In many educational systems, age is used as a criterion to organise education. Children's age is used to group students together and indicate entry into particular programmes. The use of age for organisational purposes in education stems from the idea that age provides an indication of the development of children, which is associated with teaching…

Transferring to another school or leaving the educational system altogether has considerable consequences not only for the student who makes the decision to leave, but also for the students who stay behind. This paper aims to investigate the effects of secondary schools' mobility and dropout rates on the levels of school engagement in the…

A lot of legislative changes have taken place on inclusive education. This had consequences at all educational levels (primary, secondary and higher education (HE)). In the context of these changes, there was a need for more research focused on attitudes towards inclusion and the preparation of pre-service teachers for inclusive education. Recent…

This study compared the effects of being in different tracks during the first 3 years of secondary education on student academic performance. A sample of a longitudinal cohort study in Flanders (3,205 students in 46 schools) was used to describe the learning gains for mathematics and reading comprehension. Four tracks were distinguished, with a…

Objective: Drinking alcohol during the exams can affect academic performance and future career options, but is rarely investigated. Drinking motives, sociodemographics and personality characteristics are investigated in nonabstainers and weekly drinkers during the exams. Participants: 7,181 Belgian university students who anonymously responded to…

SECURE is a collaborative project under FP7 to provide research results of current mathematics, science and technology (MST) curricula across Europe. The research focuses on the MST curricula offered to 5, 8, 11 and 13 year old learners in ten European countries. The consortium invited 60 schools from each partner country to participate in the…

Kindergarten retention is a popular practice for children who are considered unready for primary school. However, past research has not yet succeeded to find consistent, strong empirical evidence supporting the practice. In the current study, kindergarten repeaters' development in nine psychosocial domains is compared with that of equally at risk…

Although a rich tradition of mainly U.S. and U.K. research focuses on the nature and effects of tracking students within schools, little research has investigated the importance of tracking students in the same or in separate schools. The authors used data from a unique, representative survey in Flanders (Belgium) to examine how students' study…

Speech-associated attitudes of 70 stuttering and 271 nonstuttering Belgian elementary and middle school children were assessed. Stuttering students evidenced significantly more negative attitudes toward speech than did their nonstuttering peers. These attitudes became more negative with age among stuttering children, whereas attitudes of…

Examined relationship between images of the future and aspirations of nonworking adolescents to test hypothesis that pessimism about the future results in reduced study motivation and conventional work orientations. Results from 171 high school and college students were contrary to expectations. Students had positive attitude toward future, were…

Part of a large-scale investigation into the nature and quality of living conditions and competence of 6- to 12-year-olds in the Flemish community and Brussels-Capital region of Belgium, this study compared the experiences of children attending school in a village with those of children attending school in a city. Participating were 1,798 children…