First-year School Research Articles

Educational and developmental gains in early childhood (EDGE) study protocol: investigating the impact of funded three-year-old kindergarten

ABSTRACT This paper describes the research protocol for the Educational and Developmental Gains in Early Childhood (EDGE) Study, which will examine the implementation of two years of funded kindergarten prior to the first year of school in Victoria, Australia. EDGE will examine whether children’s language, cognitive, social-emotional, and behavioural outcomes are improved after two years of kindergarten compared to one year. The experiences of (and impacts on) teachers, service leaders, and families will also be examined. The study includes a cross-sectional cohort of 95 early childhood education and care (ECEC) services, and an embedded longitudinal observational cohort of children attending these services. Case studies of 15–20 ECEC services will also be collected, in addition to interviews with policy stakeholders.

Stereotypes and Views of Science among Elementary Students: Gender and Grade Differences

Several empirical studies reveal that students are poorly informed, and often hold stereotyped views of science and scientists. The present study aimed to investigate the Portuguese elementary school students' images of scientists and their work and the influence of gender and grade level on the development of these images. Two hundred and eighty-nine elementary school students enrolled in grades 1-5 in urban public schools participated in the study. Students were asked to draw a scientist and to answer questions about the drawing. The data collected were analyzed, considering three different features: stereotypical indicators, specialized research fields, and scientists' activity. Several descriptive and bivariate analyses were performed. Portuguese students tended to report the same stereotyped image of scientists described in other countries, and students' knowledge seems to be limited to a few fields of specialization and influenced by the pandemic context experienced during the DAST application. Moreover, the results showed differences according to the student's gender and grade level that may result, among other factors, from the influence of the atypical organization of the Portuguese education system in the first years of schooling.

Child educational progress in Born in Bradford pregnancies affected by gestational diabetes and also exposed to maternal common mental disorders

Gestational diabetes and the maternal mental disorders of anxiety and depression have been implicated in adverse offspring neuro-behavioural outcomes but these exposures have only been studied in isolation. 1051 children whose mothers were diagnosed with gestational diabetes in UK’s Born in Bradford cohort had linkage to maternal primary care records, providing diagnostic and treatment codes for depression and anxiety. Education record linkage provided results of the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile from the first year of school, aged five. Risk of not attaining a ‘Good level of development’ was analysed using multivariable Poisson regression within a generalised estimating equation framework. Multiple imputation was implemented for missing data. There was limited evidence of increased risk of failure to attain a ‘good level of development’ in those additionally exposed to maternal mental disorders (adjusted RR 1.21; 95% CI 0.94, 1.55). However, there was more evidence in children of Pakistani maternal ethnicity (adjusted RR 1.36; 95% CI 1.04, 1.77) than White British; this may have been driven by English not being the primary language spoken in the home. Therefore there may be groups with GDM in whom it is particularly important to optimise both maternal physical and mental health to improve child outcomes.

Home language variation in the narratives of urban First Nations Australian children in their first year of school

ABSTRACT First Nations children may speak a dialect of English that has different grammatical rules from Standard Australian English (school language). Limited studies have investigated Aboriginal English (home language) dialect in First Nations children and its impact on differential diagnosis of language disorder. This study measured the density of home language dialect and grammatical accuracy in oral narratives produced by typically developing First Nations children. Non-standardised assessment narrative protocols were used to elicit language samples from 27 Australian First Nations children aged 4.5–6 years. Local home language dialectal features were coded into the sample and grammatical accuracy was calculated separately for school language and home language. All children displayed some use of home language features. The most common home language features used were alternative use of regular past tense and irregular past tense, zero use of regular and irregular past tense, and alternative use of pronouns. Dialect density varied highly amongst participants. Grammatical accuracy was higher for home language than school language. Speech pathologists and teachers need to be aware of differences between home and school language for First Nations children to avoid misdiagnosis of language disorder. More research is required to gain normative data that informs culturally appropriate assessment practices for this population.

