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Background: Computational thinking (CT) has emerged as a critical component of 21st-century skills, and increasing effort was seen in exploring the development of CT skills in K-12 students. Despite cumulative research on exploring students' CT acquisition and its influencing factors, learners' development of the skill over time and the underlying mechanism that contributes to individual differences remain unclear. Objective: To bridge this gap, the present study aimed to explore the individual differences in CT acquisition among primary school students and how these differences were shaped over time. Specifically, variations in the development of CT across demographics, including gender and learning experience, were explored. Method: Three waves of data were collected from a sample of 322 primary school students (aged 7-12) across 18 months, with a 9-month interval between adjacent waves. A time-lagged model was leveraged for data analysis, and control variables were included in the model to strengthen statistical robustness. Results and Conclusion: The results indicate that male students and those who were more experienced in coding tended to have more positive attitudes toward coding. Additionally, coding interest was found to mediate the relationship between demographics and CT, demonstrating that male students and more experienced learners tended to be more interested in coding, which, in turn, contributed to the development of CT skills in later stages. Conclusion: The study provides valuable insights into the mechanisms underlying individual differences in CT development over time. The findings highlight the importance of nurturing coding interest among female students and promoting coding exposure for novice learners.

The interaction between a mother and child stands as one of the most profound and intricate human connections, weaving a rich tapestry of behavioral and emotional bonds during the formative years. Although mother-child interactions have received substantial attention in the developmental science literature, few studies have tapped into the extensive corpus of speech data available to uncover the nuances of these interactions across developmental stages. This study applied text mining and sentiment analysis on narratives extracted from mother-child conversations to identify the developmental trend of mother-child interactions from early to middle childhood. The results, based on three key areas of dyadic interactions, demonstrated a shift toward more balanced turn-taking dynamics and linguistic congruence as children age. Also, there was a significant interdependence of mother and child expressed emotions across time. Further investigation of the dyadic emotionality revealed a nonlinear effect of mother-expressed emotion on child-expressed emotion: mother-expressed negative emotions followed a cubic-like pattern, while positive emotions followed a mild quadratic trend. Taken together, the findings of this study present a picture of progressive augmentation of mother-child synchrony over time.

Background: A resurgence in teaching coding in primary school classrooms has led to a pedagogical swing towards using physical computing and coding to develop students' use of algorithms, computational thinking, and problem-solving skills. Two obstacles impede the optimal development of these objectives: the availability of a suitable pedagogy and an instructional sequencing model for primary school teachers to effectively present coding and computational thinking concepts and skills to students in alignment with their developmental stage. Objective: This study aims to address both obstacles by introducing the 3C Model, a newly developed instructional sequence grounded in established pedagogies and designed to effectively teach coding and computational thinking skills to primary school students based on their developmental stage. Methods: The qualitative study employed two data sources to triangulate findings, using: (1) semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis to investigate 11 primary school students' perceptions of their learning experiences with the 3C Model, and (2) researcher observations along with reflections of the students' developed and demonstrated learning through the method of knowing-in-action, reflection-in-action, and reflection-on-action. Results and Conclusions: The findings of this study fill a gap in the existing literature by demonstrating that the pedagogical and sequential approach embedded in the 3C Model not only enhanced students' engagement levels but also resulted in improved curriculum learning outcomes. The 3C Model provides teachers with a coherent and age-appropriate instructional structure. It uses physical computing devices and digital coding platforms to introduce coding concepts, furthering the development of computational thinking skills in primary school students beyond mere procedural and rote learning. Implications: The study holds important implications for practical applications, as it addresses an absence in the literature of an established pedagogy and instructional sequencing model for effectively teaching coding and computational thinking concepts and skills to primary school students. Drawing on established pedagogical and developmental learning theories, the 3C Model provides primary school teachers with an engaging, age-appropriate instructional method that avoids decontextualised teaching and surface-based learning. Instead, it encourages collaborative student work and contextualised learning, steering away from isolated and generic approaches.

Primary school students rely heavily on textbooks for instruction. Using the variety of textbooks, a description of the theme textbooks' linguistic quality is conspicuously absent, particularly for students in the fifth grade. Language fit for students' growth, communicative language, and coherence and cohesiveness were all included in this study's analysis of textbooks' language quality. Qualitative content analysis was used in this study's methodology. All texts from the heat and transfer-themed of fifth-grade textbooks published by the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture, Yudhistira, and Erlangga publishers were included in the study. Documentation was utilized to collect the data. Sample, record, reduce, infer, and narrate were all data analysis approaches used. The findings of this research indicated that the three publishers' textbooks had excellent language quality in terms of language compatibility for students' growth and the communicative language issued by the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture and Erlangga was wonderful, but Yudhistira was awful. There were a lot of solid points made in the Ministry of Education and Culture's publications. Both Yudhistira and Erlangga performed admirably. The quality of textbook language was found to be satisfactory in this study.

