Students In Belgium Research Articles

The learning strategies of mature students: a study of social science students in Belgium

PurposeThough different claims are made in the literature with regard to learning approach differences between mature and non-mature university students, the issue seems to bare detailed study. The purpose of this paper is to report about an investigation of mature and non-mature university students’ learning strategies. The authors examine the relationship between age and learning strategy, and assess to what extent this relationship is mediated by individual and contextual factors.Design/methodology/approachUsing original survey data on 448 university students enroled in Social Sciences programmes in Belgium, this paper examines the relationship between age and learning strategy and assesses to what extent this relationship is mediated by individual and contextual factors.FindingsThe results of the multinomial logistic regression show significant differences in learning strategies between both groups of learners. The analyses suggest that mature students are 15.3 percentage points more likely than regular students to adopt a navigator learning strategy. The navigator strategy develops in a non-linear way between the ages 30 and 37. Moreover, only a small part of the learning strategies of mature learners can be explained by mediating factors, with the job involvement playing a particular role.Research limitations/implicationsThis study contributes to the body of knowledge concerning the assessment and classification of learning strategies, including a focus on mediators affecting such strategies. The results are confined to only two higher education (HE) institutions. Furthermore, there may be a non-response bias; it is plausible that we miss among the respondents a particular type of mature students such as those that do not like to participate or those that have dropped out of their master’s programme. By means of larger, random samples in future research we should verify this study’s conclusions. This study did not include motivation as a variable. However, it might also explain why mature and non-mature students’ learning approaches differ. Further research could entangle motivational components in relation to learners’ studying approaches.Practical implicationsThe research results contribute to our understanding to what extent mature and non-mature students’ learning strategies differ and which mediators are prevalent in explaining these differences. It helps to understand how universities can create a supportive academic environment for mature learners.Social implicationsThe authors found significant differences with regard to learning strategies between mature and non-mature university students. Furthermore, having a professional occupation plays a mediating role in explaining learning strategy differences. The study raises the issue of learner-centred HE, with considerations about differentiated designs of learning environments, programmes and support services targeting students of different ages. By integrating the Assessing the Learning Strategies of Adults instrument, instructional designers can identify learning strategies and take appropriate action to accommodate learners. Additionally, awareness of one’s own learning strategy strengthens mature students’ decision making in self-directed learning environments. In that respect, the authors note also that higher pedagogical flexibility, i.e. more varied educational formats, tracks and study arrangements, ensures adult learners’ access, persistence and retention in HE.Originality/valuePrevious studies suggest that student learning approaches are distinguishable, but did not yet focus on differences between non-mature and mature students. As the authors include graduate students in this study, the focus is on a group which has not been studied previously.

Evaluation of a Road Safety Education Program Based on Driving Under Influence and Traffic Risks for Higher Secondary School Students in Belgium

Road safety education has been recognized as an instrument for reducing road accidents. This study aims to evaluate the road safety education program “Traffic Weeks” among higher secondary school students (age 16–19) in Belgium. The program focuses on driving under influence (DUI) and traffic risks. This study investigates whether the program has an effect on socio-cognitive variables using a questionnaire based on the theory of planned behavior. During the pre-test, 445 students filled in the questionnaire, while 253 students filled in the questionnaire during the post-test. Of these, 175 questionnaires could be matched. The results indicate that the students already had quite a supportive view of road safety at pre-test, with female students showing a more supportive view of road safety than male students. The DUI workshop had a positive effect on most socio-cognitive variables (attitude, subjective norm-friends, and intention) of female students in general education, while the traffic risks workshop only affected perceived behavioral control of female students. In terms of appreciation, students had a significantly higher appreciation of the DUI workshop compared to the traffic risks workshop. During the focus groups, students gave recommendations to improve the program.

Attitudes of Young Adults toward Animals-The Case of High School Students in Belgium and The Netherlands.

