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Purpose: This article examines the use of English medium instruction (EMI) for teaching Japanese as a foreign language (JFL) by non-native speakers with a focus on multilingual classrooms. It also explores teachers' positive and negative beliefs about using EMI in classroom settings for JFL instruction. Methods and procedure: 274 non-native Japanese language teachers from around the world (57 countries) voluntarily participated in a survey, answering a questionnaire on Google Forms and Jotform. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed. The research instrument was piloted before the main study and was found to be effective and adequate to elicit the desired data. The research questions aimed to identify whether there were any relationships between the use of EMI and the multilingual classroom. Findings: The results showed a clear correlation between the extensive use of EMI and the multilingual character of JFL classrooms. Translanguaging turned out to be a common practice adopted by non-native Japanese teachers regardless of the primary language of instruction. The article concludes that EMI can be a valuable tool for JFL instruction in multilingual classrooms. Based on the investigation of the teachers' beliefs, the results showed a changing positive attitude towards English employed in JFL classrooms. Implications for research and practice: The findings can be used to further investigate EMI in JFL instructional practices in multilingual classrooms, improve the quality of JFL instruction and facilitate the integration of multilingual education into foreign language teaching. Future research can explore the effectiveness of EMI in different JFL contexts and investigate the impact of EMI on students' language learning outcomes.

Adjusting to academic life and managing to perform well at university is challenging for any first-year student. One of the keys to study success is motivation. In line with the social cognitive approach, two motivational constructs are considered: self-efficacy and attribution. Previous studies predominantly took a 'snapshot' of first year students' motivation, thereby ignoring the fact that students re-evaluate their self-efficacy as they experience success and failure over time. It is believed that a better understanding of such changes might inform targeted interventions. This case study investigated the development of self-efficacy beliefs and attribution among first-year students in an Economics undergraduate program. One hundred and four students completed three questionnaires at the start of their first academic year, two months later and after they received the results of their first semester exams. Repeated multivariate tests were conducted in order to analyse significant differences in self-efficacy and attribution scores over time. The results suggest that unsuccessful students hold unrealistic self-efficacy beliefs about courses that are new to them. Furthermore, attributions were dependent on the course involved and on students' exam results. As a consequence, it is suggested to organize early detection and to provide feedback in order to render these beliefs more truthful.

ChatGPT has become a prominent tool for fostering personalized and interactive learning with the advancements in AI technology. This study analyzes 212 academic research articles indexed in the Scopus database as of July 2023. It maps the trajectory of educational studies on ChatGPT, identifying primary themes, influential authors, and contributing institutions. By employing bibliometric indicators and network analysis, the study explores collaboration patterns, citation trends, and the evolution of research interests. The findings show the exponential growth of interest in leveraging ChatGPT for educational purposes and provide insights into the specific educational domains and contexts that have garnered the most attention. Furthermore, the study reveals the collaborative dynamics and intellectual foundations shaping the field by examining co-authorship and citation networks. This bibliometric analysis contributes to a comprehensive understanding of the current state of ChatGPT research in education, offering researchers and practitioners valuable insights into evolving trends and potential future directions for this innovative aspect of AI and learning.

Due to swift technological changes in society, programming tasks are proliferating in formal and informal education around the globe. However, challenges arise regarding the acquisition of programming skills. Many students are unequipped to develop programming skills due to limited instruction or background and therefore feel insecure when encountering programming in higher education. Some after-school initiatives focus on teaching younger students programming skills, however, not all students have the opportunity to attend. It can also be very challenging for teachers to teach programming--even more so due to significant differences in students' knowledge and interests. To alleviate these challenges, we designed and developed a digital personalized learning (DPL) track for programming in the first grade of secondary education (12-14 year-old students) with a threefold purpose: (a) to encourage students bridging the gap between visual and more general-purpose textual programming languages (b) to meet differences in students' programming knowledge by challenging them, albeit on their own pace, and subsequently (c) to support teachers in the delivery of programming education with relevant supportive learning materials. The design was tested by students and teachers, both of varying technical abilities. Assessments of the DPL-track were positive, with students identifying the tasks as challenging and the tools as motivating. Teachers praised the adaptivity, as well as the gradual transition from visual to textual programming. We present several suggestions for design improvement and dilemmas while reflecting on our design case.

This paper investigates the student-teacher relationship among minoritized primary school pupils in Flanders, Belgium, who attend both mainstream and supplementary schools, educational initiatives organized by their communities in the weekend. Despite the recognized significance of this relationship, research often overlooks the experiences of students with migration backgrounds, and especially those of primary school pupils. This study aims to comprehensively understand the student-teacher dynamic by exploring both the academic and the affective side of the relationship from the perspective of the children. While prior research mainly focuses on secondary school students and mainly uses quantitative data, this qualitative study delves into the primary school context. Minoritized pupils, who attend supplementary schools in addition to their mainstream schools, provide a unique opportunity to examine student-teacher relationships across varied educational settings. Through 13 open ended in-depth interviews with a total of 29 pupils aged 9 to 12 attending both types of schools, the study uncovers which aspects of their student-teacher relationships the pupils perceive as supportive, in each setting. The findings reveal both shared and distinct experiences within different contexts, shedding light on the intricate interplay of expectations, teacher attitudes, and relationships. By investigating affective and academic dimensions of the student-teacher relationship from the experience of minoritized pupils, this paper adds to our understanding of the student teacher relationship. The insights emphasize the need to support the diverse needs of minoritized pupils in complex educational environments, offering recommendations for policymakers and suggesting future research directions.

