David F. Treagust: congenial soul, science educator, and international research leader

For almost a half century David F. Treagust has been an exemplary science educator who has contributed through his dedication and commitments to students, curriculum development and collaboration with teachers, and cutting edge research in science education that has impacted the field globally, nationally and locally. A hallmark of his outstanding career is his collaborative style that inspires others to produce their best work.     

Innovative learning and developments in motivation and achievement in upper primary school

Although previous research has shown the potential of innovative learning for enhancing motivation and learning outcomes, further understanding is needed on which aspects of IL are most effective and whether these are equally motivating for different types of students. The present study investigated how developments in students’ motivation and achievement related to different aspects of innovative learning (i.e. authentic learning, collaborative learning and focusing on self-regulation), and whether these relations varied by students’ background characteristics. A sample of 722 grade five students from the Netherlands (average age 11?years old) and their teachers completed questionnaires during four measurements from grade five to grade six. Autoregression analyses were performed. Results showed both positive and negative relations between IL and developments in students’ motivation and achievement, indicating that IL is not a unidimensional construct. Furthermore, the effectiveness of different aspects of IL depended on students’ gender, and social and ethnic background characteristics.     

The development of student teachers’ research knowledge,beliefs and attitude

This study reports on the development of second-year student teachers’ knowledge of research, and the changes in their beliefs and attitude regarding research during an introductory course at an institute for primary teacher education. Questionnaires and concept maps were administered before and after the course. The results showed that student teachers’ knowledge about research grew during the introductory course and that their positive beliefs about research became more positive, while their negative beliefs about research decreased. A positive change was found concerning the attractiveness of research to student teachers. Furthermore, student teachers’ self-efficacy regarding research appeared related to their beliefs and attitude: the more the student teachers were convinced of their abilities to conduct and use the results of research after the course, the more positive their beliefs and their attitude regarding research were. This study provides guidelines for institutes for teacher education on integrating research activities into their curricula, so that their student teachers develop research knowledge and positive beliefs and attitudes towards research.     

Phonological Processing and Word Reading in Typically Developing and Reading Disabled Children: Severity Matters

In this study word reading (WR) fluency was used to dichotomously classify 1,598 Dutch children at different cutoffs, indicating (very) poor or (very) good reading performance. Analysis of variance and receiver operating characteristics were used to investigate the effects of rapid automatized naming (RAN) and phonemic awareness (PA) in predicting group membership. The highest predictive values were found for the combination of RAN and PA, particularly for the poorest readers. Furthermore, results indicate that with the severity of impairment, WR is more dominated by deficient PA, which is interpreted as an enduring problem with sublexical processing. Another main result is that with the increase of reading skill, the contribution of PA diminishes, whereas the contribution of RAN remains fairly constant for the whole reading fluency continuum. These results warrant the conclusion that whereas PA hallmarks reading disability, RAN appears to be the default predictor for above-average or excellent reading proficiency.     

Developmental Changes in the Relations Between RAN,Phonological Awareness,and Reading in Spanish Children

We examined the developmental relations of phonological awareness (PA) and rapid automatized naming (RAN) with reading in a cross-sectional study with 874 Spanish children from Grades 2 to 6. Our main prediction was that the RAN–reading relationship would decrease due to a gradual change in reading strategy, from serial decoding to sight word reading. Therefore, in contrast to most previous studies, we used discrete reading tasks. Serial RAN tasks for objects, colors, digits, and letters were included. First, we examined whether the RAN tasks loaded on the same constructs across time. An alphanumeric and a nonalphanumeric factor were identified, which were invariant over time. In subsequent multigroup structural equation models we found that the PA–reading relationship was low but slightly increased in the higher grades. As predicted, the RAN–reading relationship decreased for words, whereas the relationship remained stable for pseudowords.     

Parent–adolescent interaction quality and adolescent affect—An experience sampling study on effect heterogeneity

Person–environment interactions might ultimately drive longer term development. This experience sampling study (Data collection: 2019/20 the Netherlands) assessed short-term linkages between parent–adolescent interaction quality and affect during 2281 interactions of 124 adolescents (M_age = 15.80, SD_age = 1.69, 59% girls, 92% Dutch, Education: 25% low, 31% middle, 35% high, 9% other). Adolescents reported on parent–adolescent interaction quality (i.e., warmth and conflict) and momentary positive and negative affect five to six times a day, for 14 days. Preregistered dynamic structural equation models (DSEM) revealed within-family associations between parent–adolescent interaction quality and adolescent affect (concurrently: r = −.22 to .39; lagged effects: ß = −.17 to .15). These effects varied significantly between families. These findings stress the need for more person-specific research on parenting processes.     

Maternal color-consciousness is related to more positive and less negative attitudes toward ethnic-racial outgroups in children in White Dutch families

A prerequisite to anti-racist socialization in families is acknowledging ethnic-racial (power) differences, also known as color-consciousness. In a sample of 138 White Dutch families from the urban Western region of the Netherlands with children aged 6–10 years (53% girls), observations and questionnaires on maternal color-consciousness and measures of children's attitudes toward Black and Middle-Eastern ethnic-racial outgroups were collected in 2018–2019. Variable-centered analyses showed that maternal color-conscious socialization practices were related to less negative child outgroup attitudes only. Person-centered analysis revealed a cluster of families with higher maternal color-consciousness and less prejudiced child attitudes, and a cluster with the opposite pattern. The mixed results emphasize the importance of multiple methods and approaches in advancing scholarship on anti-racism in the family context.