Addition in kindergarten: The role of mothers’ and teachers’ language

Data from a longitudinal investigation were used to examine the effects of mothers’ and teachers’ language on children’s developing mathematical competencies during the kindergarten year. Specifically, 1) mothers’ use of metamemory talk, or references to the process of remembering, and 2) teachers’ use of cognitive processing language (CPL), or instruction that encourages deep levels of processing and metacognition, were related to students’ addition skills in kindergarten. The findings indicated that while maternal metamemory talk was associated with children’s mathematical competencies at school entry, teachers’ use of CPL was associated with the amount of growth that students demonstrated across the year, especially regarding strategy use. The results highlight the need for additional research that examines students’ academic trajectories longitudinally as a function of the language to which they are exposed at home and school.     

Some types of parent number talk count more than others: relations between parents' input and children's cardinal-number knowledge

Before they enter preschool, children vary greatly in their numerical and mathematical knowledge, and this knowledge predicts their achievement throughout elementary school (e.g. Duncan et al., 2007; Ginsburg & Russell, 1981). Therefore, it is critical that we look to the home environment for parental inputs that may lead to these early variations. Recent work has shown that the amount of number talk that parents engage in with their children is robustly related to a critical aspect of mathematical development - cardinal-number knowledge (e.g. knowing that the word 'three' refers to sets of three entities; Levine, Suriyakham, Rowe, Huttenlocher & Gunderson, 2010). The present study characterizes the different types of number talk that parents produce and investigates which types are most predictive of children's later cardinal-number knowledge. We find that parents' number talk involving counting or labeling sets of present, visible objects is related to children's later cardinal-number knowledge, whereas other types of parent number talk are not. In addition, number talk that refers to large sets of present objects (i.e. sets of size 4 to 10 that fall outside children's ability to track individual objects) is more robustly predictive of children's later cardinal-number knowledge than talk about smaller sets. The relation between parents' number talk about large sets of present objects and children's cardinal-number knowledge remains significant even when controlling for factors such as parents' socioeconomic status and other measures of parents' number and non-number talk.     

The relation between teachers' math talk and the acquisition of number sense within kindergarten classrooms

The aim of the present study was to investigate the relation between teachers' math talk and the acquisition of number sense within kindergarten classrooms. The mathematical language input provided by 35 kindergarten teachers was examined with 9 different input categories. The results of this study indicate that the role of each of these math talk categories is not as straightforward as was hypothesized. Although significant positive relations were found for math talk categories such as cardinality and conventional nominatives, the relations between the categories' calculation and number symbols and children's score on specific number sense tasks were negative. Moreover, a large diversity in math talk was negatively related to kindergartners' number sense acquisition. These results suggest that teachers should be careful and selective with the amount of math talk that they offer to young children.     

Stress in physical education teachers in Qatar

Stress is an area of interest among researchers and practitioners in many fields – including teaching. Much of the research on causes of stress for teachers has focused on teachers in general; only a few studies have focused on physical education teachers. Although there have been a few studies of causes of stress for physical education teachers in the Middle East, no studies have been conducted on physical education teachers in Qatar. Thus, the purpose of this study was to identify causes of stress for physical education teachers in Qatar at the beginning and end of the school year as well as any changes over the course of the year. A second purpose was to try to explain any differences in causes of stress according to: gender, nationality, type of school, and amount of experience. Results showed that there were different causes of stress for different groups of teachers which could be related to different backgrounds and experiences and different roles and responsibilities in society as a result of different cultural and social expectations and environmental factors.     

Maternal affection moderates the impact of psychological control on a child's mathematical performance

This study investigated the extent to which mothers' psychological control predicts their children's mathematical performance during the children's transition from preschool to primary school over and above the impact of maternal affection and behavioral control. Also investigated was the extent to which maternal affection and behavioral control moderate the impact of mothers' psychological control. Children 5-6 years old at baseline (N=196) were followed up 6 times to measure their performance in mathematics over a 3-year period from preschool to 2nd grade. Mothers were asked to fill in a questionnaire measuring their parenting styles once every year over the 3-year period. A high level of psychological control exercised by mothers predicted their children's slow progress in mathematics. However, this impact was particularly evident among those children whose mothers reported a high level of affection. No evidence was found that children's mathematical performance had any effect on their mothers' parenting styles.     

