework about how self-regulated learning can be activated directly through strategy instruction and indirectly by creating a learning environment that allows students to regulate their learning. In examining teachers' instructional attempts for SRL, we systematically review the literature on classroom observation studies that have assessed how teachers support their students' SRL. The results of the 17 retrieved studies show that in most classrooms, only little direct strategy instruction took place. Nevertheless, some teachers provided their students with learning environments that require and thus foster self-regulated learning indirectly. Based on a review of classroom observation studies, this article stresses the significance of: (1) instructing SRL strategies explicitly so that students develop metacognitive knowledge and skills to integrate the application of these strategies successfully into their learning process; and (2) the necessity of complementing classroom observation research with data gathered from student and teacher self-report in order to obtain a comprehensive view of the effectiveness of teacher approaches to support SRL. Finally, we discuss ten cornerstones for future directions for research about supporting SRL.

The First European Planetary Health Congress, held from 5 to 7 July 2023 at ARTIS in Amsterdam, represented a significant milestone in the global movement of Planetary Health. The event brought together 121 attendees from academia and the private sector dedicated to addressing the impact of human disruptions to natural systems on the well-being of life on Earth. Co-organized by Natura Artis Magistra (ARTIS) and the European Hub of the Planetary Health Alliance (PHA), the Congress featured five workshops: The Future of Planetary Health Cities, Impact through Synergy, Planetary Health Education, Movement Building, and Food and Microbes. Oral presentations addressed the theme of how human health and the health of human civilization depend on the natural environment, including subthemes on Earth, Water, and Food. Additionally, the subtheme of Humans reflected on how humanity can thrive within Planetary Boundaries and how to imagine a prosperous future for all life on Earth. The First European Planetary Health Congress offered a platform for fostering sustainable, just, and equitable societies within ecological limits. Accordingly, ARTIS and the European Hub aim to shape a hopeful future for generations to come.

Abstract Cargo ships navigating global waters are required to be sufficiently safe and compliant with international treaties. Governmental inspectorates currently assess in a rule-based manner whether a ship is potentially noncompliant and thus needs inspection. One of the dominant ship characteristics in this assessment is the ‘colour’ of the flag a ship is flying, where countries with a positive reputation have a so-called ‘white flag’. The colour of a flag may disproportionately influence the inspector, causing more frequent and stricter inspections of ships flying a non-white flag, resulting in confirmation bias in historical inspection data. In this paper, we propose an automated approach for the assessment of ship noncompliance, realising two important contributions. First, we reduce confirmation bias by using fair classifiers that decorrelate the flag from the risk classification returned by the model. Second, we extract mobility patterns from a cargo ship network, allowing us to derive meaningful features for ship classification. Crucially, these features model the behaviour of a ship, rather than its static properties. Our approach shows both a higher overall prediction performance and improved fairness with respect to the flag. Ultimately, this work enables inspectorates to better target noncompliant ships, thereby improving overall maritime safety and environmental protection.

Individuals with dual sensory loss (DSL) appear to have limited ability to compensate for their visual impairment with residual hearing, or for their hearing impairment with residual vision, resulting in challenges in various areas of life. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore the diverse experiences facing individuals with DSL as well as to determine how they experience sensory compensation. Semi-structured interviews were carried out in twenty adults with DSL (13 females and 7 males, mean age 47 years). The causes of DSL severity varied amongst participants. Sensory compensation and experiences in regards to access to information, mobility, communication and fatigue were discussed. Interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Framework analysis was used to summarize and interpret the data. In relation to access to information, our results show that, despite various challenges, the use of assistive technology such as voice command functions, enabled participants to operate effectively. Regarding mobility, most participants were capable of finding their way in familiar environments. However, if the setting was unfamiliar, assistance from others or reliance on navigation applications was necessary. Participants experienced little issues with having conversations in quiet settings, however, crowded settings were considered very difficult. The final results showed that most participants suffered from fatigue. Carefully considering which daily activities were feasible and having a daily routine helped to cope with fatigue. This study revealed the experiences of individuals with DSL in important areas of life. The results suggest that, even though many challenges are experienced, individuals with DSL are resourceful in finding compensation strategies. However, capturing participants' sensory compensation experiences was challenging.

