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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 being processed and how processing the question influenced the processing of the categories of answers. We also considered the effects of participants' personal characteristics, such as effort and ability. Results showed there were individual differences involved when respondents complete a questionnaire. The respondents spent different amounts of time reading and answering the items, and there were important differences in the quality of processing.

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 of self-report questionnaires. To this end, we explored the process of completing a questionnaire by monitoring the eye tracking data of 70 students in higher education. Specifically, we examined the relation between eye movement measurements and the level of internal consistency demonstrated in the responses to the questionnaire. The results indicated that respondents who look longer at an item do not necessarily have more consistent answering behaviour than respondents with shorter processing times. Our findings indicate that eye tracking serves as a promising tool to gain more insight into the process of completing self-report questionnaires.

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 participate in learning in the workplace is scarce and scattered. The present study was conducted to get a deeper insight into readiness to participate in learning in the workplace, and more particular in the Flemish (Belgium) context of dual education. The study applied a multi-method approach including literature review, document study, semi-structured interviews and member checking. The study resulted in a conceptualisation of 'willingness to participate in learning in the workplace' and 'maturity for learning in the workplace' including clusters of competencies related to participation in the workplace, learning in the workplace, and motivation for learning and participating in the workplace. This conceptualisation contributes to the development of policy and practice through providing a basis for assessing readiness to participate in dual education.

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 concluding sentences in refutation and nonrefutation texts. We employed eye tracking to monitor the reading behavior of 92 students in higher education. The results revealed that during first-pass regressive reading, nonrefutation-text readers, compared with refutation-text readers, read topic sentences longer, indicating the correct scientific information. Concluding sentences, summarizing the correct scientific information, were reread for longer by refutation-text readers. With increasing prior knowledge, refutation texts were read more slowly than nonrefutation texts during first-pass reading. A higher text-based interest increased rereading time in the refutation text and decreased rereading time in the nonrefutation text. This study advances present knowledge in the field by demonstrating that the interaction between text and reader characteristics affects attention allocation in reading and comprehension.

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 pedagogical approaches is not automatically informative of the conceptions and beliefs of the students and their instructors in particular learning contexts. Therefore, if we are to disentangle further the theory-practice integration in T-VET, a first step is to grasp how these key actors conceive of theoretical and practical knowledge and the relationship between these kinds of knowledge. Thirty-eight subjects in dual T-VET in the field of chemical process technology, participated in serial and single focus groups. While adopting a grounded theory approach, the present qualitative study reveals the negotiated epistemological perspectives of students, school-instructors and workplace-instructors: forms of knowledge that respond to conceptions of theory or practice, the relationships between these forms of knowledge and the multiple agents who perform each connecting activity. The findings reveal a possible expression of the overall 'integration of theory and practice' as involving a network of relationships that are embodied by multiple agents. The implications are discussed.

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 support affect interns' use of different learning strategies. Method: The study utilized data collected from a sample of engineering students (n = 118) who completed a required internship during their degree. The data were analyzed using a structural equation modeling approach including latent factors. Results: Job demands were found to be a relevant and significant driver of students' shared regulation (e.g., asking for feedback), self-regulation (e.g., self-directed use of codified information), efforts to relate theory to practice (e.g., connecting workplace experience with theoretical knowledge), and the absence of avoidance of learning (e.g., lack of adaptation to work situations), but not of external regulation (e.g., asking for help to solve problems). Job control, however, was not found to be a positive or significant driver of student learning. Social support was found to be a relevant and significant predictor of external and shared regulation but not of the other learning activities. Conclusions: This study provided mixed findings regarding key hypotheses central to the JDCS model, generating rather poor evidence supporting it. In fact, job demands, job control, and social support exhibited much less explanatory power than expected for engineering students' learning during internships.

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 uncover differences in processing strategies at a task specific level. We based our study on one of the most influential studies in the domain of Students' Approaches to Learning (SAL) (Marton, Dahlgren, Säljö, & Svensson, 1975). In our exploratory experiment we used eye tracking followed by a cued recall to investigate how students use processing strategies in learning from expository text. Nineteen university students participated in the experiment. Results suggested that students in the deep condition did not look longer at the essentials in the text compared with students in the surface condition, but that they processed them in a more deep way. In our sample, students in the surface condition looked longer at facts and details and also reported repeating these facts and details more often. We suggest that the combination of eye tracking followed by a cued recall is a promising tool to investigate students' processing strategies since not all differences in processing strategies are reflected in overt eye movement behaviour. The current methodology allows researchers in the domain of SAL to complement and extend the present knowledge base that has accumulated through years of research with self-report questionnaires and interviews on students' general preferences towards processing strategies.

