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The goal of the study was to deliver and validate a new solution-focused instrument, the Focus Skills Questionnaire (FSQ), to assess the degree of executive functioning skills in the school context, for three different education levels (elementary, secondary, and tertiary education) and informant groups (students, teachers and parents) on a sample of 1109 students from Dutch and Belgian schools. The factor structure was evaluated by confirmative factor analysis (CFA) and the study examined how students' self-reports of executive functioning skills related to outcomes of neuro-psychological tests of executive functions (EF). The CFA results showed a parsimonious model with a four-factor structure of the FSQ that was equivalent for all education levels and informant groups, but that does not correspond with the generally assumed executive functioning factors. There are differences in the perception of executive functioning skills by different informant groups and also differences per education level. Student perceptions of executive functioning skills do not correspond with EF test outcomes and in some subgroups clearly diverge from teacher or parent perceptions of the students' executive functioning skills. Although the new instrument does not converge with laboratory assessments of EF's, the new instrument could be useful in everyday school practice.

This study investigated the development of divergent thinking (DT) in early childhood. We followed 107 4-year-olds for 1.5 years. Children's DT was assessed with the Alternative Uses Task (AUT) every 6 months, four times in total. Within the AUT, children were asked to generate unusual uses of common objects while explaining how they came up with these uses. Based on the generated uses, two product measures were computed: fluency and originality. We also applied process measures to gain insight into the thinking processes children used to come up with uses. Based on the coded data of children's verbal explanations of how they generated uses, two process measures were computed: memory retrieval (retrieving uses from episodic and semantic long-term memory) and mental operations (performing mental operations on the object to generate a use). The results revealed substantial growth in fluency and originality with age. The frequencies of occurrence of both memory retrieval and mental operations also increased with age. In line with previous findings, this longitudinal study shows that creativity develops throughout early childhood. Moreover, this study adds to the current knowledge base by providing researchers a first glance at the development of thinking processes underlying DT in this age range.

Purpose: Worldwide, schools implement social-emotional learning programs to enhance students' social-emotional skills. Although parents play an essential role in teaching these skills, knowledge about their perspectives on social-emotional learning is limited. In providing insight into the perspectives of parents from adolescent students this paper adds to this knowledge. Design/methodology/approach: An explorative qualitative study was conducted to gain insight into parents' perspectives (N = 32) on adolescent social-emotional learning. A broadly used professional framework for social emotional learning was used as a frame of reference in interviews with parents from diverse backgrounds. Within and across case analyses were applied to analyze the interviews. Findings: A conceptual model of four social-emotional skills constructs considered crucial learning by parents emerged from the data: respectful behavior, cooperation, self-knowledge and self-reliance. Parents' language, interpretations and orderings of skills indicate that the model underlying these constructs differs from skills embedded in the professional framework. Research limitations/implications: Participants were small in number and mainly female. Therefore, more research is necessary to test the model in other parent populations. Practical implications: The social-emotional skills students in prevocational secondary education learn at home differ from those targeted in SEL programs. Engaging students' parents in SEL program implementation is indicated to align the skills taught at home and school. Preparing teachers to implement such programs requires training them on engaging parents from diverse backgrounds. Originality/value: The study is one of the first providing insight into parents' perspectives on SEL, the social-emotional skills deemed crucial to master for adolescents, and the roles they view for themselves and school on teaching these skills.

Through a basic qualitative approach, this study examined the insights and experiences of elementary principals and teacher motivation. This research was completed in private international schools in Europe where the language of instruction is English. Self-determination theory was the theoretical basis for this examination of teacher motivation. Data were collected through nine interviews and one focus group with elementary principals. Evidence from this study shows that principals have a critical role in supporting and increasing teacher motivation in their schools and providing teachers with autonomy, a sense of competence, and professional and personal support to support teacher motivation. Additionally, the researcher provides specific recommendations that practicing educational leaders can implement in their schools.

This study examined the unfolding in real time of original ideas during divergent thinking (DT) in five- to six-year-olds and related individual differences in DT to executive functions (EFs). The Alternative Uses Task was administered with verbal prompts that encouraged children to report on their thinking processes while generating uses for daily objects. In addition to coding the originality of each use, the domain-specific DT processes memory retrieval and mental operations were coded from children's explanations. Six EF tasks were administered and combined into composites to measure working memory, shifting, inhibition, and selective attention. The results replicated findings of a previous study with the same children but at age four years: (1) there was a serial order effect of the originality of uses; and (2) the process mental operations predicted the originality of uses. Next, the results revealed that both domain-general EFs and domain-specific executive processes played a role in the real-time unfolding of original ideas during DT. Particularly, the DT process mental operations was positively related to the early generation of original ideas, while selective attention was negatively related to the later generation of original ideas. These findings deepen our understanding of how controlled executive processes operate during DT.

This article looks at how membership of a community impacts learning for individuals. Community membership and learning have received much attention from scholars and practitioners alike (for example, in Wolfensberger, 2012; Inkelas, Jessup-Anger, Wawrzynski, & Benjamin, 2007; Wenger, 1998). Specifically, many studies have focused on learning communities and how membership in such a community can help individual learners achieve what they are pursuing (Gabelnick et al., 1990). Using Communities-of-Practice (CoP) theory (Lave & Wenger 1991; Wenger, 1998) as a theoretical background, this study sought to understand the perceived impact of community membership on learning. The ultimate goal is to put the benefits and drawbacks of this membership in the perspective of a close-knit group of students who exist within a large school community. This study has several objectives: (1) to understand the role of the community in learning for individual members; (2) to enhance student learning that is facilitated through the presence of a community of practice; and (3) to establish how a CoP can create a conducive learning environment for community members. This research article seeks to understand how community membership impacts learning through the perceptions of community members themselves. A questionnaire was sent out to 50 honours students (in the cohort 2016-2018), whereby 28 questionnaires were returned. The results show that community members experience a safe and supportive environment for their learning. The community can also be an exclusion factor from other communities, which can be counterproductive in learning. The implications of these results are discussed, and suggestions are given for school administrators who would like to use a community in enhancing learning.

