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The role of teachers is an important element of online project-based learning courses. Based on the Community of Inquiry framework, this study examined how students' perceptions of teaching presence, through social presence and cognitive presence, were related to their evaluations of online project-based learning. A 16-week online project-based legal education course was implemented. During the course, students engaged in two small group activities and created two final products. Survey data were collected twice from 38 and 41 students in two course phases. Results from partial least squares analyses revealed that teaching presence was directly related to students' evaluations in the early stage of the course and indirectly related to students' evaluations, through the effects of social presence, in the entire course. Practical implications for teachers and suggestions for further studies are provided.

Background: Given that high levels of stress during adolescence are associated with negative consequences, it is important that adolescents with psychological needs are supported at an early stage, for instance with interventions at school. However, knowledge about the potential of school-based programs targeting adolescents with psychological needs, aimed at reducing school or social stress, is lacking. Objective: The current study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of two targeted school-based skills-training programs, addressing either skills to deal with performance anxiety or social skills. Methods: Two randomized controlled trials were performed with participants who self-selected to one of the programs. The sample comprised of N = 361 adolescents (M[subscript age] = 13.99 years, SD = 0.83) from various educational levels and ethnic identity backgrounds. The performance anxiety program included N = 196 participants (N = 95 in the experimental group), while the social skills program included N = 165 participants (N = 86 in the experimental group). MANCOVA's were performed. Results: The performance anxiety program had a small effect on reducing adolescents' test anxiety. Furthermore, for adolescents who attended more than half of the sessions, the program had small effects on reducing test anxiety and fear of failure. The program did not improve adolescents' coping skills or mental health. The social skills program was not effective in improving social skills, social anxiety, and mental health. Conclusions: A relatively short, targeted program addressing skills to deal with performance anxiety can have the potential to reduce adolescents' performance anxiety.

The ways in which educators talk about diversity, and specifically about linguistic diversity, reflect underlying beliefs about language in society and influence teaching practice. Semi-structured interviews with 55 high school teachers in the Netherlands were analyzed qualitatively in order to identify teachers' discourse patterns related to the backgrounds and home languages of their students as well as language policies in the school context. The teachers struggle with the labels to categorize students with migration backgrounds, showing awareness of problematic insider-outsider labels. In terms of language diversity, deficit discourses about home languages and a monolingual focus on Dutch acquisition for immigrants highlights the prevalence of a language-as-problem orientation in decisions about language use. Language policy is focused on the development of skills in the target language, Dutch, and the promotion of a Dutch-only norm in the high schools. However, some interviewees describe the potential resource of the mother tongue in the classroom. Highlighting taken-for-granted assumptions in the discourses of Dutch teachers does not negate their best intentions in preparing their students for society. Rather it demonstrates the influence of language ideologies on teaching practice and the importance of teacher preparation and increased awareness of students' home language resources.

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.

Language learners in higher education increasingly use out-of-class self-directed learning facilitated by mobile technology. In order to make informed educational decisions, this study sets out to provide an overview of empirical research into learning strategies that self-directed learners use with the support of mobile technology in language learning. Twenty studies were selected and systematically analysed, revealing the cognitive, metacognitive, social and affective strategies that self-directed learners used in their language learning processes. Low-cognitive strategies appeared to be more commonly reported than high-cognitive strategies. The use of metacognitive strategies was more closely associated with the forethought phase and performance phase than with the self-reflection phase, yet only a few articles reported all three metacognitive phases. Three kinds of social strategies were examined, and only one affective strategy was reported. Finally, implications of these findings and directions for future research are provided for self-directed learners, practitioners and researchers to facilitate self-directed learning and future work.

Commitment to teaching is a recurring topic in both research and policy discussions on teaching and the teaching profession. We investigated factors explaining differences in student-teachers' commitment to the teaching profession and to student learning, and their intentions to enter the teaching profession. Student-teachers (n = 3,246) from one University College in Tanzania completed a Commitment-to-Teaching questionnaire. Bandura's Social-Cognitive Theory was used to explain the findings. Differences in student-teachers' commitment were explained by personal characteristics (i.e., student-teachers' sense of self-efficacy), environmental factors (i.e., perceived influence of significant others and school conditions), and learning experiences (i.e., student-teachers' attitudes towards the teaching profession, their teaching subjects, and satisfaction with the teacher education programme). Implications for practice and for research on student-teachers' commitment to teaching are discussed.

