Elementary School Days Research Articles

How Elementary In-School Play Opportunities Relate to Academic Achievement and Social-Emotional Well-Being: Systematic Review.

Play is essential for child growth and development, and may have academic and social-emotional implications. To understand the relationship between in-school play opportunities and academic achievement (AA) and social-emotional well-being among elementary school students, a systematic review of the current in-school play literature was conducted. Keywords were input across 7 search engines. After screening, 20 peer-reviewed publications related to play, AA, and social-emotional well-being met the inclusion criteria for this review. Across the included publications, recess was the only in-school play opportunity assessed. Overall, student behavior and social-emotional outcomes benefited from more recess while mixed results were found between recess participation and academic outcomes. However, more recess was not detrimental to AA. The findings from this review support the need for recess as part of a whole child approach to education that may mitigate the negative outcomes of sitting through long periods of instruction. More research is needed on the AA and social-emotional effects of other types of in-school play opportunities (ie, centers, play stations, and other breaks). Findings from this review indicate that recess is a necessary part of the elementary school day.

Barriers to children’s outdoor time: teachers’ and principals’ experiences in elementary schools

Spending time in nature during childhood can improve mental and physical health, support academic success, and cultivate pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors. Increasing outdoor time during school can enhance the likelihood of those outcomes for all students. However, in practice incorporating outdoor time into the school day can be challenging. This study reports on barriers identified during the development phase of an action research project that aimed to increase outdoor time as a regular, repeated part of the elementary school day. Teachers (n = 22) and administrators (n = 3) in one school district in the Northeastern United States were asked to describe the barriers that limited their opportunities to take students outside. Data indicated 33 discrete barriers and 5 themes that cut across the barriers. Interactions and overlap across barriers increased the challenges encountered by teachers. A systems thinking approach is suggested to increase outdoor time in schools.

Examining equity in an elementary school computer science intervention using component-based research

This article reports on implementation of a problem-based learning intervention developed with the intention of finding time for computer science (CS) in the elementary school day. This study investigated differences in effects on students in particular socio-demographic groups using a quasi-experimental design. We first provide an overview of the perennial problem of group differences or “gaps” in student outcomes. Then we illustrate how, using component-based research (CBR), we moved beyond the question of whether the intervention worked, to focus on which parts of the intervention worked, for whom, and under what conditions. Using hierarchical linear modeling, this study draws from a sample of 16 elementary schools with 321 teachers and 5791 students in Broward County, Florida, the sixth largest school system in the United States. This study complements a previous paper (Authors, 2020), which examined associations between intervention components and student outcomes by investigating how outcomes differ for students in different socio-demographic groups and whether the presence of particular intervention components amplify or reduce differences. Through CBR, our work illustrates that CS interventions which may appear to benefit students overall, may be less beneficial or even detrimental to particular groups.

Long-Term Gains from Longer School Days

This paper examines whether additional time in school affects labor market outcomes and educational attainment in adulthood. We leverage within and across city and cohort variation covering a large-scale reform that increased the Chilean elementary and secondary school day by 30 percent between 1997 and 2010. Exposure to full-day school increases educational attainment and earnings when students are in their 20s and 30s. In addition, we find evidence of delayed childbearing among women, and some occupational upskilling. These labor market effects are not concentrated in any particular subgroup, but are widespread throughout the population. JEL classification: I26; I25; J24; H52

Finding time for computer science in the elementary school day: a quasi-experimental study of a transdisciplinary problem-based learning approach

