The mathematics achievement discrepancy between girls and boys, with its subsequent occupational consequences, is an issue that has received considerable attention in the literature. It is often ...referred to as the ‘math‐gap’ and favours boys. A major component of the explanation of this gap resides in determining its age of onset. We analyse here data from more than 10,000 (cross‐sectional study) and 2000 (longitudinal study) French students aged 4–7 years, tested in the framework of the Etude Longitudinale Française depuis l'Enfance (ELFE). The results allow to precisely determine the age of onset, since the gender difference, non‐existent (or even slightly in favour of girls) in kindergarten (4–5 years), is clearly in favour of boys in first grade (6–7 years). They could therefore provide an important element in the controversial debate on the origin of gender‐differentiated performance in mathematics.
This article explores the question of the constitution of a corpus for the firstgrade, to determine a possible convergence of the issues usually separated between reading by pupils and guided reading ...by the teacher. First, it presents a survey conducted at CP on weekly readings chosen at the library of Richebourg elementary school in Lons-le-Saunier and lists the books used by the teacher as learning materials in the class within this same school. It then tries to analyze the reasons for the difference between these actual readings and those prescribed and then proposes possible solutions (criteria for choosing the corpus, sequence of readings) which would aim to create a coherent didactic progression from a corpus that takes into account both the requirements of prescribers and the tastes of pupils.
This study aimed at examining reciprocal associations among teacher–child interactions, teachers' work engagement, and children's social competence across grade 1. The participants were 51 Finnish ...teachers and 815 children. The quality of teacher–child interactions (emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support) was assessed with the Classroom Assessment Scoring System. In addition, teachers reported their work engagement and rated children's social competence (prosocial and antisocial behaviors). The results of the multilevel modeling indicated that high-quality instructional support was associated with more prosocial and less antisocial behavior. Prosocial behavior was associated with higher-quality instructional support. Work engagement was associated with less antisocial behavior, and prosocial behavior with higher work engagement. Finally, work engagement was associated with higher-quality teacher–child interactions. The results suggest that teachers can enhance children's social competence with high-quality instructional support. Moreover, children's prosocial behavior can be reflected in teacher–child interactions and in teachers' work engagement.
•First grade classrooms were examined at two timepoints: fall and spring.•High-quality instructional support was associated with more prosocial and less antisocial behavior in the classrooms.•High work engagement was associated with less antisocial behavior and higher quality of teacher–child interactions.•Children's prosocial behavior was associated with teachers' higher work engagement.•Children's prosocial behavior was associated with higher quality of emotional and instructional support in the classrooms.
Background and Objectives: Environmental crises are threats to all creatures and the balance of nature, and their root is human activity. Therefore, the current change in human behavior will be able ...to solve environmental problems. The purpose of environmental education is increasing people's sensitivity to events and changes in the physical, biological, social, economic, social, and political environment and their effects on the environment so that the ability to recognize environmental issues can acquire the necessary skills in devising methods and tools to protect the environment and solve its problems. Currently, gamification is one of the techniques that can be used to increase students' environmental literacy. Gamification is a new method that has been translated into ‘playmaking’ in some sources and means the use of playful elements and thoughts in areas that are not the nature of the game. Gamification has been one of the topics discussed in recent years, which can be used to increase efficiency and user interaction. Properly applied gamification in educational environments will lead to better learning of students. This study investigated the impact of gamification on the promotion of environmental literacy of the first-year elementary school students in TehranMethods: The research was conducted as a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test and post-test design along with the experimental group. The statistical population included all male students whose age ranged between 6-7 years, who were studying in the district 15 of Tehran in the academic year of 2021-2022. With multi-stage cluster random sampling method, 60 participants were included in the sample and 30 people were randomly assigned to the experimental group; They have received part of the concepts of environmental literacy through gamification-based education for 12 sessions. The questionnaire was devised by the researcher and its formal and content validity was confirmed by the experts. Also, its reliability was reported using Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.86, indicating acceptable reliability. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics via SPSS 24 software.Findings: The results of the data showed that gamification had a significant and positive effect on promoting environmental literacy (F = 1.57, 70.6 and P = 0.001). Also, gamification made a significant impact in promoting environmental literacy (water consumption management (F = 1.57, P = 0.001), electricity consumption management (F = 1.57, P = 0.001), gas consumption management (F = 0.001, 04 F1.57/58 and P=0.001), waste management (F1.57, 40.8 and P=0.001), forest preservation (F1.57, 337.63 and P=0.001), animal protection (F1.51.06) ,57 and P=0.001) among the students of the first year of elementary school.Conclusion: Taking into account the effective role of gamification in improving environmental literacy (water consumption management, electricity consumption management, gas consumption management, waste management, forest conservation and animal conservation), it can be concluded that the use of gamification in education is a new approach that has caused a wide transformation in the education system and increased the hope of the effectiveness of learning environmental concepts and related literacy among the students.