One promising way to cope with changing requirements from the labor market in the domain of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), but also to keep the field up to date, to start innovations and to advance the STEM domain as such is the use of student labs. In these labs, students work together in small groups imitating professional practice of design and technology workers. More insights are needed in what competences student labs in the STEM domain address and what the implications would be for the design of student labs. A review of empirical studies on student labs and additional literature indicate that five generic competences are addressed in most student labs: Collaboration, communication, problem solving, critical thinking, and creativity. In order to effectively enhanced these competences, student labs should be designed as authentic productive learning environments based on three design principles: (1) Realistic, complex task situations, (2) Multidisciplinarity, and (3) Social interaction. IoT Rapid Proto Labs are examples of such a student labs, in which cross-border multidisciplinary teams of students, teachers (coaches), and practitioners jointly develop solutions to challenging IoT applications (Internet-connected objects), add value for enterprises, and strengthen the employability, creativity and career prospects of students.

The school context has the potential to hinder or stimulate teachers' motivation to attend Continuous Professional Development (CPD) programs. The present study investigated the relationship between workplace conditions in schools and teachers' autonomous motivation to participate in CPD. A questionnaire was completed by 472 teachers in 13 schools in China. The results show that four school condition variables are related to teachers' autonomous motivation for CPD. The more support teachers report to receive from their school principals and the more work pressure they experience, the more they are motivated for CPD. In contrast, the more teachers report to be supported by their colleagues and the more emotional pressure they receive, the less they are motivated for CPD. In addition, support from colleagues and levels of perceived task autonomy moderate the relationship between teachers' personal factors and their motivation for CPD. Implications are presented for school leaders and policymakers.

Peer feedback can be a tool to help higher education students develop presentation skills. This process can be supported by using online tools that enable peers to provide feedback annotated to specific moments in the presentation. The current paper investigated whether providing and receiving peer feedback using an online tool was related to improvement in students' presentation skills, whether students provided different peer feedback in comments and annotations, and whether student characteristics played a role in students' presentation skill improvement. Results from 56 second-year undergraduate Education and Child Studies students indicate that providing and receiving feedback did not relate to students' improvement in presentation skill, and that high ability students showed less improvement in presentation skills than medium and low ability students did.

Project-based learning (PjBL) engages students in knowledge acquisition, application, and construction through artefact development. Based on the Community of Inquiry framework, this study characterized college students' social and cognitive presences in online PjBL and examined how presence was related to their academic performance. Twenty-four groups of students participated in a 3-week project via WeChat discussion groups and created a final product. Transcripts of students' online discourse were collected and analysed by a coding scheme. The quality of students' artefacts was evaluated by a grading rubric. Descriptive results showed that the component of affectiveness and the level of exploration accounted for the majority of students' social and cognitive presences, respectively. Stepwise regression analyses revealed that certain components and sub-components of students' social presence, and levels and sub-levels of their cognitive presence were positively associated with their academic performance. Practical implications for teachers and suggestions for further research are provided.

Teacher education is a symbolic entry point into the teaching profession and the identification of specific teacher education aspects that enhance commitment to teaching is important. A thematic literature review was carried out to identify these themes within teacher education. The review included 22 peer-reviewed articles. Eleven themes were extracted that can influence student teachers' commitment to teaching, which were related to student teachers' campus-based experiences, their school-based experiences, and the connection between theory and practical components of the course. Conclusively, implications for teacher education emphasise student teachers' commitment enhancement.