Teachers are pivotal in creating safe and efficacious learning environments for ethnic minority students. Research suggests that teachers' multicultural attitudes, self-efficacy, and wellbeing at work may all play important roles in this endeavor. Using survey data on 433 teachers in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, the present study used structural equation models to analyze the paths between teachers' multicultural attitudes and work-related wellbeing (work dedication and exhaustion), and whether self-efficacy mediates these paths. We further investigated how these associations differ between teachers of reception classes for migrant and refugee students versus teachers of multi-ethnic mainstream classes. The results show that positive multicultural attitudes were directly associated with high level of work dedication, but not with work exhaustion. Self-efficacy mediated the association between multicultural attitudes and work-related wellbeing, indicated by both higher work dedication and lower work exhaustion. Concerning the role of teacher's class type, self-efficacy mediated the association between positive multicultural attitudes and work dedication for both types of teachers, whereas the mediation to low work exhaustion was only evident in mainstream class teachers. To conclude, teachers' multicultural attitudes and work-related wellbeing are mediated by self-efficacy and this important link should be acknowledged when designing professional development programs in order to create supportive and competent learning environments for all students.

Team teaching is a popular and intense form of teacher collaboration with several advantages for both students and teachers. To successfully implement team-based practices such as team teaching, previous studies highlight the pivotal role of teachers' attitudes, which are subject to several personal and interpersonal processes. Stakeholders willing to implement team teaching require a deep understanding of teachers' attitudes toward the practice and their relation to prominent (inter)personal variables in teacher collaboration research. To date, however, little quantitative research exists on teachers' attitudes toward team teaching and even less on factors that may explain these attitudes. Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore how teachers value the implementation of team teaching in their teaching practices and to what extent prominent (inter)personal variables such as teachers' self-efficacy, perceived collaboration, and team similarity are associated with these attitudes. The empirical data were collected through a cross-sectional survey (N = 555) conducted in Flanders (Belgium). The findings showed that teachers had a positive overall attitude toward team teaching, but this was not always strongly expressed. In particular, teachers' attitudes toward enhancing the learning gains of students through team teaching were fairly neutral. Nonetheless, based on structural equation modeling, a proposed hypothetical model wherein self-efficacy beliefs, perceived collaboration, and team similarity were positively associated with teachers' attitudes toward team teaching showed adequate predictive validity. Furthermore, all three of the studied factors had a significant effect on teachers' attitudes, with teachers' self-efficacy exerting the strongest effect.

Adaptive science dispositions (epistemology, enjoyment, interest, and self-efficacy) have been shown to be related to schools' science climate and science literacy. School stratification may promote positive linkages among science dispositions, science literacy, and science climate. To examine the association between school stratification and such linkages, we undertook a comparative study of early secondary schools in Ireland (less stratified -- modest tracking, modest grade retention) and Flanders (Dutch-speaking Belgian region; more stratified -- multiple tracks, extensive grade retention). Using Program for International Student Assessment (PISA 2015) data and multilevel modeling methods, we included 5419 (Ireland) and 5675 (Flanders) students nested within 157 and 171 schools, respectively. Student- and school-level variables with potential associations with our outcome measures (science dispositions for the first research question (RQ1); science literacy for RQ2) were included in baseline models. Subsequent models estimated "over-and-above" associations of science climate with science dispositions (RQ1) and of both science dispositions and climate with science literacy (RQ2). Science dispositions, as outcomes, were associated with disciplinary climate and teaching support in science classroom, particularly in Ireland. All four science dispositions (as independent variables) were associated with science literacy (both separately and in concert) for both Irish and Flemish cases. Epistemology was most strongly associated with science literacy. A less stratified school system may grant teachers more opportunities to craft positive science learning environments. A more stratified school system may amplify existing divergences in science (dispositions and literacy).

The dynamic nature of multilingual families and their language policies has been touched upon by numerous studies. Adding to the field, the present study assesses the stability of family language policy in a standardised and quantitative manner. To this end, a linguistically heterogenous sample consisting of 488 multilingual families raising young children in Belgium's Flemish Community was surveyed twice, eighteen months apart. Based on the collected longitudinal survey data, the present study offers statistically verifiable evidence for the (partially) dynamic character of family language policy. Firstly, parental beliefs in a multilingual advantage were strengthened and a change was found in language-specific beliefs regarding children's language acquisition. Secondly, the families' practices demonstrate a shift towards the Dutch institutional language, particularly in parental language use when communicating with each other and with their child, and in the child's overall exposure. The observed shift in practices and beliefs underscores not only parents' continuous assessment of their children's linguistic needs and development, but also the societal environment influencing this assessment and adjustment. However, while significant changes in language beliefs and practices were uncovered, the more conscious and explicit component of language management proved stable across time, corroborating the independent character of the three family language policy components.

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.

Engaging in extracurricular activities is known to affect both cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes, but there is social inequality in access to these activities. In this study, we examine the role of extracurricular activities in moderating the relationships between secondary school students' social background and their cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes. Secondly, we examine variations in these relationships among three European cities that represent different educational systems in managing student heterogeneity. Based on the study findings, the effects of extracurricular activities on academic outcomes varied with regard to measured skills and the city of study. Extracurricular activities were related to enhanced interpersonal skills in all cities studied. However, in Turku and Ghent, extracurricular activities buffered the socio-economic gradient in interpersonal skills, whereas in Barcelona, such activities increased it. Rather surprisingly, in all cities, engaging in extracurricular activities magnified the effect of socio-economic status on cognitive skills.

