This study examined the amount and quality of educational dialogue in relation to student math performance in Grade 2. Domains of teacher occupational stress were considered predicting variables for dialogue and math performance. Video-recorded lessons (N = 151) of 50 teachers were analysed in terms of dialogic episodes to determine the amount…

Because of its regularity, it is relatively easy to learn to read and spell in Finnish. However, a specific hurdle in spelling acquisition seems to be the doubling of consonant letters. In this study on consonant letter doubling spelling in Finnish children (91 Grade 1 and 191 Grade 2 children), we asked two questions. First, are items with double…

This study brings empathy to the centre of literacy practice by investigating children's augmented storying as it was related to empathetic encounters across the human and more-than-human worlds. The study applies sociomaterial theorising that defines empathy as relational and emergent across human-material-spatial-temporal assemblages. The…

Teacher-student relationship and students' social competence were investigated in relation to the quality of educational dialogue. The data consisted of 151 video-recorded Grade 2 lessons. The teachers (N = 50) also rated their students' (N = 664) social competence and the teacher-student relationship. In terms of teacher-student relationships,…

The long-term negative consequences of learning difficulties have been acknowledged. Nonetheless, research is still scarce regarding the prediction of adolescent difficulties in reading and arithmetic skills. The present study examines at which age phase and with what kind of constellation of parent- and child-related factors can adolescent…

Teacher self-efficacy (TSE) is assumed to affect classroom environment, although empirical evidence for this assumption is still elusive. This study examines the relationship between TSE in behaviour management and classroom behavioural climate using a two-level cross-lagged model. TSE in behaviour management was assessed with six-item subscale of…

The present study focuses on views of Finnish basic education students on open and flexible learning environments and the extent to which these views are associated with students' liking of school. The data were based on an online questionnaire containing both structured ratings and open-ended questions filled out by primary school students (n =…

Self-efficacious children are expected to be more task-focused in challenging achievement situations and consequently have better chances of overcoming learning difficulties than children who have lower self-efficacy. The present study investigates this presumption with Finnish-speaking first graders struggling with reading acquisition (N = 285).…

A compulsory foreign language in Finland starts now in Grade 1 instead of Grade 3. The change has forced teachers to adopt new teaching methods. As young learners are not yet literate, teaching should focus on oral skills and awareness of diversity. Video data from 19 early foreign language lessons of five English, German, or French teachers in…

Self-regulatory efficacy (SRE) among elementary school children is of interest because pupils' self-regulation capacities and SRE influence in managing learning situations. This study investigated variations in the four sources of SRE and how these variations were related to SRE, reading skills and arithmetic skills. The participants were 1284…

In this longitudinal study, we examined what kind of profiles of reading fluency and spelling skills could be identified among pupils (N = 467) and how stable these profiles were during the first three years of school. We also investigated how monolingual (Swedish) and simultaneously bilingual (Finnish-Swedish) pupils and gender were distributed…

This is a study of early picture book comprehension, its determinants and later development through primary school. More specifically, picture book comprehension was analyzed longitudinally from age 5 to age 9, delineating the unique contributions of vocabulary, metacognitive knowledge and task orientation to the initial level as well as to the…

In early Finnish reading instruction, hyphens are used to denote syllable boundaries. However, this practice slows down reading already during the 1st grade. It has been hypothesized that hyphenation forces readers to rely more on phonology than orthography. Since hyphenation highlights the phonology of the word, it may facilitate reading during…

We examined the associations of cognitive skills, math-related emotions and beliefs, and gender with responses to an arithmetic fluency intervention. Elementary school children with dysfluent arithmetic skills (N=69) participated in an arithmetic fluency intervention (with and without self-efficacy support) implemented in small groups in schools…

Research has consistently shown that difficulties in facial emotion recognition (FER) are associated with peer problems and internalizing symptoms during middle childhood. However, no longitudinal research has investigated the direction of effects, that is, how these constructs influence each other across time. In this preregistered three-wave…