Teachers' motivation to participate in professional learning is a significant factor in explaining the effectiveness of continuous professional development programmes. The present study investigated how factors at teachers' personal and school levels are related to their motivation to participate in professional learning activities. A questionnaire was completed by 472 Chinese teachers. Multivariate analysis revealed that several factors at the teacher level (teachers' prior experience with learning activities, teaching experience, self-efficacy and conceptions of learning) and the school level (work and emotional pressure, colleague support and principal leadership) were related to their motivation to participate in professional learning. These findings are discussed in the context of the professional development of Chinese teachers. Implications are generated for teacher education and continuous professional development.

In China, the university-school partnership (USP) is a community of continuous professional development (PD) for teachers, involving teacher educators who visit schools. This study explores teachers' personal factors, school working conditions, and principal leadership in order to explain differences in teachers' learning when they have participated in the training program. Using a one-group pretest-posttest design, 375 teachers from 12 primary schools in Shanghai participated. Their learning performances are measured by changes in their teaching quality as evaluated by their students. Results of regression analyses show that teachers generally receive higher scores on teaching quality after the program than before. Three factors are significantly and negatively related to the changes in quality: teachers' educational level, the extent to which teachers feel emotional pressure in their profession, and the support from their school principal. Implications for school leaders and policymakers are discussed.

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.

The learning benefits of peer assessment and providing peer feedback have been widely reported. However, it is still not understood which learning activities most facilitate the acquisition of feedback skills. This study aimed to compare the effect of a modeling example, i.e., a model that demonstrated how to give feedback, on the acquisition of feedback skills. The participants were second-year bachelor students in pedagogical sciences (N = 111). They were assigned randomly to a "practice condition," in which they practiced giving feedback on oral presentations, or a modeling "example condition," in which a teacher demonstrated how to give feedback on a good and a bad presentation. Students then gave feedback to a presenter in a video (direct feedback measure). One week later, they gave each other peer feedback on oral presentations (delayed feedback measure). On the direct feedback measure, students in the modeling example condition used assessment criteria more often in their feedback, and produced significantly more overall feedback, and significantly more positive and negative judgments than students in the practice condition. There was no significant difference in the amount of elaboration and feed-forward between the two conditions. On the delayed feedback measure, there were no significant differences between the two experimental conditions. The results suggest that, at least in the short term, a modeling example can stimulate the use of assessment criteria and judgments in feedback. The results and implications for future research and practice are discussed.

High-quality helping behavior is essential for effective peer interaction and learning. This study focused on ethnic group composition and the quality of group interaction as predictors of individual mathematics performance. Video-observations of 92 fifth-grade students working in groups balanced on mathematics performance level were analyzed. We expected a difference in the quality of interaction and test scores of native and non-native students. Multilevel analysis identified process regulation and giving answers as positive predictors of mathematics performance, whereas giving or applying explanations contributed negatively. Non-native students generally had lower achievement scores than native students. Non-native students working in ethnically heterogeneous groups performed better than did students working in homogenous groups. Homogeneous groups used more high-quality helping behaviors and engaged more often in task-oriented behavior. Heterogeneous groups engaged more often in low-quality helping behaviors. Working with native students may have been conducive to non-native students' understanding of word problems in realistic mathematics education.

During the early stages of secondary education students' motivation and performance levels decline. This study employed a case study approach to evaluate a learning environment called GUTS; Differentiated Challenging of Talent in School. GUTS was specifically designed to raise performance and motivation through a combination of (a) talent lessons as an intrinsic motivator and (b) a higher promotion standard as an extrinsic incentive. Participants were 156 students who started secondary education in grade 7 in school year 2013/2014, and participated in GUTS for three successive school years. Performance and motivation measures were longitudinally collected between grades 7 and 9 and were analysed in comparison to previous cohorts of students at the same school and students at other schools. Additionally, measures of well-being and self-esteem were included to explore possible collateral effects of the intervention. The GUTS cohort displayed generally higher levels of performance and motivation than the comparison groups. However, the GUTS cohort still showed the decline of performance and motivation between grades 7 and 9 that was also observed in the comparison groups. This study showed that performance and motivation levels were increased without collateral damage to the students' overall sense of well-being and self-esteem, while GUTS was not a strong enough intervention to counter the motivation and performance decline over time. Possible reasons for the persistent decline of student performance and motivation are discussed in terms of various factors at the level of GUTS, the educational context and the needs of the developing adolescent.

