Children with negative competence beliefs often achieve below their potential in school. This randomized field experiment tested whether engaging in positive self-talk may benefit these children's mathematics performance. Participants (N = 212, Grades 4-6, M[subscript age] = 10.6) worked on the first half of a standardized mathematics test,…

Numerous studies argue that inhibitory control could be successfully enhanced in play activities during preschool age. Previous studies showed that fantasy significantly associated with inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility. It was also shown that inhibitory control is related to symbolic play (imagination of absent objects, attributing…

The goal of this study was to explore how young students' use of language to talk about their abilities affects their perceptions of self in the elementary art classroom. After observing reticence and low self-esteem reported among elementary-aged students while in the process of creating works of art, the exploration, discovery, and…

Recent studies have concluded that children's development of private speech (private speech internalization) is related to and important for developing mathematical ability. In this article, we review a project consisting of studies exploring the cognitive factors that may underlie differences between the use of private speech by children with…

This cross-sectional study explored the relationships between dispositional flow, motivational climate, and self-talk in physical education. Six hundred forty-eight participants completed the Dispositional Flow Scale for Physical Education, the Learning and Performance Orientation in Physical Education Classes Questionnaire, and the Automatic…

In this article, I reflect on my use of collage-making as an arts-based method in self-study doctoral research. My self-study was guided by sociocultural learning theories that assume education is an individual activity and a social phenomenon. I ask, "How did collage-making allow me to refine my teaching and learning?" I utilized…

This case study examined the effects that the processes of private speech and materialization (using line underscores as word placeholders) had on the emergent writing behaviours of one, six-year-old student who was enrolled in an auditory--oral deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) first-grade classroom situated on a large urban public school campus.…

This thesis examines children's thinking, learning and metacognition when designing their own computer games. The study aims to understand more about what kind of learning takes place, and how it emerges whilst children are authoring their own computer games. The aim is to get an insight into the cognitive processes students exercise that…

Theoretically framed within Vygotskyan sociocultural theory (SCT) of mind, the present study investigated resurfacing of private speech markers by Iranian elementary female EFL learners in teacher-learner interactions. To this end, an elementary EFL class including 12 female learners and a same-sex teacher were selected as the participants of the…

The main purpose of this article is to provide guidelines to physical educators for setting up a self-talk program during their lesson. The article briefly presents definitions of self-talk and research findings in sport and physical education to highlight the important benefits of positive self-talk in enhancing task performance. It also provides…

The majority of recent studies conclude that children's private speech development (private speech internalization) is related to and important for mathematical development and disabilities. It is far from clear, however, whether private speech internalization itself plays any causal role in the development of mathematical competence. The main…

The main purpose of the present study was to examine the long-term effects of a previous quasi-experiment that used inner speech as a tool to promote appropriate strategies in multiplication. Results one year after the intervention were published by Ostad and Askeland. This is a follow-up study. The 50-week intervention program was conducted in…

Students often voice computations during group discussions of mathematics problems. Yet, this type of private speech has received little attention from mathematics educators or researchers. In this article, we use excerpts from middle school students' group mathematical discussions to illustrate and describe "computational private…

The present study examines private speech and strategy-use patterns for solving simple number fact problems in addition. The progressive differentiation by grade between children's levels of private speech internalization--including silence--was investigated and related to children's developmental patterns for subcategories of strategy-use…