Investigations into the prevalence of careless responding (CR) in online student learning survey research are scarce, and little to no information is present about the impact on data quality. This study illustrates how an unobtrusive post hoc method of CR detection can be applied using four indices, which can be calculated in most student learning surveys. By applying latent profile analyses in an exemplary sample of 1,111 first-year university students, different responder profiles are identified, showing the presence of careful and careless responder profiles. The study further examines the impact of CR on data quality, raising concerns about reliability and validity. The study calls for more attention to the presence of CR when analysing data in online student learning survey research. CR detection is also valuable for practice, specifically when online survey-based feedback is provided to learners with more questionable responding behaviour.

The aim of the current paper is to offer a unique perspective on eye movement analysis in reading research by applying techniques from social network analysis to examine integration processes between sentences during reading. In a first step, we explored how network measures relate to the often-used duration measures in reading research in order to examine whether there is an additional value in using network measures. In a second step, we further explored how differences in network measures are related to text (i.e., topic structure) and reader characteristics (i.e., WMC). Thirty-one participants read three short expository texts. Four network measures at the sentence level were calculated for the three texts: strength, betweenness centrality, harmonic centrality, and local clustering coefficient. Correlations were computed between first-pass reading time and second-pass reading time and the network measures. Network measures were analyzed with (generalized) linear mixed-effects models. The results show that strength is strongly correlated to second-pass reading time. Betweenness, harmonic centrality, and the local clustering coefficient are not related to these often-used duration measures and thus capture aspects of integration processes that cannot be captured with duration measures. The results demonstrated that strength and betweenness centrality are related to reader’s WMC. It was also shown that strength, harmonic centrality, and local clustering coefficient were related to the topic structure of the text. This study demonstrates that a social network approach offers a novel perspective on moment-to-moment integration processes during reading.

Background: Low-educated adults' participation in second-chance education (SCE) is often implicitly imposed, as an ISCED level 3 degree is required to have access to a range of jobs or to higher education. This raises questions concerning SCE-learners' participation motivation and subsequently, their motivation to invest in effective learning behavior to achieve. Aims: This qualitative study aims to unravel SCE-learners' distinct motivational drivers and to develop a conceptualization of motivation in lower adult education, an area that has been overlooked in motivational psychology. Sample: Based on their variations in quantitatively measured motivational profiles, 19 SCE-participants were purposively selected. Methods: In-depth interviews allowed participants to expand upon their participation and learning motivational narratives. Drawing on well-established theoretical frameworks, both theoretically expected, and data-driven codes were derived. Subsequent variable-oriented and person-oriented analyses yielded a model comprising six prevalent motivational dimensions. Extensive audit trailing was done to enhance the study's trustworthiness. Results: Using in the model an axis distinguishing between motives higher and lower in internalization and an axis distinguishing between participation and learning motivation, five motivational dimensions could be classified. Three dimensions high in internalization - growth-orientation (participation-oriented), mastery-orientation (learning-oriented) and feel-good-orientation (participation-learning-oriented) - and two dimensions low in internalization - diploma-orientation (participation-oriented) and efficiency-orientation (learning-oriented) - were identified. The ambivalent orientation residing outside the quadrant, represents the sixth dimension, as this unclear orientation is strongly present among SCE-participants. Conclusions: This study offers a concise classification of prevalent motives among SCE-learners, simultaneously highlighting that SCE-learners not necessarily have a clear understanding of what exactly motivates them.