In March 2020, many schools worldwide were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This closure confronted mathematics teachers with the challenging transition to emergency remote teaching (ERT). How did students experience ERT, and how did these experiences relate to context variables and to their teachers' beliefs and practices? In particular, what didactic approaches and formative assessment practices did secondary mathematics students experience, and which beliefs did they hold concerning digital mathematics education? How were these student experiences and beliefs related to student context variables (gender, need to support family, personal home equipment), teacher beliefs, delivery modes, and student appreciation of mathematics? To investigate these issues, we set out online questionnaires for mathematics teachers and their students in Flanders--the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium--, Germany, and the Netherlands. Data consisted of completed questionnaires by 323 mathematics teachers and 2126 of their students. Results show that even though students preferred regular face-to-face teaching, they were content with the quality of their teachers' distance mathematics teaching. Students reported that they were taught new topics often, but did not experience teachers initiating peer feedback. High student appreciation of mathematics, good home environment, and more synchronous delivery of ERT were related to ERT experiences and more positive beliefs concerning digital mathematics education. These findings have implications for ERT teaching strategies in future, as well as for hybrid teaching practices.

Background: Evidence-based recommendations for a core outcome set (COS; minimum set of outcomes) for aphasia treatment research have been developed (the Research Outcome Measurement in Aphasia--ROMA, COS). Five recommended core outcome constructs: communication, language, quality of life, emotional well-being and patient-reported satisfaction/impact of treatment, were identified through three international consensus studies. Constructs were paired with outcome measurement instruments (OMIs) during an international consensus meeting (ROMA-1). Before the current study (ROMA-2), agreement had not been reached on OMIs for the constructs of communication or patient-reported satisfaction/impact of treatment. Aim: To establish consensus on a communication OMI for inclusion in the ROMA COS. Methods & Procedures: Research methods were based on recommendations from the Core Outcome Measures in Effectiveness Trials (COMET) Initiative. Participants with expertise in design and conduct of aphasia trials, measurement instrument development/testing and/or communication outcome measurement were recruited through an open call. Before the consensus meeting, participants agreed on a definition of communication, identified appropriate OMIs, extracted their measurement properties and established criteria for their quality assessment. During the consensus meeting they short-listed OMIs and participants without conflicts of interest voted on the two most highly ranked instruments. Consensus was defined a priori as agreement by [greater than or equal to] 70% of participants. Outcomes & Results: In total, 40 researchers from nine countries participated in ROMA-2 (including four facilitators and three-panel members who participated in pre-meeting activities only). A total of 20 OMIs were identified and evaluated. Eight short-listed communication measures were further evaluated for their measurement properties and ranked. Participants in the consensus meeting (n = 33) who did not have conflicts of interest (n = 29) voted on the top two ranked OMIs: The Scenario Test (TST) and the Communication Activities of Daily Living--3 (CADL-3). TST received 72% (n = 21) of 'yes' votes and the CADL-3 received 28% (n = 8) of 'yes' votes. Conclusions & Implications: Consensus was achieved that TST was the preferred communication OMI for inclusion in the ROMA COS. It is currently available in the original Dutch version and has been adapted into English, German and Greek. Further consideration must be given to the best way to measure communication in people with mild aphasia. Development of a patient-reported measure for satisfaction with/impact of treatment and multilingual versions of all OMIs of the COS is still required. Implementation of the ROMA COS would improve research outcome measurement and the quality, relevance, transparency, replicability and efficiency of aphasia treatment research.

The present study aims to provide a systematic understanding of how perspective-taking ability contributes to primary-school students' cooperative behaviours and learning outcomes. The present study is frontline as we combined person-oriented (e.g., describing patterns of behaviours based on individual characteristics), process-oriented (e.g., examining factors affecting the quality of cooperative behaviours), and effect-oriented (e.g., examining the effect of cooperative learning on individual learning outcomes) analytical approaches within one research framework. In addition, we adhered to the multi-dimensional nature of perspective-taking ability and differentiated between social and cognitive perspective-taking ability while taking into account the contribution of perspective-taking ability at both the individual level and group level (i.e., heterogeneous and homogeneous perspective-taking ability groups) to cooperative behaviour profiles and learning outcomes of primary-school children. Based on transcribed episodes of interaction of 115 fifth-grade students, four different profiles of cooperative behaviours were discerned: captains, hard workers, switchers, and passive participants. We found that these profiles are related to perspective taking conceptualized at the group level, but not to individual-level perspective-taking ability. Profile membership, cognitive perspective-taking ability, and group-level perspective-taking ability could not predict students' learning outcomes. Social perspective-taking ability and reading comprehension did positively predict learning outcomes. Our findings add to existing knowledge as they suggest that the influence of perspective-taking ability on cooperative behaviours and learning outcomes is susceptible to the conceptualization (i.e., cognitive vs. social) and measurement level (i.e., individual vs. group level) of perspective-taking ability.

Taking a perception-action perspective, we investigated how the presence of different real objects in children's immediate situation affected their creativity and whether this effect was moderated by their selective attention. Seventy children between ages 9 and 12 years old participated. Verbal responses on a visual Alternative Uses Task with a low stimulus and high stimulus condition were coded on fluency, flexibility, and originality. Selective attention was measured with a visual search task. Results showed that fluency was not affected by stimulus condition and was unrelated to selective attention. Flexibility was positively associated with selective attention. Originality, net of fluency and flexibility, showed a main effect of stimulus condition in an unexpected direction, as children gave more original responses in the low stimulus condition compared to the high stimulus condition. A significant moderation effect revealed that children with better selective attention skills benefitted from a low stimulus environment, whereas children with weaker selective attention performed better in a high stimulus environment. The findings demonstrate differential effects of the immediate situation and selective attention, and support the hypothesis that creativity is impacted by immediate situation and selective attention, yet in unexpected ways.

