Being a schoolchild involves academic and social competencies often expressed from the viewpoints of politicians, researchers or parents. This article focuses on pupils' views, highlighting their experiences and reflections and aiming to give the pupils a voice in education. The study is based on data from 39 group interviews with 115 first-grade…

The primary aim of this qualitative study was to identify the landscapes that 7-12-year old Mexican students (n = 440) would like to conserve by analysing their drawings. Another aim was to determine the environmental relationship and environmental values of 5th and 6th graders (n = 152) by studying their texts. The data were analysed using mixed…

An adapted alternating treatments design was used to evaluate and compare the effects of two group contingency interventions on mathematics assignment accuracy in an intact first-grade classroom. Both an interdependent contingency with class-average criteria (16 students) and a dependent contingency with criteria based on the average of a smaller,…

The purpose of this critical action research study is to examine how critical literacy, when used in the social studies classroom, can open up spaces where children construct, deconstruct, and reconstruct superficial notions of race and racism in an early childhood classroom. A nine lesson unit on African American history was developed and…

How do young children portray and describe their relationships with nature? In what ways do young children's relationships with nature vary by grade level? These two research questions guided this phenomenographic study, which investigated developmental differences in children's relationships with nature. A total of 176 children, aged 6-11, from…

This study attempted to understand elementary students' self-assessment, that is, how they reflect on their own learning in school. Thirty-seven students (17 first graders and 20 fourth/fifth graders in a USA primary school) were interviewed about the kinds of standards against which they judge their school work and the sources of evidence they…

This article describes how one such teacher, Shirley Thacker, developed and implemented a successful writing program in her first grade classroom, which is known as Thackerville. Shirley describes how she motivated a classroom of first-graders to use the writing process in a workshop format and how this approach affected the children's perceptions…

This study was designed to increase student empowerment through the use of formative assessment. The targeted population consisted of first and fifth grade students in the same school. Evidence for the existence of the problem included teacher observation, students' lack of knowledge and skills to complete classroom assignments, and low test…

The response to seatwork assignments of 26 high and low achievers in 8 first grade classrooms was examined. Students were observed during five half-days of school over a five to six month period. Teachers were interviewed twice during the year, with particular attention being paid to how they handled selecting seatwork assignments, presented them…

Computerized storybook maker programs can motivate young children to learn to read and write as they play. This study compared perceptions and performances of young children and adult students on the StoryBook Weaver program. Participants were 26 first graders and 23 preservice teachers. Both groups of students were asked to compose stories on a…