Abstract Background Accurately predicting which patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) are particularly vulnerable for adverse outcomes is of crucial importance to support clinical decision making. The goal of the current study was to examine the predictive value on long term heart failure (HF) hospitalisation and all-cause mortality in CHF patients, by exploring and exploiting machine learning (ML) and traditional statistical techniques on a Dutch health insurance claims database. Methods Our study population consisted of 25,776 patients with a CHF diagnosis code between 2012 and 2014 and one year and three years follow-up HF hospitalisation (1446 and 3220 patients respectively) and all-cause mortality (2434 and 7882 patients respectively) were measured from 2015 to 2018. The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) was calculated after modelling the data using Logistic Regression, Random Forest, Elastic Net regression and Neural Networks. Results AUC rates ranged from 0.710 to 0.732 for 1-year HF hospitalisation, 0.705–0.733 for 3-years HF hospitalisation, 0.765–0.787 for 1-year mortality and 0.764–0.791 for 3-years mortality. Elastic Net performed best for all endpoints. Differences between techniques were small and only statistically significant between Elastic Net and Logistic Regression compared with Random Forest for 3-years HF hospitalisation. Conclusion In this study based on a health insurance claims database we found clear predictive value for predicting long-term HF hospitalisation and mortality of CHF patients by using ML techniques compared to traditional statistics.

Computational thinking is a popular student skill on a steep rise today. Nevertheless, the assessment of this skill is a matter of contention. This pilot study examines whether computational and logical thinking are related. Therefore, we investigated the effect of a robotics course concerning logical thinking and computational thinking on 14-year-old Dutch students. Thirty-five students were pre-tested to assess their logical thinking and post-tested for their logical thinking and their computational thinking. The intervention group (N = 11) followed a robotics course between the pre- and post-test. This study's results show a significant positive correlation between computational and logical thinking. This study, with small sample size, does not show the effect of the robotics course on either logical or computational thinking.

A new network of over 72 organizations from 12 countries was activated during a convening at ARTIS in Amsterdam on 26–27 September 2022. Representatives are aligned with the transdisciplinary field and social movement of Planetary Health, which analyzes and addresses the impacts of human disruptions to natural systems on human health and all life on Earth. The new European Planetary Health Hub consists of organizations from various sectors, including universities, healthcare, youth, business, and civil society. The Convening, co-organized by the Planetary Health Alliance (PHA), the European Environment and Sustainable Development Advisory Councils Network (EEAC), and Natura Artis Magistra (ARTIS), aimed to develop Planetary Health Working Groups for Education, Policy Engagement, Research, and Movement Building. The Convening resulted in an outline for each of the Working Group’s aims, visions, missions, priorities, and activities, and set the framework for sustaining their activities in the future through the establishment of the European Planetary Health Hub Secretariat in the Netherlands. The Hub members shared lessons learned, built relationships, and developed artwork-inspired perspectives on Planetary Health. In conclusion, the Convening led to the establishment of a strong European foundation to contribute to the transformations needed for sustainable, just, and equitable societies that flourish within the limits of our ecosystems.

Various instruments for assessing metacognitive skills and strategy use exist. Off-line self-reports are questionnaires and interviews administered either before or after task performance, while on-line measures are gathered during task performance through thinking aloud or observation. Multi-method studies in reading have shown that off-line methods suffer from serious validity problems, whereas the validity of on-line methods is adequate. Little is known, however, about the validity of methods for assessing metacognition in mathematics. Five instruments were administered to 30 secondary-school students: two prospective questionnaires (MSLQ and ILS) before a mathematics task, two on-line methods (observation and thinking aloud) concurrent to the mathematics task, and a task-specific retrospective questionnaire after the mathematics task. Mathematics performance was assessed by a posttest and GPA. Results confirm that prospective questionnaires have poor convergent and predictive validity in mathematics. Although the retrospective questionnaire does slightly better than prospective questionnaires, the validity of both on-line methods stands out. It is concluded that on-line instruments should be preferred over off-line instruments for the assessment of metacognitive skillfulness in mathematics.

