Nadira Saab

• Professor
• Professor at Leiden University

Digital gamification has a great potential for enhancing EFL learners' motivation and achievement. A digital gamified class should be the integration of 'game' and 'learning' aspects. However , most studies on it have been conducted only with the hypothesis of using game elements to improve the student experience, ignoring the role of students' lea...

This study investigated empowering students to engage agentively in formative assessment of their English writing. To this end, student agentic engagement was explored drawing on multiple data collection. A Digitalized Engagement Enhancement Tool (DEET) was utilized to encourage students to record, unpack, plan for actions, and reflect on the feedb...

The quality of teaching is significantly influenced by teachers’ self-efficacy. Grounded in social cognitive theory, this study examined the relationship between teachers’ self-efficacy for teaching, on the one hand, and individual factors, working conditions, and principal leadership, on the other. Data derived from 466 primary teachers were analy...

Background study Although the number of computer‐based instruction has increased drastically, the understanding of how design features of learning modality can affect learning remains incompelte. This partly stems from studies' heavy focus on modified output. Therefore, how interactive nature of computer‐mediated learning feeds into learning is und...

Psychoeducation programs may increase knowledge about stress and help adolescents cope with stress. However, research about the effectiveness of psychoeducation programs about stress for adolescents is limited. The present study aimed to fill this gap by evaluating the effect of a brief school-based universal psychoeducation program about stress, t...

This paper presents a mixed-method study to explore how effective reflection supported by 360• video VR technology is improving classroom management self-efficacy and reducing the stress levels of student teachers. Furthermore, it examined how participants evaluated strengths and weaknesses of 360• video VR. Upon examining the results of the study...

The systematic review examined research on tailored digital gamification for learning based on 43 peer-reviewed articles published between 2013 and 2022. The study aimed to investigate tailored approaches and game elements, contributing to the use of tailored digital gamification in educational settings. The tailored approaches were categorized as...

The aim of this study is to gain insight into the interplay between attitudes, motivation, learning engagement, and perceived learning outcomes in massive open online courses (MOOCs). An online survey was administered to 232 MOOC learners. This study provided comprehensive explanations for individual differences in learning engagement and perceived...

Eindrapport NWO-NRO project 40.5.20500.139

The recently developed technology of 360 • video provides opportunities for teachers and teacher candidates to explore both the classroom environment and the teaching and learning process. In this paper, a systematic review has been conducted to better understand the use of 360 • videos in teacher education. The study focuses on the reasons why and...

Virtual Reality (VR) technology can support an immersive experience of the classroom context enabling student-teachers to practice their teaching in a variety of classroom scenarios within the safe environment of teacher education. Two studies have been carried out with pre-service teachers: one quasi-experimental study focusing on VR improving cla...

In the first years of a teaching career, teachers experience high levels of distress, and the attrition rate appears to be high. Early-career teachers do not always feel well prepared for their job and feel insufficient support during their first experiences as a teacher. Induction programs, professional development, and school support could equip...

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 pape...

The present study aimed to identify overall stress and salient stressors experienced by adolescents from different education tracks and self-perceived ethnic backgrounds. A total of 1489 adolescents ( M = 13.40 years; SD = 0.89 years) from nine Dutch secondary schools participated. Self-reported stressors were measured with the adapted version of t...

Technology creates variant learning experiences which are context specific. This study examined the comparative potential of multimodal and text-based Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) in fostering learner autonomy, learner engagement and learner e-satisfaction as well as learner writing quality. To this end, 40 Iranian male and female EFL (Eng...

Background Given that high levels of stress during adolescence are associated with negative consequences, it is important that adolescents with psychological needs are supported at an early stage, for instance with interventions at school. However, knowledge about the potential of school-based programs targeting adolescents with psychological needs...

Teacher education is a symbolic entry point into the teaching profession and the identification of specific teacher education aspects that enhance commitment to teaching is important. A thematic literature review was carried out to identify these themes within teacher education. The review included 22 peer-reviewed articles. Eleven themes were extr...