In history education, the deconstruction of narratives is an important skill for students. The skill teaches them to look critically at the offered texts. In this study, we investigated the extent to which students are able to critically analyse the narratives in their history textbooks. To answer this question, we asked 106 students in pre-university education (16-17 years of age) to read and compare two texts -- from two different textbooks -- about a turning point in the development of the Dutch state and democracy: the introduction of universal suffrage for men and women in 1917-19. One group of students (N=10) worked on the assignment while thinking aloud. We found that most students recognized the author's voice in the selection of persons and dates and in the attention paid to a particular topic, but that they hardly mentioned recognizing the voice in aspects such as the choice of words or headings. The students who analysed and compared the texts while thinking aloud all indicated after the assignment that they understood that these texts are different interpretations of the same historical development.

People read for many different reasons. These goals affect the cognitive processes and strategies they use during reading. Understanding "how" reading goals exert their effects requires investigation of whether and how they affect specific component processes, such as validation. We investigated the effects of reading goal on text-based and knowledge-based validation processes during reading and on the resulting offline mental representation. We employed a self-paced sentence-by-sentence contradiction paradigm with versions of texts containing target sentences that varied systematically in congruency with prior text and accuracy with background knowledge. Participants were instructed to read for general comprehension or for study. Memory for text information was assessed the next day. We also measured the degree to which each text topic was novel to a reader, as well as his or her working memory capacity. Results show that reading goals affect readers' general processing as indicated by overall reading times, but provide no evidence that they influence validation processes. Reading goals did affect readers' memory for target information but this effect depended on congruency between that information and the preceding text: Reading for study generally resulted in better memory for target information than reading for comprehension did, but not for target information that was incongruent with prior text. These results suggest that reading goals may not influence validation processes directly but affect subsequent representation-building processes after the detection of an (in)consistency--particularly in the case of incongruencies with prior text.

Academic self-efficacy, self-esteem, and grit (i.e., perseverance of effort and consistency of interests) have all separately shown to predict academic success within traditional education. In higher online education, information on these relationships is lacking, while this group of learners is growing in size and importance. We therefore investigated the total as well as the unique predictive value of academic self-efficacy, self-esteem, and grit on academic success in higher online education. Moreover, mediation effects were investigated. Students of a higher online education university in the Netherlands participated (N = 2027, age 18-80 years) in this observational study. Participants filled out online questionnaires on the variables of interest and potential confounding variables at baseline. Academic success was measured objectively through information provided by the exam registration office and operationalized in three variables: exam attempt, study progress, and academic performance. Logistic regression analyses showed that consistency of interests significantly predicted exam attempt (B = .43, p < 0.001). Generalized multiple linear regression analyses with negative binomial distribution showed that consistency of interests was a significant predictor of study progress (B = 0.16, p < 0.001). Mixed model analyses revealed no significant predictors for academic performance (ps > 0.06). The fact that of our three predictors solely consistency of interests was found to be predictive for academic success indicates that online educational institutes should pay attention to consistency of interests of their students to improve the academic success rates.

Aim: In the current study we aimed to investigate the relation between creativity and mathematical problem solving in the upper grades of elementary school. Methods: To examine how student's levels of general creativity were related to their performance on different types of geometrical problems, a geometry test with diverse problems was administered to a sample of 1665 Dutch students from third to sixth grade, as well as a creativity test. The geometry test consisted of four closed-ended routine problems, six closed-ended non-routine problems (related to a visual artwork) and four open-ended non-routine problems (multiple solutions problems). The Test of Creative Thinking-Drawing Production was used to measure students' creativity. Multivariate multilevel analyses were conducted to take the nested structure of the data into account. Results: The results showed that creativity was a significant predictor of students' performance on all types of geometrical problems, but most strongly associated with performance on open-ended non-routine problems, suggesting that students with higher levels of creativity perform better in solving geometry problems in general, but especially in geometry problems asking for multiple solutions.

In the past two decades, individual explanations of scientific misconduct ('bad apples') have increasingly given way to systemic explanations ('bad systems'). Where did this interest in systemic factors (publication pressure, competition for research funding) come from? Given that research ethicists often present their interventions as responses to scientific misconduct, this article tests the hypothesis that these systemic explanations were triggered by high-visibility cases of scientific norm violation. It does so by examining why Dutch scientists in 2011 explained Diederik Stapel's grand-scale data fabrication largely in systemic terms, whereas only fifteen years earlier, in the René Diekstra affair (1996), such explanations had been close to absent. Drawing on a wealth of historical sources, the article suggests that cases like Stapel's "as such" do not explain why early 21st-century commentators exchanged individual explanations for systemic ones. Only against the background of an existing discourse of criticism of the science system, developed in the 1990s and 2000s in response to rapidly increasing competition for research funding, could the Stapel affair achieve notoriety as an example of how systemic factors provoke bad conduct.

Introduction: Across the world, mathematical expressions are represented very differently in braille. The aim of this study was (1) to gain an overall insight in mathematical braille notations and (2) to investigate how mathematical braille notations support braille readers in reading and comprehending mathematical expressions. Method: Twenty teachers from sixteen countries (thirteen European Union, EU, and three non-EU) were asked to transform 21 mathematical expressions and equations into the mathematical braille notation currently used by their braille readers. Three mathematical expressions were selected, and the transformed expressions in the different braille notations were qualitatively compared at braille and mathematical structure level. Results: The results illustrated that most mathematical braille notations use mathematical structures that either support braille readers in getting an overview of an expression--for example, by announcing the start and end of a fraction--or facilitate communication between braille readers and people who can see. Discussion: The method of comparing transformed expressions at structure level can be extended to other types of mathematical expressions and other mathematical braille notations. Agreement on the structure of different mathematical expressions can be a first step towards a universal mathematical braille notation. Implications for Practitioners: Mathematics teachers should be aware of and use the strengths of the mathematical braille notation and try to compensate for weaknesses of the notation in the support of braille readers.