BackgroundAs the number of computer science (CS) jobs become increasingly available in this country and computing skills become essential tools for managing all aspects of our personal lives, CS is quickly becoming an essential element of K-12 education and recently, there has been increased attention to bringing computer science to the elementary grades. However, with a schedule that emphasizes literacy and mathematics, and other subjects competing for instructional time, creating opportunities for CS in the elementary school day is challenging. This study aimed to address this problem by investigating the use of problem-based transdisciplinary modules (i.e., “Time4CS” modules) that combined English language arts (ELA), science, and social studies lessons with the Code.org “Fundamentals” CS education program.ResultsResults indicated that teachers who taught Time4CS modules completed more CS lessons than teachers who did not teach the modules. Further, across all classrooms, completing a higher percentage of non-grade level assigned Code.org Fundamentals lessons (i.e., Code.org lessons above or below grade level that were available to teachers, but not required for their particular grade level) was positively associated with students’ achievement outcomes on state ELA and mathematics tests. Additionally, higher amounts of interdisciplinary teaching practices were associated with higher student achievement, specifically students’ state assessment ELA scores.ConclusionsThis study demonstrated that transdisciplinary problem-based modules that integrate the teaching of CS with other subject areas are a feasible way to bring more CS opportunities to younger learners. Moreover, it showed that implementing such modules is linked to more positive student academic achievement outcomes. With attentive revision, the modules featured in this study may be useful tools for elementary schools. These findings have implications for researchers, school district administrators, and those individuals who are in-charge of public policy initiatives seeking ways to bring CS to all elementary school students. Specifically, they highlight that it is possible to make time in the elementary school day for CS, and that there are no negative consequences for core subjects (e.g., ELA and mathematics).

해양스포츠 참여자들의 안전교육과 안전의식 및 안전문화 형성간의 구조적 관계

The purpose of this study is to analyze the structural relationship between safety education, safety consciousness and safety culture formation of marine sports participants. To accomplish this goal, the safety education perceived by marine sports participants was set as exogenous variables, and safety culture formation as the mediating factor of safety consciousness was set as endogenous variables. This study showed that the fit index was generally good, indicating that the theoretical model was good. As a result of the detailed index analysis, there was a significant causal relationship between safety education, safety consciousness, safety education and safety culture formation, and safety consciousness was found to have significant causal relationship to safety culture formation. Based on these findings, it is concluded that the safety education before marine sports activities affects safety consciousness and safety culture formation. Therefore, safety education before all sports activities including marine sports activities is a necessity, not an option. In other words, it is necessary to acquire knowledge about the environment of all sports activities including the ocean, and knowledge about emergency situations and natural phenomena that occur during physical activities. This safety education should be conducted from the home to the preliminary stage, and safety education should be carried out throughout our society from the elementary school days to marine sports activities such as daily life, sports injuries that occur during sports activities, natural phenomena, will be. In this study, it is necessary to study and develop the safety culture for various ages and participants in the marine sports experience class.

Teaching elementary social studies during snack time and other unstructured spaces

It is common practice for social studies in the elementary school day to be integrated into other subject areas, especially language arts. Also common in an elementary school day are unstructured spaces such as snack time or recess. In this paper, we present findings from a larger study on social studies integration within various subject areas to explore how two teachers (first and fifth grade) integrated social studies into unstructured spaces. These teachers integrated social studies concepts and experiences into morning work, community building, snack time, and after-lunch reading to varying degrees. This study provides an inroad for conversation among researchers, teacher educators, and practicing teachers about the ideals and reality of elementary social studies with the hope of deepening students’ experiences.

Physical Activity Stations: Opportunities for Teachers and Students during the School Day

Physical activity stations are a simple approach to engage in physical activity breaks during the elementary school day. This article describes the procedures involved in creating physical activity stations that can be implemented in elementary schools nationwide.

Active Learning Increases Children's Physical Activity across Demographic Subgroups.