This article analyzes how schools in the U.S respond to trauma in children and teens after the homicide of a peer and provides suggestions for best practices. The focus is not on in-school mass shootings but on homicide of young people outside of schools, in neighborhoods, which is the leading cause of death for African Americans between ages 15 to 24 years old, the second leading cause of death for Hispanic youth, and the third leading cause of death among White Youth (Centers for Disease Control [CDC], 2020). Typically, these deaths are not a national focus and schools have little resources to guide them in how to respond in the aftermath. Utilizing theoretical background on disenfranchised grief and trauma based practice, current school based response, and examples from the author's own experience in a large, urban school district in NJ, this article seeks to dissect this difficult topic.

Background: Although research clearly demonstrates the importance of motivation in mathematics learning, relatively little is known about the developmental dynamics between different facets of mathematics motivation and performance, especially in the early years of schooling. Aims: In a longitudinal setting, we examined (1) how children's ability self-concept and intrinsic value in mathematics change over time during their first 3 years in school, (2) how those changes relate to each other and (3) how they connect with mathematics performance. Sample: The participants were 285 Finnish school-beginners (52.7% girls). Methods: Latent growth curve modelling was used to examine the developmental trajectories of children's ability self-concept and intrinsic value, and how those trajectories predicted later mathematics achievement (both mathematics test performance and teacher-rated grades), while controlling for previous mathematics performance and gender. Results: The results showed significant decreases in children's ability self-concept and intrinsic value, but also significant individual differences in the trajectories. The strong dependency between the levels and changes in self-concept and intrinsic value led us to specify a factor-of-curves latent growth curve model, thus merging the trajectories of ability self-concept and intrinsic value into one common model. Subsequent results showed prior mathematics performance to predict change in children's mathematics motivation, and both the level and change in mathematics motivation to predict third-grade performance and teacher-rated grade. Conclusions: Our findings provide evidence for a developmental link between children's ability self-concept, intrinsic value and achievement. Achievement seems to enhance mathematics motivation, and positive motivation appears to support the further development of mathematics skills.

Classroom management practices are critical to the success of teachers and students, and a growing number of programs have been developed to improve these practices. However, there has been less investigation into observational tools to assess classroom management and exploration of whether it can be measured consistently by observers across elementary, middle, and high school classrooms. Moreover, there is a need to determine how classroom management practices vary as a function of school settings and classroom contexts (e.g., class size and racial composition). The current study aimed to examine classroom management practices using the Assessing School Settings: Interactions of Students and Teachers (ASSIST), an observational measure administered by trained external observers across 3,263 classrooms. A series of analyses indicated that the ASSIST demonstrated partial MI across contexts, and was particularly robust across class size and racial composition, which enabled us to contrast latent mean differences across developmental levels. Latent means of classroom practices across elementary and middle school were similar, whereas elementary school and high school classrooms differed significantly. The findings provide evidence that the ASSIST is similarly measuring classroom management across classroom contexts but is sensitive to mean differences in classroom management across classroom contexts.

This paper, conceptual but with empirical support, fills in some blanks in Vygotsky's reworking of Spinoza's "Ethics." Here Vygotsky sought to develop a developmental theory of emotions that would fit his developmental theory of higher psychological functions; that is, one which used function to explain how structure changes (much as Darwin had already done) and used social and cultural history to explain how functions change (much as Halliday would later do). We propose three ways -- roughly, the structural, the functional, and the developmental -- to continue Vygotsky's unfinished 'The Teaching about Emotions', which we illustrate with instances from classroom data. Using the systemic-functional approach of Halliday, we show how language development provides an answer to the Cartesian dualism that has divided thinking from feeling, how objective logical and experiential meanings emerge from emotionally colored and interpersonal ones, and how the study of speech can bypass the 'theory of mind' problems that have long bedevilled child development studies. Each step draws support from a teaching log of first year elementary students in South Korea maintained by one of the authors, and each step suggests a different kind of classroom talk.

Despite numerous critiques of the pioneering works of developmental child psychology, these key ideas continue to resonate within the field of ECEC (early childhood education and care). This article seeks to re-animate the critique through a closer look at two current tendencies within the Nordic countries: a growing and increasingly strict age segregation of kindergarten children; and a minor oppositional movement of family groups gathering children from one-to-six years of age. Looking towards Piaget as one of the main pioneers of developmentalism, we question whether strict age segregation is justified based on his theories -- a close re-reading of two of Piaget's major works would suggest not. Through reflections of kindergarten teachers working with age-homogeneous groups, we trace other discourses that developmentalism is entangled with. The analysis and deconstruction of the teachers' reflections point to the need to explore age segregation within a neoliberalist political context and further, show how this results in institutionalised othering. Through mobilising an agential realist reading we explore how narratives of kindergarten teachers that work with age-heterogeneous groups might inspire alternative ways of thinking/practising, and re-energise the critique of developmentalism.