Providing first language (L1) translations in L2 vocabulary interventions may be beneficial for L2 vocabulary learning. However, in linguistically diverse L2 classrooms, teachers cannot provide L1 translations to all children. Social robots do offer such opportunities, as they can be programmed to speak any combination of languages. This study investigates whether providing L1 translations in a robot-assisted L2 vocabulary training facilitates children's learning. Participants were Turkish-Dutch kindergartners (n = 67) who were taught six Dutch (L2) words for which they knew the L1 (Turkish), but not the L2 Dutch form. Half of these words were taught by a Turkish-Dutch bilingual robot, alongside their Turkish translations; the other half by a monolingual Dutch robot. Children also completed Dutch and Turkish receptive vocabulary tests. Results of generalized linear regression models indicated better performance in the Dutch-only condition than in the Turkish-Dutch condition. Children with well-developed Turkish and Dutch vocabulary knowledge outperformed children with less well-developed vocabulary knowledge. The majority of children preferred working with the bilingual robot, but children's preference did not affect word learning. Thus, contrary to our prediction, we found no evidence for a facilitating effect of providing L1 translations through a robot on bilingual children's L2 word learning.

The extent to which Theory of Mind (ToM) performance is influenced by cultural and gender differences remains a subject of debate. A sample of 324 Dutch and 511 Italian children (52% boys; 2.8-11.7 years; 50% boys; 2.6-10.3 years; respectively) was administered the ToM Storybooks. Analysis focused on indicators of nonlinearity: moving standard deviations, moving skewness, and moving rate-of-change. Loess curve smoothing was used and showed local peaks in these nonlinear indicators. A first peak was found around the age of 51 months, a local minimum between 70 and 79 months, and a small peak at 85 months. The first peak was statistically significant in all groups (though timing differed in gender and culture), for two out of three nonlinear indicators phenomena, except for Dutch girls (peak 2 and 3 was significant). These results show a substantially nonlinear development regardless gender and culture, but a different timing in development.

Research has shown the importance of goal orientation in predicting academic performance for children, adolescents, and college students in traditional educational settings. Studies on this relationship within adult distance education, however, are lacking. To fill this gap, the present study was conducted to investigate the relationship between goal orientation and academic performance in adult distance learners. A sample of N = 1128 distance university students (age 18-75 years) filled out an online questionnaire. Their exam grades were collected from the files of the Open University of the Netherlands (OUNL). A mixed model regression showed performance approach goal orientation to be a positive predictor of academic performance, whereas performance avoidance and work avoidance were negative predictors of academic performance. Non-significant results were found for mastery approach as well as for mastery avoidance. Implications of these results are discussed.

Subconsciously, experienced teachers make use of situated knowledge: knowledge that is connected to, and arises from, the interactions between the physical environment where the action takes place and a material body acting in that environment. Since situated knowledge is important in day-to-day teaching to solve incidents, it should be taught in teacher training courses. Consequently, in the test at the end of such a course, these learning objectives should be tested. By using cases and by setting higher learning objectives that explicitly address the situated nature of this knowledge, situated knowledge can be assessed. In this study, the main question is: Do teacher trainers use cases that are aimed at acquiring situated knowledge? An empirical study, carried out in eleven secondary teacher-training programs in the Netherlands, revealed that just a single program did indeed assess situated knowledge. Considering its importance, however, it is essential that it is included in all secondary teacher-training programs. To assist teacher training programs to achieve this goal, this article offers recommendations for implementing tests with cases to assess situated knowledge.

Video footage is frequently used at teacher education. According to Sherin and Dyer (2017), this is often done in a way that contradicts recent studies. According to them, video is suitable for observing and interpreting interactions in the classroom. This contributes to their situated knowledge, which allows expert teachers to act intuitively, immediately and effectively. Situated knowledge is used to give form (design patterns) and direction (educational purposes) to a teacher's actions. Design patterns consist of solutions for recurring problems. In the current research, we investigated whether a course in classroom management either with or without video cases contributes more to the development of situated knowledge, design patterns and educational purposes. The pre-and posttest are based on a written advice, given out by 41 students of the Dutch hbo-teacher training with an average age of 22, to the main character of a video case, in addition to an interview and observation report. The results indicate that the use of video cases does not lead to an increase in the number of educational purposes. There is an increase, however, in the design pattern "classroom management." By internalizing this design pattern, the divide between theory, practical experiences and the identity of the teacher is bridged. Although the classroom management theme dominated the video case and course, the results indicate that a targeted use of video cases in teacher education is effective in promoting the development of situated knowledge.

The COVID-19 pandemic has confronted mathematics teachers with the challenge of developing alternative teaching practices--in many cases at a distance through digital technology--because schools were closed. To investigate what distance practices in secondary mathematics education have emerged and how teachers experienced them, we set out online questionnaires in Flanders--the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium--, Germany, and the Netherlands. The questionnaire focused on teaching practices, teacher beliefs, didactics, and assessment. Data consisted of completed questionnaires by 1719 mathematics teachers. Results show that the use of video conferencing tools increased massively, while the use of mathematics-specific tools that teachers used before the lockdown reduced substantially. Further findings are that teachers' confidence in using digital technologies increased remarkably during the lockdown and that their experiences and beliefs only marginally impacted their distance learning practices. Also, we observed some differences between the three countries that might be explained by differences in educational policies and in technological facilities and support. For future research, it would be relevant to investigate long-term changes in teachers' practices, as well as students' views and experiences related to the teacher's practices.

