David Gijbels

University of Antwerp | UA · Education and Training Sciences

This study examined the relationship between refutation texts and attention allocation by focusing on the interaction between important reader-and-text characteristics. Specifically, the authors investigated how prior knowledge and text-based interest affect attention allocation on refutation/control statements, topic, and explanatory and concludin...

Pupils’ and students’ learning in the workplace and dual education has drawn increased attention because it is, among others, relevant in combating youth unemployment, increasing individual employability, and organisations’ ability to provide high quality services and products. However, research focusing on pupils’ and students’ readiness to partic...

Completing questionnaires is a complex task in which multiple cognitive processes play an important role. Despite critiques of the reliability of questionnaires, our research strived to gain more insight into the process of completing questionnaires by using eye-tracking. We investigated how both the question and the categories of answers were bein...

The volume comprises a variety of research approaches that seek to explore and understand employees’ learning and development through and for work. Working life reveals challenges through technological, economic and societal development that can only rudimentarily be addressed by formal education and training. Workplace learning becomes more and mo...

When assessing learning outcomes of role-play simulations of political decision-making, research points to inconsistencies and shortcomings. Different learning environment components aren't often taken into account and little attention is given to affective learning outcomes and the development of student learning during the simulation. Therefore,...

International studies focus on the successful transition into higher education, which is considered crucial for both the students and the educational institution in the context of students' learning and adjustment in higher education. The aim of the current study was to identify student profiles that include cognitive, metacognitive, and motivation...

Role-play simulations have become commonly used active learning methods to teach about complex, dynamic political processes. However, an understanding of why there is variation in student learning during such simulations is lacking. This study focuses on the development of student self-efficacy in negotiating over the period of one simulation. We i...

Comparative judgment (CJ) has been recently introduced in the educational field as a means of assessing competences. In this judgement process, assessors are presented with two pieces of student work and are asked to choose which one is better in relation to the competencies being assessed. However, since student work is heterogeneous and highly in...

This study contributes to current self-efficacy research in two ways. First, it responds to the need for more context- and competency-specific self-efficacy research by expanding the research field to the context of role-play simulations and focusing on the outcome of self-efficacy in negotiating. Second, aiming to investigate sources of self-effic...

While self-report measures are ubiquitous in the educational research literature, the benefits of self-report are often maligned. Rather than discarding or ignoring data generated from self-report measures of cognitive processing and motivation, research is needed to determine when and if self-report measures can contribute to our collective unders...

Although self-report questionnaires are widely used, researchers debate whether responses to these types of questionnaires are valid representations of the respondent’s actual thoughts and beliefs. In order to provide more insight into the quality of questionnaire data, we aimed to gain an understanding of the processes that impact the completion o...

Handbook of Strategies and Strategic Processing provides a state-of-the-art synthesis of conceptual, measurement, and analytical issues regarding learning strategies and strategic processing. Contributions by educational psychology experts present the clearest-yet definition of this essential and quickly evolving component of numerous theoretical f...

Background Internships are highly relevant learning experiences for engineering students. However, such practice‐based learning settings must be carefully designed to allow their learning potential to unfold. Purpose Exploring the job demands‐control‐support (JDCS) model, this study aimed to investigate how job demands, job control, and social sup...

The integration of theory and practice constitutes an anchor of today’s technical vocational education and training (T-VET) and a major determinant of professional development. Understanding such integration is expected to contribute to pedagogical advancement and to provide new research tools. Current knowledge on the epistemological roots of peda...

The integrative learning of theory and practice has been widely recognised as a cornerstone of today’s technical vocational education and training (T-VET). Considerable uncertainty persists regarding how to construe such integrative learning, let alone regarding how it proceeds or what it generates. This article reports an in-depth qualitative stud...

Researchers have been struggling to capture the learning outcomes of role-play simulations of political decision-making, which shows in inconsistencies in findings. In this systematic review study we argue that research designs should not ignore the contextual features of these simulations. This review aims: (1) to comprehensively map variation in...