The shipping industry is one of the strongest anthropogenic emitters of NOx—a substance harmful both to human health and the environment. The rapid growth of the industry causes societal pressure on controlling the emission levels produced by ships. All the methods currently used for ship emission monitoring are costly and require proximity to a ship, which makes global and continuous emission monitoring impossible. A promising approach is the application of remote sensing. Studies showed that some of the NO2 plumes from individual ships can visually be distinguished using the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument on board the Copernicus Sentinel 5 Precursor (TROPOMI/S5P). To deploy a remote-sensing-based global emission monitoring system, an automated procedure for the estimation of NO2 emissions from individual ships is needed. The extremely low signal-to-noise ratio of the available data, as well as the absence of the ground truth makes the task very challenging. Here, we present a methodology for the automated segmentation of NO2 plumes produced by seagoing ships using supervised machine learning on TROPOMI/S5P data. We show that the proposed approach leads to more than a 20% increase in the average precision score in comparison to the methods used in previous studies and results in a high correlation of 0.834 with the theoretically derived ship emission proxy. This work is a crucial step towards the development of an automated procedure for global ship emission monitoring using remote sensing data.

In the Netherlands, one of the goals of the energy transition is to expand the energy neutrality of houses up to 1.5 million houses until 2030. Citizens are expected to play an important role in this process, but the implementation is hampering, as citizens do not take up this role, for example, installing solar panels. Policy documents tend to anticipate futures changes from an economic rationale, which tends to align more clearly with the anticipated futures of higher educated, financially wealthy households. So, in a broader perspective, it is unclear how the future desires and expectations of citizens are represented in policy. Often, policies focus on the implementation of best-practices, in contrast, this study investigated in the potential mismatches between futures of citizens and environmental policies. As (policy) narratives of the future are performative, excluding certain stakeholders' perceptions might lead to energy injustice and could jeopardize the implementation of the energy transition. Indeed, expectations and desires of citizens seem not to be considered as they are based on different rationales (e.g., clean, green, safe living environment). This paper aims to analyse the future “narrative mismatches” (Ottinger, 2017) in the context of the energy transition in the Netherlands. Therefore, we combine a futures perspective, which distinguishes between expected, desired, and strategic future; and an energy justice perspective as we want to analyse how different issues of energy justice are recognized in these future narratives. Our research question is “How do policy future narratives on energy relate to future narratives that are important to citizens' everyday life in the Netherlands?” A narrative approach had been chosen to conduct a comparative analysis between a set of policy documents and the narratives of 30 local citizens. We identified several future narrative mismatches, which can be distinguished in two main types: (1) opposing mismatches, where policy narratives and narratives of citizens anticipate antagonistic futures, and (2) disconnected mismatches, where the mismatch emerges because narratives do not engage with each other and focus on different issues. These mismatches of anticipated futures might create challenges for the implementation of the energy transition characterized by just decision-making and a fair distribution of burdens and benefits.

Dit artikel bespreekt recente inzichten uit onderzoek naar het gebruik van alternatieve prestatiemaatstaven. Recente studies tonen aan dat ondernemingen vooral gebruik maken van alternatieve (“non-GAAP”) winstbegrippen om te kunnen voldoen aan de vraag naar waarderelevante informatie, in plaats van om gebruikers te misleiden. Dit impliceert dat voor sommige ondernemingen de huidige prestatiemetingen niet voldoen aan de vraag van externe gebruikers. Een andere conclusie is dat de bestaande literatuur zich vooral focust op de presentatie van alternatieve winstbegrippen in plaats van maatstaven zoals (Adjusted) EBITDA en Free Cash Flow. Tevens focust de literatuur zich vooral op de VS, terwijl de verslaggeving, enforcement, en toegang tot informatie substantieel anders zijn binnen Europa. Dit biedt voldoende aanknopingspunten voor toekomstig onderzoek.