The role of teachers is an important element of online project-based learning courses. Based on the Community of Inquiry framework, this study examined how students' perceptions of teaching presence, through social presence and cognitive presence, were related to their evaluations of online project-based learning. A 16-week online project-based leg...

The school context has the potential to hinder or stimulate teachers' motivation to attend Continuous Professional Development (CPD) programs. The present study investigated the relationship between workplace conditions in schools and teachers' autonomous motivation to participate in CPD. A questionnaire was completed by 472 teachers in 13 schools...

Teachers' beliefs and experiences were explored when using videoconferencing at mainstream schools to provide distance learning to students with a chronic illness (SCIs) in a hybrid virtual classroom (HVC). Seventy-seven primary and secondary teachers participated in this study, involving a semi-structured interview and a survey. Teachers found the...

In this exploratory descriptive study, we use eye-tracking technology to examine teachers’ visual inspection of Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM) progress graphs. More specifically, we examined which elements of the graph received the most visual attention from teachers, and to what extent teachers viewed graph elements in a logical sequence. We a...

Adolescents might be particularly affected by the drastic social changes as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, given the increased stress-sensitivity and importance of the social environment in this developmental phase. In order to examine heterogeneity during the pandemic, the current study aimed to identify whether subgroups of adolescents c...

The aim of this study was to examine how motivation, perceived learning support, learning engagement, and self-regulated learning strategies relate to learners’ perceived learning outcomes of massive open online courses (MOOCs). An online survey was administered to 546 participants from four MOOCs. Seven types of reasons for attending MOOCs were id...

Language learners in higher education increasingly use out-of-class self-directed learning facilitated by mobile technology. In order to make informed educational decisions, this study sets out to provide an overview of empirical research into learning strategies that self-directed learners use with the support of mobile technology in language lear...

Peer feedback can be a tool to help higher education students develop presentation skills. This process can be supported by using online tools that enable peers to provide feedback annotated to specific moments in the presentation. The current paper investigated whether providing and receiving peer feedback using an online tool was related to impro...

Mobile technology offers great potential for university students' language learning. Numerous studies have been conducted on utilizing mobile technology in language learning classroom. However, using it in self-initiated and self-directed learning outside class remains to be explored. The present study employed the Integrative Model of Behavior Pre...

Teachers' motivation to participate in professional learning is a significant factor in explaining the effectiveness of continuous professional development programmes. The present study investigated how factors at teachers' personal and school levels are related to their motivation to participate in professional learning activities. A questionnaire...

This chapter explores the role of assessment in improving student success. First, literature regarding assessment characteristics, formative assessment and (peer) feedback, assessment and feedback literacy, the use of technology in assessment, and assessment integrity is discussed. Subsequently, three case studies are presented. The first case stud...

This chapter explores the role of assessment in improving student success. First, literature regarding assessment characteristics, formative assessment and (peer) feedback, assessment and feedback literacy, the use of technology in assessment, and assessment integrity is discussed. Subsequently, three case studies are presented. The first case stud...

To identify adolescents who may be at risk for adverse outcomes, we examined the extent of COVID-19-related concerns reported by adolescents and investigated which prepandemic risk and protective factors predicted these concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dutch adolescents (N = 188; M age = 13.49, SD = .81) were assessed before the pandemic and...

Project-based learning (PjBL) engages students in knowledge acquisition, application, and construction through artefact development. Based on the Community of Inquiry framework, this study characterized college students' social and cognitive presences in online PjBL and examined how presence was related to their academic performance. Twenty-four gr...

Final report of the pilots of E+ funded IoT Rapid Proto Labs project.

Chronic stress is associated with dysregulations in the physiological stress system, resulting in diverse negative developmental outcomes. Since adolescence is a period characterized by increased stress‐sensitivity, and schools are an important environment for the developing adolescent, school‐based interventions promoting psychosocial functioning...