In this study we focus our research on the case analysis of an eleven-year-old boy and his close relationship with technology, specifically robotics. The methodology of the study is experimental in nature, with the aim of improving the subject's attention span through robotics, thereby favouring his educational process and, consequently, his overall development. To this end, the attitudes, and aptitudes that this technological tool has provided the subject with are evaluated over a period of four years. Three data collection instruments were selected: questionnaire, interview, and observation. Among the conclusions we highlight, on the one hand, that the older the age and the greater the interest in robotics, the greater the individual's attention span and greater psychomotor coordination, increasing the improvement in the educational process and in their daily life. On the other hand, robotics is an effective way of orienting knowledge towards the personal and educational sphere and can provide advantages in integral development.

Using a large sample of longitudinal assessment data from children in publicly funded infant/toddler care, preschool, and kindergarten (analytic N = 453,468), this study modeled language and literacy trajectories from early infancy through kindergarten for dual language learners (DLLs) from homes representing many different languages and their peers from monolingual English-speaking homes. DLLs and their monolingual peers showed common developmental trajectories, including an initial period of rapid growth that slowed between 10 and 30 months, plateaued between 30 and 45 months, and then accelerated from 45 to 60 months of age. Although the general developmental patterns were similar, differences emerged between children in English-speaking versus non-English-speaking homes: DLLs' growth rates slowed more than their monolingual peers' between 10 and 30 months but then grew more sharply after 45 months. A linguistic distance hypothesis helped to explain the magnitude of the differences between groups of DLLs and their monolingual peers. The differences occurred as children passed through specific developmental levels of the Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP) assessment's learning progressions. The current study adds new quantitative information about language and literacy trajectories from early infancy through kindergarten among children from different language backgrounds and demonstrates how the findings may be applied to support effective instruction with culturally and linguistically diverse children.

Black and Latinx youth are situated in a maladaptive discriminatory context in the United States; however, prosociality may be one way that youth can promote their own positive development in the face of these experiences. We examined the longitudinal associations between discrimination and prosociality among 380 Black and Latinx early adolescents (M[subscript W6age] = 12.38 years, 52% female) and considered race/ethnicity and self-esteem control beliefs as potential moderators to this association. Discrimination predicted higher levels of prosociality among Black youth 6 months later, but not among Latinx youth. Discrimination also predicted higher prosociality among youth with very high self-esteem control beliefs 6 months later, but not among youth with lower levels of self-esteem control beliefs. None of these associations were significant when looking across a 1-year time frame. Our findings support the predictions of self-esteem enhancement theory and highlight the importance of considering how youth's unique racialized experiences can inform how they respond to discrimination.

Scholars have examined the effects of same-gender teachers on student achievement, but the findings are mixed. In this study, we use 7 years of administrative data from students in elementary and middle schools (i.e., Grades 3 through 8) in Indiana to test links between gender matching and student achievement. We find that female teachers are better at increasing both male and female students' achievement than their male counterparts in elementary and middle schools. The positive effects of having female math teachers are particularly large for female students' math achievement, but we do not find evidence for a positive gender matching effect in English language arts. In addition, contrary to popular speculation, boys do not exhibit higher academic achievement when they are assigned to male teachers. Our findings suggest that the effects of teacher gender on student learning vary by subject and gender, but the effect sizes are small.

The competence in identifying and comprehending the meaning of idiomatic expressions developed at an early age. However, second language learners reach the comprehension skill differently within the age and at pace. There are many unresolved questions regarding the age which children start to comprehend L2 idioms. The objective of this study was to investigate the age at which children in Moi primary school in Nairobi were able to identify and comprehend the meaning of English idioms. The 60 participants were selected using purposive sampling. The children were divided into three age groups: 5-8 years old, 9-12 years old, and 13-16 years old. The participants were balanced in gender and level of formal education. They were asked to identify the correct non-literal meaning of the 20 idioms presented. It was reported that the group with an age range from 5-8 years old scored the lowest among the other. The findings showed that as early as five years of old (preschool age), children begin to understand some kinds of idiomatic expressions and that such ability slowly develops throughout childhood. At the age of 9, children mainly interpreted idioms literally. By the age of 12, they started to understand the non-literal meanings of idiomatic expressions correctly and continued to expand until the age of 16. It implied that age is a factor in the comprehension of idioms among children. Therefore, exposure to language input is vital in the process of early acquisition. The study provides pedagogical observation on early language acquisition. This study also assists the language teachers and language practitioners and material developers in decision making that lead to the development of a better curriculum.