Law enforcement agencies have a restricted area in which their powers apply, which is called their jurisdiction. These restrictions also apply to the Internet. However, on the Internet, the physical borders of the jurisdiction, typically country borders, are hard to discover. In our case, it is hard to establish whether someone involved in criminal online behavior is indeed a Dutch citizen. We propose a way to overcome the arduous task of manually investigating whether a user on an Internet forum is Dutch or not. More precisely, we aim to detect that a given English text is written by a Dutch native author. To develop a detector, we follow a machine learning approach. Therefore, we need to prepare a specific training corpus. To obtain a corpus that is representative for online forums, we collected a large amount of English forum posts from Dutch and non-Dutch authors on Reddit. To learn a detection model, we used a bag-of-words representation to capture potential misspellings, grammatical errors or unusual turns of phrases that are characteristic of the mother tongue of the authors. For this learning task, we compare the linear support vector machine and regularized logistic regression using the appropriate performance metrics f1 score, precision, and average precision. Our results show logistic regression with frequency-based feature selection performs best at predicting Dutch natives. Further study should be directed to the general applicability of the results that is to find out if the developed models are applicable to other forums with comparable high performance.

Increased interest in natural antioxidants has brought to light the fucoidans (sulfated polysaccharides present in brown marine algae) as highly valued nutrients as well as effective and safe therapeutics against several diseases. Based on their satisfactory in vitro antioxidant potency, researchers have identified this molecule as an efficient remedy for neuropathological as well as metabolic disorders. Some of this therapeutic activity is accomplished by upregulation of cytoprotective molecular pathways capable of restoring the enzymatic antioxidant activity and normal mitochondrial functions. Sirtuin-3 has been discovered as a key player for achieving the neuroprotective role of fucoidan by managing these pathways, whose ultimate goal is retrieving the entirety of the antioxidant response and preventing apoptosis of neurons, thereby averting neurodegeneration and brain injuries. Another pathway whereby fucoidan exerts neuroprotective capabilities is by interactions with P-selectin on endothelial cells, thereby preventing macrophages from entering the brain proper. Furthermore, beneficial influences of fucoidan have been established in hepatocytes after xenobiotic induced liver injury by decreasing transaminase leakage and autophagy as well as obtaining optimal levels of intracellular fiber, which ultimately prevents fibrosis. The hepatoprotective role of this marine polysaccharide also includes a sirtuin, namely sirtuin-1 overexpression, which alleviates obesity and insulin resistance through suppression of hyperglycemia, reducing inflammation and stimulation of enzymatic antioxidant response. While fucoidan is very effective in animal models for brain injury and neuronal degeneration, in general, it is accepted that fucoidan shows somewhat limited potency in liver. Thus far, it has been used in large doses for treatment of acute liver injuries. Thus, it appears that further optimization of fucoidan derivatives may establish enhanced versatility for treatments of various disorders, in addition to brain injury and disease.

Neuroinflammation and cell death are among the common symptoms of many central nervous system diseases and injuries. Neuroinflammation and programmed cell death of the various cell types in the brain appear to be part of these disorders, and characteristic for each cell type, including neurons and glia cells. Concerning the effects of 18-kDa translocator protein (TSPO) on glial activation, as well as being associated with neuronal cell death, as a response mechanism to oxidative stress, the changes of its expression assayed with the aid of TSPO-specific positron emission tomography (PET) tracers’ uptake could also offer evidence for following the pathogenesis of these disorders. This could potentially increase the number of diagnostic tests to accurately establish the stadium and development of the disease in question. Nonetheless, the differences in results regarding TSPO PET signals of first and second generations of tracers measured in patients with neurological disorders versus healthy controls indicate that we still have to understand more regarding TSPO characteristics. Expanding on investigations regarding the neuroprotective and healing effects of TSPO ligands could also contribute to a better understanding of the therapeutic potential of TSPO activity for brain damage due to brain injury and disease. Studies so far have directed attention to the effects on neurons and glia, and processes, such as death, inflammation, and regeneration. It is definitely worthwhile to drive such studies forward. From recent research it also appears that TSPO ligands, such as PK11195, Etifoxine, Emapunil, and 2-Cl-MGV-1, demonstrate the potential of targeting TSPO for treatments of brain diseases and disorders.

