The LuxERA offers a forum for dialogue and a network for the support and encouragement of established and emerging researchers and for the development of science policy and scientific exchange in the field of educational research in Luxembourg, Europe, and worldwide.
The LuxERA is a full member of the European Educational Research Association (EERA) and is represented in EERA´s council.
Ignite-Talk_Workshop_OnlineDistribution
Meet and eat
Networking Event for Emerging Researchers in LuxERA
Meet-and-Eat_2026
LuxERA Poster award winner
Topic of our work + Introduction of myself
As a PhD candidate in Psychology at LUCET (Luxembourg Centre for Educational Testing) at the University of Luxembourg, Kenan Starcevic is part of a team, which focuses on the development of the first Luxembourgish test battery, aiming at a fairer assessment of four to six years old children in Luxembourgish preschools and their proficiency and skills in Luxembourgish. In close collaboration with the national centre for the development of language, listening and communication skills, a multitude of test materials has been prepared and developed and is currently being tested across all national school regions. Ultimately, this test battery will be integrated and used in the diagnostic process of Developmental Language Disorder (DLD).
Fairly diagnosing developmental language disorder (DLD), thorough assessments of children’s oral language skills in all their spoken languages would be required. However, this cannot be performed due to the vast variety of languages spoken within the Luxembourgish preschool community and due to the absence of appropriate tests taking children’s home language(s) into account, especially in a multilingual country, where 68,4 % of children have another first language than Luxembourgish, the instructional language in preschool. Therefore, we decided to opt in for a test battery based on the spoken Luxembourgish language, which is the main instruction language in preschool whilst ensuring fairness by considering reference norms according to the children’s spoken languages at home. The test battery consists of a receptive vocabulary task, followed by various expressive tasks, focusing on plural marking, grammatical gender and case, subject-verb agreement and verb order in main and subordinate clauses. These tasks aim to overview a wide range of Luxembourgish unique grammatical markers.
Experience as a first-time presenter:
The poster session, which was held on the second day of the LuxERA Conference 2025, was the first opportunity to present our project and the newly developed content in front of a motivated and focused group of researchers. The poster-focused frame at the LuxERA Conference 2025 presented a variety of topics, shared by researchers for researchers, who together created a very pleasant, interesting and positive atmosphere. Their overall accepting and supporting feedback underlined how the community shared the same scientific values of providing a fair and suited test with the aim to help as many children as possible.
Experience as a happy award winner:
Thanks to the new format and the jury, I was given the first award for the best poster, which is an honour, but also an important statement that most of the members, who were genuinely sharing their happiness and acceptance, also valued the impact of this project.
Conference Experience:
Overall, the conference experience was very positive, since the spectrum of the presentations and posters were based on different perspectives, methods and contents, from which I could learn and critically develop a better understanding of the chosen topics.
Personal Comment:
Lastly, the LuxERA conference 2025 was a successful first experience, characterised by shared scientific interests, critical thinking processes and laughter whilst enjoying delicious appetisers and desserts in between sessions. And, of course, the first poster session award, including a two-year membership for the upcoming LuxERA conferences and a laser presentation remote, which I will proudly use during the next presentations linked to the PhD and the development of the novel Luxembourgish test battery
Highlight the first-ever LuxERA poster award on the website with a short article/statement as well as a picture of the happy award winner.
Would you mind preparing a short statement on your conference experience and the award for us?
This could include your conference experience, your experience as a first-time presenter, and the importance of this for your dissertation. You could also briefly introduce yourself and the topic of your work.
