Self-perceived stability and change in children’s competence

Using Harter’s (Child Dev 53(1):87–97, 1982) perceived competence scale, this study integrates several paradigms related to the issues of self-perceived competence, stability or change and attributional theory. It examines how 268 Belgian and Portuguese fifth graders consider their scholastic, social and physical competence at present and in a retrospective or prospective time perspective. The children were also asked to rate the causes of their self-perceived competence-related stability or change. Nearly all of the children who saw change indicated that they had changed/would change in a positive way. Children more often thought that they would change in the future than that they had changed in the past. Children who saw change also made more internal attributions (effort and ability) than children who saw only stability. Finally, the results varied consistently between the Belgian and the Portuguese samples, indicating cross-cultural differences which are tentatively illuminated by macro-systemic considerations referring to educational policy in the two countries.     

Key considerations in assessing young children’s emotional competence

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed a surge in evidence on preschoolers’ emotional development as crucial for both concurrent and later well-being and mental health, and for learning and academic success. Given the importance of building such strengths, assessing emotional competence skills is important to aid early childhood educators in focusing programming for individuals and classrooms. Based on these assertions, this article is structured as follows: (1) outline important issues regarding developmentally appropriate early childhood assessment, particularly of emotional competence; (2) discuss use of culturally relevant standards of attainment of such skills in assessing student progress; (3) define the skills of emotional competence; (4) describe a model leading from developmentally appropriate emotional competence skills to assessment and programming; (5) suggest some possible tools for schools to use in assessing emotional competence of young children; (6) give guidance for new measurement development, and (7) suggest needed policy and practice in this area.     

Prosodic awareness and children’s multisyllabic word reading

Prosodic awareness (the rhythmic patterning of speech) accounts for unique variance in reading development. However, studies have thus far focused on early readers and utilised literacy measures which fail to distinguish between monosyllabic and multisyllabic words. The current study investigated the factors that are specifically associated with multisyllabic word reading in a sample of 50 children aged between 7 and 8 years. Prosodic awareness was the strongest predictor of multisyllabic word reading accuracy, after controlling for phoneme awareness, morphological awareness, vocabulary and short-term memory. Children also made surprisingly few phonemic errors while, in contrast, errors of stress assignment were commonplace. Prosodic awareness was also the strongest predictor of stress placement errors, although this finding was not significant. Prosodic skills may play an increasingly important role in literacy performance as children encounter more complex reading materials. Once phoneme-level skills are mastered, prosodic awareness is arguably the strongest predictor of single word reading.     

Exploring kindergarten teachers’ views and roles regarding children’s outdoor play environments in Oman

The purpose of this study was to explore kindergarten teachers’ views and roles regarding outdoor play environments in Omani kindergartens. Thirty kindergarten teachers from 15 private kindergartens were observed and interviewed. The results indicated that teachers recognize the importance of outdoor play in children’s development and learning. Although teachers are satisfied with the safety conditions of the outdoor play environments, they feel they need to know more about how to maintain safety criteria in this environment. Teachers most frequently took on the role of supervising and guiding children’s behaviour or setting up materials for play, whereas providing verbal comments and participating in play were less common. Omani outdoor play environments were found to face specific difficulties, such as the hot climate, a shortage of materials and equipment, a lack of natural surroundings and the short length of time spent outdoors. The article concludes with policy implications and pedagogical recommendations.     

Effects of kindergarten retention for at-risk children’s psychosocial development

Kindergarten retention is a popular practice for children who are considered unready for primary school. However, past research has not yet succeeded to find consistent, strong empirical evidence supporting the practice. In the current study, kindergarten repeaters’ development in nine psychosocial domains is compared with that of equally at risk but (1) continuously promoted age-mates and (2) promoted age-mates who repeated first grade instead. Analysing data from a large-scale longitudinal study using propensity score matching and multilevel modelling, the findings reveal no harm of kindergarten retention for at-risk children’s long term psychosocial development. Rather, we find that, relative to equally at-risk but continuously promoted children, kindergarten repeaters benefit from retention with respect to higher levels of well-being, and peer relations, and lower levels of hyperactivity, aggression and asocial behaviour. Compared to similar children who were promoted but who were retained in first grade instead, kindergarten repeaters are found to benefit more from retention with respect to higher levels of well-being, self-confidence, attitude to work and independent behaviour, and lower levels of hyperactivity.     