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 study designed to clarify the concept of integrative learning by advancing current understanding of what constitutes the integrative learning of theory and practice (ILTP) in terms of both its process and its outcome aspects. In all, 48 key actors in dual T-VET (students, tutors and mentors) participated in serial focus groups, class observations and apprenticeship observations. The constant comparison method was used to generate a description of both the learning process and the learning outcome based on descriptive axial dimensions along which learning and knowledge were positioned. More specifically, we distinguished three process dimensions (intentionality, time of the prompt and locus of learning) and three outcome dimensions (purpose, logic and locus of integrated knowledge). All in all, the findings can be understood only in consideration of co-existing perspectives on integration according to which the separation of theory and practice is more or less marked. The article discusses expected implications for practitioners and future research.

In educational research, there is a growing interest in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine students' levels of processing. As there is a growing interest in the use of fMRI, a systematic review was conducted to examine how deep and surface levels of processing are operationalized within the neuroscientific field. In addition, we investigated how this operationalization impacts on the conceptualization of levels of processing within fMRI research. A systematic search was conducted within the MEDLINE, PubMed, ERIC, and Web of Science databases, and 25 studies were identified for this review. With regard to the operationalization, the review indicates that levels of processing were examined under highly controlled conditions with decontextualized and simplified language stimuli. Analysis of these studies revealed that there is a lack of conceptual clarity as, in half of the cases, no theoretical framework was explicitly mentioned, and no clear definition was given regarding levels of processing.

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. start of the final year of secondary education until the beginning of the second year of higher education). Results show--contrary to our hypothesis based on the self-determination theory and social cognitive theory--that the growth in autonomous motivation positively predicts the growth in self-efficacy and that this 'reversed' model is superior in terms of fit and explained variance to the hypothesised model.

The motto of the conspiracist, "Do your own research," may seem ludicrous to scientists. Indeed, it is often dismissed as a mere rhetorical device that conspiracists use to give themselves the semblance of science. In this perspective paper, we explore the information-seeking activities ("research") that conspiracists do engage in. Drawing on the experimental psychology of aha experiences, we explain how these activities, as well as the epistemic experiences that precede (curiosity) or follow (insight or "aha" experiences) them, may play a crucial role in the appeal and development of conspiracy beliefs. Aha moments have properties that can be exploited by conspiracy theories, such as the potential for false but seemingly grounded conclusions. Finally, we hypothesize that the need for autonomous epistemic agency and discovery is universal but increases as people experience more uncertainty and/or feel epistemically excluded in society, hence linking it to existing literature on explaining conspiracy theories. Recent events have made it painfully clear that conspiracy beliefs can tear deep rifts in society and that we still have not found an adequate, de-escalating response to this. To understand the appeal of conspiracy theories and find new, humanizing ways to talk about them, we propose in this perspective paper to start from the universal human need to autonomously make discoveries through personal knowledge-generating actions. Indeed, psychological research shows that the aha experiences that accompany subjective discoveries create confidence in and perceived ownership of ideas that may be exploited by conspiracy theories. We hypothesize that people experiencing more uncertainty and/or epistemic exclusion in society will especially feel the need to re-establish autonomous epistemic agency and discovery. While this explanation starts from shared human experiences and practices, it also illustrates the potential of those processes to lead to a narrowed world and ossified cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 order to use it in correlation with other instruments. The PATT instrument as developed in the nineties is an extensive survey that hasn't been revalidated over the last three decades. The Pupils' Attitudes Towards Technology (PATT) instrument was reconstructed and revalidated. The validation study was done in two major steps. First a pilot study with 250 students, followed by a main study with 3000 students. Different factors of the instrument were analysed on their internal consistency. Also the goodness of fit indices of the complete model were checked in a confirmatory factor analysis. This resulted in an instrument with six sub-factors and 24 items of attitude towards technology. The six factors are Career Aspirations, Interest in Technology, Tediousness of Technology, Positive Perception of Effects of Technology, Perception of Difficulty and Perception of Technology as a Subject for Boys or for Boys and Girls. The instrument is easy to use, reliable and validated. It opens a door to further research and evaluation of technology education. (Contains 8 tables and 3 figures.)

