Cross‐lagged associations between kindergarten teachers' causal attributions and children's task motivation and performance in reading

The present study investigated whether kindergarten teachers' causal attributions would predict children's reading‐related task motivation and performance, or whether it is rather children's motivation and performance that contribute to teachers' causal attributions. To investigate this, 69 children (five to six years old at baseline) and their teachers were examined twice during the kindergarten year. Teachers filled in a questionnaire measuring their causal attributions twice during the kindergarten year. Information about the children's reading‐related task motivation and performance was gathered at the beginning of and at the end of the kindergarten year. The results showed that the higher the task motivation and performance in reading the children showed, the more the teachers attributed their success to ability and effort, and the less they attributed it to teachers' help. Teachers' ability and effort attributions for success, in turn, predicted a high level of children's subsequent task motivation in reading. Moreover, teachers seldom attributed high‐achieving children's failure to lack of ability or effort.     

Inflectional morphology and dyslexia: Italian children’s performance in a nonword pluralization task

In this study, we present the results of an original experimental protocol designed to assess the performance in a pluralization task of 52 Italian children divided into two groups: 24 children with developmental dyslexia (mean age 10.0 years old) and 28 typically developing children (mean age 9.11 years old). Our task, inspired by Berko’s Wug Test, had the aim of testing the subjects’ ability to apply pluralization rules to nonwords in the morphologically complex context of Italian nominal inflection. Results demonstrate that dyslexics display poorer morphological skills in comparison to controls, showing lower accuracy in the task. Furthermore, the dissimilar performances reported by the subjects in the different conditions indicate that the ability to inflect nonwords depends on factors such as the rule’s productivity, frequency, and opacity with respect to gender. Finally, the children’s performance in this task was significantly related to their reading proficiency, and it could predict accuracy in word reading independently of phonological awareness and working memory.     

Parental belief and parental engagement in children’s learning

This article reports on a small scale study, examining the influence of parental faith belief on parental engagement with children’s learning. The literature surrounding parental engagement and the impact of familial belief on children’s outcomes is examined. It is clear from work in the US that familial faith belief has an impact; however, the previous literature is almost entirely quantitative in nature and does not reflect the faith make up of the UK. The article then reports the results of an online survey of parents, examining parental perception of the impact of belief, of faith/belief group and other issues on their engagement with their children’s learning. Analysis of the results are presented, and contextualised for the UK.     

Do teachers’ perceptions of children’s math and reading related ability and effort predict children’s self-concept of ability in math and reading?

This study investigated to what extent primary school teachers’ perceptions of their students’ ability and effort predict developmental changes in children’s self-concepts of ability in math and reading after controlling for students’ academic performance and general intelligence. Three cohorts (N?=?849) of elementary school children and their teachers were followed for four years. Children’s self-concepts and performance ability in math and reading were measured annually during Waves 2–4. Teachers rated the children’s ability and effort at each of the four waves. Domain-specific differences and developmental changes could be identified in the associations between teachers’ perceptions and children’s ability self-concepts. Teachers’ ability perceptions predicted children’s concurrent and subsequent ability self-concepts in math and reading, whereas teachers’ effort perceptions predicted children’s math ability self-concept only at Wave 4. Analyses with multi-sample procedure showed that these models were similar for boys and girls and for children in different cohort groups.     

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.     

Different associations of parental involvement with children’s learning of Chinese,English, and math: a three-wave longitudinal study

European Journal of Psychology of Education - Due to the impact of COVID-19, children and their parents are spending more time at home, which increases parent–child interactions. The goals of...     

Temporal cortex activation explains children’s improvement in math attitudes

Math attitudes are related to achievement, yet we do not know how the brain supports changes in math attitudes. 51 children (54.9% female, 45.1% male; 37.3% White, 33.3% Black, 11.8% Latino, 5.9% Asian, 11.8% Other) solved a multiplication task inside the scanner when they were approximately 11 (time 1; T1) and 13 (time 2; T2) years old (i.e., mean age). Results revealed clusters in the left middle to superior temporal gyri at T1 associated with math attitudes at T1 and with their longitudinal improvement. However, changes in attitudes were not associated with brain changes over time. These findings suggest that relying on the storage of arithmetic facts, involved in memory retrieval, explains the development of positive math attitudes.     

