Cognitive style and gender differences in children’s mathematics achievement

Males are often found to outperform females in tests of mathematics achievement and it has been proposed that this may in part be explained by differences in cognitive style. This study investigated the relation between Wholistic-Analytic and Verbal-Imagery cognitive style, gender and mathematics achievement in a sample of 190 Australian primary school students aged between 8–11?years (M?=?9.77, SD?=?1.05). It was hypothesised that males would outperform females in mathematics achievement tests, and that gender would interact with cognitive style on mathematics performance. A significant gender/cognitive style interaction was found. Boys with an Analytic/Imagery style achieved significantly higher results than the girls with an Analytic/Imagery style, supporting the contention that certain cognitive styles affect boys and girls mathematics performance differently. Implications of results and strategies for improving mathematics achievement among girls are discussed.     

Implementing embodied learning in the classroom: effects on children’s memory and language skills

The relationship among bodily movements, cognitive abilities, and academic achievement in children is receiving considerable attention in the research community. The embodied learning approach is based on the idea of an inseparable link between body and mind in learning, aiming for teaching methods that promote children’s active engagement in the classroom. This study implements embodied learning as a part of the classroom curriculum in a real classroom environment using motion-based games. A total of 52 elementary students engaged in embodied learning in-class activities for four months. The data-set included standardized pre-post testing for children’s cognitive and academic performance, general learning analytics from games’ usage, interviews, and observations from the teachers involved. Findings showed significant effects both on children’s cognitive abilities (i.e., short-memory skills) and academic performance (i.e., expressive vocabulary). This article contributes to the educational technology community by providing an example of implementing embodied learning via use of motion-based technologies in a real classroom environment.     

The impact of perceived teachers’ autonomy support on students’ mathematics achievement: evidences based on latent growth curve modelling

European Journal of Psychology of Education - According to the self-determination theory, autonomy-supportive teaching is considered an effective approach to motivate students to learn. The present...     

The immediate impacts of preschool attendance on Turkish children’s mathematics achievement

This study was conducted to investigate the immediate impacts of preschool attendance on Turkish children’s mathematics achievement. The participants were 200 children who attended or did not attend preschool. The number and operation task and the geometric shapes sorting task were used as the data collection tools. The children who attended preschool performed significantly better on the number and operation task and the geometric shapes sorting task than the children who did not attend preschool. Indeed, the multivariate regression analysis demonstrated that preschool attendance is the most important predictor of the success of children in number and operation task and the geometric shapes sorting task.     

An interactive model of parents’ involvement and their children’s functioning in school

This study examined relationships between Parents’ involvement as related to their Identification and Alertness and to four students’ variables Attitudes toward school, Social adjustment, Self-efficacy and Academic achievements. Social adjustment was the most dominant variable and served as a mediator between self-efficacy and achievements. Parental involvement had significant, direct and positive relations with social adjustment but negative with academic achievements. Findings indicate a weakening of the relationships between parents’ involvement, identification, and alertness and children’s variables compared to the relationships between children’s variables. Educational staff and parents must create useful communication channels for helping children cope with the challenges of their social and media world.     

Interplay of formative assessment and instructional quality—interactive effects on students’ mathematics achievement

Formative assessment is considered to be a promising teaching practice for promoting teaching and learning processes. The implementation of teaching practices into instruction involves intervening with a learning environment that is characterised by certain features of instructional quality. Our study aims to contribute to the understanding of formative assessment by analysing the interplay between a formative assessment intervention and aspects of general instructional quality. In a quasi-experimental study design, 15 teachers participated in a control group (n = 361 students) and 20 teachers in the intervention classes (n = 498 students) implemented a curriculum-embedded formative assessment tool in their ninth-grade mathematics classes. No effects were found for the intervention on the assessed aspects of general instructional quality (process-oriented instruction, teacher–student relationship, effective use of instructional time). However, multilevel regression analyses revealed an interaction effect between the intervention and process-orientation and the effective use of instruction time. Our findings suggest that implementing formative assessment tools do not seem to suffice regarding changes in general instructional quality, but that an intervention with detailed material and guidelines can counterbalance effects of instructional quality, fostering students’ achievement in classes with lower degrees of process orientation and a less effective use of instructional time.     