Background Teaching is an important professional skill for physicians and providing feedback is an important part of teaching. Medical students can practice their feedback skills by giving each other peer feedback. Therefore, we developed a peer feedback training in which students observed a peer that modelled the use of good feedback principles. S...

In the IoT Rapid Proto Labs, students learning labs have been implemented as part of course curricula on IoT. In these learning labs, students work on authentic tasks, either problem-oriented or product-oriented, to enhance both their domains-specific skills and knowledge as well as generic competences of collaboration, communication, problem solvi...

In China, the university-school partnership (USP) is a community of continuous professional development (PD) for teachers, involving teacher educators who visit schools. This study explores teachers' personal factors, school working conditions, and principal leadership in order to explain differences in teachers' learning when they have participate...

This systematic review on massive open online courses (MOOCs) in higher education examined the research on the assessment of learning outcomes based on 65 peer-reviewed articles published between 2017 and 2019. This study aims to investigate the learning outcomes, related instruments , and assessment characteristics of these instruments in MOOCs. L...

Abstract: This systematic review on massive open online courses (MOOCs) in higher education examined the research on the assessment of learning outcomes based on 65 peer-reviewed articles published between 2017 and 2019. This study aims to investigate the learning outcomes, related instruments, and assessment characteristics of these instruments in...

Due to the internationalization and globalization of businesses in Vietnam, the new-generation students need to develop skills in intercultural communication. The current study aims to develop English non-majors’ awareness of intercultural communication by using critical incident open-ended tasks. Critical incidents in intercultural communication t...

The present study aims to provide a systematic understanding of how perspective-taking ability contributes to primary-school students’ cooperative behaviours and learning outcomes. The present study is frontline as we combined person-oriented (e.g., describing patterns of behaviours based on individual characteristics), process-oriented (e.g., exam...

With the trends in globalization and internationalization, cross-culture work-related values are increasingly receiving attention of both managers and researchers. This study aimed to investigate the cultural differences in work-related values between Western managers and Vietnamese employees in Vietnam. In two areas in the South of Vietnam, 94 Wes...

Increased levels of psychological stress during adolescence have been associated with a decline in academic performance, school dropout and increased risk of mental health problems. Intervening during this developmental period may prevent these problems. The school environment seems particularly suitable for interventions and over the past decade,...

Project-based learning (PjBL) is understood to be a promising approach that improves student learning in higher education. Empirical studies on project-based learning have been reviewed with a focus on student outcomes. Affective outcomes (i.e. perceptions of the benefits of PjBL and perceptions of the experience of PjBL) were most applied, which w...

In this internationalised world, graduate employability in terms of intercultural communication skills needs to be taken into account in higher education. The present study aims to explore the effects of critical incident task instruction on English non-majored undergraduates’ intercultural competence. One group of students received ten weeks of in...

In dit artikel wordt beschreven hoe docenten met ervaring in onderwijs aan cultuurdiverse klassen van het voortgezet onderwijs rekening houden met de culturele diversiteit van hun leerlingen, welke onderwijsdimensies zij hier-bij betrekken, hoe ze hier invulling aan geven en wat hun overwegingen daarbij zijn. Op basis van inductieve analyses van in...

In dit artikel wordt beschreven hoe docenten met ervaring in onderwijs aan cultuurdiverse klassen van het voortgezet onderwijs rekening houden met de culturele diversiteit van hun leerlingen, welke onderwijsdimensies zij hierbij betrekken, hoe ze hier invulling aan geven en wat hun overwegingen daarbij zijn. Op basis van inductieve analyses van int...

Report on first pilot of the IoT Rapid-Proto labs project.

One promising way to cope with changing requirements from the labor market in the domain of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), but also to keep the field up to date, to start innovations and to advance the STEM domain as such is the use of student labs. In these labs, students work together in small groups imitating profession...

Curriculum report on pilot 1. Erasmusproject IoT Rapid Proto Labs

The present study investigated on-line text processing of second-grade low- and high-comprehending readers by recording their eye movements as they read expository and narrative texts. For narrative texts, the reading patterns of low- and high-comprehending readers revealed robust differences consistent with prior findings for good versus strugglin...

