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.     

Procedural and conceptual changes in young children’s problem solving

This study analysed the different types of arithmetic knowledge that young children utilise when solving a multiple-step addition task. The focus of the research was on the procedural and conceptual changes that occur as children develop their overall problem solving approach. Combining qualitative case study with a micro-genetic approach, clinical interviews were conducted with ten 5–6-year-old children. The aim was to document how children combine knowledge of addition facts, calculation procedures and arithmetic concepts when solving a multiple-step task and how children’s application of different types of knowledge and overall solving approach changes and develops when children engage with solving the task in a series of problem solving sessions. The study documents children’s pathways towards developing a more effective and systematic approach to multiple-step tasks through different phases of their problem solving behaviour. The analysis of changes in children’s overt behaviour reveals a dynamic interplay between children’s developing representation of the task, their improved procedures and gradually their more explicit grasp of the conceptual aspects of their strategy. The findings provide new evidence that supports aspects of the “iterative model” hypothesis of the interaction between procedural and conceptual knowledge and highlight the need for educational approaches and tasks that encourage and trigger the interplay of different types of knowledge in young children’s arithmetic problem solving.     

Measuring children and young people’s wellbeing in the school context

Although being rooted in the work of ancient Greek philosophers, contemporary research on wellbeing is a relatively new phenomenon. As a term in the literature, wellbeing is often used interchangeably with others, such as happiness, flourishing, enjoying a good life and life satisfaction. Furthermore, the wellbeing of school-aged children is only beginning to be explored with increasing recognition that research conducted on adults cannot be uncritically applied to children and young people. This paper aims to address some of the complexities in conceptualising, and hence assessing, children and young people’s wellbeing by drawing on a recently completed study examining the role of creative initiatives in fostering wellbeing. The new instrument that was developed to capture children and young people’s perceptions of their wellbeing in school is outlined. Data are presented from a survey of 5170 students from 20 primary and 20 secondary schools across England that identify four dimensions of wellbeing. Differences in self-reported wellbeing relating to age, gender and type of school attended (Creative Partnerships versus other schools) are explored. The implications of these findings, particularly differences related to type of school attended, given the focus of this special issue, are considered.     

Expanding young children’s lifeworld

Cultural Studies of Science Education - The link between science education and early childhood education is still blurred. This is so because many science education researchers apparently, but...     

Evaluating young children’s creative coding: rubric development and testing for ScratchJr projects

Education and Information Technologies - Project-based assessment has been used to evaluate coding projects created by students for a long time. Nevertheless, there is a lack of rigorously tested...     

Parents resourcing children’s early development and learning

Parents deal with a complex web of choices when seeking and using knowledge and resources related to their young children’s literacy development. Information concerning children’s learning and development comes in many forms and is produced by an increasingly diverse range of players including governments, non‐government organisations and commercial businesses. This study used a survey, interview and artefact collection to investigate mothers’ and fathers’ reported activities in seeking, accessing, producing and circulating information and resources related to children’s learning and development. Differences were found relating to parent gender and level of education. Parents’ resourcing activities are also shaped by their particular goals for their children.     

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.     

Parents’ beliefs about young children’s play and nature experiences in Danish and US contexts

Two studies were conducted in the US and Denmark to examine parents’ beliefs about the importance of play and nature experiences for early childhood development. Thirty parents in the US and 19 parents in Denmark completed semi-structured interviews with quantitative and qualitative elements. Although families in both contexts highly valued outdoor and nature experiences, parents in the Danish context provided a stronger rationale for taking children outdoors regardless of environmental conditions and affording them opportunities to explore freely and take risks. Parents in the US focused mainly on individual developmental benefits of play, whereas parents in Denmark also acknowledged the importance of spending time in nature for society and the environment. The findings provide evidence that sociocultural values and expectations influence parental beliefs and practices regarding outdoor and nature play, and have implications for young children’s play opportunities within and across cultural contexts.     

