Do peers matter? Peer effects on young children’s vocabulary gains in German classrooms.
Children in early childhood education and care (ECEC) spend a considerable amount of time interacting with their peers. However, open questions remain on whether and how children influence their peers’ language development. The present study examined effects of peers’ German receptive vocabulary (n = 1,871) on individual children’s (n = 431) receptive vocabulary gains. Target children were between 30 and 48 months old at the beginning of the study. Findings revealed no links between peers’ vocabulary skills and individual children’s vocabulary gains, neither for all children nor depending on children’s prior vo...
Source: Journal of Educational Psychology - October 25, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Learning loss during the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of emergency remote instruction on first grade students’ writing: A natural experiment.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the sudden cancellation of in-class instruction for many students around the world presented an unprecedented disruption in children’s education. As the COVID-19 pandemic took form, multiple concerns were raised about the potential negative impact on students’ learning. The current study examined this proposition for children’s writing. We compared the quality of writing, handwriting fluency, and attitude toward writing of first grade Norwegian students during the COVID-19 pandemic (421 girls, 396 boys), which included emergency remote instruction for almost 7 week...
Source: Journal of Educational Psychology - October 21, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
The benefits of a metacognitive lesson on children’s understanding of mathematical equivalence, arithmetic, and place value.
Metacognition is theorized to play a central role in children’s mathematics learning. The primary goal of the current study was to provide experimental evidence in support of this role with elementary school students learning about mathematical equivalence. The final sample included 135 children (59 first graders and 76 second graders) who participated in the study across three sessions in their classrooms. They completed a pretest during Session 1, a lesson and posttest during Session 2, and a 2-week delayed retention test during Session 3. For Session 2, children were randomly assigned to receive a lesson on mathematic...
Source: Journal of Educational Psychology - October 21, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Numerical development in preschool: Examining potential mediators of children’s approximate number system and mathematics achievement.
There is evidence of a relation between the approximate number system (ANS) and later mathematics achievement. Researchers have proposed various mediators of this relation, including executive functioning (EF), numeral knowledge, and mathematical language. The goal of the present study was to determine which factors mediate the relation between preschoolers’ ANS and the change in their mathematics achievement over a five-month period. We collected data from 125 preschoolers (mean age = 4.2 years) in the fall and spring. We tested mediation models using path analysis models, controlling for children’s fall mathematics a...
Source: Journal of Educational Psychology - October 21, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Top-performing math students in 82 countries: An integrative data analysis of gender differences in achievement, achievement profiles, and achievement motivation.
The present integrative data analysis examined gender differences in achievement, achievement profiles, and achievement motivation in mathematics, reading, and science among 113,864 top-performing adolescent math students (top 5% in their respective countries). To do this, we applied the same analysis protocol to representative individual participant data from six cycles of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA 2000–2015; 82 countries) and integrated the results by using meta-analytical random coefficient models. We found that in the group of top-performing math students, male students were overreprese...
Source: Journal of Educational Psychology - October 21, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
The benefits of successive relearning on multiple learning outcomes.
Successive relearning involves repeated retrieval practice of the same information (with feedback) over multiple, spaced sessions. We implemented successive relearning in an introductory psychology class to explore potential learning benefits. After each weekly lecture, students were sent links via e-mail to engage in three learning practice sessions, each separated by 2 days. Half the students engaged in successive relearning (relearn condition), answering 20 fill-in-the-blank questions with corrective feedback. Within each session, correctly answered questions were dropped, whereas incorrectly answered questions were pre...
Source: Journal of Educational Psychology - October 21, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Profiles of teachers’ striving and wellbeing: Evolution and relations with context factors, retention, and professional engagement.
Drawing on an existing typology, this study used latent transition profile analysis (LTPA) to examine changes in the striving and wellbeing profiles among teachers from their early until midcareer. Five profiles were identified (Sparing, Good Health, Ambitious, Burnout, and Wornout) among a longitudinal sample of 414 Australian secondary and primary teachers. LTPA showed that 28% of teachers were movers over time. Most movers from maladaptive types underwent a recovery transition to a more adaptive profile by midcareer, although initial Burnout and Wornout profiles were overrepresented among those who subsequently quit tea...
Source: Journal of Educational Psychology - October 21, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Grit and academic achievement: A comparative cross-cultural meta-analysis.
This review examined the relations between grit and academic achievement based on a meta-analysis of 137 studies yielding 156 dependent samples (N = 285,331). Using the robust variance estimation, we found that the correlations of overall grit level with academic achievement were generally weak to moderate (weighted r = .19). The correlation of perseverance of effort to achievement (weighted r = .21) was stronger than that of consistency of interest (weighted r = .08). Adopting a cross-cultural perspective in reviewing these findings, we concluded that the associations between overall grit/2 facets and academic achievement...