Current research struggles to illuminate significant learning outcomes of role-play simulations, such as Model European Union (MEU) and Model United Nations (MUN). In this study, we introduce a model for measuring simulation effects, distinguishing between cognitive, affective and regulative learning outcomes. In particular, we introduce the MISS-m...

This study aims at extending current research on how the interaction between cognitive processing and topic interest shapes the online learning process of students when learning from expository texts. We used eye tracking to monitor the reading and learning behaviour of 31 students in higher education. In addition, we used self-report questionnaire...

The transition from secondary to higher education is a challenging process, in which the development of students’ motivation plays a pivotal role. The current study examines whether self-efficacy—and how it develops—is able to explain the growth in motivation. The current longitudinal study included five waves, across a period of 25 months (i.e. st...

In this concluding chapter, we provide a concise review of all chapters in this volume and reflect on the ways in which simulations of decision-making in political science are given shape and are tested on their effects with respect to the participant’s learning. We also present some conclusive findings based on the different chapters as well as so...

This chapter provides a definition of simulations of decision-making in political science education as student-centred and active learning environments, introduces their design features and summarizes the challenges in current effect research. The chapter concludes with an overview of the parts (and chapters) included in this volume, highlighting t...

In this chapter we shortly introduce current perspectives in learning environment research in higher education and propose a general educational research model enabling to situate the various possible pathways in which effects of student learning in simulation-based learning environments can be investigated. In a next step, we discuss what kind of...

This volume deals with simulations as active learning tools to teach political science students. It presents perspectives of both political and educational scientists on simulations as instruments to teach about politics and more in particular about political decision-making. In this introduction to part 1, we first discuss the nature of politics,...

In de context van duaal leren -waarbij leerlingen een aanzienlijk deel van hun tijd leren op een werkplek- is het belangrijk om niet alleen scholen maar ook (andere) arbeidsorganisaties te leren zien als relevante contexten voor leren (Messmann & Mulder, 2015). Hoewel kennis, vaardigheden en attitudes zich kunnen ontwikkelen in heel veel verschille...

Technology, and more specifically digital media, has opened up seemingly infinite possibilities for learning to take place beyond the classroom and for crossing from informal to formal learning. The goal of this study is to understand how adult ‘learners at work’ use digital media in formal and informal learning contexts. A total of 44 adults enrol...

Zelfrapportagevragenlijsten bij de start van het hoger onderwijs kunnen begeleiders en studenten inzicht geven in het leerstrategiegebruik en de studiemotivatie van studenten. Gebruikers worstelen echter soms met de complexiteit van het instrument, bijvoorbeeld bij het detecteren van risicostudenten. De huidige studie introduceert een alternatief v...

The aim of this study was to investigate the transfer of learning of professional competences from vocational colleges to the workplace context in vocational education. Concretely, the study examined the relations between the professional competences learned at school and the use and further development of those competences at the workplace during...

Background: Up until now, empirical studies in the Student Approaches to Learning field have mainly been focused on the use of self-report instruments, such as interviews and questionnaires, to uncover differences in students' general preferences towards learning strategies, but have focused less on the use of task-specific and online measures. A...

The focus of the present paper is on the contribution of the research in the student approaches to learning tradition. Several studies in this field have started from the assumption that students’ approaches to learning develop towards more deep approaches to learning in higher education. This paper reports on a systematic review of longitudinal re...

This special issue originated from ongoing discussions on how research in the past decade has or has not informed current theories on student learning in higher education. The contributions to this special issue each present a discussion of conceptual and methodological directions with possible connections or suggested dead ends in the major resear...

In problem-based learning (PBL), implemented worldwide, students learn by discussing professionally relevant problems enhancing application and integration of knowledge, which is assumed to encourage students towards a deep learning approach in which students are intrinsically interested and try to understand what is being studied. This review inve...