Simple SummaryYoung adults’ attitudes towards animals will be influenced by a number of factors, including: sex, age, nationality/ethnicity, residence area, animal-related activities and hobbies, food habits, culture/religion, education and pet ownership. A case study of Dutch and Belgian high school students shows that levels of concern for animal welfare were distinctly higher among female participants, those who ate little to no meat, Belgian students, pet owners and those who had been to a zoo at least once. In general, students who reported having more contact with animals also had more positive attitudes towards animals.The social context and culture in which individuals grow shapes their perspectives through life. Early on, children learn about animals through storybooks, animated movies, toys, and through interactions with pets and wildlife, and will slowly start to build beliefs around those experiences. Their attitudes towards animals will be influenced by a number of factors, including: sex, age, nationality/ethnicity, residence area, animal-related activities and hobbies, food habits, culture/religion education, and pet ownership. A case study of Dutch and Belgian high school students (aged 12–21) investigated the attitudes of young people towards animals. By using the Animal Attitude Scale (AAS) and the Animal Issue Scale (AIS) questionnaires, our study shows that levels of concern for animal welfare were distinctly higher among: female participants; those who ate little to no meat; Belgian students; pet owners; and those who had been to a zoo at least once. In general, students who reported having more contact with animals also had more positive attitudes towards animals. To understand younger generations and their attitudes toward animals is to understand how future generations will look towards and treat our fellow animals, with which we share the planet Earth.

Looking for a Family Man? Norms for Men Are Toppling in Heterosexual Relationships

Gender norms indicate that men should be agentic and work-oriented rather than communal and family-oriented. Yet, this traditional expectation conflicts with findings that communion is highly valued in romantic partners. Moreover, because more women in industrialized countries are pursuing careers, they may increasingly seek family-oriented partners to share the second shift of family tasks. Investigating the attractiveness of communal, family-oriented men, we show that 87 female college students in Belgium evaluate more family-oriented men as generally more attractive (Study 1) and that especially college women in Belgium with high work ambitions seek communion and family orientation in ideal partners (Study 2, n = 224). Lastly, women in 198 Belgian heterosexual dual-earning couples are more satisfied with their lives and experience less work and family conflict the more their partner indicates that he is oriented toward his close family (Study 3). Together, our findings outline the contextualized nature of norms and add to knowledge on norm change, showing how gender equality may be fed through romantic relationships. Moreover, our findings suggest the importance of exploring men’s family orientations in couples therapy, and they call for counselors, as well as policymakers and Human Resources practitioners, to guide men in times of norm change to enable men to be family-oriented and to offer family-friendly work policies.

Student understanding of first order RC filters

A series of interviews with second year electronics engineering students showed several problems with understanding first-order RC filters. To better explore how widespread these problems are, a questionnaire was administered to over 150 students in Belgium. One question asked to rank the output voltage of a low-pass filter with an AC or DC input signal while a second asked to rank the output voltages of a high-pass filter with doubled or halved resistor and capacitor values. In addition to a discussion of the rankings and students' consistency, the results are compared to the most common reasoning patterns students used to explain their rankings. Despite lecture and laboratory instruction, students not only rarely recognize the circuits as filters, but also fail to correctly apply Kirchhoff's laws and Ohm's law to arrive at a correct answer.

Predicting Chinese international students’ acculturation strategies from socio-demographic variables and social ties

Different acculturation strategies (i.e. integration, assimilation, separation and marginalization) tend to contribute to different adaptation outcomes for international students. The current study examines Chinese international students’ acculturation strategies under the influence of sociodemographic variables and social ties they developed in the host country. A group of Chinese international students in Belgium (N = 183) participated in an online survey. The results indicate that integration was the most commonly adopted strategy among Chinese international students in Belgium, followed by separation, marginalization and assimilation. The results from three separate multiple regressions show that English proficiency, local language proficiency, prior adaptation experience and female were significant predictors of Chinese students’ social ties (i.e. host-national ties, international ties and co-national ties). The discriminant analysis identified host-national ties, international ties, co-national ties, local language proficiency and prior adaptation experience as important variables that can distinguish Chinese students’ acculturation strategies.