Teachers use situated knowledge to deal with the complex and diffuse educational contexts they operate in. To be able to take deliberated action, based on the situated knowledge, reflection is necessary during the teacher training. Video cases with common, real world situations are suitable for reflection because of their holistic and diffuse character. Reflection concerns learning experiences with increasing complexity: single-loop (reflecting on a current action), double-loop (reflecting to gain new insights) and triple-loop (reflecting in order to adjust individual identity) learning. The knowledge gained from loop learning is of a situated nature. The current article operationalizes situated knowledge as educational purposes and design patterns; educational purposes determine which course of action (design pattern), is the best option. Using this distinction, we investigate whether the reflection done by fourth-year teachers in training corresponds to what can be expected of a starting expert, namely, reflection on all three levels. The results indicate that three out of four teachers in training can be characterized as starting experts, based on their responses to a video case. They experience learning on all three loop levels, and these experiences contribute to a variety of educational purposes and design patterns. It is the teacher trainers' challenge to have their students reflects using video cases, so they can use loop-learning to build their situated knowledge. This knowledge will allow them to adequately respond to the complex and diffuse situations in their educational practice.

In this article, we examine how policy documents from three European countries -- the Netherlands, Germany and England -- position a key outcome of higher education: the development of high-level professionals. Our findings show significant differences between the policies in the three countries in terms of in definitions of high-level professionals, the characterization of the education needed to produce high-level professionals, and the mechanisms identified as ensuring the production of high-level professionals. Our findings show that in order to develop a comparative understanding of higher education outcomes across the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), it is necessary to examine the strategic and visionary perspective of national policies in different EHEA countries. This is significant given that the EHEA's claim to ensure common outcomes across its higher education systems.

The challenging task of establishing meaningful translanguaging in multilingual classrooms necessitates negotiation between different stakeholders. Such negotiation requires investigation of the contexts and ways in which translanguaging may be implemented as a suitable teaching strategy. The aim of the current study was to elicit practical and pedagogical issues of translanguaging in the classroom via interviews with three different groups of stakeholders: language education researchers, teachers, and multilingual learners. We visited four differently composed multilingual high schools from which concrete examples were recalled in semi-structured interviews on the topic of translanguaging with the selected stakeholders. Adopting an iterative study design, interviewees were presented with daily life examples from the school visits as well as statements from other stakeholder interviews. Their statements and reactions to the statements of others were recorded, qualitatively analysed and categorised. Overall, seven distinct pedagogical challenges concerning a translanguaging pedagogy emerged from the interview analysis: (1) Side effects; (2) Goal formulation; (3) Learning the language of schooling; (4) English and other semiotic resources; (5) Affective functions; (6) Effort; and (7) Confusion. These palpable pedagogic issues may be helpful in understanding how translanguaging in multilingual contexts can be implemented, thus bridging the gap between theory and practice.

Student insight into algebraic formulas, including the ability to identify the structure of a formula and its components and to reason with and about formulas, is an issue in mathematics education. In this study, we investigated how 16- and 17-year-old pre-university students' insight into algebraic formulas can be promoted through graphing formulas by hand. In an intervention of five 90-min lessons, 21 grade 11 students were taught to graph formulas by hand. The intervention's design was based on experts' strategies in graphing formulas, that is, using a combination of recognition and qualitative reasoning, and on principles of teaching complex skills. To assess the effect of this intervention, pre-, post-, and retention tests were administered, as well as a post-intervention questionnaire. Six students were asked to think aloud during the pre- and posttests. The results show that all students improved their abilities to graph formulas by hand. The think-aloud data suggest that the students improved both on recognition and reasoning, and give a detailed picture of how students used recognition and qualitative reasoning in combination. We conclude that graphing formulas by hand, based on the interplay of recognition and qualitative reasoning, might be a means to promote students' insight into algebraic formulas.

To build a coherent accurate mental representation of a text, readers routinely validate information they read against the preceding text and their background knowledge. It is clear that both sources affect processing, but "when" and "how" they exert their influence remains unclear. To examine the time course and cognitive architecture of text-based and knowledge-based validation processes, we used eye-tracking methodology. Participants read versions of texts that varied systematically in (in)coherence with prior text or background knowledge. Contradictions with respect to prior text and background knowledge both were found to disrupt reading but in different ways: The two types of contradiction led to distinct patterns of processes, and, importantly, these differences were evident already in early processing stages. Moreover, knowledge-based incoherence triggered more pervasive and longer (repair) processes than did text-based incoherence. Finally, processing of text-based and knowledge-based incoherence was not influenced by readers' working memory capacity.

