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No higher-order skill will be more important for pupils to develop in the twenty-first century than critical thinking. Schools should integrate it into their curricula, thereby allowing students to acquire new skills in preparation for a dynamic and rapidly changing labour market. Educators, psychologists, and philosophers agree on the importance of critical thinking, but there is a lack of agreement on what the concept entails and on how it should be taught. It is against this background that the present study examines primary-school teachers' perceptions of teaching strategies aimed at stimulating pupils' core critical-thinking skills. Twenty-one teachers working in European Schools in Brussels were questioned by means of semi-structured interviews, and the results showed the importance of group discussion, cooperative learning, brainstorming, and debate to teaching practice aimed at promoting critical thinking. This research contributes to defining a framework in innovative teaching methods for promoting critical thinking.

The literature strongly emphasises the importance of constructive relationships between parents and their children's caregivers. However, minimal empirical research has investigated relationships between language minority parents and caregivers in childcare. This large-scale study seeks to fill this gap by exploring the quality of the language minority parent-caregiver relationship with a focus on the child's multilingual upbringing. Therefore, three domains that reflect the quality of parent-caregiver relationships were assessed: (1) interpersonal connections, (2) home-childcare continuity, and (3) language and multilingual upbringing advice parents receive from caregivers. The sample consists of 404 language minority parents, recruited from 85 childcare facilities (0-3 years). Results indicate that most parents reported positive relationships with their child's caregiver with respect to interpersonal characteristics (communication and trust). In contrast, parents responded less favorably regarding issues pertaining to their language expectations, including whether multilingual upbringing advice, either solicited or unsolicited, was discussed. While language advice was not frequently given, when it was given, multilingual advice was more prevalent than monolingual advice, and one-parent one-language (OPOL) advice was common. Practical and policy implications are discussed.

Teachers have a key role in promoting Critical Thinking (CT). However, research on appropriate teaching methods for developing CT is scarce in primary education. This study investigated how CT can be fostered among pupils based on teachers' perceptions of the characteristics that promote CT and create obstacles in primary schools. We interviewed 21 schoolteachers, from 14 EU nationalities, in three European Schools in Brussels (Belgium). The results provide insights on inquiry teaching approach, flexible and structured learning space, a mutual trust relationship in the classroom environment. This research contributes to inform stakeholders on effective CT teaching methods in primary education.

Research indicated overwhelmingly the desirability of self-regulated learning (SRL) in elementary education and the role of teachers therein. Specifically, revealing correlates of teachers' engagement in SRL classroom activities is desirable. The study's main aim is to identify teacher and school mechanisms that facilitate or impede elementary teachers in introducing SRL practices. Teacher-reported data from 591 teachers were used in a multilevel random-effects model in order to consider the clustered structure of teachers within schools. The model was built in four steps mapping the role of different teacher and school mechanisms. Results indicate teacher-level components to be most important. Teachers' developmental beliefs about education, their orientation towards SRL in elementary education, and the nature of previous experiences with autonomous learning, significantly correlate with teachers' self-reported SRL promotion. However, a small proportion is still related to school differences. Only school policy concerning SRL was identified as a significant correlate of SRL promotion.

This study aims to explore the existence and extent of social media visions, policies and guidelines in high schools in Flanders (Belgium, Europe) and how these policies are embedded in the schools. The research findings are based on qualitative data collected in 47 high schools. Next to an in-depth document analysis of all available school regulations, semi-structured interviews were carried out with school staff appointed to social media affairs. Results show a wide variety of guidelines amongst schools. In addition, schools often experience struggles in determining their position within the social media debate. Defining the school's role in when and how to intervene against the use of and problems with social media appears to be difficult. In conclusion, this study provides input for the design of more coherent school policy decisions facilitative to social media' use and consequently, contributing to the wellbeing of both students and teachers in high schools.

Parents play an important part in adolescents' life and significantly contribute to youngsters' academic success. However, parents' and students' perceptions regarding parental involvement may differ and how these perceptions are related to school achievement and wellbeing have been poorly researched. Therefore, self-report measures assessing students' and parents' perceptions of parental involvement were completed, using a sample of 5003 7th grade students and their parents. The results indicate parallels between parent and student perceptions. However, parents indicate a higher extent of parental involvement compared to students. According to students, parents focus on monitoring grades, whereas parents display the highest scores for interest in school and learning. Parental involvement seems to impact student achievement and wellbeing. Nevertheless, effects are small, and the effects of socio-demographic variables overrule these effects. These results give insight in different perceptions on parental involvement and underpin the importance of middle school students as active participants in learning.

