Rate My Professor Marga Sikkema-de Jong

Marga Sikkema-de Jong is Professor of Digital Education and Child Development in the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences at Leiden University. She obtained her Master’s degree in Education and Child Studies cum laude from Leiden University in 1996 and her PhD from the same institution in 2003, with a dissertation examining digital picture books and emergent literacy in young children. Drawing on practical experience in primary education, including special education, she integrates academic expertise with hands-on insights into child development and learning. She holds the position of Chair in the Learning and Behaviour Problems in Education unit within the Institute of Education and Child Studies.

Her research investigates the pedagogical implications of digital technologies in education and child development, analyzing their impact on learning processes, developmental trajectories, and social relationships among children and youth from early childhood through higher education. Specific foci include interactive picture books, social media, generative AI, digital stress, executive functions, equality of opportunity, neurodiversity-related learning challenges, multiple literacies, and screen time. She employs empirical methodologies such as randomized controlled trials, correlational studies, and meta-analyses to establish causal relationships, explanatory mechanisms, and effective implementation strategies for evidence-based interventions in educational and care contexts. Key publications include “Added value of dialogic parent–child book readings: A meta-analysis” (2008, Early Education and Development), “Interactive book reading in early education: A tool to stimulate print knowledge as well as oral language” (2009, Review of Educational Research), “Quality of book-reading matters for emergent readers: an experiment with the same book in a regular or electronic format” (2002, Journal of Educational Psychology), “The promise of multimedia stories for kindergarten children at risk” (2006, Journal of Educational Psychology), and “The efficacy of electronic books in fostering kindergarten children's emergent story understanding” (2004, Reading Research Quarterly). Her work has accumulated over 5,000 citations on Google Scholar. She presented her inaugural lecture, “Pedagogy and Digitality: A Mutual Provocation,” on October 10, 2025.