Longitudinal associations between parental mathematics anxiety and attitudes and young children’s mathematics attainment

The associations between parental mathematics anxiety and attitudes and children’s mathematics attainment in early primary school were explored. Initially, parents of preschool children (Mage = 3;11 [years;months]) completed a questionnaire indexing parental mathematics anxiety and attitudes and the frequency of preschool home number experiences. The children completed mathematics assessments in their first year (n = 231, Mage = 5;2) and second year (n = 119, Mage = 6;3) of schooling and a mathematics anxiety questionnaire in their third year of schooling (n = 119, Mage = 6;7). A questionnaire indexing the frequency of primary school home number experiences was completed by 119 of the parents in their children’s second year of schooling (Mage = 6;0). All indices of parental mathematics anxiety and attitudes predicted children’s mathematics attainment in their first school year. These associations were independent of parental mathematics attainment and were not mediated by the frequency of preschool home number experiences. Furthermore, the positive association between preschool home number experiences and children’s mathematics attainment was not weaker in the context of high parental mathematics anxiety or negative parental mathematics attitudes. One index of parental mathematics attitudes predicted children’s mathematics attainment in their second school year, but this association was not significant when prior attainment was controlled. There was a stronger association between maternal mathematics anxiety and girls’ attainment versus boys’ attainment. Parental mathematics anxiety did not predict children’s mathematics anxiety. The findings suggest that children whose parents have high mathematics anxiety or negative mathematics attitudes are more likely to have lower mathematics attainment in their first year of school. However, the mechanism underpinning this association is not yet established.

Variance of Teacher Identity in First-Year School Teachers: The Role of Gender, Taught Subject, and Grade Level Taught


 Although antecedents of teacher identity have been well investigated over decades, the role of demographic variables in teacher identity variance has received relatively little research attention. The study explored how teacher identity (grounded in a four-indicator model comprising occupational commitment, teacher self-efficacy, job satisfaction, and motivation to teach) might differ on three key demographics: gender, taught subject, and grade level taught. To reduce possible noise from other demographic constructs (e.g., age, tenure, and job level), participants were recruited from a cohort of 464 first-year school teachers in Mainland China. Using multiple analytic techniques, findings indicated that female teachers were less committed to the teaching occupation than were male teachers. Those teaching social sciences in primary schools showed lower levels of occupational commitment and teacher self-efficacy than did those teaching sciences at secondary schools. Implications and suggestions are provided.

Spatial geometric thinking and its articulation with the visualization and manipulation of objects in 3D

This paper aims to build a conceptual framework that addresses spatial geometric thinking and the respective visualization skills required at different levels of the schooling process. Studies indicate that spatial geometric sills are essential for scientific thinking. It encompasses a set of cognitive processes through which humans can construct and manipulate mental representations of objects in space and is a skill directed towards understanding objects and their relations in the 2D and 3D worlds. The use of these spatial reasoning skills involves drawing, manipulating, and explaining objects and their relationships and should be developed from the first years of schooling. Based on this theoretical context, partial research results on surface representations that can be manipulated in three dimensions (3D) and obtained through GeoGebra will be presented in this paper. The underlying theory was Duval's Theory of Registers of Semiotic Representation, which allowed the analysis of activities developed by graduate students in Mathematics Education by observing and physically manipulating such representations to obtain the respective graphic and algebraic records. The conceptual framework constructed and presented in this article contributed to identifying other skills required in this study for the development of spatial geometric thinking.

Language Acquisition by Roma-Slovak Bilingual Children Over Time and by Three Types of Roma Communities

This research aims to determine the significance of the progress in the first and second language acquisition by Roma-Slovak bilingual children in their first year of schooling, differentiated by three types of Roma communities (type 1, type 2 and type 3) at the beginning of the school year (test) and the end of the school year (post-test). The partial aim is to analyze the context and relationships of the progress in the first and second language acquisition by Roma children, determined by the type of Roma community in which individual children live. The research set as a whole (n = 68) consists of Roma-Slovak bilingual children with Romani as their native language and Slovak as their second language in their first year of schooling. Subsequently, the research set is differentiated into three groups by the type of Roma community in which the children live, namely: type 1 - municipal and urban concentrations (n = 22); type 2 - settlements located on the outskirts of a city or municipality (n = 23); and type 3 - settlements spatially remote or separated by a natural or artificial barrier (n = 23). We used a standardized research tool, OOS Test - image-vocabulary test (Kondáš, 2010). We conducted the research in two phases, at the beginning of the school year (test) and the end of the school year (post-test). To analyze the data statistically, we used the SPSS 20.0 statistical program. As one of the important findings, this study has shown statistically significant differences between Roma-Slovak bilingual children from type 1, type 2 and type 3 Roma communities in L1 and L2 at the beginning and the end of the school year.Moreover, the research has shown statistically significant differences in the acquisition progress in L1 and L2 between children from the type 1, type 2 and type 3 communities at the given time. The main research problem arising from the findings is that the progress in the first and second language acquisition by Roma-Slovak bilingual children is determined by the type of Roma community in which the Roma children live. Furthermore, the findings show a relationship and connection between the first and second language acquisition development and the type of Roma community in which the children live. Acknowledgments This paper is an output of the research project "Language and Communication Problems in Slovakia and their Management" funded by the Slovak Research and Development Agency under the contract No. APVV-17-0254 (2018 – ). It is the continuation of the research project "Language competence of the Romani pupils in the first grade of primary schol" funded by the same agency under the contract No. VEGA 1/0845/15 (2015–2017).

