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Teachers play important roles in identifying and promoting gifted students. An open question is: Which student characteristics do teachers use to evaluate whether a student is gifted or not? We used data from a representative sample of Dutch primary school teachers (N = 1,304) who were asked whether or not they thought the students (N = 26,720) in their class were gifted. We investigated students' cognitive and noncognitive attributes as well as demographic factors that might be relevant for this judgment. In sum, the findings revealed that teachers considered students to be gifted when, in comparison with their peers, students were superior in cognitive domains, especially with respect to academic achievement, scored higher on openness to experience and lower on agreeableness, were male, were younger, and came from families with higher parental education. These findings are discussed in relation to research on teacher nominations, teachers' representations of giftedness and gifted students, and theoretical conceptions of giftedness.

Students' academic achievement is a key predictor of various life outcomes and is commonly used for selection as well as for educational monitoring and accountability. With regard to achievement indicators, a differentiation has traditionally been drawn between grades and standardized tests. There is initial, albeit inconclusive, evidence that these indicators might differentially reflect students' personality as encapsulated in the Big Five personality traits as well as measures of cognitive abilities. In this article, we propose the personality-achievement saturation hypothesis (PASH) as an overarching model that describes the association between achievement indicators and personality. The PASH suggests that the differentiation between grades and tests is too simplistic and that associations between personality and achievement instead vary across five main features of the achievement measures that are used: level of standardization, relevance for the student, curricular validity, instructional sensitivity, and cognitive ability saturation. On the basis of findings from prior studies, we focused in particular on conscientiousness and openness to test the PASH. We used data from three large-scale studies (total N = 14,953) and aggregated our findings across these studies. In line with the PASH, the Big Five trait of conscientiousness was most strongly related to measures that were less standardized and less saturated with cognitive ability but higher on curriculum validity, relevance, and instructional sensitivity. In addition, openness was most strongly related to measures that were higher on standardization and cognitive ability saturation but lower on relevance, curriculum validity, and instructional sensitivity in English.

We investigate the effect of being in the high track for secondary school students on cognitive and non-cognitive skill outcomes. Dutch students are assigned to tracks at the end of elementary school based on a test score. We use this test score in a fuzzy regression discontinuity design to exploit the discontinuity in the probability to be assigned to the high track. Our results show that track placement influences cognitive outcomes positively, but leaves students with worse non-cognitive skills. Marginal students therefore face a tradeoff if they could choose the high track over the lower track.

Sensory hypersensitivity (SHS) is a frequently heard complaint after acquired brain injury (ABI) and is related to reduced quality of life and physical and mental health. This study aimed to identify triggers for SHS after ABI and investigate how individuals cope with SHS. Nineteen adults with ABI took part in 45-min individual interviews. Data were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Inductive thematic analysis revealed five themes: (1) A mismatch between resources and demands, (2) Altered experience of ordinary stimuli, (3) It affects all aspects of living, (4) Avoid, approach, accept, (5) It's highly heterogeneous. A model explaining the impact of triggers on subjective SHS after ABI is proposed, which states that SHS arises from a mismatch between the demands of a sensory environment (triggers) and the available biopsychosocial resources of an individual to meet these demands. The elicited SHS can affect and be affected by levels of fatigue, which limits the resources and creates a loop. Coping strategies can act on various stages of this model, i.e., to reduce the mismatch and potentially alter the loop. This model can contribute to the identification of mechanisms behind SHS in ABI patients and other populations, ultimately leading to evidence-based treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explored the potential of a robotics application in education as a measurement tool of child executive functioning skills. Sixty-five kindergarteners received assignments to go through a maze with a programmable robot, the Bee-Bot. Via observation we quantified how they solved these tasks. Their performance was successfully aggregated into a latent variable, which was used to predict the outcomes on standardized tasks that measure executive functioning. The latent variable significantly predicted performance on several tasks that measure problem-solving abilities, memory, visuospatial abilities and attention. It did not significantly predict pencil-and-paper tasks that measured visuospatial ability and nonverbal or design fluency. This study showed that it is possible to use a playful robotics task to obtain information on children's ability. We recommend more research on using diverse robots in larger samples with different age groups to further explore the possibilities of robots as a test instrument.