Sources of Group and Individual Differences in Emerging Fraction Skills

Results from a two year longitudinal study of 181 children from fourth through fifth grade are reported. Levels of growth in children's computation, word problem, and estimation skills using common fractions were predicted by working memory, attentive classroom behavior, conceptual knowledge about fractions, and simple arithmetic fluency. Comparisons of 55 participants identified as having mathematical difficulties to those without mathematical difficulties revealed that group differences in emerging fraction skills were consistently mediated by attentive classroom behavior and conceptual knowledge about fractions. Neither working memory nor arithmetic fluency mediated group differences in growth in fraction skills. It was also found that the development of basic fraction skills and conceptual knowledge are bidirectional in that conceptual knowledge exerted strong influences on all three types of basic fraction skills, and basic fraction skills exerted a more modest influence on subsequent conceptual knowledge. Results are discussed with reference to how the identification of potentially malleable student characteristics that contribute to the difficulties that some students have with fractions informs interventions and also will contribute to a future theoretical account concerning how domain general and domain specific factors influence the development of basic fraction skills.     

The need for personal and social education in secondary schools and further education

The need for personal and social education in schools is outlined. Reference is made to the concept of psychological education that is being developed in the United States, and a model of personal growth and career development is described with particular emphasis on areas of personal growth that need to be developed within the school curriculum. Results of a survey of young people's personal and interpersonal problems are presented which give accounts of the range of difficulties 235 fourth year and fifth year boys and girls in secondary education and 36 young people in employment had in their interpersonal relationships with parents, teachers, employers, community authority figures, same- and opposite-sex friends, etc. Information was also obtained on what actually occupied young people's thoughts: the things they found it difficult to cope with and talk about, the things that they felt parents should tell their children, what they would like to talk to their teachers and parents about, and the attributes which they felt they could or could not change for themselves.     

Prediction of Children's Academic Competence From Their Effortful Control, Relationships, and Classroom Participation

The authors examined the relations among children's effortful control, school relationships, classroom participation, and academic competence with a sample of 7- to 12-year-old children (N = 264). Parents and children reported on children's effortful control, and teachers and children reported on children's school relationships and classroom participation. Children's grade point averages (GPAs) and absences were obtained from school-issued report cards. Significant positive correlations existed between effortful control, school relationships, classroom participation, and academic competence. Consistent with expectations, the teacher-child relationship, social competence, and classroom participation partially mediated the relation between effortful control and change in GPA from the beginning to the end of the school year. The teacher-child relationship and classroom participation also partially mediated the relation between effortful control and change in school absences across the year.     

小学儿童数学态度与数学成就的纵向联系：学业拖延和数学元认知的作用

为深入探讨小学儿童的数学态度、学业拖延、数学元认知与数学成就之间的纵向联系及内在作用机制,对515名三、五年级小学生进行为期半年的追踪研究。结果表明:(1)学业拖延在儿童的数学态度与数学成就之间发挥着即时和纵向中介作用;(2)不同水平数学元认知个体在纵向中介模型中“数学态度→数学成就”这一路径上存在差异。这意味着较积极的数学态度有利于减少小学儿童的学业拖延行为,进而提高其数学成就,而高数学元认知则能够监控和调节个体的数学态度,使其发挥积极作用,从而提高数学成就。该发现为有效促进儿童的数学学习提供了重要实践启示。     

Teacher practices as predictors of children's classroom social preference

Students who do not get along with their peers are at elevated risk for academic disengagement and school failure. Research has predominantly focused on factors within such children that contribute to their peer problems. This study considers whether teacher practices also predict social preference for children in that classroom. Participants were 26 elementary school teachers and 490 students in their classrooms followed for one school year. Results suggested that teachers who favored the most academically talented students in the fall had classrooms where children had lower average social preference in the spring after statistical control of children's fall social preference and externalizing behavior problems. Teachers who demonstrated emotionally supportive relationships with students in the fall had classrooms where children had greater possibility of changing their social preference from fall to spring. Although children with high externalizing behaviors tended to experience declining social preference over the course of the school year, teachers' learner-centered practices attenuated this progression. However, teachers' favoring of the most academically talented accentuated the negative relation between externalizing behaviors and social preference. Implications for school psychology practitioners are discussed.     

