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On the islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao, children until recently only learned to read in a language foreign to them: Dutch. It was not until 2001 that their native language, Papiamentu, was also introduced as a language of instruction in primary schools. Sociologist and educational expert Melissa van der Elst-Koeiman studied the bilingual reading development of children in the senior years of primary school on the islands.

Students who are more digitally skilled also perform better in math. New research from Renae Loh and others at Radboud University shows that in countries with better availability of ICT in schools, math performance benefits greatly. It further suggests that improving the ICT environment in schools can reduce inequality in education between countries.

Data visualizations, including diagrams, are a frequent sight in the media. Histograms, in particular, are popular for their ability to present data concisely. Unfortunately, many people find these diagrams challenging to interpret. Lonneke Boels conducted an investigation into why this occurs, using artificial intelligence to analyse eye movements.

Learning words in a new foreign language makes it more difficult to remember those same words in another foreign language. That is the conclusion of a research study by Kristin Lemhöfer, Psycholinguist at Radboud University and The Donders Institute, and her colleagues. For the first time, a situation for which there was only anecdotal evidence was replicated under controlled conditions.

Potential talents of children with characteristics of giftedness are not always seen in mainstream education. Children's drawings, however, can play a role in early detection of their needs and talents, argues psychologist Sven Mathijssen in his dissertation titled "Back to the drawing board: Potential indicators of giftedness in human figure drawings," which he defends on March 22, 2023 2:00 pm.

Since the corona crisis, school ventilation has been in the spotlight, especially to prevent the spread of the SARS-Cov-2 virus. Research published today by Maastricht University (UM) shows that poor ventilation also affects the test scores of elementary school students and thus the core task of schools, good education.

How can you teach seven-year-olds to read better? Just let them play a game. Friday 14 October 2022 was the launch of a new version of the 'Letter Prince' reading app, an online game that teaches children to read or improve their reading skills. "We don't have to confront children with long lists of words or boring fill-in-the-blanks exercises," said psycholinguist Esther Steenbeek, co-developer of the game.