Both parental involvement and self-regulated learning are important predictors of students' study success. However, previous research on self-regulated learning has focused instead on the school environment and has not focused on the home situation. In particular, investigations into the role of parents in self-regulated learning when children enter middle school have been limited. The present study examined the relationship among students' perceptions of parental involvement, their self-regulated learning and school achievement in the first year of middle school. Survey data from 5939 Flemish students were processed using mediation analyses and revealed that students' perceptions of parental involvement in school work was associated with students' self-regulated learning and their school achievement. Moreover, how students perceived parental involvement was associated with students' achievement through the self-regulated learning factors. These results underpin the importance of parents in education at the middle-school age. Schools should be aware of this and enhance parents' educational involvement and the stimulation of self-regulated learning in the home environment.

The present study investigated the effect of descriptive and injunctive norms of peers, parents, and favorite celebrities on adolescents' negative online behavior toward celebrities. The sample consisted of 1,255 adolescents ([X-bar][subscript age] = 14.17, SD = 0.47). Adolescents indicated what their peers, parents, and favorite celebrities think of celebrity bashing (injunctive norms) and whether they engage in it (descriptive norms). The adolescents also indicated how often they had participated in negative online behavior toward celebrities and peers. The results revealed that compared with injunctive norms, descriptive norms are better predictors of adolescents' negative online behavior toward celebrities. Focusing on the different role models, the impact of peers was the strongest for both mild and severe forms of celebrity aggression. Moreover, the results showed that adolescents who engage in negative online behavior directed at celebrities are likely to do the same regarding peers.

This study examines the role of social networking sites on the learning processes, teaching practices and professional development of secondary school teachers. By conducting observations and in-depth interviews with active participants, we present an ethnographic study of the "Facebook" group "Teaching ideas secondary education" [author's translation], which is hosted and primarily employed by Flemish teachers. By drawing parallels between the study findings and the theory of "affinity spaces" we aim to gain greater insight into emerging group dynamics and social informal learning processes. According to respondents, the "Facebook" group has the potential to address teachers' needs with respect to the exchange of teaching ideas, experiences and materials. The findings point to a number of emerging developments in the educational landscape, highlighting that social media environments present a new source of inspiration, and combined with a collaborative atmosphere are able to stimulate cross-fertilization, social informal learning processes and self-management and -reflection. We hold these findings up to the light of current education discourses.

A challenge in designing tests is ensuring fairness for all test takers. Pupils who are not yet sufficiently proficient in the language of schooling taking a test that was designed for native speakers is unfair, since they will not be able to demonstrate their true abilities (Abedi, J., and C. Lord. 2001. "The Language Factor in Mathematics Tests." Applied Measurement in Education 14 (3): 219-234.). Multilingual pupils should be provided with accommodations to overcome these challenges but most studies on assessment accommodations for multilingual pupils focus on effectiveness and validity, rather than on fairness (Li, H., and H. K. Suen. 2012. "Are test accommodations for English language learners fair?" Language Assessment Quarterly 9 (3): 293-309). This study fills a gap in current research by viewing accommodation practices through an insiders' lens. Pupils (n = 35) in the fifth grade of primary education were interviewed about a hypothetical test situation which displayed a range of accommodations. Pupils interpret the benefits of accommodations as leading towards more inclusion, as contributing to better understanding, and as increasing learning of both L1 and L2. Results contribute to the fairness debate on which pupils should be given accommodations and who should not.

One of the greatest assessment challenges is providing fair and valid tests for multilingual pupils. Since language proficiency impacts their results on content tests, accommodations are suggested to help in solving the validity issues. In this mixed methods study on multilingual assessment, pupils were divided according to three testing conditions: one with the written science test in the language of instruction (LOI = Dutch); a second one in which pupils received a bilingual test in the LOI and a written translation in their first language (L1); and a third bilingual condition with added audio support in both languages. For each condition pupils were interviewed about their testing experience, including their decisions (not) to make use of particular accommodations. Results indicate that pupils perceived the accommodations as helpful. The strategies they used depend on personal preferences, language proficiency in both languages, the content attended to and the complexity of the test item. This study illustrates pupils' dynamic use of accommodations in relation to their linguistic repertoires.

Across Europe we can observe the reinforcement of monolingual education policies, despite increasing multilingualism. Recent research has shown that the emphasis is on language proficiency in the socially dominant language. This is viewed as the key to educational success. The use of other languages or linguistic repertoires is not valued in educational policies, nor in educational practices. These monolingual policies and practices affect the assessment of pupils' (language) proficiencies and practices. Pupils who do not (solely) speak the school language at home also take content-related tests in e.g. mathematics or science in a language they are often not yet familiar with. In this paper, we discuss why and how this imposes limitations on test results and may result in unfair disadvantage. We first present alternative ways of assessing multilingual pupils for purposes of large-scale testing which can be explored in future research. Second, we focus on the potential of classroom-based and learner-oriented multilingual assessment. We conclude the paper by introducing the concept of Functional Multilingual Assessment For Learning and argue that this can be a powerful means to overcome some of the limitations in the assessment of multilingual pupils who are still in the process of learning the language of instruction.