Parent perceptions and attributions for children's math achievement

From junior high school on, girls report lower estimations of their math ability and express more negative attitudes about math than do boys, despite equivalent performance in grades. Parents show this same sex-typed bias. This paper examines the role that attributions may play in explaining these sex differences in parents' perceptions of their children's math ability. Mothers and fathers of 48 junior high school boys and girls of high, average, and low math ability completed questionnaires about their perceptions of their child's ability and effort in math, and their causal attributions for their child's successful and unsuccessful math performances. Parents' math-related perceptions and attributions varied with their child's level of math ability and gender. Parents credited daughters with more effort than sons, and sons with more talent than daughters for successful math performances. These attributional patterns predicted sex-linked variations in parents' ratings of their child's effort and talent. No sex of child effects emerged for failure attributions; instead, lack of effort was seen as the most important, and lack of ability as the least important, cause of unsuccessful math performances for both boys and girls. Implications of these attributions for parents' influence on children's developing self-concept of math ability, future expectancies, and subsequent achievement behaviors are discussed.This paper is based on a master's thesis by the first author. This research was funded by grants to Jacquelynne S. Eccles from the following agencies: the Foundation for Child Development, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the National Institute of Child Health and Development.We wish to express our thanks to Linda Buford, Sandra Hamman, and Samuel D. Miller, who helped collect and code these data, and especially to the parents, students, and teachers in the Ann Arbor Public School district, whose cooperation made this project possible.     

教师关于儿童入学准备的观念

入学准备是指学龄前儿童为了能够从即将开始的正规学校教育中受益所需要具备的各种关键特征或基础条件.入学准备研究对于存在潜在发展风险之儿童的早期识别和及时干预具有重要价值.为了了解中国儿童入学准备应包含哪些方面,对76名幼儿园大班教师和65名小学一年级教师进行了半结构式访谈,结果发现:(1)中国儿童的入学准备可以归纳为26个项目;(2)“社会性与情绪发展”和“学习方式”领域的入学准备和适应问题被教师提及的次数较多,“认知发展与一般知识”、“言语发展”领域被提及较少,“身体健康和运动发展”领域被提及最少;(3)幼儿园教师和小学一年级教师对于入学准备所涉内容的看法比较接近;(4)小学一年级教师认为自理能力、学习技能和同伴交往等方面是当前幼儿园教育的薄弱环节.最后,结合访谈结果及NEGP模型对中国儿童入学准备研究的未来方向提出了建议.     

Teachers' knowledge of children's exposure to family risk factors: accuracy and usefulness

Teachers' knowledge of children's exposure to family risk factors was examined using the Family Risk Factor Checklist-Teacher. Data collected for 756 children indicated that teachers had accurate knowledge of children's exposure to factors such as adverse life events and family socioeconomic status, which predicted children's mental health problems at 1 year follow-up. For children at high teacher-rated risk, odds ratios ranged from 3.04 to 7.46, after adjusting for prior mental health problems. Teachers had poor knowledge of internal family functioning, such as conflict, parenting practices, or parental drug abuse. The findings suggest that asking teachers to report children's exposure to particular family risk factors is a feasible method for identifying children for selective interventions, but improved family-school communication may further enhance this process.     

The relation of children's everyday nonsocial peer play behavior to their emotionality, regulation, and social functioning

The relations of children's nonsocial behavior to their emotionality, regulation, and social functioning were examined in a short-term longitudinal study. Parents (primarily mothers) and teachers rated children's effortful regulation, emotionality, asocial behaviors, problem behaviors, and social acceptance, and children's nonsocial play behaviors were observed for two semesters. Peers also rated likability. Children's observed reticent activities were related to adults' ratings of high regulation, low externalizing problems, and high asocial behavior, as well as to low anger and low positive emotion. On the other hand, solitary play was associated with low positive emotion and low regulation over time and with high asocial behavior and high peer exclusion. Peer rejection mediated the relation of internalizing emotions (anxiety, low positive emotion) and regulation to solitary play later in the school year, and asocial play mediated the relation of internalizing emotions to both solitary and reticent play behavior.     

Stability and flexibility in preschoolers' social networks: a dynamic analysis of socially directed behavior allocation

The author studied preschoolers' social networks by investigating the allocation of children's social investment within and across time in a classroom of a French nursery school during an academic year. Observations of children's social exchanges during free play revealed that social behaviors were directed toward particular group members. After an important turnover in the peer group at the beginning of the school year, the social network became more structured. Children's strong associations were mostly same sex and small sized. Even if the stability of children's connections remained low, it increased over time. High-frequency partners as well as same-sex partners were more likely to be maintained over time. These findings as well as conceptual and methodological issues are discussed from a developmental perspective.     