Morphological priming effects on children’s spelling

Previous research has suggested that children in the early grades of primary school do not have much awareness of morphemes. In this study, a priming paradigm was used to try to detect early signs of morphological representation of stems through a spelling task presented to Portuguese children (N = 805; age range 6–9 years). Primes shared the stem with the targets and contained well-articulated, stressed vowels; the stems of the target words and pseudo-words contained non-stressed schwa vowels, which typically result in spelling difficulties. If priming proved effective, the well-articulated vowels in the prime should result in an improvement in the spelling of the schwa vowels. Primes were presented in two conditions: in only-oral or in oral-plus-written form. Effectiveness of priming was assessed by comparison with a no-priming condition. For both words and pseudowords, there was a significant interaction between priming effects and grade. No priming effects were detected in 6- and 7-year-old children; oral-plus-written priming produced higher rates of correct vowel spelling for 8- and 9-year-olds; only-oral priming was effective in improving the vowel spelling of 9-year-olds. Thus older children can use morphological information under priming conditions when the prime and the target are not phonologically transparent but there is no evidence to suggest that younger children do so.     

Impacts of expressive writing on children’s anxiety and mathematics learning: Developmental and gender variability

Expressive writing (EW), or writing about one’s thoughts and feelings, has been posited to reduce the working memory (WM) load that pressure and anxiety can impose on test-takers. The mechanisms of EW are far from clear, however, and social and developmental questions about its role in shaping children’s engagement with academic contexts remain. We report a study with 250 10–12-year-olds (M_age = 11.55; SD_age = 0.48; 127 females), exploring gender differences in these younger children’s use of EW before a high demand mathematics lesson on ratio. In contrast to the literature with adults, children assigned to EW had greater anxiety relative to control. The highest-achieving higher-WM girls also were most impacted by EW, showing decreases in immediate learning and retention relative to their counterparts who did not write expressively. A mediation analysis indicated that EW reduced learning gains by increasing children’s anxiety during the lesson, thereby suggesting that EW functioned quite differently from its use in older youth and adults. These data suggest that emotion regulation skills may be an under-considered mechanism that underpins benefits of EW in older adolescents and adults.     

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.

     

Elementary-age children’s conceptions about mathematics utility and their home-based mathematics engagement

Integrating multiple theoretical frameworks, the authors examined rising first- to fourth-grade students’ mathematics utility conceptions—their knowledge and beliefs about the usefulness of mathematics, home-based mathematics engagement, and grade-level differences in mathematics utility conceptions and home engagement. Most children viewed mathematics as heavily focused on low-level mathematics operations and as learned and used primarily in school. Older children showed more awareness of mathematics as part of daily living, but still viewed mathematics as mostly school-based—more so than their younger counterparts. Results suggest that awareness of mathematics in daily life may be associated with children’s mathematics utility value (perceived usefulness of mathematics). Although children engaged in activities at home with the potential to foster mathematics development, the frequency of engagement was not related to their awareness of mathematics in daily activities. Thus, there may be untapped opportunities for young children to connect the mathematics they learn in school to their daily life.     

Self‐determined motivation and social achievement goals in children’s emotions

In this cross‐sectional study we investigated to what extent autonomous and controlled motivation and social achievement goals are associated with students’ emotional experiences at school. We found in a sample of 426 elementary school students, aged from 10 to 12 years, autonomous motivation (i.e. students’ engagement in class activities because they find such activities enjoying or personally important) and social development goals (i.e. students’ focus on developing meaningful social relationships) to be positively associated with positive emotions. In contrast, controlled motivation (i.e. students’ engagement in class activities because they feel coerced to do so) and social demonstration‐approach goals (i.e. students’ focus on demonstrating popularity) were positively associated with negative emotions. These associations remained significant even after controlling for perceived competence. Cluster analysis further showed that students high in autonomous motivation and social development goals and low in controlled motivation and social demonstration‐approach goals exhibited a better motivational profile compared to students high or low in all the above motivational variables. Results are discussed within the self‐determination theory and the social achievement goal perspective.     