Grade retention is often perceived as an academic failure and a negative response from the educational system. Hence, based on the social cognitive theory, being retained might decrease self-efficacy. This way, we expect that retainees are less likely to pursue a degree in higher education. Retainees that do enroll in higher education, are expected to opt for a college of applied sciences instead of university. We assume that self-efficacy mediates the association between grade retention and post-secondary schooling choices of retained students. In addition, based on comparative reference group taking, we expect the impact of being retained to be more detrimental in schools with a low percentage of retainees. If true, this would signal a school retention composition effect. Longitudinal, multilevel analyses were carried out on the International Study of City Youth (ISCY) dataset (1252 respondents, 30 schools in Ghent, Flanders). Results show that being retained significantly decreases the likelihood of higher education enrollment, while those students who do enroll, are less likely to opt for university. There was a mediation effect of self-efficacy with regard to program choice, but not for higher education enrollment. We did not find a moderation effect of school retention composition. Implications are discussed.

Instrumental music teaching traditionally emphasizes the cognitive, motor, and motivational processes of score reproduction, often at the expense of creative musical activities, such as improvisation or composition. Since today's international art school curricula prominently include creativity competencies, opportunities to integrate creativity in instrumental lessons must be explored. This study investigates instrument teachers' conception of musical creativity: its scope, opportunities, and risks. About 273 teachers completed an online questionnaire on their use of creative class time, beliefs, and barriers to creative instrument teaching. Although the majority acknowledged the benefits of creative activities for score-playing, they invested little in improvisation and composition due to a lack of time and training in musical creativity. Teachers considered interpretation a valuable form of musical creativity, next to improvisation and composition, but questioned its feasibility in instrument lessons. Implications for instrument-teacher training are discussed.

This study contributes to the research on ethnic educational inequality, by deepening the current understanding of education initiatives organised by the ethnic-cultural minoritised communities most affected by these inequalities. A univariate analysis was performed on data from an original survey conducted in Flanders, in which 816 teachers and 3037 pupils from 60 primary schools were asked about, among other things, their experience with and their perceptions of these educational initiatives. The results of this analysis show that these community-based education initiatives are widely attended by ethnic minority youth, but also that teachers in mainstream schools are rarely informed or even aware of the existence of these initiatives, or the important role they play in their pupils' lives. The broader social and scientific implications are discussed in this paper, as little to no similar larger-scale research exists that maps the relationship between these community-based education initiatives and mainstream educational institutions.

To estimate the distribution of the number of acquaintances of the members of a society, the network scale-up method asks survey respondents about the number of people they know with features for which national statistics are available. While many features have been used for this purpose, first names have been suggested to produce particularly low levels of transmission error and recall bias. For this method to be precise, a set of names needs to be selected for the survey that jointly represents the population in relevant variables such as gender or age. This article provides a solution approach to finding the optimal set of names. This can be applied to any population for which a joint distribution of first names and relevant variables is available. We show that our approach successfully provides sets of names closely mirroring the population distributions for six countries with different name statistics.

This study aims to understand how gender diversity and gender attitudes are linked to the sexual well-being of young adolescents. Data was collected among 561 adolescents in secondary schools in Flanders and binary logistic regressions were performed. Gender diversity was conceptualized as gender identity, gender expression, sex assigned at birth, sexual orientation and personal gender attitudes. Whereas "like to become a wo/man" and body image were used as measures for sexual well-being. Age and migration were added as covariates. The data illustrates that gender diversity is present among young adolescents and that it can be linked to young adolescent's body image and liking to become a wo/man. In addition, it shows how diverse sets of gender attitudes are differently associated with sexual well-being outcomes. The findings also suggest the internalization of patriarchal and heterosexual societal norms by the respondents. The results indicate an association between on the one hand gender diversity and gender attitudes and on the other hand adolescent sexual well-being. Furthermore, it suggests that gender transformative research and programs that aim to improve adolescent sexual health and well-being should carefully choose their gender focus and invest in improving gender equity beyond the individual level. Additional research is needed to investigate the association between gender diversity and adolescent sexual wellbeing among diverse sexual well-being conceptualizations and specific groups (gender, ethnic, and others) of young adolescents.

This article compares the use of discourse markers (DMs) in Italian as a second language (L2) produced by Belgian-Dutch learners, with the DMs produced by Italian native (L1) speakers. The quantitative analysis of the data shows that L1 speakers produce more DMs than L2 speakers, whereas the comparison between the levels of proficiency in L2 reveals an effect of the type of task on the frequency of DMs. From the qualitative analysis, interesting discrepancies emerge between the L1 and the L2 use of DMs, especially those uttered in sentence-internal position. We offer an analysis within the cartographic approach and we demonstrate that the sentence-internal DMs with an epistemic value realize specific syntactic positions dedicated to the expression of modality within the IP layer. We also show that the L2 learners, despite projecting the correct syntactic structure, realize it with pragmatically infelicitous forms as a result of linguistic interference with their L1. Our study brings original evidence on the syntactic status of DMs: given their multifunctionality, more syntactic options are available depending on the markers' discursive and pragmatic import. Furthermore, sentence-internal DMs reveal intriguing properties of the L2 acquisition at the syntax and discourse--pragmatics interface.