This literature review on remote labs in higher education examined the empirical research on learning benefits of such labs. The aim of this study was to investigate what kinds of learning outcomes were examined, how these effects were examined, and which findings these studies provided. Effects that were examined in the reviewed articles (k=23) co...

The authors examined three instructional approaches for improving teachers’ curriculum-based measurement (CBM) graph comprehension, each differing in the extent to which reading the data, interpreting the data, and linking the data to instruction were emphasized. Participants were 164 elementary school teachers who were randomly assigned to one of...

Research into students' peer-feedback beliefs varies both thematically and in approaches and outcomes. This study aimed to develop a questionnaire to measure students' beliefs about peer-feedback. Based on the themes in the literature four scales were conceptua-lised. In separate exploratory (N = 219) and confirmatory (N = 121) studies, the structu...

Background: Adolescence is a period of elevated stress sensitivity, which places adolescents at increased risk of developing mental health problems such as burnout, depression, anxiety, and externalizing problems. Early intervention of psychological needs and low-threshold care addressing such needs may prevent this dysfunctional development. Scho...

The learning benefits of peer assessment and providing peer feedback have been widely reported. However, it is still not understood which learning activities most facilitate the acquisition of feedback skills. This study aimed to compare the effect of a modeling example, i.e., a model that demonstrated how to give feedback, on the acquisition of fe...

During the early stages of secondary education students’ motivation and performance levels decline. This study employed a case study approach to evaluate a learning environment called GUTS; Differentiated Challenging of Talent in School. GUTS was specifically designed to raise performance and motivation through a combination of (a) talent lessons a...

High-quality helping behavior is essential for effective peer interaction and learning. This study focused on ethnic group composition and the quality of group interaction as predictors of individual mathematics performance. Video-observations of 92 fifth-grade students working in groups balanced on mathematics performance level were analyzed. We e...

Commitment to teaching is a recurring topic in both research and policy discussions on teaching and the teaching profession. We investigated factors explaining differences in student-teachers' commitment to the teaching profession and to student learning, and their intentions to enter the teaching profession. Student-teachers (n = 3,246) from one U...

One promising way to cope with changing requirements from the labor market in the domain of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), but also to keep the field up to date, to start innovations and to advance the STEM domain as such is the use of student labs. In these labs, students work together in small groups imitating profession...

Student labs are one promising way to cope with changing requirements from the labor market in the domain of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), but also to keep the field up to date, to start innovations and to advance the STEM domain as such. In these labs, students work together in small groups imitating professional practic...

To be able to effectuate the success of cooperative learning, it is important to understand students' perceptions of specific cooperative learning activities. However, students' perceptions of one and the same cooperative learning activity can vary to a large extent. To gain insight into student-and task-related sources of variability in students'...

Peer feedback is frequently implemented with academic writing tasks in higher education. However, a quantitative synthesis is still lacking for the impact that peer feedback has on students’ writing performance. The current study conveyed two types of observations. First, regarding the impact of peer feedback on writing performance, this study synt...

The present study investigated comprehension processes and strategy use of second-grade low- and high-comprehending readers when reading expository and narrative texts for comprehension. Results from think-aloud protocols indicated that text genre affected the way the readers processed the texts. When reading narrative texts they made more text-bas...

Eindrapport project Lerarenagenda 2015

Students in secondary education inevitably favour some subjects more than other subjects. This appraisal may affect how motivation relates to performance in these subjects. Whereas autonomous motivation is generally linked to positive school outcomes, the effect of controlled motivation is less clear. This study specifically focused on the associat...

Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM) is a system for monitoring the progress of and evaluating instructional program effectiveness for students with learning difficulties. Although a large amount of research has been conducted on CBM, little has focused on the interpretation and use of the data for instructional decision-making, despite the fact that...

Videos are often the core content in open online education, such as in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Students spend most of their time in a MOOC on watching educational videos. However, merely watching a video is a relatively passive learning activity. To increase the educational benefits of online videos, students could benefit from more ac...

