Upper-elementary Students Research Articles

초등학교 고학년 아동의 부적응적 자기초점주의가 우울에 미치는 영향과 거부민감성의 매개효과

This study examined the mediating effect of rejection sensitivity in the relationship between dispositional self-focused attention and depression in upper elementary school students. The participants of this study were 501 elementary students (245 boys and 256 girls) aged 10 to 12 years who enrolled in eight elementary schools located in Seoul, Incheon and Gyeong-gi province. To measure the research variables, the Children’s Depression Inventory, the Scale for Dispositional Self-focused Attention Social situation(Lee & Kwon, 2005), and the Children’s Rejection Sensitivity Questionnaire were used. Also, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to investigate the mediating model. The results of this study were as follows. First, the levels of dispositional self-focused attention and the rejection sensitivity both increased the level of students’ depression. Second, the rejection sensitivity partially mediated the relationship between their dispositional self-focused attention and depression. In conclusion, the higher the level of dispositional self-focused attention, the higher the level of rejection sensitivity, and consequently, the higher the elementary school student’s depression. These results suggested that reducing the level of dispositional self-focused attention and rejection sensitivity would play a significant role in alleviating their depression.

Individualized goal setting during repeated reading: Improving growth with struggling readers using data based instructional decisions

Goal setting, in combination with evidence-based interventions, may be a viable intervention component to improve oral reading fluency for struggling readers. The present study examined the efficacy of individualized goal setting on the oral reading fluency rates of upper elementary students who were reading below grade level. Visual analysis of a multiple baseline design indicated positive yet moderate effects of goal setting for some students in the goal setting condition; further individualization was implemented for participants who did not responded favorably to goal setting. Based on the mixed findings, we discuss the importance of data-based decision making in evaluating the efficacy and efficiency of intervention components for struggling readers, for whom it is particularly critical to make effective use of valuable intervention time.

Six Key Principles: Bridging Students’ Career Dreams and Literacy Standards

AbstractCollege and career readiness has become a top priority for elementary schools. Skills‐focused approaches often are the sole method of preparing students for their postsecondary futures, which can overshadow the identities that students bring to the classroom. In contrast, the authors adopted an identity‐centered approach to literacy instruction using students’ career dreams as a focal point by implementing a standards‐aligned career exploration unit for students in grades 3–6. The authors share the six multimodal instructional principles that they generated to support upper elementary students’ literacy skill development while focusing on their career aspirations and identities.

Revisiting Second Graders’ Robotics with an Understand/Use-Modify-Create (U<sup>2</sup>MC) Strategy

This study, a sub-study of a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded research project, applies a modified strategy of the U2MC for an eight-week afterschool robotics curriculum to promote upper elementary students’ computational thinking in the second grade. Twenty-one students in second grade participated in a Life on Mars project which lasted for ten days with one class hour per day. They participated in activities learning coding concepts, basics of robotics, as well as exploring life on Mars. Most notably, the study found a significant increase in participants’ computational thinking skills. In addition, participants came to understand basic robotics, including operation, composites, and codes. Implications for future research and robotics curriculum design are discussed in the presentation.

Wearable Textiles to Support Student STEM Learning and Attitudes

Electronic textiles, especially those that can be worn (wearable textiles) are gaining traction within the P12 education community. The technology provides hands-on learning that is both exciting and personally relevant, especially for females, who have historically responded positively to aesthetics and textile design. A number of studies have examined the potential of wearable technologies in education but they generally use small samples, mostly engage secondary school students, and are carried out in either formal or informal settings. In contrast, this study utilized a large sample of 808 upper elementary students and involved both in- and out-of-school learning contexts led by formal and informal educators. The present study used a quasi-experimental, prepost design with two groups (treatment and control) to measure the impact of a wearable technology intervention on students’ (a) knowledge of circuitry, programming, and engineering design and (b) self-efficacy in making a wearable e-textile product. The three-level multilevel (i.e., children nested within teachers which were nested within schools) ANCOVAs were estimated for each outcome of interest (knowledge of circuitry, programming, engineering design, engineering self-efficacy, and programming self-efficacy). Results indicate that wearable technology’s integration of engineering, computing, and aesthetics promises to be an excellent interdisciplinary context to support students’ STEM learning and attitudes at the upper elementary level. However, differential results between males and females underscore the need to infuse gender-appropriate pedagogical practices to insure that females develop the needed self-confidence to successfully complete tasks involving these two skill areas.

