Helping,Sharing, and Comforting in Young Children: Links to Individual Differences in Attachment

Although attachment theory has long posited a link between early experiences of care and children's prosocial behavior, investigations of this association have not embraced the multifaceted nature of prosociality. This study is the first to assess associations between child attachment and independent observations of helping, sharing, and comforting. Attachment quality in 3- to 5-year-old children (N = 137) was linked to all three prosocial behaviors. Additionally, bifactor analyses revealed distinct associations between attachment and children's general prosocial dispositions and their specific abilities to meet the unique challenges of helping and, marginally, comforting. These findings underscore the importance of considering multiple explanations for links between attachment and prosocial behavior and provide novel insights into sources of variation in children's prosociality.     

Primary special school teachers' knowledge and beliefs about supporting learning in numeracy

This paper presents findings from a qualitative study of a group of 12 teachers in primary special schools in Scotland for children with moderate learning difficulties. It sets out an analysis of classroom observations and interviews that explored teachers' knowledge and beliefs about teaching and learning in mathematics with children with moderate learning difficulties. The teachers were interviewed pre‐ and post‐intervention; this was a research‐based professional development programme in children's mathematical thinking (Cognitively Guided Instruction) which teachers then developed in their classrooms. The findings showed that prior to the professional development, the teachers had a limited knowledge of children's mathematical development with teaching frequently informed by intuitive beliefs and dated and sometimes discredited practices. Most teachers had low expectations of children with learning difficulties. Post‐intervention, the teachers reviewed this stance and affirmed that a deeper understanding of children's mathematical thinking provided a more secure knowledge base for instruction. They also recognised the extent to which learners were constrained by existing classroom practices. The paper argues for the commonality of this knowledge base and considers the problematic nature of viewing such knowledge as sector specific.     

Dialogic classroom talk in early childhood education: The effect on language skills and social competence

The first purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of dialogic classroom talk on children's language skills (i.e. oral communicative competence and receptive vocabulary knowledge). The second purpose was to examine the effect of this type of classroom talk on children's social competence (i.e. theory of mind and social acceptance). A total of 17 teachers and 311 children (aged 4–7 years) participated in this study. Eight teachers participated in an 8-week intervention directed at dialogic classroom talk. Multilevel analyses revealed that the intervention had a significant effect on children's oral communicative competence. No significant effects were found on children's receptive vocabulary knowledge, theory of mind, and social acceptance. The results of this study indicate that dialogic classroom talk is beneficial for children's oral communicative competence. Further research is required in order to investigate how dialogic classroom talk might affect receptive vocabulary knowledge and social competence as well.     

Preservice elementary teachers' perceptions of their science laboratory instructors in a phenomena-based laboratory and how it impacts their conceptual development

Phenomena-based approaches have become popular for elementary school teachers to engage children's innate curiosity in the natural world. However, integrating such phenomena-based approaches in existing science courses within teacher education programs present potential challenges for both preservice elementary teachers (PSETs) and for laboratory instructors, both of whom may have had limited opportunities to learn or teach science within the student and instructor roles inherent within these approaches. This study uses a convergent parallel mixed-methods approach to investigate PSETs' perceptions of their laboratory instructor's role within a Physical Science phenomena-based laboratory curriculum and how it impacts their conceptual development (2 instructors/121 students). We also examine how the two laboratory instructors' discursive moves within the laboratory align with their's and PSETs' perceptions of the instructor role. Qualitative data includes triangulation between a student questionnaire, an instructor questionnaire, and video classroom observations, while quantitative data includes a nine-item open response pre-/post-semester conceptual test. Guided by Mortimer's and Scott's analytic framework, our findings show that students primarily perceive their instructors as a guide/facilitator or an authoritarian/evaluator. Using Linn's knowledge integration framework, analysis of pre-/post-tests indicates that student outcomes align with students' perceptions of their instructors, with students who perceive their instructor as a guide/facilitator having significantly better pre-/post-outcomes. Additional analysis of scientific discourse from the classroom observations illustrates how one instructor primarily supports PSETs' perspectives on authentic science learning through dialogic–interactive talk moves whereas the other instructor epistemologically stifles personally relevant investigations with authoritative–interactive or authoritative–noninteractive discourse moves. Overall, this study concludes by discussing challenges facing laboratory instructors that need careful consideration for phenomena-based approaches.     