Recently, several studies have suggested that metacognition emerges early in infancy and toddlerhood. However, to date, the developmental trajectory of these early metacognitive monitoring and control processes and their influence on children's later memory functioning remains poorly understood. The aim of this study was to longitudinally document the development of metacognition between the ages of 2.5 and 4.5 years and to examine the link between these early metacognitive skills and later memory performance. To do so, 69 children initially aged 29-33 months old (N[subscript T0] = 69; 32 females; M[subscript age] = 32.3 months; SD = 1.6) were tested at three time points (12-month intervals) with a recognition memory paradigm designed to assess both metacognitive monitoring, through retrospective confidence judgment, and metacognitive control, through a cue selection task (i.e., children had the opportunity to ask for a cue to help them change their memory decision). In addition, at the last session, an episodic memory task (story recall) was also administered. Our results revealed an improvement in monitoring and control processes between 2.5 and 4.5 years with above-chance performance from around age 3.5. Mixed-effects modeling also indicated that metacognitive monitoring at ages 2.5 and 4.5, but not--unexpectedly--metacognitive control, was related to children's memory performance at age 4.5. Overall, our results provide evidence to enhance our understanding of the developmental course of metacognition from toddlerhood to early childhood and suggest that metacognitive processes are involved in memory performance much earlier than had previously been shown.

This paper has investigated the importance of explicit instruction and collaborative writing on (a) argumentative writing performance and (b) self-efficacy for writing of secondary school students. This intervention study additionally aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of alternating between individual and collaborative writing throughout the writing process (planning collaboratively, writing individually, revising collaboratively, and rewriting individually). A cluster randomized control trial (CRT) design was opted for. To investigate the effect of the intervention on secondary school students' writing performance and self-efficacy for writing, multilevel analyses were performed. It was found that the presence of explicit instruction in combination with collaborative writing is positively related to argumentative writing performance and self-efficacy for writing. Alternating between individual and collaborative writing was not significantly different from collaborating throughout all phases of the writing process. More in-depth research into the quality of collaboration is, however, needed to gain insight into the interaction processes and writing processes that take place during collaborative writing.

It seems impossible to explain language choice and practice in the multilingual, understudied context of an asylum law firm by simply referring to official policy texts and linguistic (human) rights. Based on linguistic-ethnographic data (in the form of participant observations, recordings and interviews conducted in the Belgian context), this study integrates a top-down perspective (focusing on the influence of language management) with a bottom-up perspective (by eliciting the research participants' language attitudes and ideologies and by investigating what actually happens in practice). Approaching these different parameters of language policy from a discourse analytical perspective, shows how a clear framework of linguistic (human) rights to regulate lawyer-client communication is missing. Because of the lack of concrete stipulations on how to make language choice acts, interpretation of linguistic needs is left to the individual assessment of lawyers. This leads to highly situated decision-making practices, where lawyers draw on their own experience as well as the input of others to organise multilingual interaction. Although a top-down policy exists, practice shows a lack of regulation and transparency in the selection of linguistic strategies/support on the ground.

In this paper, I discuss the gendered-racialised interactional and contextual dynamics hindering the socialisation of ethnic minoritised women (EMW) within Belgian higher education. Based on in-depth interviews, I develop the concept of 'socialisation climates' to explain the key aspects that determine EMW's socialisation process. Three socialisation climates are identified: integration, negotiation and interrogation. Findings show that insiders play a crucial role in hindering or facilitating EMW's socialisation. Developmental relationships are gendered-racialised relations in which EMW's identity impacts supervisor and peer support. The departmental context in terms of hierarchy, an Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion culture, and team composition is relevant to their socialisation process. EMW are able to socialise rapidly only in a context that is (radically) inclusive which is still rare in academia. This paper informs higher education institutions to be aware of the gendered-racialised climate and interactions that influence EMW's socialisation and increase the risk of pushing them out.

In the era of higher education institutions' internationalisation, international student mobility is viewed as a crucial educational tool for enhancing the cross-cultural competence of learners. This paper aims to present research findings on the development of cross-cultural competence (skills, knowledge, and attitudes) among students participating in a short-term international mobility programme. The study involved 45 students from five European universities located in Kosovo, the Czech Republic, Poland, Belgium, and Malta. We utilised three scales in our methodology: the Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory, the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire, and the Intercultural Sensitivity Scale, along with data from a structured diary. Our findings indicate that students who took part in this programme expanded their knowledge through various trainings and workshops during each study visit abroad. Students not only gained new knowledge and specific skills (e.g., conflict management, negotiation skills), and behaviours (e.g., tolerance, openness, trust), but they also improved previously acquired competencies, such as professional and linguistic ones (English fluency). This study contributes to the scientific understanding of cross-cultural competence development and may also be valuable in designing intercultural training and mobility programmes for students.

In this study, as part of an intervention program in which students and their teachers participated in a school development project, we examined students' perceptions of connectedness to their urban school. A photovoice method was employed to map out the multiple emotions associated with the school connectedness experienced by 61 students from four Brussels' schools. Five different but simultaneously occurring emotional themes were revealed: togetherness, respect, success, readiness for learning, and pride. Moreover, students articulated the drivers that positively affect each of these emotional themes. Together, they provide guidance for creating a fertile ground for democratic practice in urban schools.

Teachability perceptions reflect teachers' perceptions of students' cognitive-motivational behaviors, personal social behaviors, and school-appropriate behaviors. Teachers in schools with more students with a low socioeconomic status (SES) or in schools with more boys have been shown to perceive students as less teachable. It remains to be seen whether teacher characteristics, specifically efficacy or trust, buffer against lower teachability perceptions in challenging school contexts. A multilevel analysis was carried out on data of 1247 teachers in 59 Flemish schools (2012-2013). Lower teachability perceptions were found in low-SES schools and schools with more boys. Efficacious teachers perceived their students as teachable, but teacher efficacy did not buffer against lower teachability perceptions in low-SES schools or in schools with more boys. Teacher trust, on the other hand, does buffer lower teachability perceptions in schools with more boys. This finding demonstrates that trusting teacher-student relationships might be a key factor to overcome between-school differences in teacher perceptions.