In the last decades, students increasingly have been placed in the role of active learners with responsibilities for their own learning. Students have to be able to plan their learning activities and execute them in a systematic and orderly way and to monitor and to evaluate their learning and to reflect on it. All aforementioned skills are components of metacognitive skillfulness. The first objective was to gain insight in the development of both quantity and quality of metacognitive skills in young adolescents (aged 12-15 years). The second objective was to establish whether development of metacognitive skills is intelligence related or relatively intelligence independent. Finally, the generality vs. domain specificity of developing metacognitive skills was investigated. In a 3-year longitudinal study, participants performed two different tasks (text studying and problem solving) in two different domains (history and math), while thinking aloud. Results show that between the age of 12 and 15 years, metacognitive skills do not develop linearly or at the same pace. Furthermore, metacognitive skills contribute to learning performance, partly independent of intellectual ability. Finally, the results show that metacognitive skills appear to be predominantly general by nature over the years. Although a smaller domain-specific component was found as well in the first 2 years, this component disintegrated in the third year. The age around 15 years appears to be a relevant point in time during the developmental trajectory of metacognitive skills: Growth is (temporarily) put on hold, while the nature of these skills becomes fully general.

Objective: This study assessed which moderators influenced the effectiveness of a low-intensive behavioral teacher program for children with symptoms of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).Methods: Primary school children (N = 114) with ADHD symptoms in the classroom were randomly assigned to the intervention program (n = 58; 91% male) or control group (n = 56; 77% male). Multilevel regression analyses assessed differential treatment gains of the intervention program in terms of ADHD symptoms and social skills. Moderators included demographic characteristics (gender, age, parental educational level), severity and comorbidity of problem behavior (ADHD symptoms, conduct and internalizing problems), social functioning, and classroom variables (teaching experience, class size).Results: Results revealed larger program effects for older children and children from highly educated families and smaller beneficial effects for children with comorbid conduct or anxiety problems.Conclusion: The intervention program seems more beneficial for highly educated families and children without comorbid problem behavior, but more intensive treatments appear necessary for children facing additional challenges.ClinicalTrials.gov registration number: NCT02518711

OBJECTIVE:This meta-analysis evaluated the efficacy of behavioral classroom programs on symptoms of Attention-deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or Oppositional Defiant and/or Conduct Disorder in primary school children. METHOD:Online database searches (in PubMed, Embase, Psycinfo, and Eric) yielded nineteen randomized controlled trials (N = 18,094), comparing behavioral classroom programs (including multimodal programs involving a classroom program) to no treatment/treatment as usual. Random-effects meta-analyses were conducted for teacher-rated and classroom-observed disruptive classroom behavior and for classroom-observed on-task behavior. Post-hoc analyses investigated whether effects depended on type and severity of problem behavior. Meta-regressions studied the moderating effects of age, gender, and intervention duration. RESULTS:Small positive effects were found on teacher-rated disruptive behavior (d = -0.20) and classroom-observed on-task behavior (d = 0.39). Program effects on teacher-rated disruptive behavior were unrelated to age, gender, type and severity, but negatively associated with intervention duration (R2 = 0.43). CONCLUSION:Behavioral classroom programs have small beneficial effects on disruptive behavior and on-task behavior. Results advocate universal programs for entire classrooms to prevent and reduce disruptive classroom behavior.

Teaching and assessing metacognitive activities are important educational objectives, and teachers are calling for efficient instruments. The advantages of questionnaires in measuring metacognitive activities are obvious, but serious validity issues appear. For example, correlations of questionnaire data with think-aloud measures are generally moderate to low. An explanation may be that these questionnaires are not constructed in line with the metacognitive activities measured by the think-aloud method. In the present study, a questionnaire is constructed based directly on a taxonomy for coding think-aloud protocols. Twenty ninth-graders studied a text while thinking aloud, after which they immediately received the questionnaire. The overall correlation between the questionnaire and the think-aloud protocols (r?=?0.63) was promising. However, scale and item analyses clearly demonstrate some new validity issues. Comparing the questionnaire and the think-aloud results, the students seem to report overt metacognitive activities corresponding more with their behavior reported in the protocols than covert ones. In-depth explorations are presented.

