A teacher-report measure of children's task-avoidant behavior: A validation study of the Behavioral Strategy Rating Scale

This study aims to validate a teacher-report measure of children's task-avoidant behavior, namely the Behavioral Strategy Rating Scale (BSRS), in a sample of 352 Finnish children. In each of the four waves from Kindergarten to Grade 2, teachers rated children's task-avoidant behavior using the BSRS, children completed reading and mathematics tests, and trained testers rated children's task-avoidant and social-dependent behavior after the test situation. Mothers also rated children's task-avoidant behavior in the last two waves. The results showed that a two-factor model including one factor representing task avoidance and one method factor accounting for wording effects among the negatively phrased items fitted the data best. The scale demonstrated strict measurement invariance across all four waves and satisfactory convergent and discriminant validity. Teacher-reported task avoidance was negatively associated with performance in reading and mathematics. The results suggest that the BSRS is a reliable, valid, and developmentally suitable instrument.     

Teacher-perceived supportive classroom climate protects against detrimental impact of reading disability risk on peer rejection

This study examined the role of a supportive classroom climate, class size, and length of teaching experience as protective factors against children's peer rejection. A total of 376 children were assessed in kindergarten for risk for reading disabilities (RD) and rated by their teachers on socially withdrawn and disruptive behaviors. The grade 1 measures included sociometric peer assessment and teachers' self-ratings of their supportiveness in the classroom, together with information on class size and teaching experience. The results showed, first, that the studied social and learning risk factors positively predicted peer rejection in grade 1. Moreover, teacher-reported supportive classroom climate in grade 1 protected children against the detrimental impact of RD risk on peer rejection. Smaller class size, in turn, served as a protective factor against the detrimental impact of social withdrawal on peer rejection. Finally, shorter teaching experience protected against both social and learning risk factors.     

Cross-lagged relations between task motivation and performance in arithmetic and literacy in kindergarten

To examine the cross-lagged relationships between children's task motivation in mathematics and literacy, and their related performance, 139 children aged 5–6 years were examined twice during their kindergarten year. The results showed that only math-related task motivation and arithmetic performance showed cross-lagged relationship: the higher the math-related task motivation children reported in the beginning of the kindergarten year the higher the level of their arithmetic performance at the end of the kindergarten year. Moreover, the higher the level of children's arithmetic performance the more the interest in mathematics children reported later on. Literacy-related task motivation and literacy performance did not show a similar pattern of relations.     

The relationship between classroom quality and students’ engagement in secondary school

Student engagement has been identified as an influential mediator between classroom interactional quality and adolescent learning outcomes. This study examined the relationship between classroom quality and student behavioural engagement in secondary school classrooms. Three dimensions of classroom quality (emotional, organisational and instructional support) and the dimension of student engagement were observed in nine classrooms using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System. Self-ratings of behavioural engagement were provided by 181 Finnish secondary school students along with their teachers’ ratings of classroom-level student engagement. The results showed, first, that there was variation in both classroom quality and student behavioural engagement between the classrooms. Second, classroom organisational support was associated with observed and with teacher- and student-rated engagement, and instructional support was associated with student-rated and observed engagement. Third, emotional support did not have a direct effect on student engagement but contributed to student engagement indirectly via organisational and instructional support. There were no gender differences with respect to self-reported engagement. Class size had a positive effect on teacher-rated engagement. The results demonstrated specific associations between the domains of classroom quality and student behavioural engagement in secondary school classrooms.     

The cross-lagged relations between children’s academic skill development, task-avoidance, and parental beliefs about success

This longitudinal study investigated the cross-lagged associations between children’s academic skill development, task-avoidant behaviour in the context of homework, and parental beliefs about their child’s success from kindergarten to Grade 2. The participants were 1267 children. The children’s pre-skills were assessed at the end of the kindergarten year, and math and reading skills at the end of Grade 1 and Grade 2. Parents provided ratings of their beliefs about their children’s school success and task-avoidant behaviour with regard to homework at the end of Grades 1 and 2. The results showed that children’s math and reading skills predicted children’s task-avoidant behaviour regarding homework as rated by mothers, but not by fathers, when autoregressive effects were taken into account. In addition, task-avoidant behaviour predicted the mothers’ subsequent beliefs about their children’s school success but not vice versa. A reciprocal effect was found between fathers’ beliefs about success and children’s task-avoidance.     