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. Aims: This study aimed at extending current research on students' learning strategies by combining general and task-specific measurements of students' learning strategies using both offline and online measures. We want to clarify how students process learning contents and to what extent this is related to their self-report of learning strategies. Sample: Twenty students with different generic learning profiles (according to self-report questionnaires) read an expository text, while their eye movements were registered to answer questions on the content afterwards. Methods: Eye-tracking data were analysed with generalized linear mixed-effects models. Results: The results indicate that students with an all-high profile, combining both deep and surface learning strategies, spend more time on rereading the text than students with an all-low profile, scoring low on both learning strategies. Conclusions: This study showed that we can use eye-tracking to distinguish very strategic students, characterized using cognitive processing and regulation strategies, from low strategic students, characterized by a lack of cognitive and regulation strategies. These students processed the expository text according to how they self-reported.

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 the "practice module" in vocational education programmes in Spain. The study analysed individual, educational design and work environment factors that facilitate or hinder transfer of learning. The study took a multidimensional approach to professional competences by observing four dimensions: hard-specific, hard-generic, interpersonal and intrapersonal. The data collection drew from a questionnaire administered to students of vocational education programmes (N = 379) after they had completed the practice module scheme. A moderation analysis was applied to observe the effect of individual, educational design and workplace factors on the relation between the competences learned at school and those used at the workplace. The findings showed that compulsory placement, school-work alignment, work-based supervisor, access to resources and task complexity are significant moderators between the competences learned at school and those used at the workplace. The study highlights the coherence between the school and workplaces and work environment characteristics as factors conducive to transfer of learning.

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 research on how students' approaches to learning develop during higher education. A total of 43 studies were included in the review. The results give an unclear picture of the development of approaches to learning and, thus, do not provide clear empirical evidence for the assumption that students develop towards more deep approaches during higher education. Neither methodological nor conceptual aspects of the studies investigated explained the ambiguity of the research results. Both theoretical and empirical implications for further research are discussed.

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 workplace. Starting from the framework of the Job-Demands-Control-Support model, a total of 11 teachers were interviewed. Results of the qualitative analyses indicated that high levels of job demands, autonomy and social support were important for in-service student teachers' learning in the workplace. Social support and guidance from colleagues in the workplace seemed more relevant for learning than the support and guidance from the supervisors from the teaching program at the university. Implications for practice and for further research are discussed.

Communicating about new or unknown health risks is challenging because it requires audiences to engage with and process novel and often complex health information. This study examines how texts can convey awareness and increase knowledge about health risks people are unaware of. The focus is on how text genre (narrative, expository, and mixed-genre) affects relevant emotional (arousal, transportation) and cognitive outcomes (knowledge and risk severity), measured using both online (electrodermal activity) and offline self-report measures. Mixed-effects model analyses revealed that narrative texts exhibit the highest self-reported arousal, transportation, and risk severity. Additionally, transportation mediates the relationship between text genre and risk severity. Ultimately, mixed-genre texts produced significantly higher arousal peaks and confidence ratings on knowledge posttests compared to expository texts. Taken together, the findings suggest that narrative texts perform better at raising awareness, whereas mixed-genre texts seem more effective in learning. The implications for health risk communication are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 addition, we examined whether beginning and more experienced teachers differ with regard to informal learning. Results revealed different types of learning activities in the two groups and interesting relationships among different antecedents and various learning outcomes. Moreover, it can be concluded that the main difference between beginning and more experienced teachers lies not in the type of learning activities they undertake but rather in their attitudes toward learning, their learning outcomes, and how they are influenced by their context.

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 investigates: (1) the effects of PBL on students' deep and surface approaches to learning, (2) whether and why these effects do differ across (a) the context of the learning environment (single vs. curriculum wide implementation), and (b) study quality. Studies were searched dealing with PBL and students' approaches to learning. Twenty-one studies were included. The results indicate that PBL does enhance deep learning with a small positive average effect size of 0.11 and a positive effect in eleven of the 21 studies. Four studies show a decrease in deep learning and six studies show no effect. PBL does not seem to have an effect on surface learning as indicated by a very small average effect size (0.08) and eleven studies showing no increase in the surface approach. Six studies demonstrate a decrease and four an increase in surface learning. It is concluded that PBL does seem to enhance deep learning and has little effect on surface learning, although more longitudinal research using high quality measurement instruments is needed to support this conclusion with stronger evidence. Differences cannot be explained by the study quality but a curriculum wide implementation of PBL has a more positive impact on the deep approach (effect size 0.18) compared to an implementation within a single course (effect size of -0.05). PBL is assumed to enhance active learning and students' intrinsic motivation, which enhances deep learning. A high perceived workload and assessment that is perceived as not rewarding deep learning are assumed to enhance surface learning.