Development and validation of the sources of parental anxiety in children’s education scale

Parental anxiety in children’s education is closely related to children’s developmental and educational outcomes. The current study reported the development and validation of a self-report instrument to evaluate the Sources of Parental Anxiety in Children’s Education (SPACEs). Qualitative analyses suggested that the construct of parental anxiety in children’s education was multidimensional, representing learning performance anxiety, educational environment anxiety, educational input anxiety, and educational outcome anxiety as four primary sources. The results from exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported this four-factor structure comprising 17 items to capture this multidimensional construct. The scale also demonstrated adequate internal consistencies, convergent validity, discriminant validity, criterion-related validity, and test-retest reliability. A series of multi-group tests across age, locality, and children’s grades provided evidence of measurement invariance. Overall, the SPACE scale appear to be a reliable and valid tool to measure educational anxiety in parents in the Chinese context.     

Effect of parents’ mathematics anxiety and home numeracy activities on young children’s math performance-anxiety relationship

A negative correlation between mathematics performance and mathematics anxiety (MA) has been identified in students of varying ages. However, little is known as to whether this correlation diminishes when environmental factors are incorporated as moderator variables.Specifically, the effect of home numeracy activities (HNA) and parental MA on students’ performance-MA relationship has received little attention. Furthermore, there have been no studies that consider HNA frequency as reported by the children themselves. A sample of 311 Chilean second graders and their parents participated in the present study. We examined whether HNA frequency moderates the performance-MA relationship and whether this moderation is in turn moderated by parent MA. Results showed that the frequency of HNA strengthened or diminished the negative correlation between performance and MA as a function of parent MA. In the case of parents with low MA, regardless of HNA frequency, child mathematics performance was negatively associated with child MA. However, in the case of math-anxious parents that interacted frequently with their children, there was no association between child MA and math achievement. More broadly, the present study suggests that mathematics-related family dynamics and parents’ emotions are key to understanding the relationship between performance and MA in early development.     

Eye-movements reveal children’s deliberative thinking and predict performance on arithmetic word problems

European Journal of Psychology of Education - Despite decades of research on the close link between eye movements and human cognitive processes, the exact nature of the link between eye movements...     

A longitudinal study of children’s social behaviors and their causal relationship to reading growth

This paper aims at investigating the causal effects of social behaviors on subsequent reading growth in elementary school, using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Kindergarten (ECLS-K) data. The sample was 8,869 subjects who provided longitudinal measures of reading IRT scores from kindergarten (1998–1999) to fifth grades (2003–2004) in the United States. To examine the causal relationship, propensity score methods were used to match higher and lower groups in four social behavior domains such as Approaches to learning, Interpersonal skills, Internalizing problem behavior and Externalizing problem behavior. Results showed that the matched sample achieved sufficient pretreatment balance between the two groups. To examine the effects of social behaviors on the reading growth, multilevel growth model (MGM) was employed. Comparisons of the matched samples showed that children in the high groups of pro-social behavior or in the low groups of problem behavior at kindergarten entrance started with higher reading skills and developed reading achievement faster than those who were not. This study suggests that children’s early social behavior is crucial in reading development. Practical implication and direction of future research are also discussed.     

Phonological coding and children’s spelling

The goal of this study was to predict children’s spelling from their performance on pseudohomophone choice and rhyme matching tasks. A total of 222 nine- to twelve-year-old children in grades 4, 5, and 6 participated. The children were given, individually, a computerized pseudohomophone choice task with 30 item pairs in two conditions, and a computerized rhyme matching task with 68 word pairs in four conditions. Accuracy and speed of processing were assessed. Three memory tasks, a Spoonerism task, a general ability test, and a written spelling test were also administered. Analyses of variance and multiple regression analyses showed that both accurate and rapid choice of pseudohomophones sounding like real words and rhyme matching contributed substantially to variations in spelling. Orthographic knowledge played a role in spelling as shown by the contribution of word pairs that rhymed but were orthographically dissimilar. Phonological coding as tested by pseudohomophone choice was also important.     