The present study describes the development and psychometric properties of the Self-Regulated Learning Teacher Belief Scale (SRLTB). The SRLTB is a self-report teacher scale with 10 items assessing teachers' beliefs about introducing self-regulated learning (SRL) in primary education. The process of item and scale development as well as testing and scale refinement procedure is presented. An explorative study (n=399) revealed a one-factor structure representing adherence of teachers for SRL in primary school. Next, Rasch analysis revealed good fit of the scale to the unidimensional continuum model. In a following study (n=553), construct validity of the SRLTB was confirmed. Finally, implications and limitations of the SRLTB for studying SRL are discussed. In general, the SRLTB appears to be a useful instrument for examining teacher beliefs about self-regulated learning practices in primary schools. (Contains 2 figures and 3 tables.)

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Highlights: [•] Diversity-disturbance response depends on environmental changes. [•] Attraction of fine sediment species due to sediment refinement caused by the impact. [•] Local increase of biodiversity in impacted area. [•] Shift towards heterogenic, dynamic transitional assemblages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Piglet coccidiosis caused by Cystoisospora suis is one of the most important causes of diarrhea in suckling piglets. The parasite has a fast development and multiplies quickly and effectively under the conditions of a farrowing unit. Control measures include cleaning and disinfection and anticoccidial treatment. In Europe, toltrazuril-based products are authorized for this purpose and are applied to piglets on affected farms in the first week of life. To observe the effect of treatment and disinfection on the control of piglet coccidiosis in the field, 23 farms (11 from Belgium, 12 from the Netherlands, mean number of sows = 1413) were sampled twice by litter in the second and third week of life and fecal scores and the presence of C. suis oocysts were determined. A questionnaire was used to collect data on farm sizes, management and hygiene measures as well as treatment (product, dose and piglet age). Thirteen farms regularly treated with toltrazuril (treatment age: 1-6 days, mean 4.3 days) and 19 applied disinfection. Parasite excretion was documented on 60.9% and diarrhea on 78.3% of farms and in 34.3%/15.7% of the litters. Only 2.4% of the litters showed both, so subclinical infection appeared to be common. No significant differences between farms that did not treat against coccidiosis and farms that applied toltrazuril was observed with regard to C. suis oocysts shedding and/or diarrhea. However, in litters that were treated within the first three days of life, oocyst excretion was significantly less often observed than in litters with later treatment (p = 0.033). No significant effect of disinfection could be shown, but most farms applied disinfectants that have no proven effect against coccidia (oxygen-releasing agents or glutaraldehyde + ammonia) while the only farm that used chlorocresols (which are effective against coccidia) did not show oocyst shedding. Current control measures thus appear to be insufficient on most of the examined farms. It is therefore recommended to treat piglets timely and to apply effective disinfectants to reduce C. suis infections. Furthermore, regular evaluation of sustained efficacy of all implemented measures are necessary., (Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

As infants with proven viral infection present lower risk of bacterial infection, we evaluated how molecular methods detecting viruses on respiratory secretions could contribute to etiological diagnostic of these febrile episodes. From November 2010 to May 2011, we enrolled all febrile infants <90 days presenting to emergency room. Standard workup included viral rapid antigenic test and viral culture on nasopharyngeal aspirate. Samples negative by rapid testing were tested by molecular methods. From 208 febrile episodes (198 infants) with standard techniques, rate of documented microbiological etiology was 13% at emergency department, 47% during hospitalization, and 64% with viral cultures. Molecular methods increased microbiologically documented etiology rate by 12%, to 76%. Contribution of molecular methods was the highest in infants without clinical source of infection, increasing documentation by 18%, from 50% to 68%. Making viral molecular results rapidly available could help identifying a higher proportion of infants at low risk of serious bacterial infection.

Recent legislation has addressed the unavoidable carry-over of coccidiostats and histomonostats in feed, which may lead to the presence of residues of these compounds in eggs. In this study, laying hens received cross-contaminated feed at a ratio of 2.5%, 5% and 10% of the therapeutic dose of monensin and lasalocid for broilers. The eggs were collected during the treatment and depletion period and were analysed using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. The different egg matrices were separated and analysed during the plateau phase. High lasalocid concentrations, which exceeded the maximum residue level, and low monensin concentrations were found in whole egg. Plateau levels were reached at days 7-9 for lasalocid and at days 3-5 for monensin. For lasalocid, the highest concentrations were measured in egg yolk; residue concentrations in egg white were very low.