Research skills are important for university graduates, but little is known about undergraduates' motivation for research. In this study, self-efficacy beliefs and intrinsic motivation for several research activities were measured three times during an undergraduate research project (N = 147 students). In order to promote self-efficacy for writing and collaboration, a collaboration script was developed and tested on half of the students. Twelve students were interviewed three times to gather in-depth information about motivational and self-efficacy beliefs. All measures except intrinsic motivation for research increased significantly during the project. Interview results suggest that enactive mastery and positive social interdependence promoted self-efficacy. Feelings of relatedness seemed to promote intrinsic motivation for writing. Lack of autonomy and low perceived relevance may explain why motivation for research remained stable. The script had no impact on self-efficacy beliefs. Relatedness, autonomy and positive social interdependence may boost motivation for research, but more evidence is needed.

Peer feedback is frequently implemented with academic writing tasks in higher education. However, a quantitative synthesis is still lacking for the impact that peer feedback has on students' writing performance. The current study conveyed two types of observations. First, regarding the impact of peer feedback on writing performance, this study synthesized the results of 24 quantitative studies reporting on higher education students' academic writing performance after peer feedback. Engagement in peer feedback resulted in larger writing improvements compared to (no-feedback) controls (g = 0.91 [0.41, 1.42]) and compared to self-assessment (g = 0.33 [0.01, 0.64]). Peer feedback and teacher feedback resulted in similar writing improvements (g = 0.46 [-0.44, 1.36]). The nature of the peer feedback significantly moderated the impact that peer feedback had on students' writing improvement, whereas only a theoretically plausible, though non-significant moderating pattern was found for the number of peers that students engaged with. Second, this study shows that the number of well-controlled studies into the effects of peer feedback on writing is still low, indicating the need for more quantitative, methodologically sound research in this field. Findings and implications are discussed both for higher education teaching practice and future research approaches and directions.

In this internationalised world, graduate employability in terms of intercultural communication skills needs to be taken into account in higher education. The present study aims to explore the effects of critical incident task instruction on English non-majored undergraduates' intercultural competence. One group of students received ten weeks of instruction with one critical incident task per week and another group received standard English classes. Data were collected from the students' pre- and post-test. The results showed a significant and strong effect of the intervention with critical incident tasks. Implications for educational practice are presented for further teaching with critical incident tasks.

The authors examined three instructional approaches for improving teachers' curriculum-based measurement (CBM) graph comprehension, each differing in the extent to which reading the data, interpreting the data, and linking the data to instruction were emphasized. Participants were 164 elementary school teachers who were randomly assigned to one of three CBM instructional approaches or a control condition. Instruction was delivered via videos. Prior to and after receiving instruction, teachers completed a CBM graph-comprehension task. They also evaluated the instructional videos. Teachers in the three instructional groups improved more in CBM graph comprehension than control teachers. Improvements were seen primarily in interpreting and linking the data to instruction, two important but difficult aspects of CBM graph comprehension. Differences between the instructional groups were found for interpreting the data. Teachers evaluated the videos positively. Results indicate that teachers' CBM graph comprehension can be improved via video instruction. Implications for teaching teachers to implement CBM are discussed.

The present study investigated comprehension processes and strategy use of second-grade low- and high-comprehending readers when reading expository and narrative texts for comprehension. Results from think-aloud protocols indicated that text genre affected the way the readers processed the texts. When reading narrative texts they made more text-based and knowledge-based inferences, and when reading expository texts they made more comments and asked more questions, but also made a higher number of invalid knowledge-based inferences. Furthermore, low- and high-comprehending readers did not differ in the patterns of text-processing strategies used: all readers used a variety of comprehension strategies, ranging from literal repetitions to elaborate knowledge-based inferences. There was one exception: for expository texts, low-comprehending readers generated a higher number of inaccurate elaborative and predictive inferences. Finally, the results confirmed and extended prior research by showing that low-comprehending readers can be classified either as readers who construct a limited mental representation that mainly reflects the literal meaning of the text (struggling "paraphrasers"), or as readers who attempt to enrich their mental representation by generating elaborative and predictive inferences (struggling "elaborators"). A similar dichotomy was observed for high-comprehending readers.