Prosodic and phonemic awareness in children’s reading of long and short words

Phonemic and prosodic awareness are both phonological processes that operate at different levels: the former at the level of the individual sound segment and the latter at the suprasegmental level across syllables. Both have been shown to be related to word reading in young readers. In this study we examine how these processes are differentially related to reading monosyllabic and multisyllabic words. Participants were 110 children in grades four and five who were asked to read monosyllabic and three- and four-syllable words matched for frequency. Phonemic awareness was assessed via a phoneme elision task; prosodic awareness was assessed by a task asking participants to identify the syllable bearing primary stress in a spoken word. Results showed that phonemic and prosodic awareness were independent predictors of short word reading, and both phonological factors made independent contributions to multisyllabic word reading, showing that phonemic and prosodic awareness are complementary but not redundant processes. Only prosodic awareness survived control for simple decoding ability in the reading of long words, suggesting that suprasegmental phonology gives added value to our understanding of reading multisyllabic words.     

The role of compound awareness in Chinese children’s vocabulary acquisition and character reading

This study examined compound awareness in relation to Chinese children's vocabulary acquisition and character reading. Two aspects of compound awareness were investigated: the ability to identify the head of a compound noun and the ability to construct a new compound word from familiar morphemes. The compound awareness tasks, along with rapid automatized naming (RAN) and phonological awareness tasks, were administered to 29 first graders and 30 second graders in Mainland China. Results show that (1) compound awareness develops relatively early among Chinese children and improves with age, (2) compound awareness explains unique variance in vocabulary and character reading, after controlling for age, RAN, and phonological awareness, and (3) the contribution made by compound awareness to vocabulary is much larger than the contribution made by phonological awareness. These results demonstrate that compound awareness plays a central role in Chinese children's literacy development, particularly in vocabulary acquisition.

Examining Chinese kindergarten children’s psychological needs satisfaction in problem solving: A self-determination theory perspective

Instructional Science - This study examined whether kindergarten children’s psychological needs satisfaction would mediate the relationships between parental scaffolding and children’s...     

Parents’ perfectionistic tendencies and children’s early numeracy competence: the mediating roles of children’s executive functions and numeracy interest

European Journal of Psychology of Education - Parents’ high academic expectations have often been found to benefit children’s academic outcomes. Nonetheless, little is known whether...     

Perceived parental stress in face of kindergarten children’s academic setback: roles of parents’ goals and education

European Journal of Psychology of Education - Previous research studies have demonstrated the link between parents’ education and parental stress level. However, these studies have not taken...     

Classroom keyboard instruction improves kindergarten children’s spatial-temporal performance: A field experiment

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of classroom music instruction featuring the keyboard on the spatial-temporal reasoning of kindergarten children. Sixty-two kindergartners were assigned to one of two conditions, keyboard or no music. All children were pretested with two spatial-temporal tasks and one pictorial memory task. The keyboard group was provided with 20-min lessons two times per week in groups of approximately 10 children. Children were then retested at two 4-month intervals. The keyboard group scored significantly higher than the no music group on both spatial-temporal tasks after 4 months of lessons, a difference that was greater in magnitude after 8 months of lessons. Pictorial memory did not differ for the two groups after the lessons. These data support studies that found similar skills enhancements in preschool children, despite vast differences in the setting in which the instruction occurred. The results have strong implications for school administrators and educators.     

The effect of dialect experience on Chinese children’s Mandarin phonological awareness

Most studies on bilingual phonological awareness suggested that children who were able to speak a second language performed better in phonological awareness tasks; some studies however found different results. This study revisited the issue by investigating the effect of Min dialect experience on Chinese children’s Mandarin phonological awareness. Children who were able to speak Mandarin only (M) were compared with children who were able to speak one dialect and Mandarin (DM) or two dialects and Mandarin (BiDM). In Experiment 1, 2nd and 4th grade M children performed better than their Minnan DM and Puxian DM counterparts in onset and rime judgement. Experiment 2 detected also an advantage of 1st and 2nd grade M children over their Mindong DM peers in syllable deletion and rime oddity. In Experiment 3, M children performed significantly better than their Mindong DM and Mindong–Puxian BiDM peers in 1st and 2nd grade and the difference remained significant between M children and BiDM children when IQ was controlled. The M advantage disappeared however in higher grades in all experiments. Generally the results suggested that Min dialect experience interfered with children’s performance in Mandarin phonological awareness, but the disadvantage disappeared as children proceeded to higher grades. The interference was discussed as consequence of subtractive bilingualism and Mandarin as cognitive tool.     