Given the need to find more opportunities for physical activity within the elementary school day, this study was designed to asses the impact of I-CAN!, active lessons on: 1) student physical activity (PA) outcomes via accelerometry; and 2) socioeconomic status (SES), race, sex, body mass index (BMI), or fitness as moderators of this impact. Participants were 2,493 fourth grade students (45.9% male, 45.8% white, 21.7% low SES) from 28 central Texas elementary schools randomly assigned to intervention (n=19) or control (n=9). Multilevel regression models evaluated the effect of I-CAN! on PA and effect sizes were calculated. The moderating effects of SES, race, sex, BMI, and fitness were examined in separate models. Students in treatment schools took significantly more steps than those in control schools (β = 125.267, SE = 41.327, p = .002, d = .44). I-CAN! had a significant effect on MVPA with treatment schools realizing 80% (β = 0.796, SE =0.251, p = .001; d = .38) more MVPA than the control schools. There were no significant school-level differences on sedentary behavior (β = -0.177, SE = 0.824, p = .83). SES, race, sex, BMI, and fitness level did not moderate the impact of active learning on step count and MVPA. Active learning increases PA within elementary students, and does so consistently across demographic sub-groups. This is important as these sub-groups represent harder to reach populations for PA interventions. While these lessons may not be enough to help children reach daily recommendations of PA, they can supplement other opportunities for PA. This speaks to the potential of schools to adopt policy change to require active learning.

話しことばの発達 : 小学校期を中心に( 国語教育研究の多様なる展開)

話しことばの発達 : 小学校期を中心に( 国語教育研究の多様なる展開)

Episodic and individual effects of elementary students' optimal experience: An HLM study

ABSTRACTThe authors defined optimal experience as a functional state of a relatively high level of concentration, time distortion, satisfaction, and enjoyment (Csikszentmihalyi, 1992) and collected data through the Day Reconstruction Method. In three random days, 147 fifth-grade students answered questionnaires for each school event in the previous day resulting repeated data from 2,288 episodes. Several hierarchical linear models were conducted. The authors found that elementary students perceived better quality of optimal experience during break time versus classes taught by activity, seatwork or lecture methods. Unexpectedly, more optimal experience was reported in the events when students perceived themselves as having high skill but low challenge, contradictory to the original expectation of skill–challenge balance. Four additional flow conditions were more effective than primary flow condition and instructional methods in predicting optimal experience. Finally, optimal experience varied much more across event-episodes than among individuals meaning that teachers have rooms to improve students' optimal experience in elementary school days.

School Day Energy Expenditure in Elementary School Children.

The purpose was to characterize energy expenditure (EE) during academic subjects and activities during an elementary school day. Children in 2nd to 4th grades (N = 33) wore the SenseWear Armband (SWA) for 5 school days to measure EE. Teachers' logs were compared with SWA data to extract information about EE throughout the day. Energy expenditure was also compared among grades. After controlling for body mass, grade level was not a significant predictor of average daily caloric expenditure, F (2, 17.58) = .29, P = .75, ω(2) = .05. When comparing activities throughout the day, relative rates of EE differed significantly, Wilks' F (7, 23) = 52.2, P = .00, ηp(2) = .94, with PE and recess having higher EE. When academic subjects were compared (math, science, language arts), relative rate of EE was also significantly different, Wilks' F (2, 30) = 4.31, P = .02, ηp(2) = .22. For the full sample, relative rate EE was higher in science than in language arts. The school day provides opportunity for EE for children. These data support the potential benefit of active instruction in language arts as a method to increase school day EE.

Increasing Children's Voluntary Physical Activity Outside of School Hours Through Targeting Social Cognitive Theory Variables.

Volume of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity completed during the elementary school day is insufficient, and associated with health risks. Improvements in theory-based psychosocial factors might facilitate increased out-of-school physical activity. A behaviorally based after-school care protocol, Youth Fit 4 Life, was tested for its association with increased voluntary, out-of-school physical activity and improvements in its theory-based psychosocial predictors in 9- to 12-year-olds. Increases over 12 weeks in out-of-school physical activity, and improvements in self-regulation for physical activity, exercise self-efficacy, and mood, were significantly greater in the Youth Fit 4 Life group (n = 88) when contrasted with a typical care control group (n = 57). Changes in the 3 psychosocial variables significantly mediated the group-physical activity change relationship (R(2) = .31, P < .001). Change in self-regulation was a significant independent mediator, and had a reciprocal relationship with change in out-of-school physical activity. In the Youth Fit 4 Life group, occurrence of 300 min/wk of overall physical activity increased from 41% to 71%. Targeting theory-based psychosocial changes within a structured after-school care physical activity program was associated with increases in children's overall time being physically active. After replication, large scale application will be warranted.

