Relations among parental causal attributions and children’s math performance and task persistence

The present longitudinal study examined the cross-lagged relations between parental causal attributions of children’s math success to children’s ability, parental help, children’s math performance and task persistence. A total of 735 children, their mothers, fathers and teachers were assessed twice – at the end of the second and the third grades. Children were tested in math and parents filled out questionnaires measuring causal attributions. Children’s task persistence was reported both by parents and by class teachers. The results of path analyses indicated mutual negative effects between mothers’ and fathers’ help attributions and children’s math performance, and a positive effect of mothers’ ability attributions on children’s math performance. Cross-lagged relations were also found for children’s math performance and task persistence. However, relations between parental attributions and children’s task persistence were evident only for fathers’ ability attributions. The findings emphasise the importance of examining both mothers and fathers, home and school context.     

Integration of learning for refugee and migrant students: VET teachers’ practices through practice theory lens

The study reported here used a practice theory lens to understand vocational education and training (VET) teachers’ current practices in supporting integration of learning in educational institutions and workplaces – specifically for refugee and migrant students. A case study was conducted with 10 teachers delivering aged care programmes in South East Queensland, Australia and in a municipality in West Sweden. During in-depth interviews teachers explained the enabling and challenging aspects of their practice, and specific strategies they used to support students with integration of learning in the two main sites. Analyses of data concentrated on understanding three types of arrangements in the practice architectures at the two learning sites. Teachers extended their everyday pedagogical approaches to support integration of learning and meet the specific needs of refugee and migrant students. Their teaching comprised interdependent practices of VET and aged care in two settings, each with distinct ecologies of practice. Their narratives reflect contestations between practice traditions of aged care practices in Australia and Sweden, and students’ understandings and reflections of practices in their birth countries. We conclude that teacher training and adjustments to these arrangements can bridge contestations between the enacted and experienced curriculum in the two sites.     

New rules of the game: youth training in Brazil and Finland as examples of the new global network governance

Young people labelled ‘disadvantaged’ or ‘at risk of social exclusion’ are increasingly directed into publicly funded or NGO-based, partly privately financed projects in order to secure their desired integration into society through work or further education. In this article, we carry out a comparative analysis of youth training programmes in Brazil and Finland based on empirical fieldwork undertaken in two separate research projects. The research data consist of qualitative interviews of the projects’ participants and management. The focus of the analysis is on youth employment projects as discursive practices, that is, on the ways that knowledge on employment and employment-related responsibilities is produced in the discourses and practices of the projects. Despite the different contexts, the analysis shows that the youth training projects share a number of commonalities with regards to the shaping of the self as entrepreneurial and self-regulated. This is linked to the global dominance of a new form of governance, which relies on and actively promotes the individualisation of responsibility and obscures the structural and societal forces that lie behind youth unemployment and exclusion. We suggest that engaging young people in critical discourses about the sources of inequality would be the key to more equitable forms of development.     

Multilayered word structure model for assessing spelling of Finnish children in shallow orthography

This study explores Finnish children's word‐level spelling by applying a linguistically based multilayered word structure model for assessing spelling performance. The model contributes to the analytical qualitative assessment approach in order to identify children's spelling performance for enhancing writing skills. The children (N = 105) participated in two dictation assessments at the end of their first and second grades. The results indicate that long consonants and consonant sequences are the most problematic structures in both the first and second grades. The less‐advanced spellers were significantly weaker than others also in coding the overall syllable number, heavy unstressed syllables and long vowels in the first grade. In the second grade, they still had more difficulties in spelling heavy unstressed syllables and long quantities of vowels and consonants. The multilayered word structure model seems to give more information about the quality of spelling than error‐based holistic analyses. The model is applicable for other shallow orthographies as well.     