Letter-sound knowledge in Icelandic children at the age 6 years-old

The aim of this study was to examine letter-sound knowledge when children start at school in Iceland. 392 children aged 5–6 years completed assessments of letter-sound knowledge, i.e., the names and sounds of uppercase and lowercase letters of the Icelandic alphabet (uppercase letter-name; uppercase letter-sound; lowercase letter-name; lowercase letter-sound). Whether the child had broken the reading code (could read words) was also recorded. The results revealed no significant difference between girls and boys in the four factors (letter name, letter sound). The results indicated that 56.9 % of the children had broken the reading code when they started school. 58.2 % of the girls and 55.6 % of the boys, not significant difference between the genders. There was a significant difference between the group which had broken the reading code and the group which have not in all the four factors. There was also a high significant correlation between all 4 variables from 0.915 between uppercase letter and lowercase sound to 0.963 between uppercase sounds and uppercase letter.Based on these data, it seems reasonable to advocate learning letter-sound correspondences early in the first year of school to form the best possible basis for breaking the reading code and further reading development.

The Arabic Diglossia Reality: The Effect of Specific Story Reading in Kindergarten on Reading Acquisition in First Grade

ABSTRACT Due to the diglossic nature of the Arabic language, Arabic-speaking children enter their first year of school with immaturity in literary language and word representations in their mental lexicon. This study examined the effects of interactive story reading in kindergarten on future reading skills and whether this effect can be generalized to reading skills of infrequent words. 102 Arabic-speaking kindergarten children were divided into two groups: 1) the intervention group was based on a first-grade textbook; 2) the control group was based on classic stories from the kindergarten library. The program was implemented for three months during the kindergarten year. The findings show that the intervention group’s scores were higher than the control group in measures of represented/practiced and unfamiliar items. Additionally, the gain of the intervention group in reading unfamiliar items provide evidence for a generalization effect of the intervention program. We conclude that the negative impact of diglossia on reading acquisition in Arabic can be reduced during kindergarten.

Word Writing and Cognitive Predictors in Spanish at the Age of Seven

AbstractInterest in the cognitive precursors of literacy has been increasing in recent years since reading and writing are essential components of functional learning in the first years of schooling and of school success in later educational stages. However, it can be observed that while studies on the relationship between cognitive variables and reading are frequent, those carried out about writing are scarcer and in different languages and ages. The purpose of this study is to explore the joint contribution made by certain cognitive variables, measured at the ages of 6 and 7, to word writing among Spanish children in the second year of Primary Education (7 years old). In this longitudinal study, 116 Spanish-speaking pupils participated, from schools located in an average socio-cultural area, without special educational needs. Participants were evaluated in terms of their letter knowledge, phonological awareness, phonological memory, and alphanumeric and non-alphanumeric rapid automatised naming at 6 and 7 years of age, and word writing at 7 years of age. Descriptive-exploratory analyses, bivariate analyses, and multivariate regressions were modelled. In general, the findings show a different contribution for the cognitive variables considered in word writing at the age of seven, although this contribution does not vary substantially between the ages of 6 and 7 among Spanish pupils. Phonological knowledge at 6 and 7 years of age is the variable that best predicts the writing of words at 7 years. The contribution of non-alphanumeric speed naming remains constant and alphanumeric speed naming does not contribute to the explanation of writing at this age. Phonological memory at 6 years of age contributes to the explanation of writing at the age of 7 and letter knowledge contributes at the age of 7. These results have implications for educational practice and for the theory of writing acquisition in transparent languages.