We investigated performance levels on conducting continuous two-footed jumping of preschool children (4 years old) to high school students (16 years old) to clarify the developmental progression and sex differences in motor coordination and agility. In total, 450 children (boys: 227; girls: 223) participated in this study. We set 10 obstacles to jump over for continuous two-footed jumping and analyzed the movement time (MT), aerial time (AT), and contact time (CT), and variabilities in AT and CT in 7 year-based categories, using a high-speed camera. We also used multiple regression analysis to identify the predictors of MT. MT and CT shortened until 8 years, whereas AT continued to shorten after 8 years, suggesting that the jumping strategy differs between those younger/older than 8 years. MT, AT, and CT were significantly shorter among boys than girls from preschool children to high school students. In addition, when using multiple regression analysis, the main predictor of MT changed gradually from SD of CT to AT with increasing age. Our findings suggest that the motor control mechanisms related to continuous two-footed jumping differ depending on the age and sex and provide findings to advance understanding of the age-related motor coordination and agility in children.

Background: According to Munsat (1965, The concept of memory. University of Michigan), a person who makes frequent prospective memory (PM) errors is considered as having a flawed character rather than a bad memory. Given that PM completes its development only in young adulthood, this bias might occur not only within social relationships but also in school. However, little is known about the impact of this bias on academic performance. Aims: This study aimed to evaluate the impact of children's PM on teacher's evaluations of their academic performance (i.e., grades) and social skills. Sample: A total of 158 eight- and twelve-year-old children (48% females) participated in this study. Methods: A working memory (WM) updating task was used as ongoing task (OT), in which the PM task was embedded and required participants to respond whenever certain pictures appeared. Children's social skills were measured through teacher ratings, whereas grades were collected as indicators of teachers' assessment of academic performance. Children's WM span and inhibitory control were also assessed. Results: Results showed that 8- and 12-year-old children's academic performance was predicted by both PM performance and teachers' evaluations of social skills. However, social skills evaluations were not predicted by PM performance. WM span was related to grades in 8 year olds, while inhibitory control was related to PM performance in 12 year olds. Conclusions: These outcomes highlight that children's grades are not explained only by academic performance itself but also by other personal skills. Awareness of the biases which can occur when evaluating children's academic performance can help teachers to be more objective in their assessment.

What do cows drink? The correct answer is water, but many are tempted to say milk. The disposition to override an intuitive response (milk) with a more analytic response (water) is known as "cognitive reflection." Tests of cognitive reflection predict a wide range of skills and abilities in adults. In this article, we discuss the construction of a developmental version of the cognitive reflection test and explore how it predicts rational thinking and normative thinking dispositions in elementary school-aged children, independent of age, executive function, and cultural context. We also explore how the test predicts children's mastery of counterintuitive concepts in science and mathematics. Findings suggest that cognitive reflection may be a prerequisite for developing, and improving, analytic thought, thus highlighting the value of studying cognitive reflection from a developmental perspective.

Dimensional comparisons (i.e., comparing own performances across domains) may drive an increasing differentiation in students' math and verbal self-concepts over time, but little longitudinal research has directly tested this assumption. Using cross-sequential data spanning Grades 1-12 (N = 1069, ages 6-18, 92% White, 2% Black, 51% female, collected 1987-1996), this study charted age-related changes in the role of dimensional comparisons in students' ability self-concept formation. It used three types of self-concept measures: peer comparisons, cross-domain comparisons, and no comparisons. Results indicated that the increase in students' use of dimensional comparisons in self-evaluations substantially contributed to the increasing differentiation in students' math and verbal self-concepts over time. Findings highlight the importance of dimensional comparisons in the development of students' ability self-concepts.

This paper addresses a problem that greatly complicates the implementation of dialogic educational approaches in schools: the dilemma between driving children's talk towards normatively accepted conceptions and, at the same time, avoiding the introduction of these normative conceptions into the dialogue by the teacher. I argue that this dilemma is in fact the expression of an unarticulated theoretical tension between teleology and dialogicity in Vygotsky's theory, which is the foundation, together with Bakhtin's work, for many dialogic approaches to education. This paper describes this tension in Vygotsky's theory and presents a type of talk that enables the articulation of teleology and dialogicity at a practical level: conceptually driven inquiry. In this type of talk, children form meaning spontaneously in conditions of dialogicity, but under the influence of a higher-generality meaning that the child simultaneously forms non-spontaneously -- through intellectual imitation. Although not itself the "telos," this higher-generality meaning provides teleological direction to children's dialogic inquiry.

