Early Years Of Primary Education Research Articles

Teaching English as a Second Language in the Early Years: Teachers’ Perspectives and Practices in Finland

Second language (L2) education in the early years has been steadily increasing worldwide. Since second language education at earlier ages is relatively new in many countries, not much research is available regarding teaching practices in this context. Likewise, limited research attention has been directed to teachers’ perspectives on early L2 teaching. This study investigated what characterises teachers’ pedagogical planning, teaching practices and assessment of language learning, and teachers’ perspectives about the opportunities and challenges in early L2 classrooms within the cultural context of the Finnish education system. The data for this study were gathered through an online survey involving teachers of English (n = 49) as a second language in the early years of primary education in Finland. The results show that the teachers based their pedagogical planning on the curriculum, used a variety of L2 tasks and materials, which they often prepared by themselves, and they mostly used observation, instead of formal exams, for assessing the children’s learning in L2. The results revealed that the teachers’ perspectives to the early start for L2 teaching were positive, which stemmed from the children’s enthusiasm for language learning. The teachers draw attention to challenges such as big group sizes, the diversity in children’s skills (e.g., their prior L2 knowledge, social skills, learning capabilities), and the limited availability of teaching materials targeted for young learner groups in L2 education. The findings demonstrate the opportunities and challenges L2 teachers of early learners face in Finland.

Ecotoxicology At School: A Proposal For Insertion Into Practical Science Classes

The complexity of environmental effects, caused by the diversity of chemical compounds interacting with the biota, brings to light the urgency of an emancipating education focused on integral human formation. In this sense, there is a concern about appropriately working with themes relevant to environmental education for students in the early years of primary education. Thus, educators in the field of biological sciences are allowed to approach topics related to biodiversity, to educate for citizenship, in the perspective that students recognize themselves as part of the environment. Problem-Based Learning - PBL involves questioning based on the observation of phenomena, hypothesis testing, and analysis of results, being an ally of science, considering that the student is the protagonist in the different stages of knowledge construction. Based on this methodology, auxiliary materials were prepared for use in the classroom, guided by concepts and playfulness. To contextualize the phenomena involved in the study of ecotoxicology, a survey was carried out of the contents and abilities of the Brazilian National Common Core Curriculum (BNCC, as per the acronym in Portuguese), listing the potentials to be examined together with the concepts of ecotoxicology. For these, bioassay protocols were chosen for the elaboration of practical activities that exemplify the thought phenomenon. Two skills were selected for the elaboration of stories that describe problematization, the accomplishment of the experimental activity, and the presentation of the results of the experiments throughout the character’s daily life. The area’s theoretical and practical framework involves using technical terms, which can compromise students’ interest and learning. To remedy the difficulty with the concepts, a mini dictionary was created with definitions and optimization of technical terms to simplify the research process and the student’s understanding.

Teaching STEAM through universal design for learning in early years of primary education: Plugged-in and unplugged activities with emphasis on connectivism learning theory.

This paper presents four teachers’ design and implementation of an international eTwinning project within the Universal Design Learning (UDL) framework and the pedagogical theory of connectivism, aiming to provide meaningful access to STEAM education for pupils with diverse learning needs by introducing them to key competences for lifelong learning. The results of the qualitative content analysis reveal the advantages of this effort, including the improvement of the learning process, learners' active participation, and self-reflection through student-based assessment, teachers' professional development, but also considerations regarding planning and specifying activities, class schedules, course load, and the creation of self- or peer-assessment rubrics.

Exploring Gender Differences in Coding at the Beginning of Primary School.

The gender gap in Computer Science (CS) is widely documented worldwide. Only a few studies, however, have investigated whether and how gender differences manifest early in the learning of computing, at the beginning of primary school. Coding, seen as an element of Computational Thinking, has entered the curriculum of primary school education in several countries. As the early years of primary education happen before gender stereotypes in CS are expected to be fully endorsed, the opportunity to learn coding for boys and girls at that age might in principle help reduce the gender gap later observed in CS education. Prior research findings however suggest that an advantage for boys in coding tasks may begin to emerge already since preschool or the early grades of primary education. In the present study we explored whether the coding abilities of 1st graders, at their first experience with coding, are affected by gender differences, and whether their presence associates with gender differences in executive functions (EF), i.e., response inhibition and planning skills. Earlier research has shown strong association between children's coding abilities and their EF, as well as the existence of gender differences in the maturation of response inhibition and planning skills, but with an advantage for girls. In this work we assessed the coding skills and response inhibition and planning skills of 109 Italian first graders, 45 girls and 64 boys, before an introductory coding course (pretest), when the children had no prior experience of coding. We then repeated the assessment after the introductory coding course (posttest). No statistically significant difference between girls and boys emerged at the pretest, whereas an advantage in coding appeared for boys at the posttest. Mediation analyses carried out to test the hypothesis of a mediation role of EF on gender differences in coding show that the gender differences in coding were not mediated by the children's EF (response inhibition or planning). These results suggest that other factors must be accounted for to explain this phenomenon. The different engagement of boys and girls in the coding activities, and/or other motivational and sociocognitive variables, should be explored in future studies.