Empowerment or Equality?: Legacies of Free to Be … You and Me

Since to Be... You and Me marked its fortieth anniversary in 2012, I've spoken about this groundbreaking children's album, book, and television special to audiences across country. Along with historian Laura Lovett, I coedited a collection titled When We Were to Be, which documents production of to project by Mario Thomas and her creative team during 1970s. Our volume also explores reception of to among critics, parents, and children and offers personal reflections and social critiques by journalists, scholars, and artists today.From moment vinyl LPs first hit record store shelves, to became a cultural phenomenon. For first generation of to kids, this musical melange of songs and stories still stirs up a heady mix of emotions, memories, and even tears. Revisiting to prompts adults to time travel back to their elementary school days to reclaim those bygone moments when future beckoned with a boundless sense of open possibility.Free to influenced listeners' values, politics, and even core identities in two fundamental ways. First, it provided an affirming narrative to boys who did not conform to dominant, heteronormative standards of masculinity. As Mario Thomas recounts, over decades, countless gay men have told her that William's Doll and It's All Right to Cry provided the first inklings that were going to okay (Thomas 2012,13). Many straight fathers, too, recall finding in these lyrics reassuring license to grow into nurturing parents. Although to Be's creators still assumed existence of only two genders linked to biological sex, families of LGBT youth often praise album as a pioneering manual of social acceptance.Second, to schooled young children in a particular set of liberal feminist ideals. With some important exceptions (discussed below), to s feminist politics are strongly individualistic: it asserts that children should pursue their interests and talents regardless of stereotypes, and it invites them to embrace their uniqueness (and thus to accept differences among other people, too.) The story Atalanta teaches girls to relish independence, adventure, curiosity, and competition rather than value marriage as life's crowning achievement. And as expressed in song Parents Are People, to affirms importance of paid work and parental roles for both mothers and fathers within heteronormative, nuclear family life.Indeed, we might regard to as original primer of what is now sometimes called empowerment feminism: a be it all-have it ethos that tells girls and women that they can succeed in all realms of life by aiming high, working hard, staying confident, and-dare I say it-leaning in. Countless women have testified to to s emboldening influence on their identities as equal-opportunity feminists; fittingly, Mario Thomas's own niece, Dionne Gordon Kirschner, offers a representative account of this experience. Raised during 1970s by a capable single mother-and also benefiting from supportive ties with Mario's extended family-Dionne sees little distinction between independent women who raised her and to philosophy that suffused her childhood:My aunt has always been Free to Be in my eyes. I grew up feeling that I wanted to attack life in same way. I knew that whatever dreams I had would my own and not a product of what others wanted for me____ Along with my mom and my aunt as role models, to empowered me in its one of a kind, progressive, and skillful storytelling. As a young person, it left me feeling energized, transformed, and capable of taking on anything that might come my way. (Kirschner 2012,22)Reading these words, it's hard not to feel impressed that a children's album could leave such an inspiring imprint. I myself was a to kid in suburban St. Louis during this time; I, too, belted out these melodies, scarcely realizing, until many years later, how profoundly they would shape my aspirations, ambitions, and beliefs. …

Playing fair: the contribution of high-functioning recess to overall school climate in low-income elementary schools.