Site-level predictors of children’s school and social competence in the Chicago Child–Parent Centers

We examined the influence of individual and site-level factors from the Chicago Child–Parent Centers (CPC) early educational program on four competence outcomes for 1539 minority youth in the Chicago Longitudinal Study. Individual-level factors included race, gender, risk status, kindergarten duration, and preschool and follow-on experience. Two models were developed to examine site-level factors. The program model included instructional approach, site location, and parent involvement. The school model included the percentage of families that were low-income and the percentage of families that were residentially stable. Outcomes included kindergarten word analysis, eighth grade reading achievement, high school completion, and juvenile delinquency. Results based on hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) analyses indicated that preschool participation was more important than any of the site-level factors. The most consistent site-level finding was that lower income levels within a school attendance area was linked with poorer school and social outcomes. Site-level parental involvement predicted both early and later school outcomes. Instructional approach was not a significant program factor. Site location and family stability were not typically predictive of child outcomes. Policy implications and limitations of the study are addressed.     

Improving kindergarten teachers’ differentiation practices to better anticipate student differences

This article presents the findings from a teacher intervention in Dutch kindergartens aimed at improving teachers’ differentiation practices (DP) to better anticipate student differences. The intervention was designed to improve the match between student levels and curricular activities, in particular for high-ability students and consists of three components. A pretest–posttest cluster randomised design was used with three conditions: control (n = 34), pilot intervention (n = 32) and improved intervention (n = 34). Quantitative results demonstrate that the intervention fidelity was relatively high in the improved intervention. Correlations confirmed that teacher-reported DP were higher in schools where the intervention was more completely implemented. DP were enhanced in both intervention conditions, but showed greater improvement in the improved intervention. Qualitative data revealed process characteristics that reflect problems schools encounter with this intervention. Teachers can be supported in improving DP, but this requires school-wide intensive and long support.     

Building children’s sense of community in a day care centre through small groups in play

This study examines the process through which children build a sense of community in small groups in a day care centre. The study asks the following: how does children’s sense of community develop, and what are its key features? Data were collected by applying ethnographic methods in a group of three- to five-year-old children over eleven months. The results show that children’s sense of community developed through three stages. In the first stage, it evolved gradually through experiences in joint play. In the second stage, stable friendships were formed and strengthened in play. In the third and final stage, sense of community was fully established and children’s emotional bonding was strong, manifesting itself in affective and physical closeness, sharing and caring and togetherness.     

Interprofessional capital in children’s services transformations

This paper discusses the adoption of an integrated approach to children’s services. The paper opens by introducing the Scottish policy statements that recommend that it is at the level of the school and community that integrated services need to be effective for the aims of social justice and inclusion to be achieved. The policy discourses are analysed to reveal a number of potential issues of contention between the different practitioner groups involved in children’s services relating to the relocation of the space of integration and the nature of practitioner‐, practice‐ and governance‐level relations. The social capital theory is then introduced, and a multi‐level conceptual framework of sub‐types of social capital is proposed to chart and analyse intersections and potential points of disjuncture in the work of the different practitioner groups in schools. The concept of human capital is used to explore questions of practitioner knowledge, expertise and research practices. It is suggested that mapping the capital resources used by the children’s sector practitioners provide a framework to analyse how inter/transprofessional relations currently operate and to identify interstices where practitioners’ social and human capital need to be reconstructed to better serve children and young people, and their families.     

Daily fluctuations in young children’s persistence

Children's behavior changes from day to day, but the factors that contribute to its variability are understudied. We developed a novel repeated measures paradigm to study children's persistence by capitalizing on a task that children complete every day: toothbrushing (N = 81; 48% female; 36–47 months; 80% white, 14% Multiracial, 10% Hispanic, 2% Asian, 1% Black; 1195 observations collected between January 2019 and March 2020). Children brushed longer on days when their parents used more praise (d = .23) and less instruction (d = −.22). Sensitivity to mood, sleep, and parent stress varied across children, suggesting that identifying the factors that shape an individual child's persistence could lead to personalized interventions.