Children's Behavioral Adjustment in Pre-Primary Schools in Tanzania: A Multilevel Approach

Research Findings: The present study concerns children's behavioral adjustment in the context of pre-primary schools in Tanzania. Twenty teachers and 320 children from 20 pre-primary schools participated in the study. Teacher–child relationships, children's behavioral adjustment, and teachers' cultural beliefs were reported by teachers; classroom emotional support was measured through classroom observation. The multilevel findings revealed that high-quality teacher–child relationships and high-quality teacher sensitivity were related to children's prosocial behavioral adjustment. In contrast, observed low-quality teacher–child relationships and low-quality teacher sensitivity were found to be related to children's aggression and anxiety. In addition, teachers' cultural beliefs, concerning play in particular, were found to be related to children's anxiety. The findings support the ecological theory regarding the importance of child characteristics and classroom context in shaping a child's behavioral adjustment in schools. Practice or Policy: The results have implications for pre-primary school teachers in Tanzania, to consider their relationships with children and their sensitivity to children as important aspects for children's behavioral adjustment in schools. They also inform policymakers about the role of pre-primary school teachers in the country.     

Intention and Meaning in Young Children's Drawing

In this article I present some ideas, based on qualitative research into young children's drawing, related to the developing discourse on young children's thinking and meaning making. I question the relationship between perception and conception and the nature of representation, challenging traditional ideas around stage theory and shifting the focus from the drawings themselves to the process of drawing, and thus to the children's own purposes. I analyse examples of my observations (made in naturalistic settings within a nursery classroom) to reveal the range of representational purposes and meaning in children's drawing activity. My analysis shows that, rather than being developmentally determined, the way children configure their drawings is purposeful; children can recognise the power of drawing to represent, and that they themselves can be in control of this. I explore aspects of the process, including transformation and talk to show the importance of understanding drawing in its specific contexts. I show how children's drawing activity is illuminated by the way in which it occurs and the other activities linked to it, presenting drawing as part of children's broader, intentional, meaning‐making activity. As an aspect of the interactive, communicative practices through which children's thinking develops, representation is a constructive, self‐directed, intentional process of thinking in action, through which children bring shape and order to their experience, rather than a developing ability to make visual reference to objects in the world. I suggest that in playing with the process, children are actively defining reality rather than passively reflecting a given reality.     

Making sense of science in the reception class

In the context of growing awareness of young children's capabilities, and debates about the nature of their reasoning in science, this study set out to explore the ways in which reception children make sense of classroom experiences in science. A particular challenge of the study was to develop appropriate and productive approaches to investigating young children's developing thinking. The first phase of research, reported in this paper, concentrated on the topic of electricity. A series of case studies was undertaken to examine children's learning in a classroom context. Classroom sessions were video recorded and transcribed to examine the development of children's practical competence in circuit making, and interviews were carried out to elicit children's views about electric circuits. Analysis of the classroom sessions revealed children's growing competence in circuit making through their self‐directed efforts. The interviews prompted predictions and explanations that were not offered spontaneously. Responses indicated a range of models of the circuit and forms of explanation for what was happening in the circuit. The relationship between children's practical competence, predictions and explanations was not straightforward. Analysis revealed marked differences in models of the circuit and forms of explanation in children with the same levels of practical competence. This has important implications for the ways in which children's views are assessed.     

Classroom Age Composition and Vocabulary Development Among At-Risk Preschoolers

Research Findings: The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the relationship between classroom age composition and preschoolers’ vocabulary gains over an academic year and also to examine whether these relations were moderated by classroom quality. In this study (N = 130 children in 16 classrooms representing a subset of all children enrolled in these classrooms), results showed a significant cross-level interaction between classroom age composition and children's age, suggesting positive effects of greater variance in classroom age composition for younger but not older children. The interaction between behavior management (1 dimension of classroom quality) and classroom age composition was also significant, indicating that a wider distribution of classroom age composition was positively related to children's vocabulary gains within classrooms characterized by better behavior management. Practice or Policy: Findings underscore the importance of children's social interactions with more knowledgeable conversational partners in promoting their vocabulary development and signify the need to help teachers learn how to manage children's behaviors so as to provide a classroom that is optimal for child learning.     

