Liesje Coertjens

• Professor at Catholic University of Louvain

To date, there has been little agreement on what important facets should be incorporated in quantitative measures of the academic and social first-year experience. Moreover, such scales are typically developed in academic higher education (HE) contexts (i.e., universities providing more theoretical and scientific education), and are disconnected fr...

Peer feedback has proven to be very beneficial for student learning; however, by its social nature, peer feedback raises concerns for many students. To diminish these, and maximize the benefits of a peer feedback activity, we created an online training targeting psychological safety and trust. The objective of this chapter is to describe the design...

We explored whether training through and about research on effective writing practices would enable teachers to use these practices fully in their classrooms. To do this, we followed seven teachers who had participated in research on the teaching of writing. They had between 6 and 15 years of experience. Five of them teach at primary level and two...

Introduction Peer feedback can be very beneficial for student learning in higher education, yet students may feel uncomfortable providing and receiving peer feedback: they may for example not feel safe in the group or have little trust in their peers’ abilities to provide feedback. Surprisingly, only few studies have investigated how students’ feel...

Introduction Educational inequalities – i.e., the achievement gaps between pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds and their peers from advantaged backgrounds – are present in many OECD countries. This is particularly problematic in reading, which is a predictor of future academic and social success. To reduce this reading achievement gap, recent met...

Little is known on how students process peer feedback (PF) and use it to improve their work. We asked 59 participants to read the feedback of two peers on a fictional essay and to revise it, while we recorded their gaze behaviour. Regarding the PF processing subphase, discrepant PF led to more transitions, but only for participants who reported the...

The present study explores two rating methods for peer assessment (analytical rating using criteria and comparative judgement) in light of concurrent validity, reliability and insufficient diagnosticity (i.e. the degree to which substandard work is recognised by the peer raters). During a second-year undergraduate course, students wrote a one-page...

This study examines specific exploration activities in students’ visual arts portfolios from secondary education. Creating original visual arts products requires exploration according to Getzels and Csiksentmihalyi (The creative vision. A longitudinal study of problem finding in Art. New York: John Wiley & Sons Inc., 1976). Obtaining insight about...

Cet article décrit un nouveau dispositif d’évaluation des acquis d’apprentissage basé sur des cartes conceptuelles « à trous » (CCàT) permettant également l’apprentissage par les pairs en grands auditoires durant les tests et une correction automatisée par des formulaires QCM.L’intérêt du dispositif est de garantir une évaluation qualitative (à hau...

La visée de la présentation est de partager une étude qui met en évidence les “coulisses” de l’évaluation de l’oral par les pairs. 4 questions de recherche : (1) Comment se déroulent les échanges entre élèves qui s’évaluent mutuellement ? �(2) Est-ce que ces fonctionnements sont représentatifs et se modifient avec le temps ? �(3) Comment réagit l’é...

This study tests an integrative model, which delineates how students’ academic motivation, academic self-efficacy and learning strategies (processing strategies and regulation strategies) at the end of secondary education impact academic adjustment in the first semester of the first year of higher education (FYHE) and subsequent academic achievemen...

In this study, we present and evaluate a way to profile second career teachers in technical and vocational education and training schools that goes beyond the traditional motivational approach. More specifically, by considering multiple entry-related variables (entry motivation, career adaptability, and prior job satisfaction). Analyses based on a...

To date, little understanding exists of how first-year students in professionally oriented higher-education (HE) programs (i.e., those that provide vocational education to prepare students for a particular occupation) experience their academic transition process. In the present study, we first argued how the constructs of academic adjustment and ac...

The social adjustment process is a prominent factor in the literature on the transition to higher education (HE). This vast body of research, however, has predominantly focussed on academically oriented first-year higher education (FYHE) contexts, leaving professionally oriented programs (providing vocational education that prepares students for a...

Background: Medical practitioners' reflective skills are increasingly considered important and therefore included in the medical education curriculum. However, assessing students' reflective skills using rubrics does not appear to guarantee adequate inter-rater reliabilities. Recently, comparative judgment was introduced as a new method to evaluat...

Cette étude vise à documenter ce qui a été mis en place par les enseignants en matière de transmission de travail scolaire et de maintien du lien social lors de la pandémie de COVID-19 en Belgique francophone ainsi qu’à comprendre les effets sur la motivation des élèves du secondaire ne pouvant plus se rendre à l’école. Les résultats mettent en évi...

In this study, we seek to understand which form of peer assessment is most effective in helping pupils progress in their speaking skills: when the peers discuss the feedback they are giving in subgroups or when they provide it in writing and individually. We also want to analyze what the students say, for what purpose, and what elements of oral com...

This study focuses on conditions that improve reading comprehension at grade 7th. We analyze the impact of the Lirécrire program, and related treatment integrity, on student performance. Lirécrire program should improve students’ reading comprehension, and follow-up sessions should lead to greater instructional change, then improve learning. Ninete...

