In line with the reciprocal internal/external frame of reference model (RI/E model), it is well-established that secondary school students generate domain-specific ability self-concepts by comparing ...their own performance in a domain socially (i.e., with others' performance in this domain) and dimensionally (i.e., with their own performance in other domains). However, developmental theories of ability conceptions suggest that the use of such performance comparisons to evaluate own abilities may differ by students' developmental stage because of important developmental changes between early and late childhood. Yet, to our knowledge, no study has investigated dimensional comparison effects in elementary school longitudinally although this can provide valuable information on the formation of ability self-concepts. Thus, we tested whether longitudinal dimensional effects on changes in students' ability self-concepts occur in the early school years. Ability self-concepts and grades in math and German of 542 German elementary school students were assessed seven times over 24 months from Grade 2 (M = 7.95 years of age, SD = 0.58) to Grade 4. Cross-sectional analyses showed some evidence for dimensional effects of students' math grades on their German self-concepts, but not of students' German grades on their math self-concepts. Longitudinal analyses with latent cross-lagged models revealed no evidence for longitudinal dimensional effects on changes in children's ability self-concepts. Findings indicate that dimensional comparisons are not as important in ability self-concept formation in the first school years as they tend to be later on. Findings underline the importance of considering developmental differences to better understand ability self-concept formation.
Classroom-based physical activity interventions have demonstrated positive effects in reducing sedentary behaviour among school children. However, this is an understudied area, especially in low- and ...middle-income countries such as Sri Lanka. This study aims to explore teachers' opportunity, capability and motivation relating to the implementation of an in-classroom physical activity breaks programme. Twenty-seven teachers were recruited through snowball sampling and participated in semi-structured telephone interviews from early-January to the mid-June 2022. The Capability, Opportunity, and Motivation Behaviour (COM-B) model was used to guide and deductively thematic analyse the interviews. 21 out of the recruited teachers responded to the full study. The mean age of respondents was 39.24 years old ranging from 27 years to 53 years. Teaching experience of the respondents ranged from three to 37 years, and 57% were female. Three teachers had a degree with a teacher training diploma, while others were having General Certificate of Education in Advanced Level with a teacher training diploma as the highest education qualification. Capability factors such as age, dress code, mask wearing, knowledge, skills and workload of the teachers were identified as important factors in implementing a physical activity breaks intervention in a Sri Lankan classroom setting. Classroom space, facilities, student backgrounds and safety were identified as opportunity factors. Obtaining policy level decisions to implement the activity breaks and managing the time of the activities to reduce time lost in education time were identified as motivational factors. During the intervention development phase, implementation facilitators and barriers must be considered carefully. Behaviour change techniques can be utilised to address the identified COM-B factors to ensure a good implementation of the intervention.
Robotics has been advocated as an emerging approach to engaging K-12 students in learning science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This study examined the impacts of a project-based ...STEM integrated robotics curriculum on elementary school students’ attitudes toward STEM and perceived learning in an afterschool setting. Three elementary school teachers and 18 fourth to sixth graders participated in an eight-week-long program. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analyzed, and showed students’ attitudes toward math improved significantly at the end of the robotics curriculum. Three specific areas of perceived learning were identified, including STEM content learning and connection, engagement and perseverance, and development and challenge in teamwork. The findings also identified the opportunities and challenges in designing a STEM integrated robotics afterschool curriculum for upper elementary school students. Implications for future research studies and curriculum design are discussed.
Two precise goals were targeted in this research: 1) Describing the orthographical knowledge of the student with a DLD (Developmental Language Disorder) and 2) identify if the written word production ...results are related to other tests using orthographical knowledge such as word/pseudoword recognition. A group comparative methodological approach was used in this study in order to analyze the results of three groups of participants of the study sample: 1) An experimental group including students with severe DLD (TDL, n = 25, M age = 9.72); 2) a controlled group matched according to reading skill level (CL, n = 26, M age = 8.22); and 3) a controlled group matched according to chronological age (CA, n = 42, M age = 9.82). This exploratory study's results suggest that the performances in orthographical production of students who have a DLD are similar to those of the younger students (CL). Lastly, significant correlation links between the performance of reading and production word tasks were identified in the three groups of participants.
It is now widely believed that classroom dialogue matters as regards student outcomes, with optimal patterns often regarded as requiring some or all of open questions, elaboration of previous ...contributions, reasoned discussion of competing viewpoints, linkage and coordination across contributions, metacognitive engagement with dialogue, and high student participation. To date, however, the relevance of such features has been most convincingly examined in relation to small-group interaction among students; little is known about their applicability to teacher-student dialogue. This article reports a large-scale study that permits some rebalancing. The study revolved around 2 lessons (covering 2 of mathematics, literacy, and science) that were video recorded in each of 72 demographically diverse classrooms (students' ages 10-11 years). Key measures of teacher-student dialogue were related to 6 indices of student outcome, which jointly covered curriculum mastery, reasoning, and educationally relevant attitudes. Prior attainment and attitudes were considered in analyses, as were other factors (e.g., student demographics and further aspects of classroom practice) that might confound interpretation of dialogue-outcome relations. So long as students participated extensively, elaboration and querying of previous contributions were found to be positively associated with curriculum mastery, and elaboration was also positively associated with attitudes.