The stereotype content model (SCM) describes that groups of people are mainly appraised according to two dimensions: warmth and competence. The present study's aim was to investigate possible stereotyped perceptions held by Grade 12 students in Flanders (the northern part of Belgium) of students in the three major educational tracks. They were asked for ingroup and outgroup evaluations, both in general and for different personality traits. As expected, evidence was found for ingroup favouritism, meaning that respondents rated students from their own educational track more positively compared to students in other educational tracks. The status hierarchy between educational tracks in Flanders was reflected in the judgements of respondents from the general track and respondents from the technical track. Respondents from the vocational track showed a reverse pattern, which can be explained by social identity theory and an anti-school culture in vocational education. Finally, for positively formulated personality traits, the warmth-competence dimensionality of the judgements was confirmed together with the compensation hypothesis of the SCM, stating that lower ratings on warmth covary with higher ratings on competence (and vice versa).

For the quality training of future teachers, it is necessary to have a clear action plan, benchmarks, metrics, and progress indications for using technologies in education. Pre-service teachers' digital competence frameworks can guide their preparation and develop sufficient digital competence before actual practice. This paper analyzes the relevant literature that presents the available ICT competence frameworks for educators. The literature review findings indicate a need for an empirically validated pre-service teachers' digital competence framework that can be adjustable to the context and guide initial teacher preparation in developing modern pre-service teachers' digital competence. The paper also provides information and recommendations to those involved in initial teacher training development, research, and the integration of technologies into pre-service teacher education.

Training teachers in evidence-based practice is a societal challenge. We conducted practical action research to investigate the impact of a professional development programme (the aim of which is to train teachers in explicit instruction) established according to the principles of effective professional development on one teacher's practices. A holistic case study was conducted with one teacher randomly selected among a group of volunteers. An original methodology was developed to measure the fidelity of the teacher's practices to the different teaching practices and stages of explicit instruction. The teacher's practices were filmed on four occasions and analysed using an observation grid based on the literature on explicit instruction. The advice and intentions to act expressed during coaching sessions were listed. By comparing them with the teacher's practices, it was possible to identify whether or not they had been implemented. The results indicate that after the first coaching session, the teacher was able to implement the stages of explicit instruction. During the following observations, her implementation of explicit instruction was even more precise. However, she did not implement specific checking for understanding. These results support the interest of directive coaching to support the implementation of explicit instruction.

Several authors have underlined the negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health in several populations, including medical students, such as increases in anxiety, depression and burnout symptoms. Furthermore, previous studies showed that anxiety and depressive symptoms are positively associated with affective empathy and negatively associated with cognitive empathy. Given the adverse pandemic effects highlighted by several authors, the present study sought to determine whether medical students' empathy has been potentially impacted, with higher affective empathy and lower cognitive empathy score in the pandemic cohort compared to pre-pandemic cohorts. Medical students (n = 395) were recruited during the COVID-19 pandemic and completed the "Interpersonal Reactivity Index" (IRI) and the "Basic Empathy Scale" (BES). This cohort was then compared with two pre-pandemic cohorts (one used the BES [n = 1168], and the other used the IRI [n = 342]). Similar results were found on both scales: the pandemic cohort displayed significantly higher scores in affective empathy and personal distress (affective empathy domain) and, surprisingly, significant higher scores in cognitive empathy, fantasy, and perspective-taking (cognitive empathy domains). As stressed by previous studies, we posited that the higher scores in affective empathy, personal distress, and fantasy might indicate emotional difficulties. The paper concludes with the identification of empathy components that should be promoted in the curriculum of medical students.

Adaptive help-seeking as a learning strategy can influence learners' learning outcomes. Learners in online learning environments need more self-regulation and especially more help-seeking strategies. A systematic review was conducted to explore help-seeking strategies in online learning environments. A search on help-seeking strategies in online environments in Educational Research Information Center (ERIC) and PsycInfo yielded 36 peer-reviewed articles that met the inclusion criteria for this study. Karabenick and Knapp's categories of help-seeking (formal help-seeking, informal help-seeking, instrumental activities, lowering performance aspirations, and altering goals) were used to review the strategies employed by students in online learning. The results show that there is an extreme lack of research on learners' psychological decision-making process when they lower performance aspirations or alter their goals. Moreover, most studies focus on the learners' formal and informal help-seeking behaviors in online settings. Since much research has been limited to small case studies that are not always generalizable, future studies are encouraged to include more instructional contexts and personal variables like gender, age, educational background, and mastery of computer skills. To avoid biases that may occur in self-reporting studies, recommendations are made for future studies that use more subjective methods to trace their actual help-seeking behaviors.

Autistic individuals often experience challenges in social communication and interaction, and there is growing evidence that specific interests can help them regulate these difficulties. However, it is unclear what specific properties of these interests make them suitable for this role. In this qualitative study, we conducted semi-structured interviews with nine autistic individuals to explore the social functions of their specific interests. Data analysis followed Grounded Theory and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis principles. Our analysis revealed that these interests have two important functions in social communication and interaction. On one hand, they provide a means of disconnecting from the often-distressing challenges in the social outside world. On the other hand, specific interests serve as a social compass: they provide structure and meaning to social reality, can foster a sense of connection with others, and provide an entryway for social participation. Based on these findings, we propose a conceptual model suggesting that specific interests enhance the experience of a psychological boundary between oneself and others, which contributes to a sense of safety during social interactions. Our study suggests that incorporating specific interests into therapeutic interventions can improve the social communication and interaction of autistic individuals, without losing sight of their personal well-being.

