Maria T. Sikkema-de Jong’s research while affiliated with Leiden University and other places

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 also examined whether graph inspection patterns differed for teachers with higher- vs. lower-quality graph descriptions. Participants were 17 fifth- and sixth-grade teachers. Participants described two progress graphs while their eye-movements were registered. In addition, data were collected from an expert to provide a frame of reference for interpreting the teachers’ eye-tracking data. Results revealed that, as a group, teachers devoted less visual attention to important graph elements and inspected the graph elements in a less logical sequence than did the expert, however, there was variability in teachers’ patterns of graph inspection, and this variability was linked to teachers’ abilities to describe the graphs. Directions for future studies and implications for practice are discussed.

Background Previous meta‐analyses have shown that feedback targeting text comprehension given when students perform a reading task positively influences learning from text. So far, differences in the effects of feedback were explained by design features, such as the timing and richness of feedback. In the present study, we aim to investigate cognitive and affective processes that might be triggered by feedback targeting text comprehension. Method Two meta‐analyses were performed on feedback intervention studies that included statistics for both the effect of feedback targeting text comprehension on the use of reading strategies ( k = 8) or readers' attitudes towards the reading task ( k = 10) and the effect of feedback on reading comprehension. We first tested whether feedback significantly affected the use of reading strategies or readers' attitudes. We then performed a meta‐regression analysis to test if the magnitude of the effect significantly predicted gains in reading comprehension. Results Feedback targeting text comprehension had a positive and significant impact on the use of reading strategies ( g ⁺ = 0.61) and on reading comprehension ( g ⁺ = 0.34). Additionally, the magnitude of the effect on the use of reading strategies was positively related to the magnitude of the effect on reading comprehension. Feedback targeting text comprehension did not influence readers' attitudes towards the reading task. Also, no significant effect of feedback was found for reading comprehension in these studies. Conclusions Feedback targeting text comprehension helps students to apply reading strategies more often and/or more efficiently, even when they read new texts without the help of feedback. This transfer of practiced reading strategies in turn fosters reading comprehension. Due to the scarce number of studies, the results of the present meta‐analysis should be interpreted as an incentive for the field of reading research to unify empirical approaches for the integrated study of affective processes triggered by feedback targeting text comprehension.

Introduction: Children who experienced mild perinatal adversity (i.e., born late preterm or small for gestational age) are at increased risk for delays in early numeracy and literacy, which increases inequality in educational opportunities. However, this group showed increased susceptibility to the characteristics of their educational environment for literacy, especially for those born late preterm. Intervening in this group may thus be particularly beneficial, provided that their educational environment is highly structured. Delays in numeracy and mathematics are most firmly acknowledged in these children. It remains unclear if these children are also more susceptible to their educational numeracy environment. We test the hypothesis of increased susceptibility to characteristics of their educational environment in the field of numeracy. Methods: We tested the efficacy of a digital intervention of two to 3 months, which focused on visual spatial skills in a large randomized controlled trial in a sample of five-to-six-year-old kindergarten pupils from 140 elementary schools. About 45% of all participants showed delays in numeracy, of whom n = 67 (11%) were born late preterm, n = 157 (26%) were born small for gestational age, and n = 389 (63%) had no mild perinatal adversities. Pupils were assigned to a guiding and structured intervention focused on visual spatial skills (n = 294) or a control program (n = 319), targeting literacy skills. Results: The intervention did not show a main effect. The program was not effective in children small for gestational age, but it was for children born late preterm (Cohen’s d = .71, CI = .07–1.36), showing stronger numeracy skills compared to term-born peers in the intervention condition. Early numeracy skills in children born late preterm fell behind compared to term-born peers in the control condition. Conclusion: A highly structured educational numeracy environment, using repetition and adaptive feedback benefited early numeracy skills of late preterm children. These children outperformed their peers in early numeracy skills, while those in the control condition fell behind. Findings align with earlier findings on promoting early literacy in this group through an equivalent literacy intervention. A relatively simple and cost-effective intervention thus may help reduce the risk of educational inequality for children born late pre-term.

The aim of the present study was to gain insight into the neurobiological processes, particularly the dopaminergic processes, underlying attentional control during reading and reading comprehension. In order to test the effects of increased levels of dopamine (DA) in the brain, female university students (N = 80 ), half of them being carriers of the DRD4-7R allele and half of them not, participated in a double-blind placebo-controlled within-subjects experiment in which they were orally administered levodopa or a placebo before reading a text. After reading the text, participants reported on their attentional control during reading and completed comprehension questions. Pharmacologically increasing DA levels in the brain negatively influenced reading comprehension. This effect was moderate (η p ² = .13). No interaction effects of condition and DRD4 genotype were found, for either attentional control or reading comprehension. Exploratory analyses showed that increased DA levels in the brain positively influenced fluctuations in attentional control, but only in a group of slow readers. No effects of increased DA were found for the two other attentional control measures used in the present study and no effects of increased DA on attentional control were found for fast readers. Results are discussed from the perspective of the inverted U-shape theory and the possible dopamine-related mechanisms.