Students in secondary education inevitably favour some subjects more than other subjects. This appraisal may affect how motivation relates to performance in these subjects. Whereas autonomous motivation is generally linked to positive school outcomes, the effect of controlled motivation is less clear. This study specifically focused on the associations of controlled motivation with performance in the context of favoured and disfavoured subjects. In the present study, secondary school students (N = 918) identified 2 favoured and 2 disfavoured subjects. Hierarchical linear modelling was performed to investigate the relationship of autonomous and controlled motivation with performance in these subjects. Results showed that autonomous motivation positively related to performance in both types of subjects. The association of controlled motivation with performance was negative in both contexts, and more negative in disfavoured subjects. For teaching practice, this means that teachers should always stimulate autonomous motivation, even for negatively appraised subjects.

Within the higher education context, peer feedback is frequently applied as an instructional method. Research on the learning mechanisms involved in the peer feedback process has covered aspects of both providing and receiving feedback. However, a direct comparison of the impact that providing and receiving peer feedback has on students' writing performance is still lacking. The current study compared the writing performance of undergraduate students (N = 83) who either provided or received anonymous written peer feedback in the context of an authentic academic writing task. In addition, we investigated whether students' peer feedback perceptions were related to the nature of the peer feedback they received and to writing performance. Results showed that both providing and receiving feedback led to similar improvements of writing performance. The presence of explanatory comments positively related both to how adequate students perceived the peer feedback to be, as well as to students' willingness to improve based upon it. However, no direct relation was found between these peer feedback perceptions and students' writing performance increase.

In a relatively short period of time, massive open online courses (MOOCs) have become a considerable topic of research and debate, and the number of available MOOCs is rapidly growing. Along with issues of formal recognition and accreditation, this growth in the number of MOOCs being developed increases the relevance of assessment quality. Within the context of a typical xMOOC, the current study focuses on peer assessment of essay assignments. In the literature, two contradicting theoretical arguments can be found: that learners should be matched with same-ability peers (homogeneously) versus that students should be matched with different-ability peers (heterogeneously). Considering these arguments, the relationship between peer reviewers' ability and authors' essay performance is explored. Results indicate that peer reviewers' ability is positively related to authors' essay performance. Moreover, this relationship is only established for intermediate and high ability authors; essay performance of lower ability authors appeared not to be related to the ability of their reviewing peers. Results are discussed in relation to the matching of learners and instructional design of peer assessment in MOOCs.