The mediating effect of task presentation on collaboration and children’s acquisition of scientific reasoning

There has been considerable research concerning peer interaction and the acquisition of children’s scientific reasoning. This study investigated differences in collaborative activity between pairs of children working around a computer with pairs of children working with physical apparatus and related any differences to the development of children’s scientific reasoning. Children aged between 9 and 10 years old (48 boys and 48 girls) were placed into either same ability or mixed ability pairs according to their individual, pre-test performance on a scientific reasoning task. These pairs then worked on either a computer version or a physical version of Inhelder and Piaget’s (1958) chemical combination task. Type of presentation was found to mediate the nature and type of collaborative activity. The mixed-ability pairs working around the computer talked proportionally more about the task and management of the task; had proportionally more transactive discussions and used the record more productively than children working with the physical apparatus. Type of presentation was also found to mediated children’s learning. Children in same ability pairs who worked with the physical apparatus improved significantly more than same ability pairs who worked around the computer. These findings were partially predicted from a socio-cultural theory and show the importance of tools for mediating collaborative activity and collaborative learning.     

The effects of perceived parental math support on middle school students’ math engagement: the serial multiple mediation of math self-efficacy and math enjoyment

The present study explored the direct and indirect (serial multiple mediation of math self-efficacy and math enjoyment) effects of perceived parental math support on middle school students’ math engagement. A total of 374 middle school students ranging the age of 11 to 15 years completed a set of questionnaires assessing perceived parental math support, math self-efficacy, math enjoyment, and math engagement. In the analysis of structural model, a multiple-step multiple mediation analysis was employed. The findings indicated that perceived parental math support was directly and positively associated with math engagement. Additionally, math self-efficacy and math enjoyment sequentially mediated the relationship between parental math support and math engagement. The limitations and implications of the results are discussed and suggestions for future research are proposed.

     

Onsager’s Reciprocal Relations

The article is a brief write-up on the Nobel Prize winning paper of Lars Onsager which appeared in Physical Review, Vol.37, 1931.     

Impact of Children’s math self-concept,math self-efficacy,math anxiety,and teacher competencies on math development

We examined to what extent children’s development of arithmetic fluency and mathematical problem-solving was influenced by their math self-concept, math self-efficacy, and math anxiety but also teacher competence, specifically: actual teaching behavior, self-efficacy, and mathematical teaching knowledge. Participants were 610 children and 31 teachers of grade four. Multi-level analyses showed children’s math self-concept to be a positive predictor of arithmetic fluency and actual teaching behavior to be a negative predictor. The development of mathematical problem-solving was predicted: positively by mathematical teaching knowledge; negatively by actual teaching behavior and teachers’ self-efficacy; and not at all by the child factors of math self-concept, math self-efficacy, or math anxiety. Promoting the self-confidence of young children is essential for their mathematical development. More research into the relationship between teaching behaviors and children’s math development is needed.     

Impact of early childcare on immigrant children’s educational performance

This paper investigates the impact of attending early childcare on immigrant children’s cognitive outcomes. Our analysis makes use of administrative data on the entire population of students in the fifth grade collected by the Italian Institute for the Evaluation of the Educational System (INVALSI) for school years 2014/2015 to 2016/2017, matched to unique administrative records on early childcare availability at the municipal level. Our identification strategy exploits cross-sectional and time series variations in the provision of early childcare services across Italian municipalities as an instrument for individual attendance. Our results indicate that the effect of early childcare attendance differs between native and immigrant children. Estimates show a positive and significant effect on the language test scores of immigrant children, with the effect being mostly driven by children with low-educated mothers and by children who, at home, speak a language highly dissimilar to Italian. Unlike immigrants, native students are negatively impacted by early childcare attendance. Effects are stronger on math test scores for children with highly educated mothers and in municipalities with a relatively low public supply of early childcare.