ATTITUDE AND PERCEPTION OF TEACHERS ON THE USE OF MOTHER TONGUE IN ESL CLASSROOM IN CAMEROON

Education in the local languages can be one of the means for improving the living conditions of the disadvantaged rural population. The obstacle to Education remains the use of foreign languages for teaching and learning in the early years of primary education. The advent of independence was considered the gateway to complete eradication of the colonial past. On contrary, colonial teaching practices, involving the use of foreign languages, continue to dominate the classrooms. This article revisits the issue of language of instruction in the early years of primary schools in Bafut after many years of mother tongue education implementation. It examines the effect of using English, a foreign language in teaching indigenous Bafut children, in the suburbs who do not have the opportunity to acquire English to the level necessary for effective engagement with the curriculum. The study investigates the opinions and attitude of primary school teachers toward teaching using an indigenous language (Bafut). The researcher used triangulation, involving a variety of data sources including classroom observation, interview, focus group discussion and documentation. Data was collected from twenty four primary school teachers from six purposively selected primary schools in Bafut. The findings revealed attitudinal barriers to using the mother tongue as language of instruction in early years of education. After many years of sensitization, and many admirable polices developed throughout Africa, the efficiency of their implementation is questionable. English and French continue to receive exclusive attention in the classroom as the language of instruction and examinations, whereas the role of Mother Tongue has remained undefined. This had yielded ample evidence to question current practices and suggest the need to adopt new approaches in language use in education.

A Necessidade de Representar e de Coordenar Registros de Representação Semiótica para a Aprendizagem da Matemática nos Anos Iniciais: o que nos diz a BNCC?

O presente artigo objetiva investigar a Base Nacional Comum Curricular (BNCC) sob a ótica semiocognitiva no que concerne ao campo de conhecimento da matemática nos Anos Iniciais. Na teoria dos Registros de Representação Semiótica, encontra-se pressupostos importantes a serem considerados na elaboração de um documento com a pretensão de instalar um novo currículo nos sistemas de ensino brasileiros. Assim, formula-se o seguinte questionamento: como a BNCC aborda os aspectos semiocognitivos relacionados ao acesso dos objetos de conhecimento em matemática no processo de ensino e aprendizagem da matemática nos Anos Iniciais do Ensino Fundamental? Trata-se de uma pesquisa qualitativa do tipo análise documental. Como conclusão, aponta-se a ausência da perspectiva semiocognitiva para a aprendizagem da matemática nos Anos Iniciais pela BNCC e a necessidade de se repensar e redesenhar a estrutura curricular vigente nesse nível de ensino, almejando um currículo mais interessado e comprometido com a real aprendizagem da matemática.

Student-initiated aspects as starting points for teaching digital competence in the early years of primary education

ABSTRACT The beginning of primary education is an important time to form a good basis for students to develop their digital competence. However, the use of digital technologies is seldom a part of everyday schoolwork during the first years of primary school education. Furthermore, instruction on digital competence is often loosely connected to the students’ own ideas. Since there is obviously a need to investigate student-initiated involvement, this case study examined six to seven-year-old children’s views and ideas of using digital technology in school lessons through drawings and interviews. The results show that some of the students did not share the idea of using digital technology in their school lessons but most of the students did. In particular, the students expected digital devices to be used for learning, not for entertainment. Furthermore, their ideas reflected teacher-centred and student-centred approaches to learning digital competence. The study demonstrates that young students’ drawings and interviews reflect a range of important aspects in respect to teaching and learning digital competence.