This study investigates the influence of secondary education (SE) and higher education (HE) study programmes on both the short-term (one year) and long-term (three years) academic achievement of HE students. It also examines the impact of various background, cognitive, and non-cognitive factors, controlling for SE and HE programmes. Based on a representative dataset (N = 24,183), this study employs cross-classified multilevel models with a random interaction effect between SE and HE levels. Results show that both SE and HE study programmes impact short- and long-term achievement in HE. The impact of SE programmes is smaller on longterm achievement, while that of HE programmes remains stable. Notably, the alignment between SE and HE programmes, is increasingly important in the long run. The study also highlights that background, non-cognitive and cognitive factors significantly predict academic achievement in both time frames, with important variations in their impacts on short- and long-term outcomes. Educational relevance statement: Having a clear perspective on the key determinants of academic achievement in higher education (HE) is crucial to support students during their difficult transition to HE. The present study addresses important gaps in the existing literature by analysing the influence of secondary education (SE) and higher education (HE) programmes on both short- and long-term academic achievements of HE students. It also examines the impact of a wide range of background, cognitive, and non-cognitive factors on these academic achievement measures, controlling for the effects of SE and HE programmes. The study reveals several important findings, among which: (1) An included interaction term between random variances at the SE and HE programme levels (in a cross-classified multilevel model) increasingly predicts academic achievement over time, suggesting the necessity of aligning SE and HE programmes. This is particularly relevant for SE administrators and counsellors developing study choice guidance trajectories for students; (2) There is evidence of a cumulative effect of SES risk factors in HE, with the influence of these background variables on academic achievement intensifying over time; (3) Cognitive and non-cognitive factors assessed at the end of SE significantly influence academic performance over a three-year period in HE, in addition to their impact on short-term academic achievement. This underscores the predictive validity of these measures and underscores their inclusion in online assessment tools designed to support SE students intending to pursue HE.

As an answer to the question of what open science principles could look like in qualitative research, this methodological tutorial introduces a structured audit trail format tailored to the specific needs of qualitative research. While open science practices have become increasingly common in quantitative research, their application in qualitative research remains complex due to the interpretive, iterative, and sensitive nature of qualitative inquiry. This tutorial addresses these challenges by offering a format for audit trailing enabling researchers to make the research process open. The format is grounded in key concepts such as transparency, reproducibility, traceability, auditability, reflexivity, and positionality. Supplementary materials, including guiding questions and a blank template, are provided to support implementation. A pilot application illustrates how the audit trail offers a feasible pathway for integrating open science practices into qualitative research while safeguarding participant confidentiality.

The process of choosing a study in higher education has been suggested to impact academic success. This longitudinal study investigated how career exploration profiles (i.e., highly active, moderately active, passive explorers), amount of acquired information about higher education, and study choice commitment in the final year of secondary school interrelate to explain academic success in the first year of higher education (n = 5,358). Differences in relationships across academic and professional bachelor programs were also tested. Structural equation modeling (SEM) revealed that the exploration profiles significantly predicted amount of information and commitment. Moderately active and highly active explorers displayed higher levels of commitment and information about higher education than passive explorers. Amount of information had a positive direct effect on academic success. Also, an indirect effect of the exploration profiles on academic success through amount of information was observed. Multiple-group SEM analysis revealed no differences in the structural paths between academic and professional bachelor programs, indicating the generalizability of the model across program types. This study yielded valuable insights into the relationship between the study choice process and academic success in a large and diverse sample of students, with a meaningful role of the amount of information about higher education.

Om gepast onderwijs te kunnen aanbieden aan cognitief begaafde leerlingen moeten leraren beschikken over relevante opvattingen, kennis en vaardigheden. Eerder onderzoek suggereert dat leraren uit het reguliere onderwijs misvattingen kunnen hebben over cognitief begaafde leerlingen en soms de nodige kennis of vaardigheden missen om een gepaste onderwijsleeromgeving te creëren. Het doel van deze studie is om te onderzoeken hoe de opvattingen en onderwijspraktijk van leraren evolueren wanneer ze deelnemen aan een professionaliseringstraject via Research Lesson Study. Dertien leraren van zes reguliere basisscholen en secundaire scholen in Vlaanderen namen deel aan herhaalde diepte-interviews om hun ervaringen in kaart te brengen. Leraren rapporteerden leerwinst over het verfijnen van hun opvattingen en het verbeteren van hun onderwijspraktijk. De verbeterde onderwijspraktijken kwamen overeen met eerdere wetenschappelijke bevindingen over effectief lesgeven aan cognitief begaafde leerlingen. Daarnaast vertoonden leraren met beperkte opvattingen en kennis over de onderwijspraktijken minder leerwinst in vergelijking met andere leraren. Het is van belang dat leraren een accuraat en uitgebreid referentiekader ontwikkelen met betrekking tot het adequaat lesgeven aan cognitief begaafde leerlingen. Professionalisering voor leraren via Research Lesson Study bleek uit het onderzoek effectief te zijn voor het optimaliseren van opvattingen en van relevante onderwijspraktijken met betrekking tot cognitief begaafde leerlingen.

