The sustainability of a teacher professional development programme for beginning urban teachers

This study investigated the long-term effects of a professional development intervention for beginning urban teachers and explored which characteristics and activities in school organisations contributed to the sustainability of these effects. A quasi-experimental study (n = 72) investigated whether the positive effects of the programme were observed one year after the programme ended. Interviews with teachers and principals (n = 19) were used to explore which characteristics and activities in schools contributed to those positive effects. A significant long-term effect of the programme was found on teachers’ competences and professional orientation. An open culture in the schools was experienced as an important factor for the sustainability of the programme’s effects.     

Training for Interreligious Classroom Teaching: An Empirical Study

Interreligious education should support cultural and religious diversity in the classroom by inviting new perspectives. Four contexts are important in this regard, as follows: auto-interpretation of one’s own religious tradition, auto-interpretation of foreign traditions, allo-interpretation of one's own religious tradition, and allo-interpretation of foreign traditions. Previous empirical research in the Netherlands has indicated that interreligious learning is not possible in the classroom. However, this study investigated interreligious education from the teaching perspective by conducting an exercise among twenty-four religious and worldview teachers. Specifically, a combination of student teachers, schoolteachers, and teacher trainers took part in a secondary school workshop before answering interview questions. Most participants discussed their own or foreign traditions using auto-interpretation. However, approximately half of all teacher trainers discussed their own traditions using allo-interpretation, although none discussed foreign traditions from the same perspective. In addition, student teachers reached the highest level of interreligious learning available in this study by using multiple perspectives to promote inquiry and engage in productive debate. Although interreligious education is problematic at multiple teaching levels, these results indicate that interreligious teaching practices may be improved through increased training.     

Educational outcomes and functioning of bi-ethnic Dutch children in school

Background: Changing demographics in societies through international migration have led to an increasing number of bi-ethnic individuals. The focus of this study is on bi-ethnic students with one parent with an ethnic majority background and one parent with an ethnic minority background. Most studies worldwide have grouped these bi-ethnic students with ethnic minority students or have grouped them according to the ethnic background of their mothers with the majority or minority group. However, empirical arguments for these groupings are lacking.

Purpose: The present study examined the educational outcomes and functioning of bi-ethnic students compared with mono-ethnic majority and mono-ethnic minority students in the Netherlands.

Sample: Data on in total 12,841 sixth-grade students (age 11–12) in primary education from two consecutive measurements of the national Dutch cohort study (COOL^5–18) were used in this study.

Method: Educational outcomes were measured with test scores on reading comprehension and mathematics. Educational functioning in school was measured with teacher and student questionnaires. Student questionnaires included instruments for well-being of the pupil in relationship with fellow students and citizenship competences. Teachers reported on problem behaviour of the pupils. To analyse the differences in educational outcomes and functioning among bi-ethnic, mono-ethnic minority and mono-ethnic majority students, multivariate, multilevel analyses were performed.

Results: The research findings indicate that bi-ethnic students do not differ from mono-ethnic majority students while they do differ from mono-ethnic minority students in their cognitive achievement, social-emotional functioning and citizenship knowledge. Bi-ethnic students scored higher on cognitive outcomes, social-emotional functioning and citizenship knowledge than mono-ethnic minority students did. For citizenship orientation alone, it was found that bi-ethnic students score in between mono-ethnic majority and mono-ethnic minority students.

Conclusion: This study indicates that researchers should not assume that bi-ethnic students will be similar to mono-ethnic ones.     

Qualities of instructional-learning episodes in different domains: The subjects Care and Technology

This paper focuses on the question, 'What kind of learning processes are intended in the subjects Care and Technology in the Dutch common curriculum?' Arguments for the introduction of the subjects in the common curriculum pointed out their practical nature. However, the concept 'practical' was used to refer to different dimensions: to 'learning domains' (cognitive, psychomotor, social-affective), and to 'learning outcomes' (knowledge-skills). We analyse these subjects in relation to these dimensions as well as the dimensions 'productive-reproductive learning', 'extent of metacognition', and 'near- or far-transfer'. The findings show that Care and Technology are not 'practical' subjects in either the learning-domain dimension or in the learningoutcome dimension. Like other subjects in secondary education, relatively little attention is paid to metacognition and far-transfer.     

Media Use and the Sexual Propensities of Emerging Adults

This study explored connections between media use and college students' attitudes of acceptance towards homosexuality (AATH). Data were collected from 1,761 undergraduates (62.7% female, M_Age = 19 years). Results varied by the gender, ethnicity, and religiosity of the participants. Overall, greater media consumption among men and those who are highly religious was associated with greater AATH, whereas the reverse was true among women and those who are less religious. Although the associations were modest, the results support evidence of a mainstreaming effect, whereby increased media exposure may draw groups with disparate attitudes towards a more similar viewpoint on homosexuality.     