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 towards technology we need to have a better understanding of the factors which determine attitudes. Different studies (e.g. Volk and Yip in "Int J Technol Des Educ" 9:57-71, 1999; Jones et al. in "Sci Educ" 84(2):180-192, 2000; George in "Int J Sci Educ" 28(6):571-589, 2006; Salminen-Karlsson in "Int J Sci Educ" 29(8):1019-1033, 2007) have proven that students' characteristics correlate with their attitudes towards technology. As these studies often focus on effects on a specific aspect of attitude; the total effect cannot be interpreted correctly because attitude is a multi-dimensional concept (Osborne et al. in "Int J Sci Educ" 23(5):441-467, 2003). This study focuses upon six aspects of attitude namely: interest, career aspirations, boredom, consequences, difficulty and gender issues. Therefore a multivariate model has been set up. This allows us to answer the main research question: What is the predictive power of students' characteristics with regard to aspects of their attitudes towards technology? The revalidated version of the "Pupils Attitude Towards Technology" instrument (Ardies et al. in "Des Technol Educ" 18(1):8-19, 2013) was used in a large (n = 2,973) scale investigation of 12-14 year old students (Grade 1 and Grade 2 of secondary education). Given the multilevel nature of the data and that students are allocated to specific teachers, we analysed the data with a multivariate multilevel approach. The results of the study show a decline in interest in technology from the first to the second grade of secondary education. This finding appears to be stronger for girls. Interest in technology is significantly positively related to the amount of time that technology is taught for, as well as to the teacher. Parents have a positive influence on several aspects of attitude to technology when mothers and/or fathers have a profession related to technology. Equally, the presence of technological toys at home is a significantly positive characteristic. As the results confirmed previous, fragmented studies in related disciplines like science education, this study contributes to the wider body of knowledge concerning students' attitudes towards technology and how this can be investigated.

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 PGM with regard to the professional, personal and social dimensions of professional development. Quantitative research methods were used. An online survey was completed by 69 teachers in general education and 47 teachers in vocational education (n = 116). The results showed that the participants saw PGM as an important tool for professional development throughout the entire teaching career. In general, there were few significant differences between vocational teachers and their colleagues in general education in their perceptions of PGM. The study further suggests an alternative conceptualisation of professional development based on the following components: development of skills and knowledge, strengthening professional identity and self-confidence, and development of a work community.

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: This study has two goals: exploring the evolution of pupils' interest during the year(s) they attend the mandatory technology classes and exploring determining characteristics for differences in boys' and girls' attitude change over time. Sample: This study focuses on data gathered in the first and second grade of the first cycle in general secondary education in the North region of Belgium, Flanders. In a first stage we selected a good representation of geographically spread schools (n = 20), from which over 1300 students participated. Design and methods: A longitudinal study with eight measurement occasions spread over the course of two years is presented in order to capture the evolution of students' attitudes, making use of a multilevel growth model analysis. Results: The results show that students' interest in technology decreases over time, although at the end of each grade interest is increasing again. Boys' and girls' interest in technology also evolves a little different in the first cycle of secondary education. For career aspirations we didn't see any significant difference between boys and girls. Boys' and girls' aspirations decrease over time with a little increase by the end of the second grade. Students with a more technological curriculum also have more career aspirations in the field of technology than their peers with other curricula. Although students' perceptions about technology as a subject for boys and girls are largely stable. Conclusions: The evolution of students' attitude is far from linear, this strengthens us in the choice for a more complex analysis model and the choice for more measuring points than only at the beginning and the end when analysing students' attitudes towards technology. With this research we found that students interest and aspirations in the field of technology are not stable and do change in the first cycle of secondary education. Overall, we can conclude that if the goal of technology education at school maintains to promote "a larger number of students in technological oriented studies and professions", there is still much to do.