Research on learning strategies and learning motivation in different educational contexts has provided valuable insights, but in this field, low-educated adults remain an understudied population. This study addresses this gap by means of a person-oriented approach and seeks to investigate whether quantitatively and qualitatively different learner profiles can be distinguished among low-educated adults in second-chance education (SCE) by relating three key components of learning: learning motivation, regulation and processing strategies. Five hundred twelve adult learners of six SCE-institutions filled in a Learning and Motivation questionnaire. Latent profile analysis showed the presence of motivational profiles differing both in quantity and quality (i.e. good- versus poor-quality and high- versus low-quantity motivational profiles) and regulatory profiles being distinct in the use of regulation strategies (i.e. self-regulated versus unregulated profiles). Mainly quantitatively different processing profiles were found among low-educated adults (i.e. active, moderate, inactive processing profiles). When integrating all three components of learning, analyses identified two more optimal motivational-learning profiles, combining good-quality motivation with a moderately active use of self-regulation and processing strategies (i.e. good-quality motivation – self-regulated – active processing profile and good-quality motivation – moderate profile) and two more suboptimal profiles in which poor-quality or low-quantity motivation was combined with the inactive use of self-regulation and processing strategies (i.e. poor-quality motivation – unregulated – inactive processing profile, low-quantity motivation – unregulated – inactive processing profile). A fifth motivational-learning profile exhibited a pattern of poor-quality motivation combined with a moderately-active use of self- regulation and processing strategies.

Learning in the workplace supports physicians in developing competences to ensure quality medical care. As such, learning in the workplace is essential for physicians’ life-long professional development. Notwithstanding its importance, research on physicians’ learning in the workplace and the corresponding motivational drivers is limited. In this study, 17 semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore experienced physicians’ learning activities and their motivation for learning in the workplace. In addition, it was examined whether differences could be noted in learning in the workplace depending on physicians’ experience, specialism, gender or the type of hospital they work in. Concepts from learning in the workplace and motivation theories, i.e. learning activities in the workplace, self-determination theory and achievement goal theory, guided the data analysis, and an inductive analysis was conducted as well. Results revealed various learning activities for instance but not limited to: learning by asking colleagues for feedback, asking for help while performing particular medical actions, helping students while conducting their assignments or observing colleagues. Besides, the participants indicated different motives for learning. Physicians reported that they are motivated to properly perform their job, they enjoy learning and/or like learning in relation to solving challenging cases. The study shows that participants’ differences in motivation can be related to seniority and the type of hospitals physicians are employed in.

Teachers' instructional beliefs and interests in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) are related to holistic, pluralistic, and action-oriented instructional practices in ESD teaching. To explore this hypothesis, we examine teachers' ESD teaching profiles based on their instructional beliefs, interests, and instructional practices in ESD. We apply a mixed method design using a survey (quantitative data) and vignettes with open accompanying questions (qualitative data). Our sample consists of 535 Flemish elementary and secondary school teachers for the scales. A subsample of 187 teachers responded to the vignettes. Our analysis indicates two teachers' ESD teaching profiles: the lower ESD practice-oriented teachers who hold several instructional beliefs about holistic and pluralistic instructional practices, are interested in action-orientation in ESD, but do not apply the practices in class; and the higher ESD practice-oriented teachers who also have varying instructional beliefs about holistic and pluralistic instructional practices but are not very interested in action-orientation in ESD. However, they use holistic, pluralistic, or action-oriented practices in ESD teaching.

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 from the experiences of students in professional HE contexts (i.e., university colleges, offering more vocational education that prepares students for practicing a specific occupation, such as social work). The First-year Integration Test (FIT) is a newly developed instrument that aims to map out students’ perceptions of how they are dealing with their academic and social transition in the first semester of HE, and was based on thorough qualitative research in professional HE. In the present study, the psychometric value of FIT is explored. Results show that FIT has good construct validity, and all scales are internally consistent. Also, evidence was found for the convergent, discriminant and criterion-related validity of the instrument. We argue that FIT holds potential as a tool for generating student feedback, as a monitoring tool within an institution’s quality assurance system, and as a valuable research instrument.