Computer-assisted remedial reading intervention for school beginners at risk for reading disability

The aim of the longitudinal study was to investigate whether a computer application designed for remedial reading training can enhance letter knowledge, reading accuracy, fluency, and spelling of at-risk children. The participants, 7-year-old Finnish school beginners (N=166), were assigned to 1 of 3 groups: (a) regular remedial reading intervention (n=25), (b) computer-assessed reading intervention (n=25), and (c) mainstream reading instruction (n=116). Based on the results, computer-assisted remedial reading intervention was highly beneficial, whereas regular type of intervention was less successful. The results indicated that at-risk children require computer-based letter-name and letter-sound training to acquire adequate decoding and spelling skills, and to reach the level of their non-at-risk peers.     

Student Engagement and School Burnout in Finnish Lower-Secondary Schools: Latent Profile Analysis

Self-ratings of behavioural engagement, cognitive engagement and school burnout were used in person-centred analyses to identify latent profiles among 2,485 Finnish lower-secondary school students. Three profiles were identified: high-engagement/low-burnout (40.6% of the sample), average-engagement/average-burnout (53.9%), and low-engagement/high-burnout (5.5%). Another sample of lower-secondary school students was used to validate the 3 profiles. The factors most strongly associated with the high-engagement/low-burnout profile of lower-secondary school students’ were high levels of support from teachers and family, good academic performance, and lack of truancy. The study indicated that teacher and family support and students’ academic achievement are pivotal in understanding student engagement and school burnout.     

A child’s psychological adjustment impacts teachers’ instructional support and affective response

This cross-lagged longitudinal study examines the evocative impact of a child’s psychological adjustment on teachers’ affective response and instructional support for a child, and the influence this support and response has on the child’s subsequent adjustment. A hundred and seventeen Finnish teachers self-rated the instructional support they gave, and the affect they experienced while teaching 307 children from school grades 1, 2 and 3. Teachers also rated the level of prosocial and externalizing problem behaviour among children. Results showed that the more children exhibited externalizing problem behaviour in grades 1 and 2, teachers not only did provide more instructional support for them a year later but, at the same time, they reported feeling less positive affect. Low levels of positive affect were also reported by teachers a year later with regard to children who had received more instructional support from them in grades 1 and 2.     

Teachers’ Ability to Identify Children at Early Risk for Reading Difficulties in Grade 1

The aim of the study was to investigate what kinds of assessment practices classroom teachers and special educational needs (SEN) teachers use in assessing first grade students' pre-reading skills (letter knowledge and phonological skills). Further, we investigated to what extent teachers were able to identify difficulties in pre-reading skills of the children with the lowest achievement scores. The accuracy of teacher ratings of students' pre-reading skills was studied by comparing teacher ratings to actual test scores. The data from two Finnish longitudinal studies were used: JLD sample (class teachers, n = 91; SEN teachers, n = 51; 200 students) and First Steps sample (class teachers, n = 136; SEN teachers, n = 34; 598 students). Results showed first, that most classroom teachers used qualitative assessment and SEN teachers also relied on tests. Secondly, although teacher ratings correlated with the test scores, closer investigation of sensitivity and specificity of the teacher ratings revealed that a number of children in need of extra support for their early reading development according to test scores remained unidentified. Moreover, there were some students identified by the teacher to have difficulties despite test scores not confirming that. The findings underline the importance for developing more specific and reliable assessment tools for teachers to use for pedagogical purposes, and respectively, the need to pay more attention to early identification of reading difficulties in teacher training program curricula.     

Mothers’ reading-related activities at home and learning to read during kindergarten

This longitudinal study investigates how the reading-related activities of mothers at home relate to the development of reading skills among their kindergarten children. A total of 1,529 children (5-to-6-year-olds) were tested on word reading twice, once at the beginning and once at the end of a kindergarten year. The mothers of the children (n = 1,529) answered a questionnaire on reading-related activities with their children at home (on shared reading, teaching letters, and the teaching of reading) and on their level of education, their child’s birth order, and the gender of the child. The results show that of the three reading-related activities, mothers’ teaching of reading is the best predictor of the development of reading skills among kindergarten children. The results also show that good reading skills at the beginning of the kindergarten year increase the maternal teaching of reading a child subsequently receives. The results further demonstrate that girls, firstborns, and children with more highly educated mothers are more likely to become good readers by the end of the kindergarten year.