There is an ongoing debate in higher education about the value of broad programmes versus specialised programmes. Educational professionals argue that students use the space provided by broad programmes to develop interests in diverse domains, while the scope of specialised programmes allows students to converge in interests. The present study…

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…

Although interest has been repeatedly identified as a powerful basis for learning and academic achievement, limited empirical work has looked at the structural composition, persistence, stability, and development of interests over time. Such work is necessary to support developmental models of interest empirically. Using 6 dimensions identified in…

Background: Although cutting-edge chemistry research can be an interesting and motivating context for students in pre-university education, few characteristics of supportive and effective learning materials based on such contexts are available. Purpose: In this study we investigated the design, implementation, and evaluation of context-based…

Due to technological advancements, robotics is findings its way into the classroom. However, workload for teachers is high, and teachers sometimes lack the knowledge to implement robotics education. A key factor of robotics education is peer learning, and having students (near-)peers teach them robotics could diminish workload. Therefore, this…

In secondary science education, students often do not feel engaged with the scientific concepts that are taught, which hinders conceptual learning. This lack of engagement can be overcome by fictional placemaking. Therefore, the purpose of our design-based research is to explore how the creation and use of fictional places lead to meaningful…

The importance of teaching twenty-first-century competencies has increasingly been emphasised. Little is known, however, about how schools actually approach teaching such competencies. We investigated (1) how innovative and innovating secondary schools in the Netherlands implement a focus on self-regulation, collaboration and creativity in their…

Meaning-making and sense-making are generally assumed to be part of students' personal vocational knowledge development, since they contribute to both students' socialisation in a vocation and students' personalisation of concepts, values and beliefs regarding that vocation. However, how students in vocational education acquire meaning and make…

This study examined associations between perceived popularity trajectories and changes in proactive and reactive aggression in middle adolescence. The sample included 1,374 adolescents from 5 cohorts who were followed from Grade 7 to Grade 9 (49% males, M[subscript age] = 12.67 years, SD = 0.67). Popularity trajectories were identified based on…

We propose to use reading time as a metric to report progress in language learning applications. As a case study we use a web-based application that enables learners of a foreign language to read texts from the web and practice vocabulary with interactive exercises generated based on their past readings. The application captures generic…

This paper presents findings from a qualitative study among 50 secondary school students from 10 schools in the Netherlands, aiming to understand how they experience 'presence' -- being fully (with one's entire being) engaged in the here-and-now -- in class. Although presence was a non-regular experience, students experienced it as personally…

Competence-based education (CBE) is an innovation in (vocational) education aimed at improving students' competences. Little is known, however, about the processes leading to successful implementation of CBE and about its outcomes. This study investigates the effects that the level of CBE implementation has on student satisfaction (regarding the…

Background: Education policies and curriculum documents in many European countries promote the social and moral development of young people as a cross-curriculum goal and place that goal at the center of the education process. All subjects, including physical education (PE) are required to contribute to the social and moral development of the…

Grounded within literature pointing to the value of narrative in communicating scientific information, the purpose of this study was to examine the use of stories as a tool for teaching about natural selection in the context of school science. The study utilizes a mixed method, case study approach which focuses on the design, implementation, and…

"Education at a Glance" is the authoritative source for information on the state of education around the world. It provides data on the structure, finances and performance of education systems across OECD countries and a number of partner economies. More than 100 charts and tables in this publication -- as well as links to much more…