Integrating hands-on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education with a focus on the engineering design process into elementary school curricula has been associated with positive outcomes, including enhanced student understanding and increased interest in the topics. Here, we evaluated third grade student interest and perceived…

This qualitative study examines how elementary students of Color develop and enact an abolitionist praxis as part of a "Freedom Dreaming" literacy unit. The analysis of focus-group interviews elucidates how, after learning about freedom dreaming and the abolition of prisons and police, students positioned historical anti-carceral…

The Calm Cat Program was developed in response to the need for intervention approaches that target internalizing symptoms, are developmentally appropriate for early elementary students, and are feasible for school-based implementation by staff without specialized training. The Calm Cat Program is a brief Tier 2 intervention combining behavioral…

Research has demonstrated the positive effects of systematically teaching phonemic awareness and phonics in kindergarten and first grade, but many commonly used reading curricula do not adequately incorporate these foundational skills. In this study, we examined the efficacy of an instructional program ("UFLI Foundations") in…

Research on collaborative learning of computer science has been conducted primarily in programming. This paper extends this area by including short tasks (such as those used in contests like the Bebras Challenge) that cover many other computer science topics. The aim of this research is to explore how problem-solving in pairs differs from…

The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to identify and evaluate the effects of individual characteristics associated with mathematical word problem-solving skills among elementary school-aged children and to unpack the quality of studies investigating these associations. The systematic review was reported according to the…

Purpose: We aimed to determine gender differences in students' moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) levels measured in primary school by accelerometry. Methods: Our systematic search (PROSPERO: CRD42023422799) was developed using four electronic databases (from January 2013 to December 22, 2023). Our meta-analysis was conducted based on a…

This article presents the process of constructing and validating a test of metalinguistic awareness (MLA) for young school children (age 8-10). The test was developed between 2021 and 2023 as part of the MetaLearn research project, financed by The Research Council of Norway. The research team defines MLA as using metalinguistic knowledge at a…

Critical thinking disposition (CTD) is regarded as a personal trait within critical thinking (CT), representing an individual's tendency and attitude toward actively employing CT skills (CTS). Previous research has predominantly focused on the external influencing factors of CTD, with limited exploration into CTD itself and the interactions among…

This study investigates the characteristics of Japanese primary school mathematics lessons that adopt a problem-solving approach. We argue that these characteristics are reflected in three key aspects: collective teaching and learning, the lesson as a "drama" (i.e., its structured flow), and the focus on mathematical knowledge. In this…

Student engagement has been shown to function as a pathway leading to valued educational outcomes. This study used fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to reveal how various configurations of sex, grade level, teaching presence, social presence, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and parental support lead to high online…

Gratitude writing exercises are a common tool used to promote gratitude. However, understanding of the specific writing features that are associated with written expressions of gratitude is limited. In this study, we investigated how fundamental characteristics (words, punctuation marks) of early elementary student's writing relate to their…

Background: To determine if the COVID-19 pandemic influenced students' cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), this study examined the prevalence of meeting a health-related standard for CRF in public school students before, during and after the pandemic. Methods: A repeated cross-sectional study design was used, and multilevel logistic regression was…

The present study explores the relationships among executive functions (EFs) (working memory, inhibition, and cognitive flexibility), number of friends, friendship stability and friendship quality in neurotypical (NT) children and peers with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or dyslexia. The participants were 192 children…

The priority of promoting children's creativity and democracy in education, which includes values such as freedom of expression, competence, respect for diversity, empathy, collaboration, dialogue and the development of critical thinking and curiosity, is strongly supported by communities of practice that foster these values and promote heuristic…