Lexical effects on children’s pseudoword reading in a transparent orthography

The present study investigated the involvement of lexical knowledge in pseudoword reading by Italian children aged 8–10. In both lexical decision and reading aloud tasks, inhibitory effects were found on pseudowords derived from high-frequency words in comparison to pseudowords derived from low-frequency words. A group of adult readers showed inhibitory effects on pseudowords based on high-frequency words only in lexical decision. The inhibitory effects were interpreted as due to interference on pseudoword processing caused by lexical activation of a high-frequency base-word. The results support the view that lexical information is exploited even in the development of reading of a transparent orthography.     

School mathematics and its everyday other? Revisiting Lave’s ‘Cognition in Practice’

In the last three decades there have been a variety of studies of what is often referred to as ‘everyday’ or ‘street’ mathematics. These studies have documented a rich variety of arithmetic practices involved in activities such as tailoring, carpet laying, dieting, or grocery shopping. More importantly, these studies have helped to rectify outmoded models of rationality, cognition, and (school) instruction. Despite these important achievements, doubts can be raised about the ways in which theoretical conclusions have been drawn from empirical materials. Furthermore, while these studies rightly criticised prevalent theories of rationality and cognition as too simplistic to account for everyday activities, it seems that some of the proposed alternatives suffer from similar flaws (i.e., are straightforward inversions of the to-be-opposed theories, rather than more nuanced views on complicated issues). In this article we illustrate our sceptical view by discussing four case studies in Jean Lave’s pioneering and influential ‘Cognition in Practice’ (1988). By looking at the case studies in detail, we investigate how Lave’s conclusions relate to the empirical materials and offer alternative characterisations. In particular, we question whether the empirical studies demonstrate the existence of two different kinds of mathematics (‘everyday’ and ‘school,’ or ‘formal’ and ‘informal’) and whether school instruction tries to replace the former with the latter.

Intelligence beliefs,goal orientations and children’s academic achievement: does the children’s gender matter?

This study evaluated how gender is related to children’s intelligence beliefs, goal orientations and academic achievement and whether there are gender differences in how intelligence beliefs and goal orientations are related to academic achievement. The participants, 362 seventh grade students (55.8% girls; Mage = 13.20, SD = .57 years), completed measures regarding their intelligence beliefs and goal orientations at the beginning of the second semester and the grades were collected at the end of the semester. Girls reported higher scores on incremental belief, mastery goal and higher achievement but lower levels of performance avoidance compared to boys. The relations between intelligence beliefs and academic achievement were fully mediated by both performance goals. Further, there were no gender differences in the associations among intelligence beliefs, goal orientations and achievement. The findings reveal that goal orientations are a mechanism that might explain why intelligence beliefs are linked with academic achievement in early adolescence.     

The influence of maltreatment history and out-of-home-care on children’s language and social skills

This study examined the extent to which maltreatment history and the characteristics of out-of-home care correlated with the language and social skills of maltreated children. Participants in this study were 82 maltreated children aged between 5 and 12 years of age. All children were residing with state-designated carers in out-of-home-care. The children were presented with standardised tests assessing language and social skills. Results showed that the sample performed significantly below the normative mean on both tests. Correlation analyses showed social skills, but not language skills were correlated with aspects of maltreatment history. The education level of the state-designated carer/s was correlated with the children's language skills; higher education level was associated with higher language skills. The study provides evidence that at the group level, language and social skills are poor in maltreated children. However, gains in language skills might be made via the out-of-home-care environment. Improvements in the social skills of maltreated children may require additional support.     