De digitale informatiesystemen, leerplatformen en -tools die in toenemende mate worden ingezet in het hoger onderwijs leveren vaak een schat aan informatie op. Mits een doordacht en kritisch gebruik kunnen deze data belangrijke inzichten generen in situ over o.a. leer- en participatiegedrag van studenten in digitale leeromgevingen of feedbackprocessen van docenten, en ook ingezet worden voor het ontwerp van leeromgevingen en het monitoren van onderwijskwaliteit of voorspellen van studierendement. Het actief gebruik maken van deze data in functie van het begrijpen en optimaliseren van onderwijsleeromgevingen, onderwijskwaliteit en -rendement wordt ook vaak geduid onder de koepelterm Learning Analytics (LA). In de bijdragen in dit themanummer wordt la nooit als doel op zich beschouwd, maar wel als een belangrijk middel om de complexiteit van het bevorderen van leren en presteren in het hoger onderwijs te begrijpen en hieruit doelgerichte acties uit af te leiden. Dit vergt een kritische houding ten aanzien van het gebruik van la op de werkvloer en de nodige onderzoekcompetenties om met deze toenemende maar ook vaak complexe datastroom en de verwerking ervan om te gaan.

Studies on learning strategies across cultures in higher education inform the internationalisation of teaching and learning. Previous comparisons relied on geographical generalisations (e.g., "Asian", "Western", "Latin-American") or only variable-centred methods, which can overgeneralise the contexts they represent. Eight learning strategy datasets (ILS; Inventory of Learning patterns of Students) from seven countries (n = 4883) were obtained and (re-)analysed using variable-centred and person-centred (Latent Profile Analysis; LPA) methods. Employing Hofstede's individualism-collectivism and power distance indices as predictors, lower individualism and higher power distance scores corresponded to students' overall combined reporting of meaning-directed, reproduction-directed and application-directed learning strategies. Furthermore, sample LPAs found that less individualistic contexts presented profiles with similar shape (i.e., profiles differed by similar amounts across most learning strategies). More individualistic contexts presented profiles with different shapes (i.e., different profiles preferred different strategies). Multiple "Western" contexts presented profiles that describe the "Asian" and "Latin-American" learner stereotypes. These results question the existence of such stereotypes and point to the usefulness of cultural indicators for making cross-cultural learning strategy comparisons. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

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.

Introduction Self-report questionnaires are widely used in high schools and universities to gain insights into students’ learning strategies and enhance the quality of their education. However, it is important to acknowledge the possibility of respondents being inattentive when completing these questionnaires. While reliability analyses are typically performed at the group level, when providing individual feedback, it is crucial that each respondent’s results are reliable. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of careless response behaviour in a questionnaire concerning student learning. Methods Data analysis encompassed a substantial sample of 12,000+ students in their final two years of secondary education, averaging around 17 years of age. Employing five complementary detection techniques, the study identified instances of careless responding present in the questionnaire data. Results Our results underscore a notable prevalence of careless response behaviour among the surveyed students. Application of the five detection techniques revealed a substantial number of instances indicating inattentive responding. Furthermore, the questionnaire’s measurement scales were evaluated for reliability. The study noted the presence of carelessness but observed minimal impact on group-level results. Discussion The outcomes of this study hold important implications for using self-report questionnaires in education. The prevalence of careless responding emphasizes the need for scrutinizing individual responses. Despite careless responses, their influence on overall group-level data integrity seems restricted. Nonetheless, the study underscores the importance of cautiously interpreting individual-level outcomes, particularly when using these results for individual feedback.