A major reform of teacher training has been underway for the past three decades in French-speaking Belgium, in response to the low quality of teacher training and the consequences for school teaching and learning deemed to be in deep crises. Using a number of eclectic methods (metaphors, typologies, timelines, network maps), we map controversies that arise during four steps of the policy translation process--problematization, interessement, enrolment and mobilization--by various types of actors (people, texts, working groups, institutions, etc.). Scientific and pedagogical problematizations framed by two interest groups of field level policy actors can produce objects and devices that are transformed and negotiated by political and administrative actors. However, the translation process is rendered controversial and complex as political decision-making is also flavored with backdoor political interests that are negotiated. Administrative policy actors in stakeholder institutions are trying to barter their institutional "share" in the reform implementation, adding some operational problems on the level of organizing the reform, thus reframing some of the original objectives.

Previous research suggests that nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI; the intentional destruction of bodily tissue without suicidal intent) occurs among elementary-aged children. However, it remains unclear to what extent elementary school educators encounter NSSI among students and how they respond. Therefore, this study investigated cross-national differences in Canadian and Belgian elementary school educators' knowledge of, and experience with NSSI among students. More specifically, elementary school educators' perceived reasons and supportive needs of students who engage in NSSI, as well as their own professional development needs, were explored. In total, 181 elementary school educators across Canada (n = 63) and Belgium (n = 118) were recruited through teacher association listservs and by school administrators who distributed the study information to school staff. Chi-square tests revealed that Canadian elementary school educators had more often encountered NSSI among their students than Belgian educators, although Canadian and Belgian school educators' similarly reported feeling ill-equipped to deal with NSSI among students. Thematic analyses revealed that educators believe elementary-aged students engage in NSSI because of various intrapersonal (e.g., low self-esteem) and interpersonal stressors (e.g., bullying). Moreover, the majority of educators would like professional development to more effectively respond to students. Implications for schools and future research are discussed.

This study investigates how graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) differ from regular graduates in terms of input characteristics (i.e., who they are), process characteristics (i.e., how they experience the PhD trajectory), and the self-estimated likelihood of successfully completing the PhD. Additionally, it assesses to what extent and how the input and process characteristics explain the self-estimated success rate between the two groups. The data come from four waves of the PhD Survey (2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021; N = 1,766) conducted at a large university in Brussels (Belgium). Results show that GTAs estimated their likelihood of successful completion of their PhD lower compared to regular graduates. This difference is mediated by a lower satisfaction with the supervisor support and a higher amount of time pressure among GTAs. Additionally, GTAs' surplus of time spent on teaching duties and the lack of a research plan was negatively related to the self-estimated likelihood of successful completion to a greater extent than regular graduates.

This study examined the relation between both implementation fidelity and quality and the outcomes of two different anti-bullying interventions targeting distinct processes involved in bullying: moral disengagement and social norms. In total, 34 French-speaking Belgian teachers from six elementary schools were trained to deliver either the moral disengagement or the social norms intervention to their Grade 4-6 students (N = 747, 50.4% boys) in a randomized controlled trial. Students reported their moral disengagement, perceived injunctive class norm toward bullying, and bullying behaviors in the fall and spring of the 2018-2019 school year. Teachers' implementation fidelity and quality were assessed through direct observation in each class by two independent raters with a satisfying interrater reliability. A multiplicative moderated mediation model using latent change scores revealed that both greater fidelity and quality amplified students' decrease in moral disengagement, which was accompanied by a decrease in bullying. Importantly, when quality was sufficient, fidelity did not matter. However, higher fidelity could compensate for a lack of quality. Contrary to expectations, there was no significant change in students' perceptions of the class injunctive norm, even under ideal implementation conditions. Alternative mediators should thus be considered. Because implementation by teachers inevitably fluctuates, anti-bullying program components should be evaluated under various implementation conditions to determine their cost-effectiveness ratio and to gain insights into how anti-bullying programs work.

Purpose: The present study investigates the perception of vowel nasality in French-speaking children with cochlear implants (CIs; CI group) and children with typical hearing (TH; TH group) aged 4-12 years. By investigating the vocalic nasality feature in French, the study aims to document more broadly the effects of the acoustic limitations of CI in processing segments characterized by acoustic cues that require optimal spectral resolution. The impact of various factors related to children's characteristics, such as chronological/auditory age, age of implantation, and exposure to cued speech, has been studied on performance, and the acoustic characteristics of the stimuli in perceptual tasks have also been investigated. Method: Identification and discrimination tasks involving French nasal and oral vowels were administered to two groups of children: 13 children with CIs (CI group) and 25 children with TH (TH group) divided into three age groups (4-6 years, 7-9 years, and 10-12 years). French nasal vowels were paired with their oral phonological counterpart (phonological pairing) as well as to the closest oral vowel in terms of phonetic proximity (phonetic pairing). Post hoc acoustic analyses of the stimuli were linked to the performance in perception. Results: The results indicate an effect of the auditory status on the performance in the two tasks, with the CI group performing at a lower level than the TH group. However, the scores of the children in the CI group are well above chance level, exceeding 80%. The most common errors in identification were substitutions between nasal vowels and phonetically close oral vowels as well as confusions between the phoneme /u/ and other oral vowels. Phonetic pairs showed lower discrimination performance in the CI group with great variability in the results. Age effects were observed only in TH children for nasal vowel identification, whereas in children with CIs, a positive impact of cued speech practice and early implantation was found. Differential links between performance and acoustic characteristics were found within our groups, suggesting that in children with CIs, selective use of certain acoustic features, presumed to be better transmitted by the implant, leads to better perceptual performance. Conclusions: The study's results reveal specific challenges in children with CIs when processing segments characterized by fine spectral resolution cues. However, the CI children in our study appear to effectively compensate for these difficulties by utilizing various acoustic cues assumed to be well transmitted by the implant, such as cues related to the temporal resolution of stimuli.