Ethnic diversity in schools and bi-ethnic Dutch students’ educational outcomes and social functioning

The present study examined the relationship between ethnic diversity in school and educational outcomes, social-emotional functioning, and citizenship competences for bi-ethnic students. The focus of this study is bi-ethnic children with 1 non-migrant parent (with 2 non-migrant grandparents) and 1 migrant parent (with 2 foreign grandparents). It was found that the educational outcomes, social-emotional functioning, and citizenship competences of bi-ethnic students were not related to ethnic diversity. We also focused on the relationship between ethnic diversity in school and educational outcomes, social-emotional functioning, and citizenship competences for mono-ethnic students to determine whether this relationship is different for bi-ethnic and mono-ethnic students. Whereas the relationship was not significant for mono-ethnic minority students, mono-ethnic majority students’ educational outcomes, social-emotional functioning, and citizenship competences were related to a school’s ethnic diversity. This study indicates that the outcomes and social functioning of bi-ethnic students are not related to attending an ethnically diverse school.     

Lexical and nonlexical processes in the skilled reading and spelling of Persian

The objective of the present study was to examine the contribution of lexical and nonlexical processes to skilled reading and spelling in Persian. Persian is a mixed orthography that allows one to study within one language characteristics typically found in shallow orthographies as well as those found in deeper orthographies. 61 senior high-school students (mean age = 17; 8, SD = 4 months) attending schools in Iran were tested on reading and spelling of words and nonwords. The word stimuli differed in terms of reading transparency (transparent when all phonemes have corresponding letters vs. opaque when short vowels were not marked with a letter) and spelling polygraphy (nonpolygraphic phonemes vs. polygraphic phonemes). The nonwords were transparent and nonpolygraphic. The reading results showed that both transparent and opaque words were read faster than nonwords, and that transparent words were read faster than opaque words. Moreover, both transparent and opaque words were affected by word frequency. These findings suggest that skilled readers of Persian relied on lexical processes to read words. In contrast, the spelling results failed to show a word-advantage effect suggesting that skilled spellers of Persian rely on nonlexical processes to spell words. Moreover, orthographic complexity also affected spelling. Specifically, nonpolygraphic words were spelled faster than polygraphic words for both transparent and opaque words. Taken together, the findings showed that skilled reading and spelling in Persian rely on different underlying processes.     

Scaffolding Student Understanding in Small-Group Work: Students’ Uptake of Teacher Support in Subsequent Small-Group Interaction

Providing contingent or adaptive support (i.e., scaffolding) is effective. Yet it is unclear how it promotes students’ learning. In this mixed-methods study, we investigated to what extent the effect of contingent support for students’ learning is mediated by the extent to which students take up teachers’ support in subsequent small-group work. We define contingent support as support that contains adapted levels of teacher control or regulation based on the learner’s level of understanding. To explore the research question, we analyzed all interactions from 35 lessons of 7 secondary social studies teachers and 7 small groups of students. Logistic multilevel mediation analyses showed that the likelihood of students formulating accurate answers during small-group work was higher when students applied the teacher’s support in subsequent small-group work (as opposed to ignoring that support). However, the contingency of a teacher’s support did not affect students’ uptake or the accuracy of their answers. Additional qualitative analyses showed that students’ uptake of contingent support was sometimes hampered by untimely fading of the support. Moreover, we found that contingent support that was then gradually faded was the most effective in fostering students’ uptake of a teacher’s support.     

The influence of race–ethnicity and physical activity levels on elementary school achievement

The authors used structural equation modeling to map the relationships between student race–ethnicity via the mediating variable physical activity on English language arts (ELA) and mathematics achievement among 964 fourth- and fifth-grade students. The students attended a New York City Metropolitan area school district and completed the Physical Activity Questionnaire for Older Children, which measured weekly average activity levels. Confirmatory factor analysis validated the use of this instrument. Physical activity had a significant, substantive effect on both ELA and mathematics achievement for students, but was most pronounced among White students on ELA and among Black students on mathematics. Hispanic ethnicity had significant direct and indirect negative associations with ELA and mathematics achievement via their decreased physical activity levels relative to White and Black students. These findings help confirm the important link between physical activity and academic achievement and the need to foster more healthy physical activities for students of all races and ethnicities.     

Guided work-based learning: Sharing practical teaching knowledge with student teachers

Building quality work-based learning opportunities for student teachers is a challenge for schools in school-university partnerships. This study focused on the guidance of student teachers by means of a mentoring approach aimed at sharing practical knowledge, with student teachers’ learning needs as an emphasis. The approach was built on collaborative lesson planning, enactment, and evaluation.The study followed three triads (student teacher, mentor, school-based teacher educator) and examined participants’ appreciation of the effectiveness of the approach and their perception of relevant conditions. The approach was considered effective: deeper conversations appeared and new issues emerged earlier than in regular mentoring conversations.