Inhibitory control in toddlerhood – the role of parental co-regulation and self-efficacy beliefs

Inhibitory control is considered a core component of self-regulation. Tremendous advances in early childhood have been attributed to brain maturation processes as well as environmental influences, such as parental co-regulation. Parental self-efficacy represents a key correlate of parenting behaviors and is associated with child outcomes. However, research on the interplay of parental co-regulation, parental self-efficacy and child’s inhibitory control in early childhood is scarce. In this study we explore to what extent parents’ positive (PCR) and negative co-regulation (NCR) and domain-specific (DSSE) and domain-general (DGSE) self-efficacy beliefs assessed at pre-test (T1) predict toddlers’ inhibitory control six weeks later (T2). Furthermore, we examine whether NCR mediates the link between DSSE and parent-reported inhibitory control. Results are based on data from 90 parent-child dyads (children’s age: 24–35 months). Parents’ PCR, NCR, DSSE and DGSE are assessed via questionnaire. Children’s inhibitory control is measured via the Inhibition Scale of the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Functions (BRIEF-IN) and a Snack Delay task. Multiple regression analyses reveal that parents’ NCR and DSSE, but not PCR and DGSE, significantly predict BRIEF-IN at T2 (controlling for covariates). The indirect effect from parents’ DSSE on BRIEF-IN via NCR is not confirmed by the data. No associations are observed regarding children’s performance in the Snack Delay task. The present study adds new and important evidence that parents’ DSSE and NCR independently predict (parent-reported) inhibitory control in toddlerhood. Parenting interventions should thus not only address parenting practices but target parental self-efficacy beliefs as an important factor, too.     

X Marks the Spot—Not: Pirate Treasure Maps in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Treasure Island</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">Käpt’n Sharky und das Geheimnis der Schatzinsel</Emphasis>

This article explores the functions of paratextual and intra-textual pirate treasure maps in works of literature for children and young adults. Based on an examination of how the indexical X that “marks the spot” operates as the focal point of the semiotic endeavours of treasure maps, the article outlines the fragile stance of maps between referentiality (thus kindling readers’ imagination) and the potential to disappoint reader expectations (since maps are never congruent with the territory they refer to). The discussion is exemplified by specific consideration of the treasure map from Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island (1883) and the map of the turtle island in the German children’s picturebook Käpt’n Sharky und das Geheimnis der Schatzinsel (2006), which are also seen as examples of treasure maps which play with the expectations of both readers and characters alike, all tied to the X found on any treasure map. The article ends with an analysis of the function of both maps and treasures in the context of open-ended reading games of imagination.     

The Elusive Slope

In understanding upper secondary school students’ interpretations of information in graphical representations of a distance–time graph and an ECG graph, little attention has been paid to the analysis of the condition of the conceptual development related to their utterances. Understanding this better can help improve the teaching of interpretations of information in graphical representations of different situations. This paper integrates results from 2 studies and 3 theoretical perspectives: Tall and Vinner’s theoretical perspectives on learning, Chi’s ontological perspectives on conceptual development and Friel’s theoretical perspectives on interpretation of graphical information. The findings provide evidence to support the conjecture that iconic interpretations could be stimulated and generated as a result of student categorisation of a distance–time graph as an event, when in fact the graph is being used to describe and communicate a process. The outcome further indicates that students found a resemblance between the ECG diagram and the periodic function of f(x) = sin(x).     

Age and gender specific sexual behaviors in children

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the present research was to explore the sexual behaviors of 2- to 7-year-old children through reports of day-care personnel. An overall aim of this exploratory study was to provide information about the frequencies of child sexual behaviors. Also, the aim was to explore any age and gender differences. METHOD: A representative sample of 364 Finnish children not screened for developmental delay, sexual abuse history or psychiatric problems (181 girls and 183 boys) in 190 day-care centers were studied using the "Day-Care Sexuality Questionnaire" (DCSQ), with 244 sexual and other behavior items. RESULTS: Age influenced more the extent of the 244 sexual behaviors of boys than of girls. In sexual behaviors increasing with age, girls showed behaviors with a more social character, whereas boys showed more explorative and information-seeking behaviors. Girls had a higher frequency of domestic and gender role exploring behaviors, whereas the boys tended to engage in explorative acting and information-seeking behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that child sexual behavior reported by day-care personnel may provide useful information about the development of children's sexuality. Implications for sexual abuse investigations were discussed.     

Parental beliefs and their role in child-rearing

Beliefs have been a topic of considerable interest among researchers in various fields. In this article 71 articles reporting a study on parental beliefs and published in the course of fifteen years (1980–1995) are reviewed. After clarifying the term ‘belief’, the topics and the methodological solutions of the studies are discussed. Throughout the discussion the question of the origins of parental beliefs and the belief — behaviour dilemma are dealt with. Finally, the implications of the findings and suggestions for future research are presented.