Draw-A-Science-Comic: Alternative prompts and the presence of danger

The early years of primary school are important in shaping how children see scientists and science, but researching younger children is known to be difficult. The Draw-A-Scientist Test (DAST), in which students are asked to draw a scientist, has been one of the most popular ways to chart children’s conceptions of scientists and science. However, DAST tends to focus mainly on children’s conceptions about the appearance of scientists. To focus more on children’s conceptions of scientific activities as well as the emotions and attitudes associated with science, the Draw-A-Science-Comic test (DASC) was recently introduced. This study compares three alternative DASC prompts for two age groups of respondents (8- to 10-year-olds and 10- to 13-year-olds). The prompts asking students to draw a comic or a set of pictures produced significantly more sequential storytelling and depictions of science related emotions and attitudes than the prompt asking students to depict a story. The depictions of elements of danger, such as accidents and hazards in the laboratory, were also frequent in drawings with sequential storytelling. A more detailed analysis of the depictions showed that the frequency of elements of danger was closely associated with depictions of activity especially in the field of chemistry. For example, several comics included failed chemical experiments leading to explosions. Although depictions of danger are sometimes interpreted as a negative conception, in the children’s drawings the explosions and overflowing flasks were often seen also as a source of excitement and joy. Based on the result of this study, the use of DASC seems a suitable way for charting children’s conceptions of scientific activities as well as the emotions and attitudes associated with science from the early years of primary education until the beginning of secondary education.

The development of written expression in immigrant children from 6 to 9 years old

AbstractThis article presents the results of a pilot study carried out based on texts from 15 immigrant children aged 6 to 9 years, who are learning Spanish in situations of immersion in the Communities of Madrid and Castilla-La Mancha. The aim is to understand how these students try to integrate into the school context and especially to determine whether the development of written expression during the early years of primary education allows them to carry out more complex linguistic actions aimed at communication, such as expressing positive attitudes towards the recipient. These actions may reveal the need to communicate and, therefore, the need to learn the language in order to integrate. The texts were taken from the ESCONES Corpus and were collected in a prior study on lexical retrieval and auditory perception in the development of communicative skills in children aged 6 to 9. The analysis carried out considered the vocabulary used, syntactic complexity and the use of linguistic actions in the different grades and found that the development of written expression may allow students to better express actions related to manifesting positive feelings and attitudes towards their interlocutor.

Computational thinking through unplugged activities in early years of Primary Education

The inclusion of computational thinking (CT) in the classroom is something that the present and future society is demanding. However, this domain remains largely unexplored, especially in the first years of Primary Education. The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether the inclusion of the so-called unplugged activities favours the development of CT in the students of the early years of Primary Education. To this end, a quasi-experimental study has been carried out to explore the eventual benefit of a mixed approach that combines both unplugged and plugged-in activities. In particular, 84 second-grade students took part in the experiment. Three questions were evaluated: the development of their CT skills, their motivation towards the proposed instruction, and the influence of students' gender in the two previous areas. The intervention was designed on a selection of activities extracted from Code.org courses, and was divided into two phases, one in which one group worked with unplugged activities and the other with plugged-in activities, and a second where both groups worked with plugged-in activities. Analysing the three proposed questions through tests performed before, in between and after the instruction, it is concluded that the inclusion of unplugged activities in the instruction seems beneficial taking into account CT, motivation and gender.

Métodos de Enseñanza Apoyados en el Microordenador Canaima: Una Alternativa en la Enseñanza de la Historia Nacional

La enseñanza de la historia nacional desde los primeros años de la educación primaria es esencial para forjar los valores inherentes a la identidad nacional, tan necesaria para la formación de ciudadanos críticos, reflexivos y con profundo arraigo a la herencia histórica y cultural de su país. Paralelo a ello, las tecnologías de información y comunicación (TIC), actualmente juegan un papel fundamental dentro del mundo pedagógico, ya que son capaces de aportar gran variedad de actividades, permitiendo enriquecer los procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje; siendo el microordenador Canaima uno de los recursos tecnológicos de esta índole más extendidos en el país. El propósito de la investigación en curso, de tipo proyecto factible hasta la fase de ejecución, es aportar métodos de enseñanza para fortalecer el abordaje del aprendizaje en la historia por medio del recurso antes mencionado. Asimismo, se pretende propiciar el enriquecimiento de la praxis docente aprovechando la versatilidad que brinda dicha herramienta, para impregnar de significatividad el estudio de la historia nacional. Este compendio de información está enmarcado dentro de un estudio en desarrollo, cuya población serán los docentes y estudiantes de segundo y tercer grado de la Unidad Educativa “Alto Barinas Sur”; aspirando evaluar el nivel de profundidad con el que se desarrollan los contenidos, el grado de comprensión e interés de los estudiantes por los mismos, así como el impacto real que posee este microordenador en la dinamización de los contenidos y en el desarrollo de los métodos. Bajo este enfoque se espera promover en la comunidad docente una revisión de los métodos que se están utilizando, la reconsideración inherente al uso de estas y a la trascendencia que tienen los contenidos para los estudiantes.