Dialogue—Missing in Action Competence: A Cultural Historical Activity Theory Approach in a Botswana School

An in-depth case study on children's participation in environmental management activities in a primary school in Botswana was undertaken, drawing on cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) and the action competence model. This research revealed that due to a lack of dialogue between teachers and children, teachers tended to view children's participation in environmental management activities in a very limited way. Because of their culturally and historically formed views of environmental education, teachers wanted children to pick up litter, and this was the primary environmental education concern they had. Children, on the other hand, identified sanitation management in the school toilets as their primary environmental management concern. Opening up dialogue between children and teachers led to new forms of participation for children, enhancing their action competence development.     

Mapping Students' Lives: Children's Geographies,Teaching and Learning

The relatively new field of children's geographies builds on the theoretical foundations of human geography, critical geography, and spatial theories to examine the places and spaces children inhabit and create. This article reviews four major themes in children's geographies relevant to education: exclusion and agency, the social construction of childhood, children's geographies across the globe, and children's spaces beyond the classroom. Children's geographies' unique perspective on the spatial experiences of young people offers new ways to understand issues in education theory, pedagogy, and practice.     

Classroom structuration and the development of social representations of the curriculum

The study drew on Bernstein's theory and Moscovici's theory of Social Representations to investigate how children in classrooms with different types of structuration developed social representation of the curriculum. Comparable case studies were carried out in schools chosen to reflect three types of pedagogy according to Bernstein's typology. Twelve classrooms took part and ethnographic investigations were employed to compile a typology of recognition and realisation rules to map the range and type of curriculum structuration in each. Children's representations of the curriculum were investigated through specially designed tasks. Findings showed that as children gained experience of schooling they constructed more elaborate social representations of the curriculum regardless of the pedagogic mode and that classroom structuration became a feature of the junior rather than the infant children's representations. Older children in classrooms with performance pedagogies had two classifications for recognising classroom culture, while those in classrooms with mixed and competence pedagogies did not.     

Playing Games and Learning Mathematics: The results of two intervention studies

This article presents the findings of two studies that were designed to improve young children's number knowledge through the use of mathematical games. The first study, with 5‐year‐old children (N = 55), involved parents coming into the classroom to play games with small groups of children. The second study, with 7‐year‐old children (N = 128), explored several ways of incorporating games into school mathematics programmes, including parents playing games with the children. Individual task‐based interviews were used to gather data on the children's number knowledge, and detailed observations were made of selected children's experiences during their normal mathematics lessons and while they were playing the mathematical games. The results showed that games appeared to be most effective as a way of enhancing children's learning when a sensitive adult was available to support and extend the children's learning as they played. The factors that appear to be important when involving parents in games sessions at school are discussed.     

Instructional support predicts children's task avoidance in kindergarten

This study examined the role of observed classroom quality in children's task-avoidant behavior and math skills in kindergarten. To investigate this, 1268 children were tested twice on their math skills during their kindergarten year. Kindergarten teachers (N = 137) filled in questionnaires measuring their professional experience and also rated the children on their task-avoidant versus task-focused behaviors. Trained observers used the CLASS instrument (Pianta, La Paro, & Hamre, 2008) to observe 49 kindergarten teachers (out of 137) on their emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support. The results of multilevel modeling showed that kindergarten classrooms differed in terms of children's task-avoidant behavior and math skills. Moreover, the more instructional support was evidenced in the classroom, the less children were rated as showing task-avoidant behavior. Task-avoidant behavior then predicted children's low levels of math skills. The findings of the present study emphasize the importance of quality of instructional support for children's adaptive classroom behaviors.     

Ecological contexts and early learning: Contributions of child,family, and classroom factors during Head Start,to literacy and mathematics growth through first grade

The current study investigated the extent to which child, family, and classroom factors during Head Start are related to children's literacy and mathematics skills at the beginning of preschool and through first grade. Children and families (n = 945) were participating in the Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES), a large-scale data collection effort that assessed children's developing skills as well as their family and classroom environments. Longitudinal growth models revealed that Head Start children began their academic careers well below their more advantaged peers in literacy and mathematics, although by the end of first grade, their scores were nearly on par with national averages. Demographic characteristics of children, as well as their early language and social skills, were the strongest predictors of children's initial status and growth in both early academic domains. Results highlight key foundations and specific promotive factors of early school success for the nation's most disadvantaged children.     