This paper examines the effect of the recently introduced Dutch non-binary 3rd person pronouns hen and die on tesssxt comprehensibility and text appreciation in the context of newspaper reporting on non-binary persons. Moreover, it presents a first measurement of Flemish people's familiarity with and attitudes towards this pronominal reform in Dutch in its early stage. In a survey experiment we compared the use of non-binary hen and die (both combined with hen as object and hun as possessive form) with established referential strategies. We also examined the potential mediating role of perceived awkwardness of the referential strategy used and tested the moderating effect of cueing, i.e. making readers aware of the fact that the person reported on identifies as non-binary and prefers non-binary pronouns. The results show that perceived awkwardness explains the lower comprehensibility and appreciation scores of non-binary hen and that cueing improves those scores. Overall, our findings suggest that especially the non-binary pronoun die has the potential to be successfully implemented.

The increasing mainstream adoption of immersive virtual reality (iVR) in education has triggered research about key variables explaining acceptance of iVR by teachers. In this study we adopted the UTAUT2 acceptance model as a theoretical framework enriched with the variable personal innovativeness. 379 Flemish secondary education teachers watched a video about iVR learning experiences, after which an online survey concerning their perceptions was administered. General linear modeling was performed to test the hypotheses. Results indicate performance expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, hedonic motivation and personal innovativeness to be significantly associated with behavioural intention to use. No moderating effect of age, gender or experience was observed. The results account for 54% of the variance in behavioural intention to use. The findings help to understand which factors are key in the acceptance of mobile iVR by secondary education teachers and might help defining successful iVR implementation strategies.

Multiple-documents-based (inquiry) tasks are often used to examine historical thinking, as they require students to apply discipline-specific ways of reasoning and writing. Intervention studies using such tasks have often relied on principles from cognitive apprenticeship to make these discipline-specific heuristics explicit to students. While several studies have found positive results, they offer little insight into how and where exactly students' progress on historical thinking manifests itself, nor into the differential effects of the intervention. Building on essay data gathered during an intervention study on students' historical inquiry skills, this study explores differential effects of the intervention according to students' initial historical inquiry ability. To this end, a purposeful sample of students was selected for whom the intervention was particularly effective. The qualitative analysis of students' essay tasks (pretest and posttest) revealed remarkable differences between students with high and low pretest scores. Although both groups made progress on all aspects of the essay task, they differed in terms of where and how this progress manifested itself: at posttest, students with a high initial score outperformed others in evaluating sources and rebuttals. This study offers insight into patterns of progress in students' historical inquiry skills which can inform differentiation in instructional practices.

While symbolic number processing is an important correlate for typical and low mathematics achievement, it remains to be determined whether children with high mathematics achievement also have excellent symbolic number processing abilities. We investigated this question in 64 children (aged 8 to 10), i.e., 32 children with persistent high achievement in mathematics (above the 90th percentile) and 32 average-achieving peers (between the 25th and 75th percentile). Children completed measures of symbolic number processing (comparison and order). We additionally investigated the roles of spatial visualization and working memory. High mathematics achievers were faster and more accurate in order processing compared to average achievers, but no differences were found in magnitude comparison. High mathematics achievers demonstrated better spatial visualization ability, while group differences in working memory were less clear. Spatial visualization ability was the only significant predictor of group membership. Our results therefore highlight the role of high spatial visualization ability in high mathematics achievement.

This study investigates the correlates of statistics anxiety. Considering that statistics anxiety and spatial anxiety have been separately correlated with related constructs (e.g., mathematics anxiety, academic performance, etc.), the possibility that spatial anxiety plays a role in statistics anxiety is explored. When facing statistics or mathematics operations, people may imagine or visualize the task operations they must do to obtain the result. To examine this hypothesis, 778 students in a Social or Health Sciences program, enrolled in a--often mandatory--statistics course from Canadian, French and Belgian universities completed an online survey. The results show moderate to strong positive correlations between all three types of anxiety (spatial, mathematics, and statistics). In addition, a mediation analysis reveals the intermediate role played by mathematics anxiety in the relationship between spatial and statistics anxieties. Nonetheless, the direct link from spatial anxiety to statistics anxiety is non-negligible in the model. Finally, the results also indicate that women report higher levels of statistics anxiety, which may be partly explained by their higher level of spatial anxiety.

Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) skills are receiving increased attention in the current workforce and in lifelong learning. In learning and labor contexts, successful teamwork is however not always guaranteed, due to several reasons, such as an unequal level of individual participation. Training in CPS for all groups is therefore needed. However, resources for CPS competence development are scarce. As part of our project entitled Supporting Teamwork in Ambient Learning Spaces (STEAMS), we, therefore, designed an interactive professional training on CPS, in which CPS is perceived both as a method and as a goal. In this paper, we outline the design process of our CPS training along with some crucial decisions we needed to make, and we aim to illustrate how implementing productive failure in the learning design can foster adults' CPS-competencies development.