Graduates’ education and its alignment with the first job are of key influence on graduates’ career. It is argued that education–job fit affects work-related learning, which is important for recent graduates to cope with the demands of their new job. Theoretically, two (contradicting) processes have been put forward describing the relationship betw...

In this study, a way to profile second-career teachers in vocational education that goes beyond the traditional motivational approach by considering multiple entry-related variables is presented and evaluated. Analyses based on a mixed methods design (262 prospective and current teachers for the latent profile analysis and 7 current teachers for th...

Supporting first-year students to adjust to their new academic environment is a crucial task in higher education. Investigating students' perceptions of fit between secondary and higher education could give higher education institutions valuable information for student feedback and support, when captured in a reliable and valid way. This study exam...

In de praktijk en uit eerder empirisch onderzoek blijkt dat cv-screening niet altijd zorgt voor geschikte kandidaten voor een vacature. Verschillende zaken kunnen hiervan de oorzaak zijn: één beoordelaar voert de screening uit, waardoor cognitieve vertekeningen het selectieproces kunnen beïnvloeden; de beoordeling focust niet op alle relevante aspe...

Background Work‐related learning is particularly important at the start of graduates' careers. Preparing students for work‐related learning is a chief aim of higher education, demonstrating its relevance when investigating the transition to work. Aim This study aimed to investigate the role of personal factors for work‐related learning during the...

Comparative judgment (CJ) is an alternative method for assessing competences based on Thurstone’s law of comparative judgment. Assessors are asked to compare pairs of students work (representations) and judge which one is better on a certain competence. These judgments are analyzed using the Bradly–Terry–Luce model resulting in logit estimates for...

Science students’ study success rates in the first year of higher education (FYHE) are problematic. Although a considerable amount of previous research has been carried out to investigate the determinants of students’ academic achievement in FYHE, there has been little discussion about the incremental value of non-cognitive factors over and above c...

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...

De democratiseringsgolf binnen het hoger onderwijs heeft internationaal geleid tot een groeiende, diverse instroom van studenten (Schuetze & Slowey, 2002). Daarnaast zijn de voorbereidende studierichtingen van studenten in vele landen meer divers geworden en zien we dat een aanzienlijke groep eerstejaarsstudenten niet meer de traditionele instromer...

Insight into aspects that guide teachers' decisions when assessing student text quality is crucial to an understanding of the validity of text scores. Such research has been lacking in the context of comparative methods which are, however, increasingly being used for text assessment purposes. This study reports on the aspects of argumentative texts...

A Design Science Research project is presented, describing the creation of an Information System for the assessment of human competences while supporting learning. First, requirements that emanate from current mainstream competence evaluation practice are introduced. Then, design principles are presented to address the design requirements. Finally,...

Previous theoretical research proposed a link between students’ academic motivation and students’ experiences of social integration, but less is known empirically about this association in higher education contexts. In order to explore the directional links between students’ academic motivation and social integration, this survey study aims to inve...

Longitudinal data is almost always burdened with missing data. However, in educational and psychological research, there is a large discrepancy between methodological suggestions and research practice. The former suggests applying sensitivity analysis in order to the robustness of the results in terms of varying assumptions regarding the mechanism...

Lack Of Regulation. (CSV)

Nowadays, comparative judgment (CJ) is used to assess competences. Judges compare two pieces of student work and judge which of both is better regarding the competence assessed. Using these pairwise comparison data, students’ work is scaled according to its quality. Since student work is highly information loaded and heterogeneous of nature, this r...

The transition from higher education to the labour market is an important period for youngsters characterised by extensive changes acting as triggers for learning. Furthermore, students’ educational background and the (in)congruence with their work context is important. Accordingly, the aim of this systematic review is to explore the role of learni...

Investigating students’ transitions to higher education is not new, but is still an important topic in the domain of higher education research. Decades of research have been carried out to explain why some students are more successful than others in making the transition. This chapter aims to provide a glance of the rich and diverse research strand...

As in many OECD countries, the first year in Flemish Higher Education is a major hurdle. Research on the experience of the transition period from secondary to higher education highlights the importance of the change in students’ teaching/learning environment. Though this change is hypothesised to affect students’ learning strategies, and hereby stu...

To adequately assess students’ competences, students are asked to provide proof of a performance. Ideally, open and real-life tasks are used for such performance assessment. However, to augment the reliability of the scores resulting from performance assessment, assessments are mostly standardised. This hampers the validity of the performance asses...

Achieving a fair and rigorous assessment of participants in simulation games represents a major challenge. Not only does the difficulty apply to the actual negotiation part, but it also extends to the written assignments that typically accompany a simulation. For one thing, if different raters are involved, it is important to assure that difference...

Writing researchers and practitioners both aim for reliable judgements with a minimum investment of time. This study focuses on two judgement methods, rubrics and comparative judgement. For each method, we studied how long it took to complete a judgement per text. Moreover, we examined how the reliability evolves in relation to the time spent judgi...