Objective: The Positivity and Rules program (PR program), a low-level behavioral teacher program targeting symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), has shown positive effects on teacher-rated ADHD symptoms and social functioning. This study aimed to assess whether program effects could be confirmed by instruments assessing classroom behavior other than teacher-ratings, given teachers’ involvement with the training.Methods: Participants were 114 primary school children (age = 6–13) displaying ADHD symptoms in the classroom, who were randomly assigned to the treatment (n = 58) or control group (n = 65). ADHD symptoms were measured using classroom observations and actigraphy, and peer acceptance was measured using peer ratings. Intention-to-treat multilevel analyses were conducted to assess program effects.Results: No beneficial program effects were found for any of the measures.Conclusion: The earlier beneficial program effects on both ADHD symptoms and social functioning reported by teachers, may be explained by a change in the perception of teachers rather than changes in the child’s behavior. Other methodological explanations are also discussed, such as differences between instruments in the sensitivity to program-related changes. The current study underlines the importance of using different measures of classroom behavior to study program effects.ClinicalTrials.gov registration number: NCT02518711

Studies about metacognition, intelligence and learning have rendered equivocal results. The mixed model assumes joint as well as independent influences of intelligence and metacognition on learning results. In this study, intelligence was measured by standard tests for reasoning, spatial ability and memory. Participants were 13-year-old school students. Measures of metacognitive activity were gathered by analyses of thinking-aloud protocols within two task domains, i.e., history and physics. Prior knowledge and learning results were measured by tests constructed by the researchers. The results showed that metacognitive activity did not relate to learning results in either task domain. For history, the learning result was only determined by prior knowledge. For physics, intelligence influenced the learning result via prior knowledge, but the effect of execution activity, i.e., exercise, appeared more important. It is possible that "learning by doing", i.e., exercise, is a powerful mean for promoting the application of knowledge in physics. (Contains 5 tables and 4 figures.)

This article seeks to provide patterns of how transnational communication may lead to domestic policy learning. Existing theories of policy learning, policy diffusion and policy convergence assume that transnational communication may lead to domestic policy learning and policy change, but do not suggest general, empirically investigated patterns. Two case studies on the policy of noise abatement around airports and the policy of contaminated land show that different venues in which transnational communication takes place may induce different types of policy change at the national level.

Metacognitive skills regulate and control learning processes. A developmental study (Van der Stel & Veenman, 2014) revealed that metacognitive growth is interrupted at the age of 14-15 years, while metacognitive skills are generalized over tasks and domains at the same time. The present study seeks to confirm this pause or decline in metacognitive growth, however, with a gender-age interaction. Females are expected to run one year ahead of males in metacognitive development. Additionally, the usefulness of computer-logfile analysis as an unobtrusive method for assessing metacognitive development is investigated. A hundred and nineteen secondary-school students (66 male; 53 female) at the age of 13 to 16 years performed a computerized inductive-learning task. Traces of learner activities were stored in logfiles and automatically scored on metacognitive skills. Afterwards, participants completed a learning posttest. Results substantiate the expected gender-age interaction in the metacognition data. Females started low at 14 years, recovered at 15 years, and peaked at 16 years, whereas males started positive at 14 years, declined at 15 years, and recovered at 16 years. Posttest data show a significant effect of age with improved learning performance at 16 years. Implications for the study of metacognitive development are discussed.