Estudio de casos de la enseñanza de la lengua y cultura mapuche y su implementación como asignatura del currículo de educación básica

This research explores the content and teaching strategies of the language and culture of the Mapuche, taught in primary school, by analyzing the perceptions and practices of the pedagogical pairs who implement the subject of Indigenous Language in the early years of primary education. The sample was comprised of six schools who offer this subject, that met the following selection criteria: 1) effective implementation, 2) geographic zone; 3) number of years implementing the subject and/or initiatives on intercultural education and bilingualism. In each school, classroom observations and interviews with the school leaders, traditional educators and teachers were conducted. The research results showed there are two main types of teaching strategies: those related to the mapuche culture and those which are not directly related to this culture. The teaching contents are very similar among all the cases; however, they are contextualized to the local contexts of each community. In addition, the contents are predominantly oriented towards cultural, instead of language. Due to the autonomy in which the traditional educators work, their pedagogical decisions are based on their own beliefs on how to motivate students to develop a sense of belonging towards the mapuche identity instead of focusing on bilingualism.

El tradicional tópico de la muerte en el aula de educación infantil: análisis de álbumes ilustrados

This article studies the characteristics of a group of picture books whose central theme is death, intended for students in preschool and the early years of primary education. The article investigates the distinctive features of these works, considering whether they are appropriate tools for dealing with such a delicate subject in the early stages of education. To accomplish this, after a brief discussion of the subject of death in the literary tradition, it sets to establish a representative corpus of picture books published between 1985 and 2015, and analyze the texts and images that they contain. Through this analysis, it tries to demonstrate the most worthwhile techniques for representing death, and to classify the texts according to their tendency toward realism or symbolism.

Does it matter who your schoolmates are? An investigation of the association between school composition, school processes and mathematics achievement in the early years of primary education

Although many studies have focused on the importance of school composition for student achievement, there is still no consensus on whether school composition matters to student achievement, and, if so, why. Therefore, the present study investigates the association between school composition and mathematics achievement at the end of second grade in Flanders. International research points to the initial ability level, SES, ethnicity and sex composition of the school as potential variables in explaining differences in student achievement. Moreover, some researchers suggest that schools ‘react’ to their student body and for that reason we investigated the possible association between school composition and school processes. Data from the SiBO Project have been analyzed using multilevel regression and multilevel mediation analysis. The results showed no direct school composition effects with respect to prior achievement, SES, ethnicity and sex on math achievement. We found two small differential effects, indicating that mean school prior achievement seems to positively affect initially high achievers, and the proportion of minority students in school seems to negatively affect students speaking a non‐European language except for Turkish, Arabic or Berber at home. Furthermore, two small indirect effects were found which suggest that schools with a high mean prior achievement or a high mean SES keep in regular contact with their students' parents and this, in turn, appears to enhance students' math achievement. Overall, our results seem to indicate that school composition in the early years of primary education hardly matters.

PROFISSIONALIDADE POLIVALENTE E O TRABALHO DOCENTE NOS ANOS INICIAIS DO ENSINO FUNDAMENTAL

A pesquisa tem como objeto de estudo a docência nos anos iniciais do ensino fundamental e a constituição da profissionalidade docente polivalente. Os dados referem-se à fase exploratória na qual foram aplicados questionários. Foram realizadas duas entrevistas pilotos e um grupo focal experimental em abril e novembro de 2009 e em março de 2010, respectivamente, com professoras da Rede Municipal de Ensino do Recife-PE. Os dados obtidos a partir das falas dos sujeitos foram submetidos à análise de conteúdo, apoiada em Bardin (1979). Identificou-se três eixos estruturantes da profissionalidade polivalente: a relação professor-aluno, a relação escola e sociedade e a organização do trabalho pedagógico. Dentre eles destacamos aspectos da organização do trabalho pedagógico. O trabalho específico com a alfabetização parece ser caracterizador do trabalho do docente naquele nível de ensino. O fator tempo apresentou-se de forma ambígua, para caracterizar a profissionalidade polivalente. Observou-se ainda uma estreita relação entre as demandas atuais das políticas públicas educacionais e as formas próprias dos sujeitos de vivenciarem a polivalência.