Source: Journal of Educational Psychology - October 21, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Earlier understanding of mathematical equivalence in elementary school predicts greater algebra readiness in middle school.
Does the timing of children’s formal understanding of mathematical equivalence matter for algebra readiness? A change-resistance account (McNeil & Alibali, 2005) predicts that it is beneficial for children to construct a formal understanding of mathematical equivalence in the early grades before overly narrow operational patterns become entrenched. This hypothesis is consistent with theories of development suggesting early skills beget later skills. However, other theories posit no benefit or even possible harm of teaching children concepts and skills that are beyond their developmental level. A 5-year prospective, longi...
Source: Journal of Educational Psychology - October 21, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
The interdependency of perceived task difficulty and the choice effect when learning with multimedia materials.
This study examines the moderating role of the autonomy-changing effect of choice on the competence-altering effect of differences in perceived task difficulty in a multimedia learning setting. To measure this, 2 experiments (N₁ = 108; N₂ = 86) with secondary school (Experiment 1) and university (Experiment 1) students were conducted using a 2 (with a choice vs. without a choice of an additional topic before learning) × 2 (induced low vs. high perceived task difficulty) between-subjects design. While learners read texts about geographical data about Antarctica, 1 group was able to choose a subject matter of a second l...
Source: Journal of Educational Psychology - October 21, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Crosslinguistic transfer of higher order cognitive skills and their roles in writing for English-Spanish dual language learners.
We investigated the dimensionality and relations between L1 (a speaker’s first language) and L2 (a speaker’s second language) writing skills in narrative and informational genres and higher order cognitive skills—inference, perspective taking, and comprehension monitoring—for Spanish–English dual language learners in primary grades. Dimensions of written composition and higher order cognitive skills were examined, comparing nine alternative models. Data from 317 dual language learners in Grades 1 and 2 were used in confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. For the dimensionality of written co...
Source: Journal of Educational Psychology - October 21, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Too anxious to be confident? A panel longitudinal study into the interplay of mathematics anxiety and metacognitive monitoring in arithmetic achievement.
Both mathematics anxiety and metacognitive monitoring have been identified as associated with or predictive of individual differences in arithmetic achievement in primary school children. Although there are various theoretical reasons for an association between mathematics anxiety and metacognitive monitoring, it is unclear at the empirical level how these variables are interrelated and whether their interrelation impacts their respective associations with arithmetic achievement. Gaining insight into this interplay is of utmost importance for the design of targeted interventions. We used a panel longitudinal design to inve...
Source: Journal of Educational Psychology - October 21, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
App-based morphological training produces lasting effects on word knowledge in primary school children: A randomized controlled trial.
This study tested the effectiveness of a morphological training program on children’s learning and retention of exposed words and morphologically related unexposed words compared with an active control condition. Norwegian second graders (N = 717) unselected for ability were individually randomized to either a morphological (n = 366) or a mathematical training program (n = 351). Both programs lasted for 8 weeks and were delivered as self-contained apps in a classroom setting. The morphological training built on the principle that frequency of target elements together with variation of nontarget elements can support impli...
Source: Journal of Educational Psychology - October 18, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Teachers “finding peace in a frantic world”: An experimental study of self-taught and instructor-led mindfulness program formats on acceptability, effectiveness, and mechanisms.
This study compared instructor-led and self-taught MT based on a book (Williams & Penman, 2011) in a sample of secondary school teachers. We assessed expectancy, the degree to which participants believed the intervention was effective, their program engagement, well-being and psychological distress, and evaluated whether mindfulness and self-compassion skills acted as mediators of outcomes. In total, 206 teachers from 43 schools were randomized by school to an instructor-led or self-taught course—77% female, mean age 39 years (SD = 9.0). Both MT formats showed similar rates of participant expectancy and engagement, but t...
Source: Journal of Educational Psychology - October 18, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
Do Spanish-English bilingual children outperform monolingual English-speaking children on executive function tasks in early childhood? A propensity score analysis.
Despite much research examining whether bilingual individuals demonstrate superior executive function (EF) skills compared to monolinguals, the purported bilingual advantage remains controversial. One potential reason for discrepant findings across studies examining the bilingual advantage is the difficulty in matching monolingual and bilingual groups on important confounding variables that are related to EF. To address this limitation of prior research, we used a propensity score matching approach to evaluate the presence of the bilingual advantage in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010–20...
Source: Journal of Educational Psychology - October 14, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research