Introduction Since previous research on educational career exploration has mainly been cross-sectional and therefore has been unsuccessful in explaining how this process can change during the final year in secondary education before students make the transition to higher education, this study aimed to examine changes over time in the exploration process. A person-centered research perspective was taken to further deepen the understanding of how different exploration tasks jointly combine into meaningful profiles. In this way, this study tried to gain more insight into why some students go through this process successfully and others do not. Four goals guided this study: identifying exploration profiles of students in Fall and Spring of the final year in secondary school based on four decisional tasks (orientation, self-, broad and in-depth exploration), investigating transitions between exploration profiles across these two timepoints, and examining the role which different antecedents (i.e., academic self-efficacy, academic self-concept, motivation, test anxiety, gender, educational track, socio-economic status) play in explaining both profile membership and transitions between profiles. Methods Using self-report questionnaires to measure the exploration tasks and the antecedents in final year students, two cross-sectional samples collected in Fall ( n = 9,567) and Spring ( n = 7,254), and one longitudinal sample ( n = 672) were examined. Results Latent profile analyses identified three exploration profiles at both timepoints: passive, moderately active, and highly active explorers. Latent transition analysis showed the moderately active explorers profile to be the most stable profile, while the passive profile was the most variable profile. Academic self-concept, motivation, test anxiety, and gender had an effect on the initial states, while motivation and test anxiety affected the transition probabilities. For both academic self-concept and motivation, students scoring higher were found to be less present in the passive or the moderately active than in the highly active profile. Furthermore, compared to students who remained in the passive profile, higher levels of motivation were associated with a higher probability to transition to the moderately active profile. Next to that, compared to students who remained in the highly active profile, higher levels of motivation were associated with a lower probability to transition to the moderately active profile. Results on anxiety were inconsistent. Discussion Based on substantial cross-sectional as well as longitudinal data, our findings contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the explanatory base of important differences in the study choice making process of students opting for higher education. This may ultimately lead to more timely and fitting support for students with different exploration profiles.

Professional learning reflects critical processes of change whereby one modifies and extends prior competencies while performing one's job. Over the past two decades, the need has emerged and grown for insights on how employees take responsibility for their own learning and engage in self-regulation of professional learning. However, the process of measuring professional learning as well as self-regulation of professional learning during everyday work has raised difficult methodological problems for various reasons. The retrospective, cross-sectional, self-report measurement techniques often used, tend to de-contextualise learning from the complex environments in which professionals operate. Under such techniques, study participants are asked to make abstractions of this complexity to self-report regarding possibly implicit, multifaceted competencies and metacognitive strategy use as features of self-regulated learning. In this chapter, we offer an alternative approach via a longitudinal multiple case study design combining long-term observations with immediate consecutive stimulated recall interviews, towards building a more dynamic and situated understanding of professional learning through which to explore participants' self-regulation. Using both 'on-line' and 'off-line' measurement techniques, the proposed interactive approach was empirically applied to investigate self-regulation of professional learning in medical practice. Without pretentiously suggesting that this is the ultimate research solution, we aim to outline the approach, its opportunities and challenges, how to tackle these challenges, and how the approach's research insights could function to advance theory-building on professional learning in general—and self-regulation of professional learning in particular—in everyday work.

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.

In this qualitative study, we explored the oppor-tunities and difficulties experienced by cognitively high-ability students during the transition to higher education. Although high-ability individ-uals undoubtedly have the cognitive capacity to excel academically, research has demonstrated per-sistent underachievement among this group of stu-dents, and that they may face particular challenges within higher education compared to primary and secondary education. To better understand their experiences, 10 current and former high -ability students were selected by means of scores on standardized intelligence tests to participate in semi-structured interviews. Results revealed many similarities between the participants. The majority of the participants reported insufficient study skills and not knowing what was expected of them as obstacles during their transition to higher educa-tion. They also cited a lack of challenge in previous schooling as a source of transitional difficulties. On-time entry into higher education, good study skills, and clear expectations led to a more success-ful transition. Contextual factors, such as perceived support from the learning environment, seemed to have a facilitating effect on the students' transition experience but did not seem to determine the suc-cess of a student's transition on their own.

Simulations are complex learning environments, especially when they are designed such that student agency intensively shapes the simulation process. Investigating student learning during the simulation process requires a methodological approach that is able to take contextual influences and fluctuations of processes into account and produce rich, exhaustive descriptions of how student learning unfolds during a simulation. In this paper, we present a methodological approach to assessing student learning in simulations and reflect upon the lessons learned from this approach. We detail a longitudinal case study design in the context of a role-play simulation of political decision-making and critically examine the research opportunities and challenges it presents by focusing on the alignment of theory and research goals, aspects of context, sampling, measurements and procedures, and the role of the researcher.