The Role of Intergroup Contact and Acculturation Strategies in Developing Chinese International Students’ Global Competence

The current study investigates how intergroup contact and acculturation strategies are related to Chinese international students’ global competence development. A group of Chinese international students in Belgium participated in an online survey. Chinese students have achieved the development of global competence in all the dimensions of knowledge, skills and attitudes since they started their study abroad. The results showed that integrated and assimilated students obtained greater global competence development in all three dimensions than the separated and marginalized ones. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses further revealed that both intergroup contact and socio-demographics can significantly predict global competence development.

Attitudes and beliefs concerning low back pain among physiotherapy students in Belgium: A cross-sectional study

Attitudes and beliefs concerning low back pain among physiotherapy students in Belgium: A cross-sectional study

Chinese international students’ social connectedness, social and academic adaptation: the mediating role of global competence

This study examined global competence of Chinese international students sojourning in a non-Anglophone European country as a mediator between foreign language proficiency (i.e., English and local language) and social and academic adaptation, and social connectedness in international community. A sample of 206 Chinese students in Belgium responded to a web-based survey. Results from structural equation modeling analysis indicated both English and local language proficiency were significant predictors of global competence and global competence, in turn, influenced significantly the participants’ social connectedness, social and academic adaptation. Specifically, English and local language proficiency taken together explained 32% of the variance in global competence, and global competence explained 55% of the variance in social adaptation and 38% of the variance in academic adaptation, respectively. In addition, English proficiency and global competence explained 33% of the variance in social connectedness in international community. Bootstrapping methods were employed to examine the mediating roles of global competence. The results revealed that global competence partially mediated the relationship between English proficiency and social connectedness and fully mediated the relationships between foreign language proficiency (i.e., both English and local language) and social and academic adaptation.

Student understanding of phase shifts, frequency and Bode plots

In a series of interviews with second year electronics engineering students, several of them showed problems with signal properties. In a questionnaire administered to over 150 students in Belgium, these problems were further explored to verify how widespread they are. The questions asked about different aspects of signals. Students showed that they understand the concept of a phase shift, although they have problems with the direction. However, they generally have no idea what a signal with two frequencies looks like in the time domain. Bode plots also proved to be a problem for students, who are not able to construct one from a set of (dummy) measurements. Most of these issues persist after lab instruction.

Resilience and acculturative pathways underlying psychological well-being of immigrant youth

Most immigrant adolescents in Western Europe seem to feel well despite social-economic-cultural disadvantage. Researchers tend to relate the well-being of these youths to immigrants’ distinctive experiences associated with their background culture, i.e., relatedness. Combining insights from resilience and acculturation perspectives in light of an ecological perspective, we tested the hypothesis that communal (e.g., school) and individual resources (e.g., autonomy) that highlight mainstream culture and values of independence are also conducive to the well-being of immigrant youth, especially when these youths are high on mainstream culture adoption. A questionnaire study among immigrant and nonimmigrant vocational school students in Belgium (N=290) revealed that not only relatedness but also school engagement and autonomy were predictive of a high well-being of immigrant youth, particularly of those who adopted mainstream culture. Results suggest that in different cultural contexts acculturating youth rely on multiple resources to cope with social adversity and use acculturation orientations to maximize their benefit from these resources.

<i>Hazagora: will you survive the next disaster?</i> – A serious game to raise awareness about geohazards and disaster risk reduction

Abstract. Natural disasters are too often presented as resulting from extreme natural phenomena affecting helpless populations, with people being insufficiently aware of the factors leading to disasters and of the existing strategies to mitigate their impacts. We developed a board game aimed at raising awareness about geohazards and disaster risk reduction strategies. The target groups are (1) secondary school students and citizens and (2) scientists and stakeholders involved in risk management activities. For the first group, the aim is to induce a better understanding of the geohazards and disasters they are confronted with in the media or in their daily lives; for the second, the objective is to generate discussion about risk management strategies. The game was tested with students in Belgium and with citizens, earth scientists, and risk managers in several African countries. Based on analysis of the most common game strategies observed, the players' reactions during the game, and their answers to a short questionnaire, we analyzed the main learning outcomes conveyed by this game. The game Hazagora appears to positively enhance the players' insights into processes involved in disasters. As such, the game is an effective, fun learning tool to introduce participants to the concepts of geohazards and disasters and to generate discussion.

