The role of affective teacher-student relationships in adolescents’ school engagement and achievement trajectories

This longitudinal study investigated the role of teacher-student closeness and conflict in adolescents' school engagement trajectories, and how school engagement dimensions predict achievement trajectories. A sample of 5,382 adolescents (Mage.wave1 = 13.06, SD = 0.51; 49.6% boys) were followed from Grade 7 to 9. Yearly measures included student reports on school engagement dimensions, teacher reports on closeness and conflict, and standardized tests for math achievement. Latent growth models revealed that closeness positively and conflict negatively predicted students' school engagement. Furthermore, adolescents' behavioral and emotional engagement, and disaffection in particular, played an important role in predicting achievement within the same schoolyear. Moreover, increases in behavioral disaffection and emotional engagement aligned with reduced and steeper increases in achievement between Grade 7 and 9, respectively. In general, this study underscores the importance of adolescents’ affective teacher-student relationships for their engagement in school, and the role of school engagement in predicting achievement

Vlaamse jonge mantelzorgers onderzocht

Kent u leerlingen van uw school die ‘mantelzorger’ zijn voor hun broer of zus? Heeft u zicht op de gezinssamenstelling van uw cliënten en heeft u zo weet van jongeren die zorgen voor hun ouder met een ziekte of handicap? De kans is groot van niet. De gemiddelde mantelzorger is toch eerder iemand van middelbare leeftijd die voor zijn ouders zorgt (Vanderleyden & Moons, 2015)? Nochtans zijn er ook kinderen en jongvolwassenen die bij een familielid met een ziekte of handicap wonen en daardoor thuis extra verantwoordelijkheden opnemen. We beschouwen deze groep niet zo snel als mantelzorgers en zo blijft zij veelal onder de radar in scholen en welzijnsorganisaties en in het publiek debat. In dit artikel gaan we na wat er geweten is over deze ‘jonge mantelzorgers’ en we belichten onze onderzoeksplannen bij deze groep

'Equity' in de Engelse taalvaardigheid van Vlaamse en Nederlandse jongeren in Europees perspectief: De lat hoog en iedereen erover?

http://www.lt-tijdschriften.nl/ojs/index.php/ltt/article/download/944/915status: publishe

Individual differences in second language learning: Educational studies on self-efficacy, gender, motivation and willingness to communicate

Language learning is a complex process, with many factors at the student, class, school and societal level playing a role. This dissertation comprises three studies that focus on the role of student-level variables in acquiring a language other than the mother tongue, i.e., a second language (L2). Each study relies on standardized proficiency tests and on questionnaire data from large, representative samples of students learning English, French or German in European secondary schools. The first study investigates the English L2 self-efficacy beliefs of over 22,500 European fifteen-year-olds. Their listening, reading and writing proficiency is compared to their endorsement of twelve can-do statements that are taken from the Common European Framework of Reference. Four-level logistic regression analyses reveal positive correlations between both elements, but also a significant influence of the students’ gender andnbsp;Country differences are rather prominent, with tendencies towards over- or under-estimation showing striking similarities between both receptive skills. Overall, boys tend to have higher self-efficacy beliefs than equally proficient girls, but this pattern is reversed when students are presented with the easiest task descriptions. Interaction terms between countries and gender only point to cross-country variation in boy-girl differences for reading self-efficacy. Whereas the first study relates the students’ gender to their self-efficacy beliefs, the second study discusses its relation to the students’ proficiency across three languages, three skills and fourteen countries. English is an exception to the general tendency for girls to surpass boys’ L2 skills, with boys sometimes performing sig­nificantly better than girls. Writing turns out to be more prone to gender differences than listening or reading. Cross-country variation in the gender gap supports the hypothesis that gender is primarily a social factor rather than a biological factor in learning. Multilevel mediation analyses with constituents of motivation indeed show that in most cases where girls outperform boys, a significant part of this advantage can be explained by the differential appeal of the students’ L2 course and by the instrumental, integrative and intrinsic value that students attribute to the L2. The third study narrows the language learning context to French L2 in Flanders to determine the complex interactions between a larger set of student-level variables. The students’ self-assessment, their L2 proficiency and constituents of their motivation are joined with language anxiety in a structural equation model to investigate the construct of willingness to communicate (WTC). A model for WTC in the classroom context is contrasted with a model for societal L2 use. In both contexts, integrativeness, perceived competence and anxiety exert a direct influence on the students’ WTC. Classroom WTC is a strong basis for real-world WTC but in the latter, the role of integrativeness decreases while anxiety levels play a larger role. Together the three studies illustrate how a comparative, large-scale approach can be a powerful aid in testing theories and contributing to the existing knowledge base on L2 learning. They also point to the need to acknowledge variation across contexts in the functioning of learner variables. Regardless of this variation, each study also reveals an important role for individual differences in determining outcomes of the learning process, whether it be mastering a language, being willing to use that language, or being able to identify strengths and weaknesses in one’s own proficiency level to enable lifelong learning.status: publishe

CEFR can-do statements as a means of self-assessment: Is there a common understanding, regardless of the student’s gender and educational system?

The Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) contains a set of concrete descriptive scales, which, ideally, should allow for unambiguous communication regarding stages in language learning. Yet there is still need for empirical research on how much room for interpretation is left by the descriptors. The aim of this paper is to investigate whether the use of CEFR can-do statements as a means of self-evaluation shows a gender bias and a country or region-related bias, which is commonly found with other measures of academic self-concept. The study is based on data from the European Survey on Language Competences (ESLC). The ESLC was carried out in spring of 2011 by order of the European Commission. It was the first survey to provide information on students’ second language competences that can be compared across fourteen countries, five languages and three skills (reading, listening and writing). As part of the survey’s extensive background questionnaire, students were asked to assess their own competences using four can-do statements per skill that were all taken or adapted from the CEFR descriptor scales. The current paper deals with findings resulting from a comparison between the students’ measured CEFR-level on the one hand, and their can-do self-evaluation on the other hand. Students were labeled as ‘overestimating’ their own level, ‘underestimating’ it or having a ‘correct’ selfconcept for the tested skill. Multinomial logistic regression analyses on data from over 40000 students revealed that, when they assess their own skills by means of the can-do statements, the students’ odds of over- or underestimating their competences correlate significantly with their gender and educational system (i.e., country or region). In other words, the can-do statements are currently subject to bias: however concrete the statements may already seem, they are still perceived in a way that reflects the students’ personal or national norms rather than fixed criteria.status: publishe

Mantelzorgers in het Vlaams secundair onderwijs

status: accepte

Country and gender differences in the functioning of CEFR-based can-do statements as a tool for self-assessing English proficiency

This study discusses the self-assessments of over 22,500 students on a set of 12 can-do statements that are taken from the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). The students’ endorsement or negation of the statements reflects their sense of self-efficacy in English reading, writing, and listening. Their self-efficacy beliefs are compared to their proficiency level as measured in the European Survey on Language Competences. As expected, four-level mixed-effects logistic regression analyses show positive correlations between proficiency and the probability of endorsing the can-do statements. However, patterns in this relationship are influenced by the students’ gender and country. As such, the study shows how far the understanding of 15-year-olds’ own skills can vary across countries and between boys and girls, even when the skill descriptions that the students are offered rely on the highly concrete “common language” that is provided by the CEFR.peerreview_statement: The publishing and review policy for this title is described in its Aims & Scope. aims_and_scope_url: http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=hlaq20status: publishe

Vlaamse vreemdetalenkennis in Europees perspectief: Balans van het ESLC-onderzoek

In een groeiend Europa met steeds meer internationale mobiliteit is vreemdetalenkennis een belangrijke troef. Daarom benadrukt de Europese Commissie in haar kaderstrategie rond meertaligheid dat Europese burgers van jongs af aan ten minste twee vreemde talen moeten leren. Aan deze doelstelling voor meertaligheid wordt intensief gewerkt. De Europese onderwijsministers willen enerzijds het vreemdetalenonderwijs voeden met inzicht in hoe talen het best kunnen worden onderwezen, en anderzijds willen ze de vooruitgang ook graag beoordelen. Om aan deze noden tegemoet te komen, kwam ESLC (European Survey on Language Competences) tot stand. ESLC toetste de lees-, luister- en schrijfvaardigheid in twee verschillende talen van jongeren in 14 Europese landen. Zo levert het onderzoek voor het eerst internationaal vergelijkbare data op die een duidelijk beeld schetsen van de vreemdetaalbeheersing van jongeren in de deelnemende Europese landen. Bovendien verschaft het onderzoek informatie over hoe de vreemdetaalbeheersing van de leerlingen zich verhoudt tot demografische, sociale, economische en onderwijskundige variabelen. Deze informatie kan het onderwijsbeleid ondersteunen. De auteurs stellen de Vlaamse resultaten voor in vergelijking met die van de andere EU-landen. De Vlaamse Gemeenschap toetste het Frans bij leerlingen van het tweede jaar van de eerste graad secundair onderwijs en het Engels bij leerlingen van het tweede jaar van de tweede graad.nrpages: 72status: publishe

Hoe staat het met het onderwijs Engels in Vlaanderen? Lessen uit de European Survey on Language Competences

status: publishe