This article introduces the concept of a new curricular model that addresses these issues through the body. The Thirdspace Movement Model can be integrated in K-12 Physical Education in coordination with other models. The Thirdspace Movement Model creates an environment where students practice movements and engage in critical discourse that address embodied identity. Through movements, the model fosters; 1) self-awareness which can lead to self-identity and self-acceptance, 2) embodied movement experiences that can lead to inner peace, 3) humanization, 4) acceptance of self and others, 5) reconciliation, 6) growth in connection with others, and 7) justice. The Thirdspace Movement Model can be integrated with existing PE units or introduced as a stand-alone unit. Self-awareness and listening to the messages the body sends begins the learning experience. Students then explore and express through developmental progression and movement patterns with self and others. The experience culminates with critical dialogue activities aimed at reflecting how bodily knowing and embedded memories influence one's movements and actions.

Many children experience challenges with school mathematics during the transition from primary to secondary education, with several studies documenting a decline of performance, motivation, and self-efficacy. In order to understand how early adolescents construct their mathematical identities during this transition, this study explores, along the lines of grounded theory, the ways that identity manifestations are expressed by children in Oslo, Norway. Participants were 21 early adolescents between the ages 12-13, during their last months of primary education (year 7), and right before their transition into lower-secondary education (year 8). Data collection involved focus-group interviews with all children, as well as individual interviews with six of them. Thematic data analyses yielded three themes around which participants construct their mathematical identities: popularity, effort, and achievement. Aiming at further unpacking the complex relations between the three themes, we focus on the case of Tina. We conclude with suggestions for further research and implications for practice.

Purpose: The transition to school and the first years of elementary school education are very sensitive phases for reading development. Reading researchers have established key precursors and developmental steps in these phases. However, how these components interact and affect growth is not well understood yet. The current study from Germany replicates established findings and explores how curvilinear effects can add information to our understanding of reading development. Method: 525 German-speaking children were followed during a 5-year period from kindergarten to fourth Grade. Phonological awareness (PA), letter knowledge (LK), rapid naming (RAN) and language skills (LS) were assessed in kindergarten, decoding and reading comprehension in elementary school. Analysis was based on latent growth models with curvilinear (quadratic) effects. Results: The results indicate that PA and LK are of importance for early reading, RAN was additionally revealed to be of importance for further growth in decoding. Language skills and decoding, together with their interaction, explain variation in reading comprehension skills. A curvilinear effect was found for decoding on reading comprehension growth only. Conclusion: Our study shows which precursors predict growth in reading development in a transparent orthography and expands our understanding of how language and decoding affect the development of reading comprehension.

The rhetoric of the reading wars has become more than just an armchair academic debate, but is encoded now in the very laws, house and senate bills, and legislative policies of the majority of the states. In turn, these policies are powered by staggering sums of money such as the 90-million-dollar investment of Fulton County, Georgia in a revamp of the failed No Child Left Behind initiative of two decades ago since, according to district officials, "Some college programs don't sufficiently prepare future teachers to teach reading." And Tennessee plans to spend 100 million dollars on their Reading 360--a program which stresses the development of "strong, phonics-based reading skills." In this address, I contest the narrow perceptions of what has been called the science of reading movement and focus rather upon another contender for the science throne--that of Developmental Science. Using examples from emergent bilingual children's early writing, I attempt to show that any "simple" model of reading not only wastes useful data about children's literacy performances, but conflates the data with static states of being which, in turn, reduce the conceptual complexity of what is happening in terms of literacy development. Developmentally speaking, my contention is that models based upon the science of reading demand a slavish focus on the alphabet and figural convention. However, Developmental Science challenges the literacy field to embrace the complexity of the developmental processes, and as Vygotsky further argued, "bring the child to an internal understanding of writing" in whatever language that may be.

Guided by the life course perspective, this study investigated the developmental antecedents of contact, closeness/warmth, and negativity in young adults' relationships with their parents. Taking the developmental systems approach, we considered interindividual differences in not only initial levels of parenting quality in early adolescence (Grade 6) but also developmental changes in parenting quality across adolescence (Grades 6-12) as predictors of young adult-parent relationship quality. Data were from a large sample of young adults (N = 1,631; M[subscript age] = 22.84; 57% female; 90% White; 25% received free/reduced-price school lunch in Grade 6) followed from the fall of Grades 6 to 12 at eight time points, plus a young adult assessment. Using multivariate latent growth curve modeling, we identified a nuanced pattern of predictors of the three relationship dimensions. Higher initial levels of and lower rates of decline in parental involvement across adolescence predicted more young adult contact with mothers and fathers. Higher initial levels of parental warmth and parental involvement, as well as lower rates of decline in parental warmth, predicted greater closeness/warmth with mothers and fathers in young adulthood. Higher initial levels of and lower rates of decline in effective discipline predicted less young adult negativity toward mothers and fathers. These results held even when accounting for important adolescent and young adult covariates (adolescent sex and race, adolescent family income and structure, adolescent aggressive behavior tendencies, young adult living arrangement). The study offers new insights into how parenting practices in adolescence contribute to parent-child relationship in young adulthood.