Math anxiety (MA) is an important affective factor that contributes to individuals' math proficiency. While self-reports are commonly used to measure MA, a number of limitations are inherently connected to this measuring method. Physiological responses are considered a promising alternative approach, but research is scarce and the empirical evidence is scattered. Therefore, this paper aimed to (1) investigate whether different types of tasks (i.e., difficulty and topic) result in differences regarding self-reported anxiety and physiological measures, and (2) analyse whether physiological measures can account for differences in self-reported MA. We manipulated the difficulty level of a math and non-math task, so this study had a two-by-two experimental within-subject design. The participants were 44 undergraduate students. In terms of the first research aim, results revealed that the difficult math task elicited more self-reported anxiety compared to the easy math task and the difficult non-math task. However, these differences are barely detected by physiological measures. Regarding the second research aim, results showed that phasic galvanic skin responses and heart coherence ratio significantly predicted the self-reported MA. Our findings point to a possible contribution of using physiological measures to understand the construct of MA, meanwhile warning for a too optimistic use of this measurement method.

Despite the growing body of studies on collocation learning in SLA research, there are hardly any studies taking the perspective of the individual learner or studies that have examined the effect of individual differences. This study--a qualitative component of a mixed-methods longitudinal project--presents an in-depth exploration of the intro- and retrospective views of five Dutch-speaking L2 students of German on their 3-year collocation learning process. It focuses on the individual factors that enhanced or hindered L2 collocation development, and on the extent to which effective and less effective collocation learners differed regarding their L2 motivation, exposure and use, learning experience, and learning strategies. Extreme sampling strategy was used and five contrasting cases of learners were selected (three effective versus two less effective collocation learners). Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews and learners' written reflections on five specific collocations. Findings indicate that the effective collocation learners showed a higher intrinsic motivation, more engagement in informal learning activities, more extensive social interaction in the L2, more awareness towards collocations, a higher degree of self-regulation, and a higher number of learning strategies than the less effective collocation learners. Based on these findings, pedagogical implications are provided.

This study employed a bibliometric analysis of research on attitudes in STEM education to identify patterns and themes within scholarly publications to address a research gap in the current literature. The publications indexed in the SCOPUS database on attitudes and STEM were analyzed to collect data. 173 articles were chosen for analysis. Bibliometric analysis revealed an upward trend in research publications between 2008-2022, with notable increases in 2013 and 2018 and between 2018 and 2022. Curtin University was the institution that contributed the most to the literature during this period. The results also showed that institutions from Australia, Taiwan, and the United States contributed equally to research on attitudes and STEM. Another finding is that the United States had the most publications on attitudes and STEM. The International Journal of Science Education was cited the most, followed closely by The Journal of Research in Science Teaching and Science Education. Barry J. Fraser and Jaquelynne S. Eccles are authors who were cited more than one hundred times in the publications. Based on the findings, implications for further studies are drawn.

Our present time is characterised by many contradictions and the aspect of uncertainty indicates a sense of our deep loss of values. Education is the traditional space, in which generations create meanings and adults prefigure the future. Despite the idea of liquid modernity, which dominates our existence, we are convinced that we inherit meaningful testimonies of schools born in the spirit of the Reform from the pedagogic culture of the last two centuries. Schools, such as Dalton, Jena Plan, Decroly and Freinet, are still alive and bringing us a new message of citizenship education coherent with the impulse of their founders. Following our field study to investigate the reality of the Schools of Method in the areas of the Flanders and Brussels we were able to draw a solid concept of community. In the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, we assume that the modern western culture reaches its task to convert the dispute into tolerance. Citizenship education wishes to overcome any separations and indicates the road to peace and harmony. It is not by chance that Reform Schools are now reaffirming the original impulse. They are transforming the contradictions of our postmodern society into the management of daily education. Headmasters and teachers are seriously opting for movement and variety of the curriculum against school stereotypes of the disciplines. Children become protagonists of the reformation, using the methodology of dialogue, development and discovery. Teachers and parents appear to be fundamental parts of the process, and learning democracy in school begins with the practice of a council of pupils: discussing, deciding, doing. The external world actively enters schools to shape life. History is composed of the biographies of senior citizens, mainly grandfathers, and languages are matter of pride for children from families with migrant backgrounds.

In Flanders, open admission into higher education has led to heterogeneity in academic preparedness of incoming STEM students. Higher education institutions offer low stakes positioning tests to these students in order to help them assess their level of starting competences. Due to the unique nature of these tests, little can be inferred about students' perception of these tests. In this study, we used mixed methods to investigate these perceptions. Semi-structured interviews (n=20) and thematic analysis revealed that students do not always understand the stakes, objective and structure of positioning tests as intended by the organizers. A questionnaire (n=189) revealed that students considered chemistry problems better reflecting certain study programs than mathematics problems and that they wrongly think chemistry questions are more predictive than mathematics questions. Our findings provide insight in STEM students' multifaceted perceptions of and interaction with low stakes assessment.

The Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) and the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) are large-scale measurements about teaching and learning. There is a link between TALIS indicators and PISA results. We investigated which countries are effective according to TALIS indicators as inputs and PISA 2015 mathematics, scientific, and reading literacy scores as outputs in this research. Common 24 countries' data from TALIS 2013 and PISA 2015 were analyzed. Data envelopment analysis was used in this quantitative research. Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, and Portugal were effective countries in EMS 1.3, DEAP-XP 2.1, and R-4.1.3 software according to the input-oriented Charnes, Cooper, and Rhodes (CCR) model. Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, and Portugal were effective countries in EMS 1.3, DEAP-XP 2.1, and R-4.1.3 software according to the input-oriented Banker, Charnes, and Cooper (BCC) model. The results obtained from the BCC and CCR model differ partially. Italy and Norway should be taken as references mostly by ineffective countries for getting better PISA scores according to both models analyzing with EMS 1.3, DEAP-XP 2.1, and R-4.1.3.