Research Findings: Fluent and legible handwriting is associated with longer texts and higher text quality and is therefore an important goal in the primary school curriculum. While girls' handwriting tends to be more proficient than boys', potential differences in the correlates of girls' and boys' early handwriting are poorly understood. In this…

Proprioceptive kinaesthetic control underpins motor movements of developing children and can be influenced by several factors. The main aim of this study was to establish proprioceptive kinaesthetic coordination differences in six-year-olds from different school quintiles, of different genders, and with different handedness. A total of 193…

Pragmatics refers to the ability to effectively use and interpret language in different contexts. Pragmatic abilities develop and refine through childhood, and they are essential for socialization, academic achievement and wellbeing. The scarcity of assessment tools in this field makes it challenging to provide a comprehensive assessment of…

Early literacy proficiency is a crucial predictor of later reading success, but research in this area often overlooks the unique challenges faced by English Learners (EL). This study addressed a significant gap in the literature by investigating the relationships between Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) scores, English…

Women remain underrepresented in engineering and broadening participation has recently become the focus of education reform efforts. Increased emphasis on K-12 engineering education calls for the design of learning environments and curricula that increase interest and conceptual understanding of engineering work, beginning in the early years of…

Aims: The purpose of this study was to understand the frequency of reflex retention as well as the correlation between primitive reflex activity and scholastic performance. This quantitative correlational study involved 24 kindergartners and 29 first-graders (31 males and 22 females), aged 5-7 years, who were typically developing. Researchers…

The perception and manipulation of spatial information are essential for mathematical learning, and research highlights gender differences in spatial abilities. The present study contributes to the question of whether these differences are evident at earlier ages and how they interact with task complexity in mental rotation. We developed the…

This study was conducted to determine the relationship between the reading habits and speaking self-efficacies of prospective teachers. Correlational survey method, which is one of the quantitative research models, was adopted for the study. A total of 114 prospective teachers attending the first grade of Classroom Teaching and Pre-school…

School recess is a daily opportunity for school-age students to be physically active. However, in some territories teachers often use recess for other purposes (e.g., children's poor classroom behavior might be punished with reduced time for recess). This study aimed to examine the impact of such practices on children's physical activity (PA) and…

Research Findings: Previous studies have found that a growth mind-set was associated with optimal learning and well-being outcomes. However, much of this research has been conducted among adolescents and young adults. Relatively little is known as to whether these associations also apply to young children. The present study aimed to examine…

This longitudinal study of robot programming in early childhood (ROPEC) was performed based on summative and formative assessments of the robotics program in kindergarten and year one of elementary school. The study aims to broaden our knowledge about children's understanding of programming, their confidence in ability to read and write programs,…

Background: Well-being is a key aspect of children's education, yet measurement issues have limited studies in early primary school. Aims: The current 12-month longitudinal study assesses the temporal stability of child- and parent-reported school well-being and examines developmental links with academic self-concept and parent-rated prosocial…

Despite historically high literacy rates, there has been declining reading proficiency amongst students in Iceland. This decline has caused concern and created a need to better understand foundational reading growth in the Icelandic school context. This study aimed to evaluate reading growth patterns in letter sound fluency, nonsense word fluency,…

Games are frequently used to promote math learning, yet the competitive and collaborative contexts introduced by games may exacerbate gender differences. In this study, 1st and 2nd grade children in the U.S. (ages 5-8; N = 274; 70% White, 15% Asian, 2% Black, 1% Native American, 14% mixed or other race; 17% Hispanic) played either a competitive,…

This study examines primary-school children's beliefs about their school performance at the end of their first school year in Finland and feedback that they have received, and furthermore possible gender differences between these beliefs. Children from Grade 1 (N = 544), approximately 7 years old, were interviewed. The data were assessed using…