Self-regulatory abilities have been shown to be closely linked to academic success. There are a variety of measurement tools to assess self-regulated learning in pupils and students. Crucially, preschool age marks a sensible period for the maturation of self-regulated learning (SRL) and related abilities such as executive-control functions (EF). This is why the development of a direct instrument that fits the special characteristics of this age cohort is important. An adapted version of Zimmermann's (2000) process model may serve as a theoretical basis. This pilot study intends to develop and evaluate a direct, quantitative measurement tool to assess SRL in an 'online manner'. The measurement tool was tested in 183 preschoolers of German kindergartens. After a detailed item analysis, reliability was estimated and concurrent validity was examined. Statistical analysis indicates a satisfactory reliability for the measurement tool as a whole. Additionally, validity is supported by (small) significant overall correlations with the external measure as well as EF measure. Nevertheless, the need for the optimization of the instrument is clear and the study has important implications for further research. In general, the results demonstrate that it is both plausible and possible to assess SRL in preschoolers directly at child level.

Executive functions (EF) are key predictors of long-term success that develop rapidly in early childhood. However, EF's developmental trajectory from preschool to kindergarten is not fully understood due to conceptual ambiguity (e.g., whether it is a single construct or multiple related constructs) and methodological limitations (e.g., previous work has primarily examined linear growth). Whether and how this trajectory differs based on characteristics of children and their families also remains to be characterized. In a primarily low-income, racially and ethnically diverse, typically developing, urban sample, the present study employed confirmatory factor analyses to examine the construct of EF and latent growth curve modeling to examine nonlinear growth across five time points. Results indicated that the development of a single EF construct with partial measurement invariance across time points was best characterized as nonlinear, with disproportionately more growth during the preschool year. There was individual variability in EF trajectories, such that children with higher EF at preschool entry showed relatively steeper growth during preschool compared to low-EF peers. However, children with less EF growth in preschool had steeper growth in kindergarten, attenuating the gains of high-EF preschoolers and resulting in some convergence in EF by the end of kindergarten. Findings have implications for (1) examining EF development in early childhood with more specificity in future studies, (2) informing the timing of EF interventions in early childhood, and (3) identifying children for whom such interventions might be especially beneficial.

The ability to bind, or link, different aspects of an experience in memory undergoes protracted development across childhood. Most studies of memory binding development have assessed extraobject binding between an object and some external element such as another object, whereas little work has examined the development of intraobject binding, such as between shape and color features within the same object. In this work, we investigate the development of intra- and extraobject memory binding in five-year-olds, eight-year-olds, and young adults with a memory interference paradigm. Between two experiments, we manipulate whether stimuli are presented as coherent objects (Experiment 1: n[subscript 5-year-olds] = 32, 19 males, 13 females; n[subscript 8-year-olds] = 30, 15 males, 15 females; n[subscript adults] = 30, 15 males, 15 females), requiring intraobject binding between shape and color features, or as spatially separated features (Experiment 2: n[subscript 5-year-olds] = 24, 16 males, 8 females; n[subscript 8-year-olds] = 41, 19 males, 22 females; n[subscript adults] = 31, 13 males, 18 females), requiring extraobject binding. To estimate the contributions of different binding structures to performance, we present a novel computational model that mathematically instantiates the memory binding, forgetting, and retrieval processes we hypothesize to underlie performance on the task. The results provide evidence of substantial developmental improvements in both intraobject and extraobject binding of shape and color features between 5 and 8 years of age, as well as stronger intraobject compared with extraobject binding of features in all age groups. These findings provide key insights into memory binding across early development.

This article describes how intra- and interdisciplinary learning experiences can activate the interests and capabilities among children in their early years. A developmental sequence delineates a series of stage-by-stage experiences describing the skill and content to be introduced and mastered in the teaching and learning process, which include developing readiness and receptivity, intradisciplinary thinking and learning, and interdisciplinary thinking and learning. The recognized differences among learners, the qualities inherent in providing advanced learning skills and concepts, and the development and reinforcement of basic and fundamental skills provides a readiness for more sophisticated learning in the early years. The importance of promoting understanding and facilitating the display of interests and capabilities among children in the early years can be activated by intra- and interdisciplinary learning experiences.