Onderzoek binnen de zelfdeterminatietheorie heeft aangetoond dat de ondersteuning van de basisbehoeften van autonomie, competentie en verbondenheid door docenten gelinkt is aan de studiemotivatie van studenten. In eerder onderzoek bleven gelijkenissen en verschillen in deze relatie tussen opleidingsonderdelen onderbelicht. De huidige studie verkent...

The current study investigates the learning of student teachers in alternative programmes in which they combine a teaching job with an in-service teacher-training program at the university. The aim of this paper is to explore which work-related and training-programme related factors facilitate the learning of these teachers-in-training in the workp...

Although a lot is known about teacher development by means of formal learning activities, research on teachers’ everyday learning is limited. In the current systematic review, we analyzed 74 studies focusing on teachers’ informal learning to identify teachers’ learning activities, antecedents for informal learning, and learning outcomes. In additio...

This study starts from the observation that current empirical research on students' processing strategies in higher education has mainly focused on the use of self-report instruments to measure students' general preferences towards processing strategies. In contrast, there is a rather limited use of more direct and online observation techniques to...

In the context of formal professional development activities, this study explores the link between employees' motivation to participate in formal learning activities (based on the self-determination theory), the nature of their goals (based on the goal orientation theory) and their learning preferences (based on the Felder Silverman model and the b...

The Australasian Journal of Technology Education is a peer refereed journal, and provides a forum for scholarly discussion on topics relating to technology education. Submissions are welcomed relating to the primary, secondary and higher education sectors, initial teacher education and continuous professional development, and general research about...

Background: More young people, boys and girls, are needed in technical studies and professions, as the relative number of students in technology-related studies has been decreasing in most industrialised countries. To overcome this decrease several countries implemented mandatory technology classes in the curriculum of secondary education. Purpose:...

Research on student learning has undergone many changes in the last decade. In particular, the research methodology has advanced in many different ways on the level of complexity of data collection and rigor of data analyses. In the quantitative research perspective, many off-line and online measures and statistical analysis techniques have been fu...

The aim of the current study is to investigate the development of students' motivation across the transition from secondary to higher education. Data regarding students' motivation as conceptualised by the self-determination theory was collected at five measurement moments, over a period of 25 months, starting within the final year of secondary edu...

The current study investigates the direct and indirect relations between motivation to participate, as measured by self-determination theory, goal orientation at the start of the training and use of self-regulation strategies during a formal training. In total, 717 employees completed a questionnaire that consisted of existing scales that were adap...

In deze studie worden individuele verschillen in leren bij studenten in de lerarenopleiding die stage lopen in kaart gebracht aan de hand van het referentiekader van Oosterheert (2001). Daarnaast wordt de relatie tussen deze kenmerken van leren en motivatie verkend vanuit de prestatiedoelentheorie. De resultaten tonen aan dat studenten in stages he...

The current study reports on the process of developing a self-assessment instrument for vocational education students’ generic working life competencies. The instrument was developed based on a competence framework and in close collaboration with several vocational education teachers and intermediary organisations offering various human resource se...

Within teacher education, it is widely recognised that internships play a major role in preparing prospective teachers. The current research examines if the learning activities students’ undertake in the workplace can be explained by students’ goal orientation and their perceptions of the workplace. In addition, it will be investigated whether this...

Workplace learning is becoming a central tenet for a large proportion of today’s employees. This seems especially true for so-called knowledge workers. Today, it remains unclear how differences in the quality of workplace learning are affected by differences in perception of the workplace environment and the motivation of knowledge workers to learn...

Workplace learning through internships has since long been seen as a valuable element in the curriculum of engineering education programmes. The present study investigates how job characteristics of the workplace (such as job demands, job control and social support) are related to individual differences in the process of the learning in the workpla...

This chapter starts with a short history of team learning. Learning in group has been a research topic for quite some time in education. Studies on problem-based and project-based learning will be overviewed. Different explanations of the effects found will be discussed. In a next part, we will make an overview of recent studies on team learning in...