Research skills are important for university graduates, but little is known about undergraduates’ motivation for research. In this study, self-efficacy beliefs and intrinsic motivation for several research activities were measured three times during an undergraduate research project (N = 147 students). In order to promote self-efficacy for writing...

Videos are often the core content in open online education, such as in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Students spend most of their time in a MOOC on watching educational videos. However, merely watching a video is a relatively passive learning activity. To increase the educational benefits of online videos, students could benefit from more ac...

In a relatively short period of time, massive open online courses (MOOCs) have become a considerable topic of research and debate, and the number of available MOOCs is rapidly growing. Along with issues of formal recognition and accreditation, this growth in the number of MOOCs being developed increases the relevance of assessment quality. Within t...

Within the higher education context, peer feedback is frequently applied as an instructional method. Research on the learning mechanisms involved in the peer feedback process has covered aspects of both providing and receiving feedback. However, a direct comparison of the impact that providing and receiving peer feedback has on students’ writing pe...

In this globalized and internationalized world, intercultural communication at workplaces is a topic often examined. This study aimed to shed light on the cultural differences in work-related values between Western and Vietnamese employers in Vietnam. In total, 94 Western and Vietnamese companies in two areas in the South of Vietnam participated. Q...

Understanding student-teachers’ decisions to enter and stay in the teaching profession after graduation could help teacher educators to find appropriate procedures to enhance commitment to teaching. This study classified student-teachers based on their levels of commitment to teaching, and described these types based on student-teachers’ motivation...

This study examined to what extent children and adults differ in how they process negative emotions during reading, and how they rate their own and protagonists’ emotional states. Results show that both children’s and adults’ processing of target sentences was facilitated when they described negative emotions. Processing of spill-over sentences was...

There does not appear to be consensus on how to optimally match students during the peer feedback process: with same-ability peers (homogeneously) or different-ability peers (heterogeneously). In fact, there appears to be no empirical evidence that either homogeneous or heterogeneous student matching has any direct effect on writing performance. Th...

Teachers have difficulty using data from Curriculum-based Measurement (CBM) progress graphs of students with learning difficulties for instructional decision-making. As a first step in unraveling those difficulties, we studied teachers’ comprehension of CBM graphs. Using think-aloud methodology, we examined 23 teachers’ ability to read, interpret,...

Open online education has become increasingly popular. In Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) videos are generally the most used method of teaching. While most MOOCs are offered in English, the global availability of these courses has attracted many non-native English speakers. To ensure not only the availability, but also the accessibility of open...

This study examined to what extent children and adults differ in how they process negative emotions during reading, and how they rate their own and protagonists’ emotional states. Results show that both children’s and adults’ processing of target sentences was facilitated when they described negative emotions. Processing of spill-over sentences was...

In a relatively short period of time, massive open online courses (MOOCs) have become a considerable topic of research and debate, and the number of available MOOCs is rapidly growing. Along with issues of formal recognition and accreditation, this growth in the number of MOOCs being developed increases the relevance of assessment quality. Within t...

Student performance is related to motivation to learn. As motivation generally declines during lower secondary education, one might expect performance to decline as well during this period. Though, until now, it has been unclear whether this pattern exists. In the present study, we examined student performance during the early years of secondary ed...

Open online distance learning in higher education has quickly gained popularity, expanded, and evolved, with Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) as the most recent development. New web technologies allow for scalable ways to deliver video lecture content, implement social forums and track student progress in MOOCs. However, we remain limited in our...

Open online distance learning in higher education has quickly gained popularity, expanded, and evolved, with Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) as the most recent development. New web technologies allow for scalable ways to deliver video lecture content, implement social forums and track student progress in MOOCs. However, we remain limited in our...

A unique aspect of working in small groups is that students have the opportunity to interact with each other about how to solve problems. Research in educational and social psychology has shown that task-related (TR) peer interactions are positively related to performance. The positive relation of task-related peer interactions with performance is...