This longitudinal study examined bidirectional associations between special education pupils' teacher-child relationship characteristics (quality, satisfaction, and conflict), classroom structure, and behavioral problems (externalizing and attention-hyperactivity). A secondary goal was to investigate the extent to which severity of behavioral…

The present study examined the psychometric properties of Student-Teacher Relationship Drawings (STRDs) to assess student-teacher relationship quality in a cross-cultural context. A sample of upper elementary school students from both the Netherlands (N = 752) and China (N = 574) was included. Results showed sufficient inter-rater reliabilities of…

Many children who are victimized by their peers do not tell their teachers. Subsequently, teacher intervention and support are not likely to take place. To investigate the role teachers can play to promote disclosure by victimized students, we examined (1) the prevalence of disclosure to teachers, and (2) the extent to which teachers' responses…

This study investigated how teachers' self-efficacy for intervening in social dynamics and teacher-student relationships directly impact students' self-esteem, and indirectly buffer the negative association between both bullying and victimization and students' self-esteem. Teachers play a key role in shaping the peer relations in the classroom,…

This four-wave longitudinal study examined bidirectional associations among pupils' social status (preference and popularity) and teacher-child relationship characteristics (quality, support, satisfaction, and conflict) in special education. Participants included 586 pupils (86% boys) initially attending Grades 4 and 5 (M[subscript age Wave 1] =…

In the Netherlands, the quality of the reading curriculum is currently under debate because of disappointing results on national and international assessments of students' reading skills and motivation. In a mixed-method study, we analyzed the content of Dutch textbooks for reading comprehension instruction (i.e., the implemented curriculum) and…

In this study, the variety in quality of instruction in fraction lessons at Grade 5 in Dutch primary schools was investigated. Twenty-four teachers participated in the study. To examine the quality of instruction of fraction lessons, Hill's mathematical quality of instruction framework and general pedagogical instruction strategies (seen to…

In this study, we investigated which teacher characteristics influence student proficiency development regarding fractions in Grade 5 of Dutch primary education. At least three domains of research (i.e. perspectives) on effective teaching can be distinguished: studies focusing on teachers' background characteristics, on their knowledge and…

This study investigates the extent to which defending victims of bullying depends on liking and disliking and its relation with the classroom bullying norm (descriptive and popularity) in a sample of 1,272 students (50.8% boys) in 48 fifth-grade classrooms. Social network analysis with bivariate exponential random graph modelings showed that…

One of the ways in which schools try to improve students' motivation is through making learning meaningful for students. The concept of meaningful learning, however, has been defined in various ways in the literature. This small-scale in-depth study focused on meaningful learning in mathematics in upper-primary education. We investigated what…

The number of women and underrepresented individuals working in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields does not reflect the diversity of our societies. Even if children have an interest in STEM, they may not consider choosing a study or career in that direction if their perception is that they would not belong in science.…

The current study replicated an earlier investigation by Bouwer and van der Veen (2023) where 10 Grade 5 and 6 classrooms in the Netherlands (210 students) were randomly assigned to a treatment or control condition, with treatment students evidencing improvements in the quality of their essays after practice writing argumentative essays, reading…

This short-term longitudinal study explored the unique role of proximal classroom factors (teachers' student-specific self-efficacy, autonomy-supportive behaviors, and student-teacher relationships) in students' emotional and behavioral engagement, and the moderating role of grade level. Participants were 472 students and 63 teachers (grades 4-6).…

Student autonomy is a much discussed topic in educational practice and research. In this study, primary school teachers reported what they do to support the autonomy of their students and students mentioned how they perceived autonomy in the classroom. From the findings of a focus group, consisting of 10 teachers from the upper years, six aspects…

In an experimental design, we investigated how fifth-grade readers use morphological and contextual information to infer the meaning of unknown words, and to what extent this is related to their cognitive and linguistic skills. A group of 166 fifth-grade Dutch children (59 L1, 107 L2) performed a lexical inferencing task in which the availability…