A body of research indicates the importance of interventions for promoting the development and progress of children with visual impairments. However, the research available on suitable interventions for this population is relatively sparse. The purpose of this review is to identify, collate and appraise the available research evidence on implementation barriers and facilitators of interventions for children with visual impairments, their parents/guardians or educators. A systematic scoping search of peer-reviewed literature (including grey literature) was conducted from 15 June 2016 to 7 August 2016 and 2 May 2019 to 5 May 2019. Initial searches identified 6802 papers with 15 meeting the inclusion criteria. Three additional articles were identified through hand searching giving a final total of 18 included studies. The methodological quality score of the studies was variable with 61% scored in the average quality range. Sensory strategies, a family-centred approach, in-service training and routines-based activities were identified as implementation facilitators. Barriers were a lack of adaptive equipment and training for parents and professionals, complicating factors associated with the child's disability and an absence of specialists in interventions. Effective intervention strategies differ for this targeted population which requires individualised applications associated with teacher and parent/guardian training. For health or education professionals who work with children with visual impairments, the outcomes of this review suggest that a detailed assessment and identification of the individualised needs of children and their families, coupled with carefully designed and tested support practices to meet their individualised needs as well as promoting integrated working between health and care services, can optimise the positive implications for future practice. Along with this, future consideration should be given to the identification of the needs of children with visual impairments and additional disabilities in order to facilitate the adjustment of intervention strategies for this group.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the perspectives of self-employed workers with a physically demanding job on work participation. Methods: We interviewed self-employed workers with a physically demanding job, using semi-structured interviews, which were audio recorded. The main topic addressed was the workers' health in relation with their work participation, work demands, and preventive measures. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and coded by three team members of the research team in several steps. We used the consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research (COREQ) checklist to report our findings. Results: We interviewed 18 self-employed workers: 83% male, 49 years (SD 7), self-employed for 18 years (SD 9) and the majority (n = 14) worked in the construction sector. Thematic analysis revealed facilitators and barriers for work participation across three main themes: personal factors, work factors, and healthcare. Personal factors compassed sub-themes such as health and financial consequences. Work factors included sub-themes related to work demands and adaptations and healthcare encompassed sub-themes associated with work-related care and medication. Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the first qualitative study that investigated the perspectives of self-employed workers in physically demanding jobs regarding work participation. While most facilitators and barriers were consistent with those described in the literature for employees, certain factors, such as financial consequences of ceasing work, emerged important factors for work participation among self-employed workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is difficult to read mathematical expressions in braille, whether or not in coordination with text to speech (TTS) synthesis. The researchers in this study investigated the effect of an intervention on the braille readers' performance in reading and comprehending mathematical expressions as well as the braille readers' ability to make well-founded choices for the use of the braille display or the TTS synthesizer. The intervention consisted of adjusted TTS settings in combination with a professional development (PD) course for mathematics teachers of braille readers. Nine experienced braille readers, aged 13-18 years, whose teachers participated in the course, underwent the intervention. A pre- and post-test and a pre- and post-interview were administered. For mathematical braille reading skills, the percentage of correct answers increased from 22% to 41%. For speech comprehension, the percentage of correct answers only slightly increased from 56% to 59%. The results indicated a small positive effect on the braille readers' performance in reading and comprehending mathematical expressions and an improvement in making well-founded choices for the use of braille and speech synthesis. The results suggest that improving mathematical braille reading skills is the key to better mathematical performance.

While various studies suggest that informal statistical inference (ISI) can be developed by young students, more research is needed to translate this claim into a well-founded learning trajectory (LT). As a contribution, this paper presents the results of a cycle of design research that focuses on the design, implementation, and evaluation of the first part of an LT for ISI, in which ninth-grade students (N = 20) are introduced to the key concepts of sample, frequency distribution, and simulated sampling distribution. The results show that an LT starting from repeated sampling with a black box may support the accessibility of these concepts, as these students were able to make inferences with the frequency distribution from repeated samples as well as with corresponding simulated sampling distributions. This suggests a promising way to make ISI more accessible to students.

Learning in computer-mediated setting represents a complex, multidimensional process. This complexity calls for a comprehensive analytical approach that would allow for understanding of various dimensions of learner generated discourse and the structure of the underlying social interactions. Current research, however, primarily focuses on manual or, more recently, supervised methods for discourse analysis. Moreover, discourse and social structures are typically analyzed separately without the use of computational methods that can offer a holistic perspective. This paper proposes an approach that addresses these two challenges, first, by using an unsupervised machine learning approach to extract speech acts as representations of knowledge construction processes and finds transition probabilities between speech acts across different messages, and second, by integrating the use of discovered speech acts to explain the formation of social ties and predicting course outcomes. We extracted six categories of speech acts from messages exchanged in discussion forums of two MOOCs and each category corresponded to knowledge construction processes from well-established theoretical models. We further showed how measures derived from discourse analysis explained the ways how social ties were created that framed emerging social networks. Multiple regression models showed that the combined use of measures derived from discourse analysis and social ties predicted learning outcomes.

We analysed effective and promising interventions, within the classroom and school microsystems, aiming to promote equality and belongingness for immigrant, Roma, and low-income children attending early childhood education and care (ECEC) and primary education in eight European countries. Over 500 interventions were identified, and 78 interventions were analysed. We found that while 79% of the interventions provided some type of language support, only 32% considered children's heritage language. Importantly, around 22% of the interventions targeted ECEC settings specifically, with most ECEC interventions implemented at the national level, taking place in the classroom and implemented by classroom teachers, and involving language support and family involvement activities. Language support seems to be widespread, recognising the foundational nature of language for learning, communication, and belongingness. However, comprehensive intercultural policies that explicitly support culture maintenance, communication, and positive contact may be valuable in guiding future developments. [This article was co-authored by the ISOTIS research team.]

We use PIAAC data to study the relationship between parental education and educational success among adults from 23 advanced economies. We consider educational success in terms of both educational "attainment" (formal qualifications) and educational "achievement" (competencies) and in both "absolute" and "relative" terms (i.e. as the individual's rank in the distribution of educational success). Parental education effects are stronger for educational attainment than for achievement in all countries. Cross-national variation in the strength of social background effects follows broadly similar patterns for the different ways of measuring success, but a few countries combine relatively strong achievement with relatively weak attainment effects and "vice versa." Tracking in secondary education is associated with stronger background effects for educational attainment but not for achievement. Greater prevalence of formal (non-formal) AET is associated with stronger (weaker) background effects for both attainment and achievement, while vocational orientation of upper secondary education does not matter much.