The Relationship Between Early Spelling and Decoding.

This study aimed to elucidate the nature of the relationship between the development of decoding and encoding skills in the first year at school. The foundational literacy skills of one hundred eighty 5-year-old children were examined on three occasions over their first year of literacy instruction. Participants received the same literacy curriculum. The predictive utility of early spelling on later reading accuracy, reading comprehension, and spelling outcomes was explored. Performance on matched nonword spelling and nonword reading tasks was also used to compare the use of particular graphemes across these contexts. Regression and path analyses showed that nonword spelling was a unique predictor of later (end of year) reading and played a facilitative role in the emergence of decoding. Children were generally more accurate on spelling than decoding for the majority of graphemes evaluated in the matched tasks. Factors such as position of the grapheme in the word, complexity of the grapheme (e.g., digraph vs. graph), and the scope and sequence of the literacy curriculum influenced children's accuracy for specific graphemes. The development of phonological spelling appears to play a facilitatory role in early literacy acquisition. Implications for the assessment and teaching of spelling in the first year of schooling are explored.

Navigating plurilingual learning: An inclusive education approach

AbstractLanguage experiences and linguistic knowledge of teenage migrants can be valuable resources for their continued language learning. Yet, home languages and existing plurilingual skills are often framed as obstacles to learning that tag young migrants as at risk of school failure in the context of monolingual education systems. This article draws on a comparative education study carried out in Aotearoa New Zealand and France in 2017–2019, observing young migrants' use of their languages in classroom learning. A total of 42 secondary students from a mix of asylum‐seeker, refugee, and migrant backgrounds participated, originating from 22 different countries and speaking 24 different languages. All of the students were in their first year of schooling in New Zealand or France at the time of the study. Findings draw on observations of how students made use of their existing knowledge of languages to (1) access learning in the language‐of‐schooling, (2) learn interactively through their home languages, and (3) navigate unfamiliar styles of teaching and learning, thus engaging with the unknown and developing behaviours for successful learning. Patterns across the cohort show that young migrants are adept at drawing on their existing language resources in learning. This suggests a re‐framing of success at school as not only outcomes, but also as defined by effective learning processes that young migrants put in place. As a result, this study suggests ways that teachers can work inclusively with young migrants through their languages, to support processes of learning that could lead to better educational outcomes.

Behavioral self-regulation among children with hyperactivity and inattention in the first year of school: A population-based latent profile analysis and links with later ADHD diagnosis.

Behavioral self-regulation among children with hyperactivity and inattention in the first year of school: A population-based latent profile analysis and links with later ADHD diagnosis.

Effective Task Instruction in the First Year of School: What Teachers and Children Do

Effective Task Instruction in the First Year of School: What Teachers and Children Do Ilana Mushin, Rod Gardner, and Claire Gourlay (Routledge, 2022)

Child protection contact among children of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds: A South Australian linked data study.

To describe the cumulative incidence of child protection (CP) system contact, maltreatment type, source of reports to age 7 years, and socio-demographic characteristics for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) Australian children. We used CP, education, health, and birth registrations data for children followed from birth up to age 7 from the South Australian Better Evidence, Better Outcomes, Linked Data (SA BEBOLD) platform. SA born children enrolled in their first year of school from 2009 to 2015 (n =76 563). CALD defined as non-Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, spoken language other than English, Indigenous or Sign, or had at least one parent born in a non-English speaking country. For CALD and non-CALD children, we estimated the cumulative incidence (risk) of CP contacts up to age 7, relative risk and risk differences for all levels of CP contact from notification to out-of-home care (OOHC), primary maltreatment type, reporter type, and socio-economic characteristics. Sensitivity analyses explored different population selection criteria and CALD definitions. By age 7, 11.2% of CALD children had 'screened-in' notifications compared to 18.8% of non-CALD (risk difference [RD] 7.6 percentage points (95% confidence interval: 6.9-8.3)), and 0.6% of CALD children experienced OOHC compared to 2.2% of non-CALD (RD 1.6 percentage points (95% confidence interval: 1.3-1.8)). Emotional abuse was the most common substantiated maltreatment type for CALD and neglect for non-CALD. Among both groups, the most common reporter sources were police and education sector. Socio-economic characteristics were broadly similar. Sensitivity analyses results were consistent with primary analyses. By age 7, CALD children had lower risk of contact with all levels of CP. Estimates based on primary and sensitivity analyses suggested CALD children were 5-9 percentage points less likely to have a report screened-in, and from 1.0 to 1.7 percentage points less likely to have experienced OOHC.