Season of birth and school success in the early years of primary education

Several studies have reported significant relationships between children’s season of birth and measures of their academic success (i.e., the ‘season of birth effect’). Whereas most of these studies were cross‐sectional, the current study uses growth curve modelling to analyse longitudinal data on 3,187 children in Flemish primary education. The results indicate season of birth effects on both grade retention and mathematics achievement during the first two years of primary school. Because the Flemish cut‐off date is 31 December, children born in the fourth quarter (October‐November‐December) invariably are among the youngest in their grade age group. Almost 20% of these children were found to have been retained or referred to special education by the end of Grade 2, whereas for children born in the first quarter (January‐February‐March), this was only 6.34%. First quarter‐born children also showed moderately higher mathematics achievement at the start of first grade. During the next two school years, this achievement gap between children born in the first and the fourth quarter narrowed significantly. Finally, differentiated instruction was not found to be related to the decrease of the season of birth effect.

Ciclos e letramento na fase inicial do ensino fundamental

Apresenta e critica as fontes a partir das quais é possível mensurar a relativa prevalência da organização da escolarização em ciclos, no ensino fundamental brasileiro, e discutir abordagens que possibilitem superar os problemas metodológicos presentes em vários levantamentos que fazem uso dessas fontes. Com base nas mesmas fontes, descreve o estado recente das políticas implantadas na redes estaduais e nas redes municipais das capitais brasileiras. No que se refere a ciclos nas etapas iniciais do ensino fundamental. Discute as potencialidades e limitações das pesquisas quantitativas que procuraram avaliar a repercussão dos ciclos na educação brasileira.

The Language Question in Cameroon

In multilingual Cameroon, 247 indigenous languages live side by side with English and French (the two official languages) and Cameroon Pidgin English (the main lingua franca). While the two official languages of colonial heritage dominate public life in the areas of education, administration, politics, mass media, publicity and literature, both the indigenous languages and Cameroon Pidgin English are relegated to the background. This paper is a critique of language policy in Cameroon revealing that mother tongue education in the early years of primary education remains a distant cry, as the possible introduction of an indigenous language in the school system is not only considered unwanted by educational authorities but equally combated against by parents who believe that the future of their children lies in the mastery of the official languages. This persistent disregard of indigenous languages does not only alienate the Cameroonian child culturally, but further alienates the vast majority of Cameroonians who are illiterate (in English and French) since important State business is carried out in the official languages. As regards the implementation of the policy of official language bilingualism, there is clear imbalance in the use of the two official languages as French continues to be the dominant official language while English is relegated to a second place within the State. The frustration that ensues within the Anglophone community has led in recent years to the birth of Anglophone nationalism, a situation that seems to be widening the rift between the two main components of the society (Anglophones and Francophones), thereby compromising national unity. The paper is divided into five major parts. After a brief presentation of the country, the author dwells on multilingualism and language policy since the colonial period. The third, fourth and last parts of the paper focus on the critique of language policy in Cameroon with emphasis first on the policy of official language bilingualism and bilingual education, then on the place of indigenous languages, and finally on the national language debate.

Turn-taking, power asymmetries, and the positioning of bilingual participants in classroom discourse

Educational policies in Britain regarding the languages of minorities of migrant origin have been primarily assimilative, apart from a brief period from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s when there was intense interest in cultural diversity. However, since the mid-1980s, a minimal form of bilingual education provision has been developed and has come to be known as ‘bilingual support.’ This provision is mostly organised for bilingual learners in inner-city schools in the early years of primary education and serves as a means of facilitating minority-language students' social transition to school and eventual access to an English-medium education. In a number of areas of Britain, this form of educational support is provided by low-status staff or ‘bilingual teaching assistants’ who speak both English and the language of the minority students. Practices vary from school to school, but for the most part, bilingual teaching assistants are positioned as marginal to the main action of the classroom, which is defined and orchestrated by monolingual English-speaking teachers. This article provides a detailed analysis of discourse practices in such classrooms and describes specific ways in which bilingual staff are positioned by the organisational and discursive practices of monolingual teachers.