•First-grade writing instruction was not associated with stronger student writing.•Generative writing practice is positively related to writing achievement.•Interactions among demographics, writing ...instruction, and practice were found.
A substantial body of research has demonstrated the efficacy of early writing interventions that target skills and composing processes; however, much less is known about the effectiveness of classroom writing instruction outside of the context of an intervention. The goal of this study was to investigate if writing instruction and student practice predict first-grade writing achievement and if the relations between writing instruction, practice and achievement depend on student factors. Assessments of students’ spelling, handwriting, vocabulary, and reading were collected in the fall of first grade, and norm-referenced and researcher-designed writing tasks were administered in the spring (N = 391). During the school year, four full-day observations of classroom instruction and student writing practice were conducted in 50 classrooms. The effects of writing instruction and student writing practice on spring writing achievement were analyzed using two-level, fixed-effects hierarchical linear models. Composing instruction was negatively related to contextualized spelling, but no other main effects of instruction were found. One type of writing practice, generative writing, was positively related to all three measures of writing achievement. Interactions were also found between student gender, minority status and multiple types of writing instruction and practice. These results point to the potential benefit of generative writing practice and indicate that efforts to differentiate instruction and practice may be beneficial for students. Additionally, the findings raise doubts about the effectiveness of current writing instruction.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the sudden cancellation of in-class instruction for many students around the world presented an unprecedented disruption in children's education. ...As the COVID-19 pandemic took form, multiple concerns were raised about the potential negative impact on students' learning. The current study examined this proposition for children's writing. We compared the quality of writing, handwriting fluency, and attitude toward writing of first grade Norwegian students during the COVID-19 pandemic (421 girls, 396 boys), which included emergency remote instruction for almost 7 weeks, with first grade students in the same schools a year before the pandemic began (835 girls, 801 boys). After controlling for variance due to national test scores, school size, proportion of certified teachers, students per special education teacher, school hours per student, student gender, and native language, we found that students attending first grade during the pandemic had lower scores for writing quality, handwriting fluency, and attitude toward writing than their first grade peers tested a year earlier before the COVID-19 pandemic emerged. Implications for policy and instruction as well as future research are presented.
Educational Impact and Implications StatementIn December 2019, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus was identified, and it spread across the world quickly causing the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, presenting unprecedented challenges for the education of school-age children. This study examined the impact of the pandemic and the temporary 7 week replacement of in class learning with online instruction on the writing of first grade children in Norway. First grade students tested shortly after the end of online instruction displayed a learning loss, having lower scores on measures of writing quality, handwriting fluency, and attitude toward writing than first grade children from the same schools tested a year earlier before the start of the pandemic.
Ordinal processing plays a fundamental role in both the representation and manipulation of symbolic numbers. As such, it is important to understand how children come to develop a sense of ordinality ...in the first place. The current study examines the role of the count-list in the development of ordinal knowledge through the investigation of two research questions: (1) Do K-1 children struggle to extend the notion of numerical order beyond the count-list, and if so (2) does this extension develop incrementally or manifest as a qualitative re-organization of how children recognize the ordinality of numerical sequences. Overall, we observed that although young children reliably identified adjacent ordered sequences (i.e., those that match the count-list; ‘2-3-4') as being in the correct ascending order, they performed significantly below chance on non-adjacent ordered trials (i.e., those that do not match the count-list but are in the correct order; ‘2-4-6’) from the beginning of kindergarten to the end of first grade. Further, both qualitative and quantitative analyses supported the conclusion that the ability to extend notions of ordinality beyond the count-list emerged as a conceptual shift in ordinal understanding rather than through incremental improvements. These findings are the first to suggest that the ability to extend notions of ordinality beyond the count-list to include non-adjacent numbers is non-trivial and reflects a significant developmental hurdle that most children must overcome in order to develop a mature sense of ordinality.
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