Research into students' peer-feedback beliefs varies both thematically and in approaches and outcomes. This study aimed to develop a questionnaire to measure students' beliefs about peer-feedback. Based on the themes in the literature four scales were conceptualised. In separate exploratory (N = 219) and confirmatory (N = 121) studies, the structure of the questionnaire was explored and tested. These analyses confirmed the a priori conceptualised four scales: (1) students' valuation of peer-feedback as an instructional method, (2) students' confidence in the quality and helpfulness of the feedback they provide to a peer, (3) students' confidence in the quality and helpfulness of the feedback they receive from their peers and (4) the extent to which students regard peer-feedback as an important skill. The value of this Beliefs about Peer-Feedback Questionnaire (BPFQ) is discussed both in terms of future research and the practical insights it may offer higher education teaching staff.

Secondary school teaching of evolution through natural selection is very important because for most people, it is the only formal introduction to the scientific understanding of this theory. However, there are major concerns over its unsatisfactory teaching. In several European countries, including the Flanders region in Belgium, natural selection is treated as a side-topic that is referred to only after all other biological content has been covered. It has been suggested that improved understanding can be achieved by teaching it in a more integrated manner throughout the biology curriculum, as is largely the case in the Netherlands. We tested this hypothesis by a standardised comparison of the understanding of natural selection between university freshmen who had completed high level biology secondary education in Flanders or the Netherlands. We used the Conceptual Inventory of Natural Selection (CINS), designed to measure the understanding of 10 underlying key concepts (KC), including four core concepts (CC), and the magnitude of alternative conceptions. Regression analysis was used to control for potentially confounding student parameters. Dutch graduates indeed obtained a significantly higher CINS-score than Flemish graduates. They also scored significantly higher on eight key concepts. The 10 KC were employed to varying degrees, with the relative rank being highly comparable between both student populations, and the CC "origin of variation" and "variation inheritable," both linked to genetics, being more challenging than the CC "existence of variation" and "differential survival." The relative frequency of alternative conceptions elicited by the CINS was almost identical in both student populations.

Children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) have difficulties acquiring the grammatical rules of their native language. It has been proposed that children's detection of sequential statistical patterns correlates with grammatical proficiency and hence that a deficit in the detection of these regularities may underlie the difficulties with grammar observed in children with DLD. Although there is some empirical evidence supporting this claim, individual studies, both in children with and without DLD, vary in the strength of their reported associations. The aim of the present study is therefore to evaluate the evidence for the proposed association. This is achieved by means of (a) a conceptual replication study on 35 children with DLD and 35 typically developing children who performed the serial reaction time task and a test of grammatical proficiency and (b) a meta-analysis over 19 unique effect sizes, which collectively examined the serial reaction time task -- expressive grammar correlation in 139 children with DLD and 573 typically developing children. Both outcomes provide no evidence for or against the existence of the proposed association. Neither do they provide evidence for a difference in the strength of the association between both groups of children.

It is often argued that enhancement of self-beliefs should be one of the key goals of education. However, very little is known about the relation between self-beliefs and performance when students move from primary to secondary school in highly differentiated educational systems with early tracking. This large-scale longitudinal cohort study examines the extent to which academic self-efficacy (i.e., how confident students are that they will be able to master their schoolwork) and math self-concept (i.e., students' perceived math competence) mediate the relation between math performance at the end of primary school (Grade 6) and the end of lower secondary school (Grade 9) in such a system. The study involved 843 typically-developing students in the Netherlands. Self-efficacy and math self-concept were measured with self-report questionnaires. Math performance was measured with nationally validated tests. The relation between math performance in Grade 6 and in Grade 9 was uniquely mediated by both self-efficacy in Grade 6 and math self-concept in Grade 9, but in opposing directions. Math self-concept was the most influential mediator, explaining nearly a quarter of the total effect of Grade 6 math performance on Grade 9 math performance. Unexpectedly, high self-efficacy in Grade 6 was negatively related to Grade 9 math performance, particularly for girls and high-track students. These findings suggest that self-efficacy may not necessarily be a protective factor in highly differentiated early tracking educational systems and may need to be actively managed when students move to secondary school.

The notion of complexity--as in "education is a complex system"--has two different meanings. On the one hand, there is the epistemic connotation, with "Complex" meaning "difficult to understand, hard to control". On the other hand, complex has a technical meaning, referring to systems composed of many interacting components, the interactions of which lead to self organization and emergence. For agents, participating in a complex system such as education, it is important that they can reduce the epistemic complexity of the system, in order to allow them to understand the system, to accomplish their goals and to evaluate the results of their activities. We argue that understanding, accomplishing and evaluation requires the creation of simplex systems, which are praxis-based forms of representing complexity. Agents participating in the complex system may have different kinds of simplex systems governing their understanding and praxis. In this article, we focus on three communities of agents in education--educators, researchers and policymakers--and discuss characteristic features of their simplex systems. In particular, we focus on the simplex system of educational researchers, and we discuss interactions--including conflicts or incompatibilities--between their simplex systems and those of educators and policymakers. By making some of the underlying features of the educational researchers' simplex systems more explicit--including the underlying notion of causality and the use of variability as a source of knowledge--we hope to contribute to clarifying some of the hidden conflicts between simplex systems of the communities participating in the complex system of education.

Assessment is a crucial factor in the implementation of curriculum reform. Little is known, however, on how curriculum changes can be reflected adequately in assessment, particularly if the reform concerns process skills. This issue was investigated for the case of assessing mathematical thinking in a mathematics curriculum reform for 15-18-year-old students in the Netherlands. From 2011 until 2017, these reform curricula were field tested in pilot schools, while other schools used the regular curricula. The research question is how this reform was reflected in national examination papers and in student performance on corresponding assignments. To address this question, we developed a theory-based model for mathematical thinking, analyzed pilot and regular examination papers, and carried out a quantitative and qualitative analysis of students' work on assignments that invite mathematical thinking. The results were that the pilot examination papers did address mathematical thinking to a greater degree than the regular papers, but that there was a decrease over time. Pilot school students outperformed their peers in regular schools on assignments that invite mathematical thinking by 4-5% on average and showed more diversity in problem-solving strategies. To explain the decreasing presence of mathematical thinking in examination papers, we conjecture that conservative forces within the assessment construction process may push back change.