The present paper reports on the abilities of young students to pose a problem and explores how these abilities relate to the solutions suggested as well as whether the age of the student influences these abilities. Specifically, twenty-seven 6-year-olds and thirty 9-year-olds from two state schools located in Volos, a small provincial town in Greece, were used as a sample. The inductive analysis of the data, collected in the form of drawings and interviews indicated that the majority of the students were able to pose the problem; albeit in an incomplete way. According to them, the problem of waste is created when people discard whatever is not useful to them. Few of them connected the waste issue to consumption or were aware of the possibility of reusing or recycling. Even fewer students suggested solutions other than just throwing waste into a bin. The results showed that those students, who knew about reusing and recycling at the posing phase, suggested them as ways of reducing waste. It may be assumed that focusing more on improving the way students pose the problem could affect their suggestions for addressing it. It was also noted that third-graders seemed better able to pose the problem than younger students.

The purpose of this study is to analyse geometric transformations of children in the early childhood period. The study utilised a case study to design one of the qualitative research methods. Interviews were conducted with 6-, 7- and 8-year-old children, in total 24 children, who were enrolled in a private pre-school and a primary school of the Ministry of National Education. Data obtained from the interviews conducted with the children were recorded on the computer as raw data. Then, appropriate themes and codes were formed using these data, and the data were subjected to content analysis. Results of this study showed that children began to improve comprehend topological transformations as their age levels increased, and the development occurred according to age. It is recommended that further studies should investigate how topological transformation develops at earlier ages in case it is supported in the early childhood period.

Studies have suggested that multiple features influence letter knowledge across different orthographies. Arabic offers a unique opportunity to investigate the relations of letter properties on letter knowledge, but research on Arabic letter knowledge is scarce. This study was designed to investigate (a) letter frequency, (b) letter sequence, (c) visual similarity, (d) developmental stage of the phonemes of the letters, and (e) diglossia as possible factors that contribute to Arabic letter knowledge. A total of 142 (Mean age = 67 months) native Arabic-speaking monolingual kindergartners were administered a letter knowledge task. Data were analyzed using Cross-Classified Generalized Random-Effects analysis, which allows partitioning of variance into that due to persons and due to letters to provide a more unbiased estimate of item-level variance. Results showed that letter frequency, late developing sounds, and diglossia were statistically significant when each was entered separately in a model whereas visual similarity and letter sequence were not. However, when all letter features were entered simultaneously, letter frequency was the only feature that contributed significantly to the prediction of Arabic letter knowledge. The present study underscores the important role of letter frequency in Arabic letter knowledge. Implications for assessment and instruction are discussed.

According to previous findings, math anxiety already occurs at early school age and is negatively correlated with math achievement. So far, however, little is known about the nature of math anxiety in young children. To fill this gap, we present the results of a longitudinal study on the math anxiety of children that were followed in the first year of elementary school. We tested the level of math anxiety and its prevalence. We also investigated the reasons for math anxiety that were reported by the children at the beginning of elementary education. For this purpose, we adopted both individual-difference and developmental perspectives. The results show that first-grade students experienced mild math anxiety that peaked at the beginning of the school year. Most children experienced a low level of math anxiety; some of them were not anxious at all or experienced moderate anxiety, while only a few children were highly math anxious. The reasons for math anxiety that were most frequently reported by the students were associated with risk of failure, task difficulty, time pressure, and fear of receiving a bad grade. We discuss the obtained results in the context of actions aimed at improving the mathematical achievement of students.

This study explores how primary school children develop their metacognitive knowledge and vocabulary knowledge and how both types of knowledge are dynamically correlated from 1st to 4th grade. The longitudinal sample included 426 first-grade students (M = 6.6 years, SD = 0.51; 50.2% boys, 49.7% girls) from five public primary schools in China. A set of tests on metacognitive knowledge and vocabulary knowledge were administered four times over four years. The one-on-one-basis metacognitive knowledge test was based on students' explanations about cognitive activities; the vocabulary knowledge test focused on students' breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge. Latent growth curve modelling was used to study developmental change. Results showed that participants' metacognitive knowledge and vocabulary knowledge improved from 1st to 4th grade but not in a cumulative fashion. Participants' level of metacognitive knowledge was strongly associated with their vocabulary knowledge throughout the selected school years. The development of vocabulary knowledge breadth lagged behind vocabulary knowledge depth during the study period. These findings shed light on primary school students' development of metacognitive knowledge and vocabulary knowledge.

The question of when moral identity first develops in childhood deserves more considered investigation. In this article, we examine the claim that moral identity first emerges in middle-childhood (8-12 years). An approach is taken here whereby a tendency to attribute moral shame under conditions entailing moral identity failure is considered as indicating the presence of an emerging moral identity. Differences in the emotion attributions (i.e., ashamed, guilty, scared) of 7- and 9-year-olds under moral and non-moral identity failure conditions were examined. Results showing that older children tended to attribute shame under all identity failure conditions while younger children did not, and furthermore that both age groups tended to attribute predominantly guilt under accidental harm conditions, lend weight to the suggestion that moral identity may first emerge in middle-childhood. Implications of this study and its novel approach are discussed.