This study shows the results of a two-year longitudinal study where the same participants were followed for two consecutive years as they enter secondary school (aged 12-14 years). The main issue was to investigate the development of both the quantity and the quality of metacognitive skills. Another issue was to establish whether the development of metacognitive skillfulness is intelligence-related or relatively intelligence-independent. Finally, the generality vs. domain-specificity of developing metacognitive skillfulness was investigated. Thirty-two secondary school students participated in this study. While thinking aloud they performed two different tasks representing two different domains: A text-studying task for history and a problem-solving task for math. Participants' intellectual ability, metacognitive skillfulness and learning performance were assessed. Results show a quantitative as well as a qualitative growth in metacognitive skillfulness. Furthermore, results of both years show that metacognitive skillfulness contributed to learning performance (partly) independent of intellectual ability. A parallel development of metacognitive and intellectual ability was found. Finally, metacognitive skills predominantly appear to be general. Domain-specific metacognitive skills, however, played a substantial, but minor role as well in both years. Instructional implications are being discussed. (Contains 5 tables.)

In this study, the implementation effects of a staff development program on cooperative learning (CL) for Dutch elementary school teachers were studied. A pre-test-post-test non-equivalent control group design was used to investigate program effects on the instructional behaviours of teachers. Based on observations of teacher behaviour during cooperative lessons, a statistically significant treatment effect was found for the following instructional behaviours: structuring positive interdependence, individual accountability, social skills and evaluation of the group process. Training effects were also found for the combination of CL with the model of direct instruction and the activation of prior knowledge of social skills. Moreover, teachers in the experimental group scored statistically significantly higher than the teachers in the control group on the activation of prior academic knowledge. (Contains 6 tables and 1 note.)

The first objective of this study was to establish the relation between intellectual ability and metacognitive skillfulness as predictors of learning performance in young students (aged 12 years). Furthermore, the generality vs. domain-specificity of metacognitive skillfulness was investigated. Thirty-two first-year secondary-school students participated in this study. While thinking aloud they performed two different tasks representing two different domains: A text-studying task for history and a problem-solving task for mathematics. Participants' intelligence, metacognitive skillfulness and learning performance were assessed. Results show that metacognitive skillfulness contributed to learning performance (partly) independent of intellectual ability. Results also show that metacognitive skills predominantly appear to be general. Domain-specific metacognitive skills, however, played a substantial, but minor role as well.

The authors addressed the following research question: Does composition of dyads in terms of gender and ability affect student participation, the level of cognitive elaborations during a collaborative activity, and individual student achievement? The study involved 24 6th-grade dyads paired as follows: a low-ability student with a medium-ability student; and a medium-ability student with a high-ability student. Results of a follow-up balance beam test showed students with the highest level of ability in the dyad demonstrated more cognitive elaborations and performed better than did students with the lowest level of ability in the dyad. That is, medium-ability students benefited more from the collaboration with low-ability students than from the collaboration with high-ability students. (Contains 5 tables.)

Three models representing different relations between intellectual ability, metacognitive skills, and learning were compared. The conditions under which each of these models holds were investigated, on the basis of the threshold of problematicity theory [Elshout, J. J. (1987). Problem solving and education. In E. De Corte, H. Lodewijks, R. Parmentier, & P. Span (Eds.), "Learning and instruction" (pp. 259-273). Oxford/Leuven: Pergamon Books/University Press]. Novice and advanced learners (N = 44) passed through a computer-simulated inductive-learning environment of different complexity levels. Results show that correlational patterns between intellectual ability, metacognitive skilfulness, and learning outcomes of novice learners at the easy level were similar to the patterns of advanced learners at the intermediate level. Metacognitive skilfulness rather than intellectual ability appears essential for learning when learners operate at the boundary of their knowledge.

This article describes the construction of a hierarchical taxonomy of metacognitive activities for the interpretation of thinking-aloud protocols of students in secondary education, who studied texts on history and physics. After testing an initial elaborate taxonomy on a restricted number of protocols by multiple raters, it appeared that the interrater correspondence was well below par. The categories in the taxonomy were too highly specified. Categories were combined and tested on new protocols in a cyclic fashion. The revised taxonomy was then used for coding 16 history protocols and 16 physics protocols. Frequencies of occurrence of metacognitive activities were obtained, as well as judgements of the quality of the metacognitive activities of the participants. There is a reasonable correlation between the frequency method and the quality method for coding thinking-aloud protocols. Also, there is a substantial covariation of the number of metacognitive activities across both tasks. (Contains 2 tables and 6 figures.)