The aim of this longitudinal study is to evaluate 3 views on the relationship between nonword repetition and vocabulary: (i) the storage-based view that considers nonword repetition, a measure of phonological storage, as the driving force behind vocabulary development, (ii) the lexical restructuring view that considers improvements in nonword repetition as the result of vocabulary growth, and (iii) the "combined" view that assumes that both storage-based learning and lexical restructuring play a role, resulting in reciprocal relationships between nonword repetition and vocabulary during language development. Data are analyzed from 471 monolingual Dutch children who performed tasks assessing nonword repetition and vocabulary at yearly intervals, from ages 2 to 5. Latent Change Score (LCS) modeling of Item Response Theory-scaled scores was used to investigate the relationships between nonword repetition and vocabulary growth over time. Additionally, the statistical techniques used in earlier work--cross-lagged and latent growth modeling--were applied to see whether the results changed as a function of the analytical technique used. Results from a bivariate LCS model showed positive reciprocal influences from nonword repetition on vocabulary between 2 and 5 years. Such positive cross-influences also emerged from the cross-lagged and latent growth models. Predictive relationships from vocabulary to nonword repetition were stronger than vice versa. These results indicate that both storage-based learning and lexical restructuring play a role in vocabulary learning, at least in early stages of language development, with the clearest support found for lexical restructuring.

This study describes the socio-cognitive dynamics of collaborative online knowledge-building discourse among Dutch Master of Education students from the perspective of openness. A socio-cognitive openness framework consisting of four social and four cognitive components was used to analyze contributions to online collective knowledge building processes in two Knowledge Forum® databases. Analysis revealed that the contributions express a moderate level of openness, with higher social than cognitive openness. Three cognitive indicators of openness were positively associated with follow-up, while the social indicators of openness appeared to have no bearings on follow-up. Findings also suggested that teachers' contributions were more social in nature and had less follow-up compared to students' contributions. From the perspective of openness, the discourse acts of building knowledge and expressing uncertainty appear to be key in keeping knowledge building discourse going, in particular through linking new knowledge claims to previous claims and simultaneously inviting others to refine the contributed claim.

Misconceptions about physiology are a major threat to accurate scientific and clinical reasoning in medical education. Awareness is often mentioned as a prerequisite to achieve conceptual understanding; however, students are frequently unaware of their incorrect understanding. We explored the multitier approach as a tool to obtain insight into students' awareness and misconceptions regarding cardiovascular physiology. Biomedical sciences students (N = 81) participated in a diagnostic multitier assessment on cardiovascular physiology. Each question consisted of an answer tier and an explanation tier. Both tiers were paired with confidence tiers, i.e., 5-point Likert scales, which were used as an indicator for metacognitive evaluation, i.e., awareness. The average test score was 3.07 (maximum 4.0) for the answer tier only, and reduced to 1.57 when answer and explanation tiers were combined. A weak correlation (R2 = 0.13, P = 0.001) between students' confidence and their test scores was found for the combined responses. Correct combined answers were associated with an increase in confidence score of 0.27 vs. incorrect answers. Using a Bland-Altman analysis, we showed that students generally overestimated their knowledge. In total, 28.7% of all responses were classified as misconceptions, defined as incorrect answers paired with high confidence. In all, findings indicate that the multitier approach is useful to study students' conceptual understanding and uncover misconceptions on cardiovascular physiology. Furthermore, this study supports the need for metacognitive measures in order to improve teaching and learning in medical education.

This paper develops a conceptual framework to understand the value of an increasing number of university study programmes that send students to the global south to learn through volunteering. We ask what determines the benefit that these activities bring to the host community. To understand this, we conceptualise these activities as student volunteerism and propose a framework to understand the value of these activities based on a previously developed framework for volunteer tourism. We examine a single case study of a minor programme in a Dutch university, exploring how course design and student selection affect student behaviour as an antecedent step to creating student benefits. We identify six kinds of factors that appear to promote 'deeper' (better) contributions and argue that these six factors require further analysis to better realise university contributions to societal development in Global South contexts.

Researchers of minority language media are increasingly interested in the role of internet-based communication in language usage, maintenance, and revitalisation. This study explores the use of hashtags signifying the Welsh/Cymraeg, Frisian/Frysk, and Irish/Gaeilge languages on Twitter. Acknowledging the challenges of interpreting social media data, we focus on the hashtag and what it can tell us about the social and digital lives of minority languages. Specifically, we examine the agents using those hashtags, the topics they discuss, the languages used and the extent to which ambient communities may be formed through their use. Our analysis reveals different types of agents who are active and who have a variety of purposes in applying the minority language hashtag -- sometimes to promote content in the minority language, more often to draw attention to content about those languages. Comparative analysis between the three language hashtags reveals statistically significant differences along a number of different dimensions, indicating that each minority language hashtag community has its own unique character. Through this comparative, platform-specific contribution we reach some generalisations concerning minority languages in the digital age, while also paying attention to the particularities of each language context and the exploitable features of social media for those languages.

Studies show that adolescents who follow a higher educational track have more positive experiences than those of lower levels with aspects of democracy, such as decision-making or discussions. This study focuses on how adolescents from different educational tracks evaluate the various possibilities to experience democracy in daily life, and whether school is compensating for any difference therein. Data were gathered by interviewing 40 adolescents at two points in time (eighth and tenth grade). The results suggest that, especially in the later phase of secondary education, according to the experiences of adolescents it is apparent that school exacerbates instead of decreases social differences in society. Those in the higher educational track more often than those in the lower track experience having discussions and being encouraged to be socially and politically engaged. Opportunities for teachers and for citizenship education to strengthen democratic socialisation on both educational tracks are discussed.