The present study aimed to identify overall stress and salient stressors experienced by adolescents from different education tracks and self-perceived ethnic backgrounds. A total of 1489 adolescents (M = 13.40 years; SD = 0.89 years) from nine Dutch secondary schools participated. Self-reported stressors were measured with the adapted version of the Adolescent Stress Questionnaire – Short. After controlling for age, gender, country of birth, and school classes, results showed that overall stress did not differ for educational track nor for ethnic background subgroups. Adolescents in academic education reported more stress from school-related stressors than adolescents attending vocational education. Adolescents with a mixed ethnic background (i.e., Dutch and another ethnicity) reported more stress regarding school-related stressors than adolescents with a Dutch ethnic background. These differences between adolescents of different educational tracks and ethnic backgrounds have implications for intervention programs targeting specific stressors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Targeted school-based programs seem to be a promising approach to help adolescents in need. Nevertheless, successful implementation and evaluation of such programs is challenging. However, there is limited knowledge about (overcoming) the challenges of implementation and experimental evaluation of school-based programs. The goal of the present paper is, therefore, to improve future research by describing the challenges encountered and lessons learned during two randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to study the effectiveness of two skills-training programs reducing school or social stress. In this way, we aim to inform others who plan to implement and evaluate such programs in schools using an RCT design. Some of the challenges encountered apply to all effectiveness studies, such as the recruitment and retention of participants; others are more "intervention at school" specific, such as scheduling the programs and assessments. Our experiences show that it is possible to effectively implement and evaluate targeted programs promoting adolescent mental health in secondary schools with RCTs, even during a worldwide health pandemic, but that it requires investing sufficient time in keeping close and regular contact as well as clear communication between the involved parties. Moreover, high levels of flexibility are needed in adjusting scheduled meetings for intervention and research while keeping track of the entire process for each school and individual participant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teachers have difficulty using data from Curriculum-based Measurement (CBM) progress graphs of students with learning difficulties for instructional decision-making. As a first step in unraveling those difficulties, we studied teachers' comprehension of CBM graphs. Using think-aloud methodology, we examined 23 teachers' ability to "read," "interpret," and "link CBM data to instruction" for fictitious graphs and their own students' graphs. Additionally, we examined whether graph literacy--measured with a self-report question and graph-reading skills test--affected graph comprehension. To provide a framework for understanding teachers' graph comprehension, we also collected data from "gold-standard" experts. Results revealed that teachers were reasonably proficient at "reading the data," but had more difficulty with "interpreting" and "linking the data to instruction." Graph literacy was related to some but not all aspects of teachers' CBM graph-comprehension ability. Implications for training teachers to comprehend and use CBM progress data for decision-making are discussed.

There does not appear to be consensus on how to optimally match students during the peer feedback process: with same-ability peers (homogeneously) or different-ability peers (heterogeneously). In fact, there appears to be no empirical evidence that either homogeneous or heterogeneous student matching has any direct effect on writing performance. The current study addressed this issue in the context of an academic writing task. Adopting a quasi-experimental design, 94 undergraduate students were matched in 47 homogeneous or heterogeneous reciprocal dyads, and provided anonymous, formative peer feedback on each other's draft essays. The relations between students' individual ability or dyad composition, feedback quality and writing performance were investigated. Neither individual ability nor dyad composition directly related to writing performance. Also, feedback quality did not depend on students' individual ability or dyad composition, although trends in the data suggest that high-ability reviewers provided more content-related feedback. Finally, peer feedback quality was not related to writing performance, and authors of varying ability levels benefited to a similar extent from peer feedback on different aspects of the text. The results are discussed in relation to their implications for the instructional design of academic writing assignments that incorporate peer feedback.

Understanding student-teachers' decisions to enter and stay in the teaching profession after graduation could help teacher educators to find appropriate procedures to enhance commitment to teaching. This study classified student-teachers based on their levels of commitment to teaching, and described these types based on student-teachers' motivation to enter the teaching profession and their perceptions of the teaching profession and environmental aspects e.g. school condition and significant others. Thirty-seven undergraduate student-teachers from the Dar es salaam University College of Education in Tanzania were interviewed. Four student-teacher types from our results were identified: (1) committed passionate, (2) committed compromisers, (3) undecided and (4) uncommitted. Implications from the findings include the importance of designing teacher education curriculum in a way that caters for the needs of student-teachers in each type in order to enhance their commitment to teaching.

Student performance is related to motivation to learn. As motivation generally declines during lower secondary education, one might expect performance to decline as well during this period. Though, until now, it has been unclear whether this pattern exists. In the present study, we examined student performance during the early years of secondary education from a developmental perspective. Participants were 1,544 Dutch secondary school students across three grades (grades 7 to 9). To investigate student performance trends, we analysed report card grades by using hierarchical linear modelling with two levels (level 1, time point; level 2, student). Potential moderators to be examined were (1) gender, (2) school type and (3) initial level. A linear decline in report card grades from grade 7 to 9 was found for boys and girls, in all school types, and regardless of initial level. Two variables moderated the steepness of the decline: school type and initial level. Gender and school type had a main effect on performance level. The same pattern was observed for the subset of "core subjects"--Dutch, English and mathematics. Motivational and cognitive factors that may explain the performance decline are discussed.