Today, L.S. Vygotsky's concept of a 'zone of proximal development' (ZPD) is often used to just mean best practices in early years teaching, like scaffolding. But in his original theory, the zones linked age periods distinguished by age-specific neoformations -- one of which was the formation of concepts at adolescence. So Vygotsky rejected Stern's idea that early years already had the wherewithal of adult concepts and affirmed the age-specific quality of child thinking instead. He demonstrated this through two ingenious 'name games'. In this paper, with the help of two Korean children, we will replicate the name games and use one game to study the difference between Vygotsky's 'Crisis at Three' and the 'Crisis at Seven'. We describe the differences from the systemic-functional perspective of Ruqaiya Hasan and Michael Halliday. In this way, we hope to restore a diagnostic function to Vygotsky's ZPD.

Students who repeat a grade are at a higher risk of dropping out of high school. Previous research has examined this in a methodologically aggregated way (e.g., repeated any grade versus never repeated) or only specific grades/grade ranges (e.g., Kindergarten or elementary) leaving questions about which grades are more detrimental to repeat with respect to school dropout. This study uses data from the National Center for Education Statistics (N = 9,309) to comparatively examine which grades, when repeated, show the strongest associations with dropping out. Overall, those who repeated sixth or seventh had the highest odds of dropping out of high school with unique patterns by gender and race/ethnicity. These grades are typically when youth transition into middle school. When examined through a developmental lens, these results highlight the important impact that grade retention while youth experience other normative physical, cognitive, and social changes.

We used latent growth curve analysis to extend research on associations between early puberty and adverse peer relations by examining the role of pubertal timing in the developmental trajectories of peer victimization and offending from early- to mid-adolescence. We made use of three-wave longitudinal data collected annually from a cohort of Swedish adolescents (N = 1,515, 51% girls, [X-bar] age at T1 = 13.0 years). The results revealed negative developmental trends for peer victimization and offending. Early pubertal timing was linked to higher initial levels and a steeper decrease of peer victimization and offending. The only effect of pubertal timing that differed between the genders was that the initial level of offending was stronger for boys than girls. In conclusion, the negative impact of early pubertal timing on peer victimization and offending occurs in the early stages of adolescence and disappears thereafter.

We report on an innovative computer-adaptive assessment, the Comprehensive Research-based Early Math Ability Test (CREMAT), using the case of 1st- and 2nd-graders' understanding of geometric measurement. CREMAT was developed with multiple aims in mind, including: (1) be administered with a reasonable number of items, (2) identify the level(s) of thinking at which the child is operating for each developmental progression (domain) of significant mathematics, and (3) provide information about specific concepts and skills that constitute the cognitive components of thinking involved in various tasks. CREMAT relies on Q-Matrix theory and a resulting blend of sophisticated psychometric and statistical techniques (Rule Space Method, poset models) to determine not only students' overall performance but also their specific level of thinking along developmental progressions. Results indicated that the current tests range from satisfactory to excellent in their ability to diagnose 1st- and 2nd-graders' understanding of measurement, but also suggest revisions and implications for the approach. We conclude with a description of why CREMAT is important for early childhood practitioners' ability to formatively assess and document children's progress in learning math.

This study aims to analyse the reasoning that children and adults with the same school level use to assess and justify the fairness of games, considering aspects of probability such as randomness, sample space, and comparison of probabilities. Data collection included a Piagetian clinical interview based on games of chance. The results showed that the participants' judgments about the fairness of the games depends mainly on the understanding about independence of events, analysis of the sample space, and perception of proportionality when comparing probabilities, and that they have misunderstandings about these ideas. The similar low performance of adults and children on probabilistic reasoning, indicates that the maturity and experience of these adults were not enough to properly develop probabilistic reasoning and to instrumentalize it to assess the fairness of a game consistently. Thus, teaching interventions to expand and consolidate students' learning in the field of probability are recommended and the activities presented in this study may serve as a basis for such interventions.

The current study examined the roles of gender, and gender-role orientation in young adolescents' empathetic concern. In addition, this study aimed to explore the contribution of Theory of Mind in participants' empathetic concern. Finally, this study examined whether gender and gender-role orientation were implicated in emerging adolescents' Theory of Mind understanding. One-hundred-fifty 11- to 12-year-olds (79 self-identified females) completed questionnaires measuring their empathetic concern, Theory of Mind, and their perceived gender-role orientation. Results showed that gender-role orientation, specifically, femininity and masculinity predicted empathetic concern above and beyond gender. In addition, the effects of cognitive and affective Theory of Mind are explored and discussed in relation to empathetic concern. Finally, neither gender nor gender-role orientation was found to contribute to participants' Theory of Mind understanding. These findings suggest that emerging adolescents' perceived gender roles, as well as their ability to consider another's beliefs, play a role in their expression of empathetic concern.