Recess is a part of the elementary school day with strong implications for school climate. Positive school climate has been linked to a host of favorable student outcomes, from attendance to achievement. We examine 6 low-income elementary schools' experiences implementing a recess-based program designed to provide safe, healthy, and inclusive play to study how improving recess functioning can affect school climate. Data from teacher, principal, and recess coach interviews; student focus groups; recess observations; and a teacher survey are triangulated to understand the ways that recess changed during implementation. Comparing schools that achieved higher- and lower-functioning recesses, we link recess functioning with school climate. Recess improved in all schools, but 4 of the 6 achieved a higher-functioning recess. In these schools, teachers and principals agreed that by the end of the year, recess offered opportunities for student engagement, conflict resolution, pro-social skill development, and emotional and physical safety. Respondents in these four schools linked these changes to improved overall school climate. Recess is an important part of the school day for contributing to school climate. Creating a positive recess climate helps students to be engaged in meaningful play and return to class ready to learn.

A Comparison Study of the Basic Service Facility of Urban and Rural Eco-Community in Taiwan

For a community, to be ecological is the way forward to sustainability, and the first step is to avoid unnecessary trips for daily activities. Realizing the required service function of a community can provide the directions and contents to the community and the one in charged for improving the convenience of life, while allowing residents to reach those facilities by walking or biking, thus achieving the ecological goal of energy conservation. This study adopts the Delphi technique to screen the most important and basic service items of the service function for the urban and rural eco-communities, which are supposed to be accessible and easily reached. Furthermore, the study utilizes the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to get different weights of these service items for two kinds of communities. Results show that the facilities of daily life are the most basic and important category of the service function for both kinds of communities; elementary school and senior day care service is the most significant item that urban and rural eco-community must have, respectively.

Learning Spanish Today

Learning a foreign language is of constant interest--to students, travelers, lifelong learners, and job seekers. The landscape of such study, once offered only through a small selection of cursory guides and complicated audio courses, has radically changed. Now students can get the basics for free online, learn in conversations with native speakers in social media communities, and have access to a rich world of print and electronic resources that are exhaustive in their coverage. Andrew Walsh, a Graduate Assistant at the Literatures and Languages Library at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a master's student in Library and Information Science there, has written a guide to help librarians, be they in large academic institutions, public libraries, or high-school libraries, develop a modern collection of resources to aid the language learner. Walsh holds a bachelor's degree in Spanish and has enjoyed studying the language since his elementary school days and thus has great experience with the tools that really help one learn. While his guide is dedicated to resources for the Spanish language, it also serves as a model for those seeking to build collections in other languages--highlighting the types of tools available and suggesting the kinds of resources that create the most useful collections. Foreign language education is in the midst of a radical transformation, fueled by a boom of new technologies and applications for learning. Today, educational institutions are including more digital and interactive media alongside textbooks and traditional resources as they recognize the value of information technology. But what is the right balance? Videos, podcasts, interactive online games and quizzes are very effective for some purposes while printed books remain far superior for others. Existing guides in this area are typically either bibliographies of print material or informal lists of online websites. Rarely does either style of guide compare the different types of tools, which makes identifying the best resources a difficult proposition. Additionally the highly commercial nature of the web makes finding quality resources through Internet searches extremely difficult, as most websites are trying to make a profit from advertisements, sales of their own products or affiliate commissions. This column recommends print textbooks, grammar books and reference books while also comparing them to newly emerging formats in an attempt to paint a more complete picture of the ways Spanish is learned today. The resources were selected based on their usefulness, scope, methods, organization and clarity. Sources that address cultural realities and regional variations are highlighted, since Spanish has such diverse dialects and varieties across Iberia and Latin America. The sources included are bilingual. Advanced learners will want to consult monolingual resources as well. Of course, many other valuable resources exist beyond those listed in this work, but my purpose is to give collection development librarians a good starting point to build a collection based upon a group of core resources for each category. A title's exclusion from this list does not signify that it is not valuable. The target learning group for this collection of resources is college-level learners of Spanish, which means that advanced high school students as well as older adults can benefit as well. A short introductory section first lists a selection of quick resources designed to provide a fast and easy start to learning Spanish. Then the bulk of the guide is organized in categories based on the type of resource. Note: All online resources were accessed on 4/29/11. QUICK RESOURCES FOR BEGINNING SPANISH Between online lessons, podcasts and affordable basic language textbooks, there are plenty of ways for a beginner to get a quick introduction to the Spanish language at little to no cost. A variety of organizations provide free language instruction online, with various types of lessons typically geared toward beginners. …

