Projects
The SBS@school+training: Stimulating secure middle childhood attachment development in children with emotion and behavior problems taking into account their well-being at school KU Leuven
The last decennia, there has been a significant increase in the number of youngsters that develop mental health problems. Once children develop a disorder in middle childhood, they are at elevated risk for mental health problems throughout further childhood and adolescence. The best strategy to reduce children’s vulnerability to develop mental health problems is stimulating their resilience by targeting mechanisms that stimulate healthy ...
Social and ethnic inequalities in intergenerational social mobility: the role of the educational macro context. Vrije Universiteit Brussel
widening across the Western world. Simultaneously, mass-education
transformed societies in “schooled societies”, where educational
systems became central institutions with a primary role in cultural
beliefs, social stratification and mobility. However, comparative
research into intergenerational social mobility has been restricted to
an ...
Human Capital, Religiosity, and Economic Development: Evidence from 19th Century France KU Leuven
This research project aims to contribute to the existing literature on the role of cultural factors (such as education and religiosity) for long-term economic development, by answering two crucial questions for both researchers and policy makers: 1. Does mass education matter for economic development? In the existing studies, mass education is generally considered irrelevant for innovation and early industrialization. However, it has always ...
Development of complex mathematical competencies in young math-gifted children KU Leuven
Children’s early mathematical development is marked by large individual differences. In the past decades, a large body of research has emerged on children’s typical and atypical mathematical development and the factors (e.g., general cognitive abilities) associated with it. Thus far, little attention has been paid to individuals with high mathematics achievement levels. This doctoral dissertation was set up to learn more about what ...
Collaboration in inclusive education: teachers' perspectives and practices. University of Antwerp
LEMMA - The role of Language in Early MatheMatical Achievement KU Leuven
Mathematics has always been a central curricular domain in elementary and secondary education worldwide. In the preschool years, the focus is mostly on very basic numerical abilities (the counting words, identifying or comparing numerosities), and in the first years of primary school this is further systematized in the form of simple arithmetic. Recent studies, however, have shown that children are already able to reason about more complex ...
Cascading an intervention to promote healthy sleep among adolescents following vocational education via a participatory approach Ghent University
Sleep deprivation is high among all adolescents, but the situation in adolescents following vocational education is even more worrisome. Consequently, this group is at a higher risk of developing negative health consequences, suggesting interventions should specifically target them. In a pilot study we developed a sleep intervention package for vocational students in one school via an intensive participatory approach (i.e., actively involving ...
Understanding the role of spatial number representations and spatial skills in mathematical abilities: From kindergarten to higher education Ghent University
Number representations are long known to be spatially coded. It is assumed that these spatial number representations are foundational for the development of mathematical skill. Yet, crucial evidence for this hypothesis is missing. 1/ It is not known whether it is long term memory or working memory that drives the spatial associations; 2/ There is no conclusive evidence yet that spatial number representations are a scaffold for more complex ...
A Study into the effects of a blended professional development program on pre-primary teachers ' Language Stimulatin COmpetenceS (LASCOS) KU Leuven
The quality of language stimulating interactions in early childhood education (ECE) has an important impact on the academic language skills of young children, which in turn is a powerful predictor of learning success. Although research shows that high quality teacher-child interactions are crucial for academic language learning, paradoxically, a wide range of classroom interaction studies point to the relatively poor quality and low quantity ...