"To be French is to be white": children’s uses of ethno-racial categorizations in France

ABSTRACT In the wake of sociological studies showing that social hierarchies’ uses are constituted from the first years of schooling, this article intends to understand how young children draw a distinction between “being French” and “not being French” based on the criteria associated, in adults, to the race relations. Based on an ethnographic fieldwork carried out in three very different schools it emerges that many children overlap between the four criteria that participate, in adults, in the processes of racialization. The use of these criteria and their ordering is much more important in schools where there are more children of minority groups. Staff plays a significant role in this clarification process. Moreover, this more or less advanced child's work of deconstructing entanglements is largely explained by the influence of their parents’ social position on the way in which they grasp the child's experiences within the school.

Phantom young English language learners: The shadowy presence of second language proficiency in (English medium) early childhood assessment

This paper examines how English language learners (ELLs) remain shadowy figures in the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC), a national early childhood development assessment, which since 2009 has been completed triennially by classroom teachers in all Australian jurisdictions for every child in their first year of schooling. It shows how ELLs elude clear identification and appropriate English as a Second/Additional language (L2) assessment because of the fundamentally monolingual conceptualisation of this tool. The AEDC provides the only set of education data at the national level for this young age group and has consequently become a “go to” measure for policy initiatives. However, young children in contemporary Australia are linguistically diverse and so semi-recognition of ELLs in an English only assessment tool is very concerning. Neither the definition of ELLs nor the wording of key assessment items gives classroom teachers sufficient guidance on how to respond for ELLs. The resulting AEDC data and associated reports easily drift towards deficit misinterpretations as natural L2 proficiency levels are muddled with global childhood development in communication and cognition. The paper makes recommendations for improving the quality and accuracy of AEDC data outputs for ELLs and for using the data for policy purposes.

Through a Librarian’s Eye: Understanding Dysgraphia and Dyslexia

When my son was six years old and preparing to start first grade, he was diagnosed with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). By the end of his first year of school, he struggled with handwriting and continued to write several of his letters backward.When I mentioned my concern at a pediatrician appointment, the doctor advised me that it could be a sign of dysgraphia, which is common among students with ADHD. Dysgraphia? I was aware of dyslexia but never heard of dysgraphia before. I filed that information away and continued working with him on his other ADHD symptoms.

Spatial statistical machine learning models to assess the relationship between development vulnerabilities and educational factors in children in Queensland, Australia

BackgroundThe health and development of children during their first year of full time school is known to impact their social, emotional, and academic capabilities throughout and beyond early education. Physical health, motor development, social and emotional well-being, learning styles, language and communication, cognitive skills, and general knowledge are all considered to be important aspects of a child’s health and development. It is important for many organisations and governmental agencies to continually improve their understanding of the factors which determine or influence development vulnerabilities among children. This article studies the relationships between development vulnerabilities and educational factors among children in Queensland, Australia.MethodsSpatial statistical machine learning models are reviewed and compared in the context of a study of geographic variation in the association between development vulnerabilities and attendance at preschool among children in Queensland, Australia. A new spatial random forest (SRF) model is suggested that can explain more of the spatial variation in data than other approaches.ResultsIn the case study, spatial models were shown to provide a better fit compared to models that ignored the spatial variation in the data. The SRF model was shown to be the only model which can explain all of the spatial variation in each of the development vulnerabilities considered in the case study. The spatial analysis revealed that the attendance at preschool factor has a strong influence on the physical health domain vulnerability and emotional maturity vulnerability among children in their first year of school.ConclusionThis study confirmed that it is important to take into account the spatial nature of data when fitting statistical machine learning models. A new spatial random forest model was introduced and was shown to explain more of the spatial variation and provide a better model fit in the case study of development vulnerabilities among children in Queensland. At small-area population level, increased attendance at preschool was strongly associated with reduced physical and emotional development vulnerabilities among children in their first year of school.