BACKGROUND: Healthy eating by primary school-aged children is important for good health and development. Schools can play an important role in the education and promotion of healthy eating among ...children. The aim of this review was to: 1) perform a systematic review of randomised controlled, quasi-experimental and cluster controlled trials examining the school-based teaching interventions that improve the eating habits of primary school children; and 2) perform a meta-analysis to determine the effect of those interventions. METHODS: The systematic review was limited to four healthy eating outcomes: reduced food consumption or energy intake; increased fruit and vegetable consumption or preference; reduced sugar consumption or preference (not from whole fruit); increased nutritional knowledge. In March 2014, we searched seven electronic databases using predefined keywords for intervention studies that were conducted in primary schools which focused on the four healthy eating outcomes. Targeted internet searching using Google Scholar was also used. In excess of 200,000 possible citations were identified. Abstracts and full text of articles of potentially relevant papers were screened to determine eligibility. Data pertaining to teaching strategies that reported on healthy eating outcomes for primary school children was extracted from the 49 eligible papers. RESULTS: Experiential learning strategies were associated with the largest effects across the reduced food consumption or energy intake; increased fruit and vegetable consumption or preference; and increased nutritional knowledge outcomes. Reducing sugar consumption and preference was most influenced by cross-curricular approaches embedded in the interventions. CONCLUSIONS: As with most educational interventions, most of the teaching strategies extracted from the intervention studies led to positive changes in primary school children’s healthy eating behaviours. However, given the finite resources, increased overcrowding of school curriculum and capacity of teachers in primary schools, a meta-analysis of this scope is able to provide stakeholders with the best evidence of where these resources should be focused.
Prior research has demonstrated that teachers' professional knowledge and motivation are strongly related to students' learning and motivation. Symptoms of teachers' stress and burnout (e.g., ...emotional exhaustion) are also thought to influence students' achievement, but no empirical study has tested this prediction. Using multilevel analyses and a representative sample consisting of 1,102 German elementary school teachers and their students, we addressed this gap in knowledge by examining the association between teachers' emotional exhaustion and students' achievement in mathematics, and by testing whether classroom composition moderates this relation. We controlled for teachers' gender, their years of experience, their teaching certificate, and the composition of the class, and on the student level for students' gender, language spoken at home, socioeconomic status, and cognitive ability. Results revealed that teachers' emotional exhaustion was significantly negatively related to students' mathematics achievement, even after teacher characteristics and classroom composition were controlled for. Classroom composition moderated this relation, whereby teachers' emotional exhaustion was more strongly related to students' achievement in classes with a high percentage of language minority students. These results highlight the importance of teachers' well-being for students' learning.
The primary goal of the present study was to examine elementary teachers' strategies, attitudes, and beliefs regarding hypothetical shy (i.e., quiet), exuberant (i.e., overly talkative), and average ...(i.e., typical) children. We explored whether these strategies and beliefs varied as a function of the gender of the hypothetical child as well as teachers' own shyness. Participants were 275 elementary school teachers (241 women, 34 men) ranging in age from 23 to 64 years (M = 40.97, SD = 10.02). Teachers were presented with vignettes depicting hypothetical children displaying shy/quiet, exuberant/talkative, or average/typical behaviors in the classroom and responded to follow-up questions assessing their strategies and beliefs. Teachers also completed a self-report measure of shyness. Among the results, teachers were more likely to respond to exuberant/talkative children with high-powered and social learning strategies and to employ peer-focused and indirect strategies for shy/quiet children. Teachers also believed that shy/quiet children were less intelligent and would do more poorly academically than would exuberant/talkative children. However, some of these findings were moderated by teachers' own level of shyness. Results are discussed in terms of their educational implications for the social and academic functioning of shy and exuberant children.
Teacher noticing of student thinking represents a key aspect of teacher expertise as it informs teachers’ actions ‘on the fly’ during a lesson. In science and mathematics education, teacher noticing ...has been conceptualised as being driven by attending to and making sense of student thinking. A range of models of noticing developed in professional fields such as aviation posit that perceptual interaction is also a key driver of noticing. This paper presents an alternate, ecological model of teacher noticing that begins with the premise that teachers have limited capacity to make sense of noteworthy events mid-lesson. Multimodal data collected from a primary science and mathematics lesson, taught by the same teacher, is analysed using the ecological lens. The analysis draws research attention to aspects of teacher/classroom interaction such as attention deployment and the role that classroom environments play in facilitating mid-lesson noticing of student thinking. Differences in teacher noticing between the science and mathematics lesson can be accounted for in terms of variance in environmental structure rather than solely in terms of teacher cognition.
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