How does women’s education influence infant survival? A structural equation model using aggregate data from 95 low- and middle-income countries

Previous studies have shown that women’s education increases infant survival with a magnitude that varies along methodological designs. Besides, the causal chain from women’s education to infant survival has so far remained largely unknown. This cross-country study investigates the relationship between women’s education and infant survival in 95 low- and middle-income countries using a comprehensive set of mediating and control variables. The article applies structural equation modelling on aggregate data, which were produced by the UN, UNESCO, UNICEF and the World Bank. The independent variables are from 2000 to 2009, and the dependent variable, infant mortality, is from 2018. The models are adjusted for income level, population size and extreme epidemic or political instabilities. Structural equation modelling is an advantageous method to specify how women’s education affects infant survival explicitly through the indirect influences of an enhanced child health provision and through an increased reproductive autonomy for women. Overall, women’s education is an equally important variable with poverty alleviation and women’s reproductive autonomy in explaining the cross-country variation in infant survival. The models, taking into account key child health policies, provide new evidence on how women’s education is mediated to better infant survival in low- and middle-income countries.     

Parent–infant interaction and children’s language development

Learning to speak and understand language is a remarkable and important accomplishment of early childhood. Parent–infant interaction in the first three years is critical to this. This is the focus of this review – the first of the whole area. Seven databases were searched and 1750 studies reduced to 60 with good evidence. These 60 were from many disciplines and their methodological quality was variable. There was strong evidence that parental contingency (communication when the intended recipient is fully oriented towards receiving and processing it) and parental efforts in pre-literacy activities are important. There was strong evidence that interventions can be effective. Parental elaboration of language had less strong evidence. The role of gesture and the role of interaction with siblings and peers had the weakest evidence, but even these were quite well supported. Requirements for future research are specified. Parent–infant interaction is already established as a key factor in language development.     

Pre-school children’s agency in learning for sustainable development

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in pre-school children’s meaning-making and learning in education for sustainability. Young children should be recognized as ‘agents for change’ and active participants in their own day-to-day practices. Such issues are thoroughly discussed in the early childhood education for sustainability field. However, only a few research reports are presented on the subject. In this paper, our purpose is to examine empirically how agency is constituted when pre-school children explore science-related issues in a context of education for sustainability. The empirical material consists of video-recording sequences of four- to five-year-olds. In the analysis, we use a methodological approach based on Dewey’s pragmatist philosophy. We describe what a small group of children are doing and their ‘course of action’ towards ‘fulfilment’. In view of this, agency is explained as something that children achieve together in transactions rather than something they possess. Furthermore, the findings show the significance of the aesthetic relations in the constitution of agency. At the end of the article, we also discuss agency in relation to the ongoing debate on participation in young children’s meaning-making for sustainability.     

Interest in spatial activities predicts young children’s spatial ability development: A two-year longitudinal study

Studies have indicated the important impact of spatial abilities on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) achievement. However, little is known about the predictors of individual differences in the growth trajectory of spatial ability. Children’s interest in learning activities plays a significant role in their ability development in literacy, math, and science. Therefore, the current study explored the role of children’s interest in spatial activities in their spatial ability development. We hypothesized that children’s interest in spatial activities would positively predict both the initial level and subsequent growth rate of spatial ability. The spatial ability of 197 Hong Kong preschool children (mean age = 52.72 months and SD = 3.30 months in the first wave of spatial ability assessment [Time 1]) was assessed four times over a two-year period, using a visual–spatial skills task. Their mothers ranked the children’s interest in various activities from 1 (most interested) to 13 (least interested) at Time 1. A growth curve analysis was performed to examine the relationships between interest in spatial activities at Time 1 and initial level and subsequent growth of spatial skills, controlling for parents’ expectations concerning spatial development, children’s interest in art activities, and demographics. The results showed that children’s interest in spatial activities significantly predicted their spatial ability growth (β = 0.252, p = .042), explaining 5.7% of the variance in growth, but was unrelated to the initial level of spatial skills. This finding highlights the importance of preserving and enhancing young children’s interest in spatial activities, among other activities, for the development of their spatial abilities.     