The first objective of this study was establishing to what extent meta-cognitive skill is associated with intelligence. As a second objective, the impact of hints on the execution of meta cognitive skills was investigated. Both issues have major implications for the training and transferability of meta-cognitive skills during performance on a representative school task. First, a standardized intelligence-test was administered to a group of first-year secondary-school students. Next, these students solved six math word problems, three without meta-cognitive hints and three including these hints. Meta-cognitive skillfulness was assessed through systematical observation, while learning performance consisted of performance on a math task and grade point average (GPA). Results show that without hints meta cognitive skillfulness is the main predictor of initial learning, while intelligence additionally enters the regression equation after the presentation of meta-cognitive hints. GPA also appears to be predicted by a combination of intellectual and meta-cognitive skills. Consequences for the early acquisition of meta-cognitive skills are discussed.

In this study, the effects of a teacher-training program on the elaborations and affective-motivational resources (i.e., intentions and attitudes toward help seeking, help giving, and achievement goals) of students working on a cooperative task were examined. Participants were teachers from seven primary schools and 24 dyads of sixth-grade students. In general, the program showed moderately positive effects on use of elaborations among the treatment dyads. Dyads with experience in cooperative learning achieved more than dyads without such experience. Mastery- and performance-oriented goals were negatively related to use of high-level elaborations and to student achievement, while use of high-level elaborations was positively related to student achievement. (Contains 7 tables and 3 figures.)

The first objective of this study was establishing to what extent the development of metacognitive skills is associated with intellectual growth. As a second objective, the generality vs. domain specificity of metacognitive skills was investigated across age groups. A standardized intelligence test was administered to a group of first-year and third-year secondary-school students. Students in random order solved six math word problems while thinking aloud and performed an inductive-learning task in the domain of biology. Metacognitive skillfulness was assessed through systematic observation and computer log-files, while learning performance was measured by performance on the math task and a biology questionnaire. Results show that metacognitive skillfulness develops alongside, but not fully dependent on intellectual ability. Moreover, metacognitive skillfulness outweighs intelligence as predictor of learning performance. Finally, metacognitive skills appear to be general for third-year students, but rather domain-specific for first-year students. Consequences for the early acquisition of metacognitive skills are discussed.

This study investigated the nature of the relation between intelligence and metacognitive skillfulness as predictors of novice learning from text studying. Additionally, effects of text difficulty and time constraint were examined. The intelligence of 46 social-sciences students was assessed before studying two texts on different topics. Half of the participants studied the difficult text under time pressure, while the other half did so for the easy text. Metacognition was scored from thinking-aloud protocols. Results show that metacognition, although correlated to intelligence, also uniquely contributed to comprehension of both texts. Time constraint on studying a difficult text impaired text comprehension.

In this study, the effects of a school improvement program on cooperative learning (CL) with respect to the elaborations of 6th grade students working in mixed ability and mixed sex dyads on 2 cooperative tasks were examined. A post test only design with a control group was used to investigate the provision and receipt of elaborations within the dyads and the performance of the dyads working on cooperative mathematics and language tasks. Treatment dyads were found to exchange significantly more high level elaborations during the language task than the control dyads. The treatment dyads also tended to produce higher performance scores on the 2 tasks. The present study borrows from the Piagetian and Vygotskian perspectives on development stressing the importance of social interaction for learning based on the active reconciliation of different perspectives within the cooperative group and the importance of studying learning as a social process. From the cognitive elaboration perspectives of Webb and Farivar (1999) and King (1999), it borrows the view that students in small groups have to verbalize their inner thoughts and learn more by providing elaborated help and learn less by receiving less elaborated help. In the present study, the effects of a CL school improvement program on the interactions of students working in dyads were examined. The program was aimed at guiding the teachers in the development of the instructional behaviors necessary to conduct a cooperative lesson. It is assumed that the program should not only affect the instructional behaviors of the teachers but also the quality of the student interactions while working in small groups.