If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The number of early career teachers leaving the profession continues to be an ongoing issue across the globe. This pressing concern has resulted in increased attention to the instructional and psychological conditions necessary to retain early career educators. However, less formal attention has been paid to the social infrastructure in which early career teachers find themselves. The purpose of this paper is to foreground the role of social capital and its effect on job attitudes and educators' intention to leave the profession. Design/methodology/approach -Data were collected from 736 teachers within ten secondary schools in Flanders (Belgium). Using social network and multilevel moderated mediation analysis techniques, the relationships between teachers' social connectedness, job attitudes, and the intention to leave the profession for both novice and experienced teachers were analyzed. Findings -Findings indicate that being socially connected to other educators within the school is associated with a reduction in teachers' intention to leave the profession, mediated by their job attitudes, for both early career and experienced teachers. However, social connectedness was significantly more important for early career teachers. No significant effects are found for being socially connected to the mentor. Originality/value -This study provides evidence for the importance of social capital for teachers, particularly early career educators. Moreover, by introducing teachers' social connectedness as related to intention to leave, this study makes a significant and unique contribution to the literature.

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Learning goal orientation is a prominent motivational construct that has been linked to positive student outcomes. For high-ability students, a lack of mastery learning goals has been theoretically and empirically associated with underachievement. However, longitudinal research examining the development and outcomes of their learning goal orientation, and comparing this development to that of average-ability peers, is lacking. In this study, we utilized a sample of 5,172 students to study the development of learning goal orientation in high-ability versus average-ability students across late elementary and early secondary school. Additionally, we investigated the association of perceived learning support from teachers and peers with this development. Finally, we examined the predictive value of learning goal orientation for the secondary school outcomes grade retention and nonacademic track pursuit. We found that high-ability students had lower initial learning goal orientation than their peers, and this remained lower across the transition to secondary school. Learning goal orientation declined on average for both groups of students. Perceived learning support from teachers and peers was found to be a general supportive factor to the development of learning goal orientation. Levels of learning goal orientation in late elementary school were found to predict the likelihood of completing an academic study track by the end of secondary education for both groups of students. Our findings affirm that learning motivation in middle school has long-term educational implications for high- as well as average-ability students, justifying the current trend of addressing student achievement outcomes through targeting their school motivation and engagement.

This study assessed whether textbooks affect academic performance and engagement in reading comprehension in primary education in Flanders (Belgium). The data of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study 2016 and a reassessment of this study in 2018 were used to describe students' learning progress in reading comprehension and evolution in engagement between the fourth and sixth grade. The sample consisted of 3051 students in 98 schools. The averages of students' learning progress and engagement were compared for five textbooks by using multilevel autoregression model and multilevel change score models. Contrasts between textbooks in average learning progress and engagement were also estimated. To control for differences between student populations that are educated with the different textbooks, we controlled for student's socioeconomic status, language and initial academic performance in fourth grade at the student-and school-level. The main hypotheses were that textbooks affect learning progress and reading engagement. This was based on the literature and prior (mainly) cross-sectional research which describe textbooks as playing an important role in the curriculum that is taught to students on a daily basis. The results of both models showed that textbooks do not affect student's average learning progress in reading comprehension and evolution in engagement between the fourth grade and sixth grade in Flanders. Hence, the hypotheses were rejected.

Peer relationships form a key developmental context. The current study investigated differences in peer acceptance between high‐ability and average‐ability youth, from the perspectives of teachers, peers, and students. Relying on the person‐group similarity model, we also tested whether high‐ability students’ acceptance would depend on the peer group's mean ability level. A sample of 2,736 sixth‐grade students from 188 classes in 117 schools participated. Students scoring in the top 10% of a cognitive ability measure were considered high‐ability students (N = 274). Results showed that high‐ability students were better accepted than average‐ability students according to teachers and peers. However, the students did not show more positive self‐perceptions of acceptance. Moreover, they nominated less peers as their friends. Gifted students felt more accepted in classes with higher mean ability levels. The authors call for a stronger integration of developmental theory and research into the study of giftedness.