Children's Reasoning as Collective Social Action through Problem Solving in Grade 2/3 Science Classrooms

Research on young children's reasoning show the complex relationships of knowledge, theories, and evidence in their decision-making and problem solving. Most of the research on children's reasoning skills has been done in individualized and formal research settings, not collective classroom environments where children often engage in learning and reasoning together to solve classroom problems. This study posits children's reasoning as a collective social activity that can occur in science classrooms. The study examined how children process their reasoning within the context of Grade 2/3 science classrooms and how the process of collectivity emerges from classroom interactions and dialogue between children as they attempt to solve their classroom problems. The study findings suggest that children's reasoning involves active evaluation of theories and evidence through collective problem solving, with consensus being developed through dialogical reasoning.     

Taiwanese science and life technology curriculum standards and earth systems education

This research examines whether UK primary teachers are aware of the potential of highly able young 'scientists' and whether they differentiate their teaching accordingly. The support that the National Curriculum gives to highly able children is also examined. A questionnaire was chosen for initial data collection, followed by a semi-structured interview with teachers who sent children to master classes. Analysis would indicate that teachers recognize that children who are scientifically highly able have the capacity to use higher order thinking to perform all aspects of science investigations. There does, however, seem to be a mismatch between theory and practice. The data from the questionnaires suggest that teachers do use a variety of methods to differentiate their science teaching. There was, however, no correlation between teachers' opinions related to scientifically able children's investigative skills and the associated methods of differentiating their teaching. The interview data reinforced this further as many able children had been given limited experience of science investigations in mixed ability groups.     

Language play in the classroom: encouraging children's intuitive creativity with words through poetry

This article begins by identifying that children have a spontaneous predilection for playing with language, engaging in poetic discourse even before their first poetry lesson. Although children's language play is relatively unresearched in the classroom, in a case study of two groups of pupils aged between 10 and 11, it was observed that children engaged in creative word play, and that this was generated in response to interaction with poetry and each other. This article suggests that children's poetical experiences may best be nurtured by building bridges between children's existing knowledge of language play and the specialised knowledge of poetry taught in the classroom through a teaching methodology based on socio‐constructivist principles.     

Children's discourse patterns and power relations in teacher‐led and child‐led sharing time

This study investigates children's language and interaction patterns during sharing time in a first grade classroom. When sharing time shifted from a teacher‐led to a child‐led event, corresponding changes appeared in children's language, including in discourse routines, style, content, and frequency of verbal interactions. In child‐led formats, peer culture flourished. Several linguistic routines were developed and used by children as a means of social control, as an agent for group bonding, and as expressions of care and concern. Two different child‐led formats revealed how the event's structure regulated participation and length of turn during sharing sessions. We suggest that teachers create speech situations that children are allowed to control. Such occasions encourage children's language development, learning through language, and the kind of collaboration essential for growth of peer culture.     

Classroom age composition and rates of change in school readiness for children enrolled in Head Start

Despite policy and theoretical support for mixed-age classrooms in early childhood, research examining associations between age-mixing and children's outcomes is inconclusive and warrants further investigation, particularly in preschools serving children who are at risk for poor adjustment to formal schooling. One recent study conducted in preschool classrooms serving low-income children found negative associations between age-mixing and children's social and cognitive development. The current study extended this research by examining associations between classroom age composition (variability in ages of children in the classroom) and low-income preschool children's rates of change in school readiness. The sample consisted of 4417 preschool children enrolled in 207 classrooms in a large, diverse urban Head Start program. Multilevel modeling was employed to examine the main effect of classroom age composition, as well as the interaction between classroom age composition and children's age, as predictors of children's rates of change in emergent literacy, emergent numeracy, social and emotional skills, and approaches to learning. In contrast to previous research, classroom age composition was not associated with school readiness outcomes. This study contributes to the conflicting literature examining the associations between age mixing and children's school readiness and calls for a future research agenda to examine age mixing in context that is focused on sorting out these conflicting results. In the meantime, policymakers should consider other relevant factors when making decisions regarding mixed-age classrooms, such as family preference or the capability for teachers to individualize instruction to children based on their individual needs.