Peer-group mentoring (PGM) is a new model designed to support the professional development of teachers in Finland. This study examines the experiences of mentees participating in PGM and potential differences in the experiences of teachers in general education and vocational education. It also addresses the mentees’ perceptions of the results of PG...

Given the increasing importance of learning at work, we set out to examine the factors which influence workplace learning behaviour. The study investigated the influence of the job characteristics from Karasek's Job Demand Control Support model and the personal characteristic self-directed learning orientation on workplace learning. A total of 837...

Technology is more present than ever. Young people are interested in technological products, but their opinions on education and careers in technology are not particularly positive (Johansson in Mathematics, science & technology education report. European Round Table of Industrials, Brussel, 2009). If we want to stimulate students’ attitudes toward...

It is argued that internships have a distinctive contribution to professional education. It is suggested that the confrontation with the workplace triggers learning. Based on the Demand-Control-Support (DCS) model, this chapter aims to investigate the influence of job characteristics such as job demands, job control and social support on the learni...

Learning Patterns in Higher Education brings together a cutting edge international team of contributors to critically review our current understanding of how students and adults learn, how differences and changes in the way students learn can be measured in a valid and reliable way, and how the quality of student learning may be enhanced. There i...

The present study explores the development of students’ assessment preferences by investigating how these preferences evolve after experiencing an assessment development center in a veterinary gross anatomy course. The sample in this study consists of 42 students in the second year of a Bachelor's degree in medical veterinary science, enrolled in a...

Research regarding the development of students’ learning approaches have at times reported unexpected or lack of expected changes. The current study explores the idea of differential developments in learning approaches according to students’ initial learning profiles as a possible explanation for these outcomes. A learning profile is conceived as t...

Problem-based learning (PBL) represents a major development in higher educational practice and is believed to promote deep learning in students. However, empirical findings on the promotion of deep learning in PBL remain unclear. The aim of the present study is to investigate the relationships between students’ approaches to learning (SAL) and acad...

In knowledge based economies technological literacy is gaining interest. Technological literacy correlates with attitude towards technology. When measuring technological literacy as an outcome of education, the attitudinal dimension has to be taken into account. This requires a valid, reliable instrument that should be as concise as possible, in or...

The present study explores whether students' learning strategies and academic motivation predict persistence and academic success in the first year of higher education. Freshmen students in a professional bachelor program in teacher education were questioned on their learning strategy use and motivation at the start and at the end of the academic y...

Although instructional development for teachers has become an important topic in higher education, little is known about its actual impact. In particular, evidence regarding the impact of teachers' instructional development on students' perceptions of the teaching-learning environment is scarce. The impact of an instructional development programme...

Purpose – A central issue in the field of workplace learning is how work‐related learning can be stimulated so that a powerful learning work environment is created. This paper seeks to further enlarge understanding on this issue. Based on the demand‐control‐support the aim is to investigate the influence of job‐characteristics on the work‐related l...

Evidence regarding the impact of teachers' instructional development on student learning in higher education is scarce. In this study, we investigate the impact of an instructional development program for beginning university teachers on students’ learning outcomes. We also explore whether this impact is dependent on class size and student level. Q...

Based on the Demand-Control-Support model (American Journal of Public Health 78(10):1336–1342, 1988; Administrative Science Quarterly 24:285–308, 1979; Healthy work, stress, productivity and the reconstruction of working life, 1990) and the research by Raemdonck (A study in lower-qualified employees in Flanders, 2006), the present chapter aims to i...

The purpose of this chapter is to examine the requirements of the rapidly changing world of work with regard to vocational competences and professional expertise, as well as their pedagogical implications for vocational and higher education. The first part of the chapter deals with recent macro-level trends in the working world in terms of the deve...

Evidence regarding the impact of teachers’ instructional development on student learning in higher education is scarce. In this study the authors investigate the impact of an instructional development programme for beginning university teachers on students’ approach to studying. They also explore whether this impact is dependent on class size and s...