A randomized trial examining the effects of parent engagement on early language and literacy: the Getting Ready intervention

Language and literacy skills established during early childhood are critical for later school success. Parental engagement with children has been linked to a number of adaptive characteristics in preschoolers including language and literacy development, and family-school collaboration is an important contributor to school readiness. This study reports the results of a randomized trial of a parent engagement intervention designed to facilitate school readiness among disadvantaged preschool children, with a particular focus on language and literacy development. Participants included 217 children, 211 parents, and 29 Head Start teachers in 21 schools. Statistically significant differences in favor of the treatment group were observed between treatment and control participants in the rate of change over 2 academic years on teacher reports of children's language use (d = 1.11), reading (d = 1.25), and writing skills (d = 0.93). Significant intervention effects on children's direct measures of expressive language were identified for a subgroup of cases where there were concerns about a child's development upon entry into preschool. Additionally, other child and family moderators revealed specific variables that influenced the treatment's effects.     

儿童对所属同伴团体的选择和适应

为探讨儿童所属非正式同伴团体的选择和适应过程,选择469名小3、初1学生参加了为期2年的追踪研究.儿童同伴团体和学校适应(社会行为、社会适应、学习适应)的资料取自包含同伴评定、教师评定和学校记录多种渠道.研究发现,(1)儿童选择与自己在学校适应方面相似的同伴组成同伴团体;(2)同伴团体不仅在成员构成还是在学校适应的团体特征上具有中等程度的稳定性;(3)儿童在初测时所属同伴团体的社会能力越强、社交性越高、学业成绩越优异,则其两年后在这些方面的表现也越好,如果所属同伴团体存在同伴拒绝或学业问题,则儿童在两年后被同伴拒绝和出现学业问题的可能性也越大.     

Mothers' Parenting and Young Economically Disadvantaged Children's Relational and Overt Bullying

We examined links between mothers' parenting and children's relational bullying and overt bullying in a sample of children attending a Head Start program. Mothers completed surveys and face-to-face interviews. Head Start teachers completed assessments on children. Results indicated that a small percentage of children in the sample was rated by teachers as engaging in relational bullying “frequently to almost always,” and slightly over half of the sample was rated by teachers as engaging in relational bullying “occasionally to about half of the time.” Similar results were found for the frequency with which children engaged in overt physical bullying. Regarding mothers' parenting, maternal empathy was most strongly correlated with both children's relational bullying and overt physical bullying. In addition, mothers' inappropriate developmental expectations for children and mothers' need to exert power over children rather than grant them independence were related to children's relational bullying. A composite variable for mothering predicted 11% of the variance in children's relational bullying. No gender differences were found for children's relational bullying and children's overt bullying.     

小学生的师生关系特点与学生因素的关系研究

采用师生关系教师评定量表,由14名班主任教师对498名3—6年级学生与教师的关系进行评价,旨在了解学生因素对其师生关系的影响.结果表明:(1)小学生的年级与其师生关系有显著的联系.五年级学生表现出高亲密、高反应和高冲突的特点,而六年级则表现出低亲密、低反应和低冲突的特点.(2)男女学生在师生关系的亲密性和反应性上有显著差异,女生的师生关系比男生更为积极.(3)学生的学业表现与师生关系特点有显著的联系,学业表现好的学生有更积极的师生关系.(4)运用分层回归分析的结果表明,学生的年级、性别、学业表现对师生关系均有显著的回归效应.     

小学儿童情绪认知发展研究

本研究采用故事情境法探究小学儿童情绪认知的发展。随机抽取60名小学儿童（2、4、6年级各20名）,研究他们对五种不同的情绪状态识别、情绪原因认知、情绪外在行为表现认知以及对情绪后继调节方式的认知发展特点。结果发现：总体而言,情绪认知在小学不同年级有明显发展;基本情绪认知最好,其次是积极自我意识情绪认知和冲突情绪认知,对消极自我意识情绪的认知最差;情绪识别和情绪原因认知明显好于情绪行为认知和情绪调节认知;对情绪表现者的情绪认知明显好于对情绪接受者的情绪认知。