Are Belgian military students in medical sciences better educated in disaster medicine than their civilian colleagues?

IntroductionHistorically, medical students have been deployed to care for disaster victims but may not have been properly educated to do so. A previous evaluation of senior civilian medical students in...

The Impact of Public Branding: An Experimental Study on the Effects of Branding Policy on Citizen Trust

AbstractBranding has become common in the public sector as brands are increasingly used to influence citizens’ associations with public organizations and public services. Using experimental research replicated in three European countries, this article investigates the effect of using the European Union (EU) brand on trust in policies. Experiments were conducted among economics students in Belgium, Poland, and The Netherlands to test the hypothesis that adding EU brand elements to policies positively affects trust in those policies. The results show a consistent positive and significant effect of applying the EU brand to trust in the policies in all countries and for both policies included in the experiment—even in The Netherlands, a country characterized by a negative overall EU sentiment. These findings provide some of the first empirical evidence of the effectiveness of branding for public policy.

In Memoriam: Slavik Jablan 1952–2015

After a long and brave battle with a serious illness, our dear friend and colleague Slavik Jablan passed away on 26 February 2015. [...]

Constructing the ‘Child at Risk’ in Social Work Reports: A Way of Seeing is a Way of not Seeing

In the context of the changing relationship between children, parents and the welfare state, professionals have to deal with notions of the ‘child at risk’. In child welfare and protection, the issue of normative judgement in (risk) assessment and documentation is an essential area for exploration for social workers. We examine the practice of report writing in which future professionals exercise power while assessing, documenting and judging the child as ‘at risk’. We report on a study about a fictional social work case conducted with 152 students in Belgium, in which we developed a rhetorical analysis of the ‘terministic screens’ used in writing reports.

Is the Sky Really the Limit? Exploring the Attitude-Achievement Paradox in the Belgian Context

While immigrant students in Belgium have expressed high educational aspirations, if we compare them with ethnic majority students, those aspirations are not reflected in their achievement results. Ethnographic observations and semi-structured interviews with students from 10 class groups in three Flemish schools (northern part of Belgium) were used to understand why these high aspirations are not translated into actual examination results, also known as the attitude-achievement paradox. Our findings indicate that all students generally believe in the importance of education to get ahead in Belgian society. Analyses reveal, however, that although students of immigrant descent want to achieve in society, they perceive more barriers—such as labor market discrimination—than those of non-immigrant descent to becoming successful. They have figured out distinct defensive coping strategies to circumvent those barriers, such as choosing jobs that do not invite discrimination and attempting to achieve in school in order to prove one’s worth or prove someone wrong, all of which eventually seemed to affect their educational outcomes. The particular choices students made to deal with perceptions and experiences of discrimination should be understood within the local immigrant networks in which they live and depends on the (perceived) nature of discrimination.

55. Relationship Between Living Situation and Substance Use in an Urban Adolescent Population

55. Relationship Between Living Situation and Substance Use in an Urban Adolescent Population

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN BELGIUM (FLEMISH COMMUNITY): GENERAL APPROACH TO THE CONTENT AND ASSESSMENT

The article deals with the problem of development of information and communication competence of primary education pupils in the Kingdom of Belgium (Flemish Community). There is presented an analysis of the experience of national institutions such as the Ministry of Education and Training of Flanders, the Agency for Quality Assurance in Education and Training, Pedagogical Advisory Services relating to the development of common approaches and assess the content of information and communication competence of elementary school students in Belgium. There are identified peculiarities, common trends and future development.

How is financial literacy predicted by mathematics achievement and mathematics-related affective characteristics?

This study focused on determining how financial literacy scores in these countries were predicted by mathematical achievement and affective concepts related to mathematics. The study was conducted using financial literacy data from students in Belgium, Brazil, Costa Rica, Italy, and Portugal, obtained from the OECD’s PISA 2022 database. Therefore, analyses were conducted with all of these respondents. Accordingly, data from 1775 students from Belgium, 3038 students from Brazil, 2564 students from Costa Rica, 4581 students from Italy, and 3139 students from Portugal were analyzed. In general, the results show that there is a relationship between students' financial literacy and mathematical achievement.