Doctor-patient communication is a core competency in medical education, which requires learners to adapt their communication flexibly to each clinical encounter. Although conceptual learning models exist, information about how skilled communication develops over time is scant. This study aims to unpack this process of communication learning and to…

Background: Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) have problems acquiring language, affecting their communicative participation, social--emotional functioning (SEF) and quality of life (QoL). Aims: To investigate whether communicative participation mediates the relation between language and SEF and QoL. Methods & Procedures: In a…

To aid in teaching dialogue skills a virtual simulator called "Communicate!" was developed at Utrecht University. Teachers can build scenarios for students to practice dialogues with a virtual character. In two experiments (n = 128 and 133, a year apart), we investigated if and how "Communicate!" can be an effective aid to…

Background: Although collaboration between care professionals and parents of children with complex care needs is becoming increasingly important, little is known about how students can be prepared for collaboration with these parents within the academic curriculum. The current study examined participation of parents of children with complex care…

Philosophy for Democracy is a research project which aims to examine whether and how Philosophy with Children contributes to the development of democratic skills and attitudes. Philosophy with Children seeks to develop children's critical thinking, their ability to judge, enhance their dialogical skills and attitudes and to contribute to their…

Medical students need to become fluent in the native language of the country they will be working in before entering their work environment at the hospital. For this purpose, third-year students in the international track medicine (ITM) at Maastricht University attended the interactive online medical-Dutch language course. In this study, the aim…

Despite the advocated importance of twenty-first century competences in education, it appears that they are not systematically integrated in national curricula, school curricula and classroom activities. Potential explanations can be found in the current ambiguity of definitions for twenty-first century competences and the absence of educational…

A body of research indicates the importance of interventions for promoting the development and progress of children with visual impairments. However, the research available on suitable interventions for this population is relatively sparse. The purpose of this review is to identify, collate and appraise the available research evidence on…

The core aspect within process quality is quality of interactions between caregivers and children. This article investigates six interaction skills of caregivers in ECEC groups for toddlers in Norway using the Caregiver Interaction Profile (CIP) scales. The participants are 110 teachers and 58 assistants in 111 toddler groups. Results show that…

Research has demonstrated that teachers working in early childhood education and care (ECEC) are proficient in offering emotional support to young children, but markedly weaker when it comes to instructional support. We conducted a controlled experimental study in the Netherlands, to investigate the effects of targeted in-service training on…

The transition from tertiary education to work involves substantial uncertainty and changes between education programmes, jobs and industries. The current major disruption in the labour market is only going to increase this uncertainty, making it essential for graduates to be prepared for it. Graduates with more dynamic career trajectories are…

Family-School Partnerships (FSP) are important for students' academic achievements and social-emotional development. Therefore, pre-service teachers need to learn how to establish this. However, in teacher education programmes this topic is insufficiently addressed partially attributed to already overloaded programmes. This study reports on a…

The teaching of communication skills is a labour-intensive task because of the detailed feedback that should be given to learners during their prolonged practice. This study investigates to what extent our FILTWAM facial and vocal emotion recognition software can be used for improving a serious game (the Communication Advisor) that delivers a…

Enhancing communication performance skills may help children with Down Syndrome (DS) to expand their opportunities for participation in daily life. It is a clinical challenge for speech-language pathologists (SLP) to disentangle various mechanisms that contribute to the language and communication problems that children with DS encounter. Without…

Students' lack of school success often lies in the differences between the language used at home and the "school language" they are required to use at school. A framework was drawn up in which five domains are distinguished where specific problems might be located: language-internal aspects (mastery of vocabulary, grammar, etc.),…