Perceptions of Traditional Korean Foods and Satisfaction Levels toward School Foodservice among Middle School Students and Parents of Schools Serving Traditional Korean Menus in Gyeonggi Province

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to investigate perceptions of Korean foods and school foodservice sat-isfaction levels among middle school students as provided by a Korean menu-focused school foodservice. The study subjects included middle school freshmen attending a school providing Korean menus and their parents. A survey questionnaire was administered to obtain information on general characteristics, perceptions of tradi-tional Korean foods, and degrees of satisfaction toward school foodservice. The student subjects had sig-nificantly lower interest and preference for traditional Korean foods and less positive perceptions of traditional Korean foods than the parent subjects. In regard to degrees of satisfaction for school foodservice, the students evaluated the current Korean menu-focused foodservice significantly higher than the previous foodservice pro-vided to them during their elementary school days. The parent subjects' also generally reported very high sat-isfaction levels of the foodservice. The current study findings suggest there are positive effects of Korean-style school foodservice and support its further expansion to other schools. It is recommended that di-etary education on the excellence of traditional Korean foods should accompany the provision of Korean-style foodservices in order to better guide adolescents' recognition of the matter.

Cold‐induced sweating syndrome with neonatal features of Crisponi syndrome: Longitudinal observation of a patient homozygous for a CRLF1 mutation

Cold-induced sweating syndrome (CISS) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder caused by mutations in CRLF1 (cytokine receptor-like factor 1), characterized by profuse sweating in cold environmental temperature and craniofacial and skeletal features. Mutations in CRLF1 also cause Crisponi syndrome (CS), characterized by neonatal-onset paroxysmal muscular contractions as well as craniofacial and skeletal manifestations and abnormal functions of the autonomic nerve system. To date, it is an unresolved problem whether the two conditions are distinct clinical entities or a single clinical entity with variable expressions or with different presentations depending on the patients' age at diagnosis. We report on a 30-year-old Japanese woman with CISS and homozygous out-of-frame 23-base deletion of CRLF1. In infancy, she did not show paroxysmal muscular contractions, but showed feeding difficulty, hyperthermia, and facial characteristics including thick and arched eyebrows, a short nose with anteverted nostrils, full cheeks, an inverted upper lip, and a small mouth, resembling those observed in CS. Profuse sweating was noticed at 3 years of age. Cold-induced sweating was recognized in her elementary school days. In adolescence to adulthood, she showed a Marfanoid habitus with progressive kyphoscoliosis and craniofacial characteristics including dolichocephaly, a slender face with poor expression, a distinctive nose with hypoplastic nares, malar hypoplasia, prognathism, and a small mouth. This is the first report of detailed longitudinal observation of a patient with CRLF1 abnormalities, compatible with the notion that CISS and CS may be a single clinical entity.

Development and evaluation of WillTry. An instrument for measuring children's willingness to try fruits and vegetables

This paper describes the development and evaluation of the WillTry instrument, a psychometric tool designed to measure children's willingness to try fruits and vegetables. WillTry surveys were interviewer-administered to 284 children in an elementary school and summer day camps located in rural Mississippi and Arkansas (United States) communities. Factor analysis was used to determine construct dimensionality. Additional evaluation included internal consistency, test–retest reliability, and predictive validity. Factor analysis suggested a single dimension for the food items. The WillTry food scale had substantial reliability (intraclass correlation coefficients between 0.61 and 0.80) and sufficient internal consistency (Cronbach's α≥0.70). Results of the regression analysis for percent consumption of foods offered on WillTry response confirmed the predictive validity of the instrument. The results of these analyses provide psychometric evidence for the use of the WillTry instrument as a measure of willingness to try fruits and vegetables in rural, southern US children 5–14 years of age.