Father involvement in young children’s care and education: exploring boundaries and starting conversations

This paper analyses the impact of a UK local authority initiative – Fathers’ Friday – aiming to involve fathers in their children’s education, which took place in 20 early years’ and primary school settings. Whilst the study involved a range of methods, in this paper interview data associated with practitioners’ perspectives of the initiative are used. Theoretically, Bernstein’s concept of boundary and related notions of classification and framing provide a framework for exploring fathers’ positioning, and Bernstein’s concept of ‘voice’ helps to explain how relations are repositioned, as fathers engage with settings through their participation in the initiative. The authors’ contention is that whilst an existing structure of social relations positions how settings and individuals can relate to one another, experiencing the Fathers’ Friday initiative under changed conditions produces a weakened boundary space for fathers, from which ‘conversations can start’. Children themselves form part of this process of redrawing weakened boundaries.     

Educators’ understanding of young children’s typical and problematic sexual behaviour and their training in this area

As part of a wider study, this paper reports on Australian educators’ understanding of children’s typical and problematic sexual behaviour and their source of training in this area. A sample of 107 educators from government, independent and Catholic primary schools, preschools and care organisations across Australia answered an online questionnaire regarding their understanding of and experiences with children’s problematic sexual behaviours and their management strategies. The majority of educators were able to identify children’s age-appropriate typical sexual behaviour and some elements of problematic sexual behaviour; however, individual knowledge was not extensive. Approximately 35% (n = 35) of educators said they had not been trained in identifying and responding to children’s problematic sexual behaviour. Of those who said they had received training, the majority (82%, n = 53) described having participated in a compulsory course on reporting suspected abuse to government (a mandated reporting course). Ninety per cent (n = 89) of educators reported that courses specific to children’s problematic sexual behaviours should be offered. This suggests that mandated reporting courses do not offer in-depth training specific to problematic sexual behaviour. Implications for professional development are discussed.     

Comparing the effects of different book reading techniques on young children’s language development

The purpose of this research study is to compare the effects of digital, dialogic and traditional reading on children’s language development aged 48–66 months. Fifty-six randomly selected children enrolled in three different classrooms in a public preschool in Turkey participated in the study. The three classrooms were again randomly assigned as digital, dialogic and traditional reading groups. During the reading activities, a total of 24 storybooks were read by each group every three times in 8 weeks. While the children’s language scores (the receptive and expressive language scores) resulted in a significant increase in dialogic reading, the children’s language scores in a digital and traditional reading group slightly changed during the intervention. Alternatively, qualitative data suggested that the interaction between teacher and children and between children and children were very limited in a digital and traditional reading group and that limited interaction during reading was the underlying cause of the insignificant increase in children’s language scores.

     

Seeking insights into young children’s beliefs about mathematics and learning

Challenges for researchers wishing to gain insights into student beliefs about mathematics and learning include the identification of prompts to which young children can respond easily and which have the potential to provide meaningful insights into their beliefs. This article reports on a selection of such prompts used within an exploratory study that investigated beliefs about mathematics, learning and helping factors for learning mathematics of eight children of 8 to 9 years of age. These prompts, described as creative interviewing procedures, are classified under the key categories of visual, verbal and text-based. The article provides brief details of the study as background but focuses on discussing the nature of the tasks, and, through the inclusion of a selection of responses, illustrates their potential value as research tools for gaining insights into young children’s beliefs about mathematics and learning. It seems that teachers could use the prompts to gain alternate perspectives into children’s beliefs which in turn might inform their instruction.     

Issues in the development of children’s centres on nursery and primary school sites

This paper explores the development of children’s centres in England between 2004 and 2008, focusing on the newly created centres that have been located on primary and nursery school sites. Using both an analysis of policy documents and interview data from three urban local authorities, we examine the use of premises and the differing priorities of centre staff and school heads, particularly in relation to the balance of services between early years education, childcare and family support. We also explore governance issues, focusing especially on patterns of accountability. In so doing, we also examine the tensions that exist between children’s centres located on primary and on nursery school sites and the schools themselves.