School leaders’ perceptions on reading,writing and mathematics in innovative learning environments

ABSTRACT

In New Zealand, school buildings are being remodelled to accommodate several teachers and a large number of learners in one flexible learning space. School leaders’ perspectives were sought on what is happening in the teaching of reading, writing and mathematics. Interviews of the principal and deputy principal at a case study were conducted, and an online survey was used to target views of school leaders across New Zealand: completed by 115 principals and 56 deputy principals. The research found positive responses to the implementation of flexible learning spaces and the impact on the teaching of these three core curriculum areas. The findings suggest that given appropriate experience of such spaces, New Zealand principals (school leaders) seem to have the attitudes and understanding to support adoption of Innovative Learning Environments and recognise their potential benefits. However, the quality of teaching was key no matter which learning space was considered. Although Innovative Learning Environments, along with the cooperation between teachers that such spaces require, were seen as beneficial to learning, successful implementation will also require those leading the changes to place the learner as the focus of change, particularly for the substantive percentage of students who are underachieving in reading, writing and mathematics.     

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.     

Effects of extracurricular activities and their quality on primary school-age students’ achievement in mathematics in Switzerland

In this study, we examined the development of mathematics achievement in children attending extracurricular activities intensively in comparison with the development in a control group of children attending only the obligatory hours of school instruction. In addition, we investigated the question of possible effects of intensity of attendance and quality of extracurricular activities on achievement in students attending extracurricular activities from the end of Grade 1 to the end of Grade 3. This was a longitudinal study of a sample of N = 295 students in the first years of school at 35 primary schools in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. The results show that attendance in extracurricular activities had a positive effect on the development of students’ achievement. Students who attended extracurricular activities intensively in Grade 1, students who attended high-quality extracurricular activities, and especially those who did both, had greater improvement.     

Implementation of formative assessment – effects of quality of programme delivery on students’ mathematics achievement and interest

The aim of this study was to contribute to the understanding of the effectiveness of formative assessment interventions by analysing how the quality of programme delivery affects students’ mathematics achievement and interest. Teachers (n = 17) implemented formative assessment in their ninth-grade mathematics classes and provided their students (n = 426) with written process-oriented feedback. Four feedback characteristics (number of feedback comments, specificity, feedback at self level, social reference norm) and two types of embedment of feedback in the instructional context (focus on feedback utilisation, focus on performance evaluation) were evaluated. Multilevel regression analyses revealed no significant effects of feedback characteristics on interest but negative effects of number of feedback comments and specificity on achievement in mathematics. Positive effects on mathematics achievement and interest were found when feedback was embedded in instruction and had emphasis on feedback utilisation. Students’ interest also was affected positively when performance evaluation was stressed.     

Students’ adaptability in mathematics: Examining self-reports and teachers’ reports and links with engagement and achievement outcomes

Adaptability refers to the capacity to adjust one’s thoughts, behaviors, and emotions in order to manage changing, new, or uncertain demands. Although preliminary research has highlighted its relevance for positive student outcomes, there remain several important empirical questions to be examined. In particular, research on adaptability has used domain-general measures (i.e., not tied to a particular domain such as a school subject) and has focused only on self-reports of adaptability (not, for example, reports by significant others). The aim of the current study was to advance knowledge of adaptability by addressing these gaps. We examined students’ domain-specific adaptability in mathematics as reported by students themselves and by their mathematics teachers (n = 371). We examined the extent to which the two reports of mathematics adaptability are associated with students’ mathematics engagement, mathematics achievement, and literacy achievement (the latter a test of discriminant validity). Well-known covariates were included as controls (e.g., gender, prior achievement). Results revealed that student-reported adaptability predicted students’ mathematics engagement. Moreover, student-reported and teacher-reported adaptability uniquely predicted mathematics achievement. In terms of discriminant validity, (mathematics-based) student and teacher reports of adaptability were not associated with students’ literacy achievement. Together, findings advance knowledge of the adaptability construct, including providing preliminary evidence of domain-specificity and the complementary nature of self- and teacher-reports for assessing adaptability. Implications for practice are discussed.