This article describes how the Dutch Department of Education incorporates New Public Management (NPM) principles in educational policy, and whether conflicts of interest between the Department and schools cause deviations from NPM. We reviewed policy documents and performed secondary analyses on school data. Educational policy focuses on output indicators and accountability aspects. However, when departmental interests do not align with school interests, the Department develops new policies that partly contradict NPM principles. We argue that a more consistent focus on output and well-developed school autonomy may help to enhance the quality of education.

It is well-known that the quality of vocational education and training (VET) depends on how well a given programme aligns with the values and interests of its stakeholders, but it is less well-known what these values and interests are and to what extent they are shared across different groups of stakeholders. We use vignettes to quantify the values that four groups of stakeholders assign to nine attributes relating to VET quality. The four stakeholders are students, teachers, workplace training supervisors, and policymakers. The nine attributes are employers' appreciation of students, graduation rate, obtained language skills of students, mentoring hours in workplace learning, challenge, structure, students' appreciation of teachers, schooling hours, and attention to civic education. Five hundred thirty-one Dutch respondents were repeatedly asked to rank a set of four hypothetical programmes, each with a specific value on the nine quality indicators. Through conjoint analysis we obtain the values that the stakeholders assigned to the nine attributes when evaluating the quality of VET programmes. The values assigned to the attributes "a challenging curriculum" and "employers" satisfaction' were similar across the four groups of stakeholders, yet the values assigned to the remaining attributes differed substantially across stakeholders. This illustrates the diversity in values and interests of different stakeholders, and points to a need to quantify these values, for use by both the Dutch government and VET colleges, to improve the overall quality of education and the match between vocational programmes and their stakeholders.

This research provides an economic model of the way people behave during an IQ test. We distinguish a technology that describes how time investment improves performance from preferences that determine how much time people invest in each question. We disentangle these two elements empirically using data from a laboratory experiment. The main findings is that both intrinsic (questions that people like to work on) and extrinsic motivation (incentive payments) increase time investments and as a result performance. The presence of incentive payments seems to be more important than the size of the reward. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation turn out to be complements. (Contains 4 figures and 6 tables.)

This paper explores the interface between personality psychology and economics. We examine the predictive power of personality and the stability of personality traits over the life cycle. We develop simple analytical frameworks for interpreting the evidence in personality psychology and suggest promising avenues for future research. The paper proceeds as follows. Section I is the Introduction. Section II defines cognitive ability and personality traits and describes how these concepts are measured. Section III considers methodological issues that arise in interpreting the measurements. Section IV presents evidence by psychologists and economists on basic economic parameters. Section V examines the predictive power of the traits studied by personality psychologists who, in general, are a distinct body of scholars from the psychologists measuring economic preference parameters. Section VI examines the evidence on the evolution of preference parameters and personality traits over the life cycle. We summarize recent work in psychology that demonstrates stability in preference parameters across diverse settings. Section VII presents a framework for interpreting personality and economic parameters. Recent work in behavioral economics and psychology that seeks to integrate economics and psychology focuses almost exclusively on preference parameters. In contrast, we present a broader framework that includes constraints, skill acquisition, and learning as well as conventional preference parameters. Section VIII concludes by summarizing the paper and suggesting an agenda for future research. (Contains 5 figures, 2 tables and 114 footnotes.)

This paper develops a framework of the role of interpersonal interactions in the labor market. Effective interpersonal interactions involve caring and directness. The ability to perform these tasks varies with personality and the importance of these tasks varies across jobs. An assignment model shows that people are most productive in jobs that match their style. An oversupply of one attribute relative to the other reduces wages for people who are better with the attribute in greater supply. We present evidence that youth sociability affects job assignment in adulthood. The returns to interpersonal interactions are consistent with the assignment model. (Contains 9 figures, 9 footnotes and 13 tables.)

Teachers play important roles in identifying and promoting gifted students. An open question is: Which student characteristics do teachers use to evaluate whether a student is gifted or not? We used data from a representative sample of Dutch primary school teachers (N = 1,304) who were asked whether or not they thought the students (N = 26,720) in their class were gifted. We investigated students' cognitive and noncognitive attributes as well as demographic factors that might be relevant for this judgment. In sum, the findings revealed that teachers considered students to be gifted when, in comparison with their peers, students were superior in cognitive domains, especially with respect to academic achievement, scored higher on openness to experience and lower on agreeableness, were male, were younger, and came from families with higher parental education. These findings are discussed in relation to research on teacher nominations, teachers' representations of giftedness and gifted students, and theoretical conceptions of giftedness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]