In introducing the special issue on students’ transition into higher education, we emphasise the importance of expanding our understanding of students’ enculturation in higher education. Next to this, the editorial presents a working definition on transition and takes stock of the existing empirical lines of research on the subject of students’ tra...

Recently, comparative judgement has been introduced as an alternative method for scoring essays. Although this method is promising in terms of obtaining reliable scores, empirical evidence concerning its validity is lacking. The current study examines implications resulting from two critical assumptions underpinning the use of comparative judgement...

The current study aims at investigating the variability of students' approaches across three learning environments and at relating these approaches to students' general study orientations and their context-specific perceptions of the learning environment, using a sequential explanatory mixed-method design. A total of 148 students took part in at le...

Previous research showed that personality and motivation have an impact on students' learning strategies. Learning strategies change during the transition from secondary to higher education. This 5-wave longitudinal study investigates the influence of personality and motivation on the development of learning strategies during this transition in Fla...

Increasing teacher shortages provide incentives for conducting research into the motives of future teachers aspiring to work in education. The present study builds on previous research into motivation for entering the teaching profession. Given the shortage of studies carried out with direct empirical foundations, multiphase factor analyses, and la...

In het hoger onderwijs wordt steeds vaker met performance assessments gewerkt om competenties van studenten te evalueren. Docenten worstelen echter met hoe performance assessments het beste kunnen scoren. Meestal wordt hier een combinatie van criterialijsten en holistisch scoren voor gebruikt. Deze methode leidt echter niet altijd tot betrouwbare r...

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...

Previous research showed that personality and motivation have an impact on students' learning strategies. Learning strategies change during the transition from secondary to higher education. This 5-wave longitudinal study investigates the influence of personality and motivation on the development of learning strategies during this transition in Fla...

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...

The aim of the present study is to explore changes both in approaches to learning as well as in students’ experiences of the teaching-learning environment and how these changes are related to each other during their Bachelor studies by using a longitudinal data set. The aim is further to explore how students’ approaches to learning and their percep...

This study explores the explanatory value of an integrated research perspective to understand differences in student learning and academic achievement in first year higher education. Two cohorts (N = 1594) of first-year students from eight different professional bachelor programmes of a University College participated. Structural equation modelling...

Although instructional development has become an important topic in higher education, little is known about the impact on teaching practice. In this study we investigate the impact of instructional development on teachers’ teaching behaviour as perceived by students. Quantitative student data were assembled for 15 experimental and 12 control teache...

The change in learning strategies during higher education is an important topic of research in the Student Approaches to Learning field. Although the studies on this topic are increasingly longitudinal, analyses have continued to rely primarily on traditional statistical methods. The present research is innovative in the way it uses a multi-indicat...

Although the evidence in support of the variability of students' learning strategies has expanded in recent years, less is known about the explanatory base of these individual differences in terms of the joint influences of personal and contextual characteristics. Previous studies have often investigated how student learning is associated with eith...

Change in learning strategies during higher education is an important topic of research when considering students’ approaches to learning. Regarding the statistical techniques used to analyse this change, repeated measures ANOVA is mostly relied upon. Recently, multilevel and multi-indicator latent growth (MILG) analyses have been used as well. The...

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...

Whether or not learning strategies change during the course of higher education is an important topic in the Student Approaches to Learning field. However, there is a dearth of any empirical evaluations in the literature as to whether or not the instruments in this research domain measure equivalently over time. Therefore, this study details the pr...

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...

In order to decrease the growing drop-out and failure rates in first year higher education, institutions in Europe often organize learning skill training sessions, or provide feedback on student learning. In this study we question how students perceive the need for such initiatives or interventions and to what extent this is related to individual l...

Although instructional development for teachers has become an important topic in higher education, little is known about the impact it has on daily teaching practice. The lack of systematic programme evaluation is an ongoing concern. In this study we investigate by use of a quasi-experimental design, the impact of an instructional development progr...

The environmental agenda is gaining momentum as an international policy issue. This is reflected in an increase in environmental education research focussing on children’s awareness and attitudes toward the environment. In this study, we focused on this issue from a school effectiveness perspective and evaluated (a) which student characteristics pr...

Research on learning pattern development in higher education contexts is scarce. This longitudinal study seeks to address this issue by analysing the development of students' learning patterns throughout University College. Vermunts' Inventory of Learning Styles was used to assess individual differences in learning conceptions and learning strategi...

Inciting a deep approach to learning in students is difficult. The present research poses two questions: can a constructivist learning‐assessment environment change students' approaches towards a more deep approach? What effect does additional feedback have on the changes in learning approaches? Two cohorts of students completed questionnaires meas...

Research on learning pattern development in higher education contexts is scarce. In this longitudinal study the development of learning patterns of professional bachelor students is analyzed. Participants in the study were 254 students enrolled in eight different study disciplines. Vermunts' Inventory of Learning Styles was used to assess individua...