Elementary School Student Development of STEM Attitudes and Perceived Learning in a STEM Integrated Robotics Curriculum

Robotics has been advocated as an emerging approach to engaging K-12 students in learning science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This study examined the impacts of a project-based STEM integrated robotics curriculum on elementary school students’ attitudes toward STEM and perceived learning in an afterschool setting. Three elementary school teachers and 18 fourth to sixth graders participated in an eight-week-long program. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analyzed, and showed students’ attitudes toward math improved significantly at the end of the robotics curriculum. Three specific areas of perceived learning were identified, including STEM content learning and connection, engagement and perseverance, and development and challenge in teamwork. The findings also identified the opportunities and challenges in designing a STEM integrated robotics afterschool curriculum for upper elementary school students. Implications for future research studies and curriculum design are discussed.

Enabling people to lower barriers with a codesign prototyping approach: sex education for upper-elementary students at home

(2019). Enabling people to lower barriers with a codesign prototyping approach: sex education for upper-elementary students at home. The Design Journal: Vol. 22, Running with Scissors: 13th International Conference of the European Academy of Design, Dundee, 10-12th April, 2019, edited by Louise Valentine, Joanna Bletcher and Leon Cruickshank, pp. 539-551.

A Computer-Based Graphic Organizer With Embedded Self-Regulated Learning Strategies to Support Student Writing

Written expression is often difficult for students with and without learning disabilities. Research-based strategies to support this essential skill include self-regulated learning strategies, technology, and tools for planning and writing. This article describes a multifaceted technology-based writing intervention with embedded self-regulated learning strategies known as a computer-based graphic organizer or CBGO. The CBGO is described to assist teachers in their efforts to support upper elementary and middle school students to plan and write a high-quality persuasive paragraph. Recommendations for instructional use are discussed.

A metacognitive intervention for teaching fractions to students with or at-risk for learning disabilities in mathematics

Assessment data from the United States and international reports of student achievement indicate that upper elementary students are failing to meet basic levels of proficiency in fractions and writing, and that this is particularly prevalent with students with or at-risk for learning disabilities in mathematics. Proficiency with fractions has been identified as foundational for learning higher-level mathematics but remains one of the most difficult skills for students to learn. In addition, students’ difficulty with fractions is exacerbated because of increased chances of comorbidity with language learning problems, particularly difficulties constructing arguments and communicating using writing. We describe FACT + R2C2, a language-based, metacognitive instructional intervention that was designed using the Self-Regulated Strategy Development model (SRSD) for teaching foundational concepts of fractions. The results from two studies in which the intervention was administered to upper elementary students who exhibit mathematics difficulties indicated selected increases in students’ computational accuracy, quality of mathematical reasoning, number of rhetorical elements, and total words. With evidence of improved performance in these areas, FACT + R2C2 holds promise for helping these students become proficient self-regulated learners.

Planning, execution, and revision in mathematics problem solving: Does the order of the phases matter?

The present study analysed the mathematical problem-solving processes, in terms of linearity and recursion, and the relationship with actual and self-perceived performances of a sample of 524 students of upper elementary students. The results showed a more linear than recursive process while performing the tasks, mainly characterized by continuity. The use of planning strategies before execution and the use of revision strategies after this phase were both significantly related to good performance, even if rates of success were low. The presence of a linear and hierarchical resolution process was related to students’ judgments of success, while recursion, or going back in the process, was associated with judgments of failure. Results are discussed in the light of current research on mathematics problem-solving.

Relations of Upper Elementary Students’ Playfulness with Peer Relationships: Focusing on Quality of Peer Relationships and Peer Conflict Resolution Strategie

Relations of Upper Elementary Students’ Playfulness with Peer Relationships: Focusing on Quality of Peer Relationships and Peer Conflict Resolution Strategie

Student self-assessment of oral explanations: Use of language learning progressions

Students’ self-assessment of language features in their oral explanations of a mathematics task was supported by language learning progressions. Learning progressions map a continuum of knowledge or skills development as they increase in sophistication over time. Learning progressions can be a framework to support formative assessment by both teachers and students. Fifty-eight predominantly English-speaking US elementary students used language learning progressions to complete their self-assessment of either discourse stamina or vocabulary usage in the elicited oral explanations. Students were guided through a four-step, highly scaffolded self-assessment protocol that was analyzed for (1) concordance with researcher placements of their explanations on the progressions, and (2) student commentary on their own placements. Overall, 50% of the students self-assessed in accordance with researchers’ independent placement of their explanations on the progressions. However, significant grade-level and gender differences in concordance were found. Results were consistent with prior research findings that upper-elementary students’ self-assessments are more aligned with external measures than are younger students’ self-assessments (e.g., Butler & Lee, 2006). However, even the youngest students in the current study were able to complete the self-assessment activity, if not always with the same degree of concordance. Successful participation may be attributable to the format, scaffolding, and contextualization of the self-assessment activity with its use of language learning progressions. Also consistent with prior research, girls were more likely to agree with researchers’ placements than boys. Student self-assessment differed by the two language features. Most students found the self-assessment activity to be a useful learning experience. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Emotional and motivational relationship of elementary students to mathematical problem-solving: a person-centered approach

Recent literature has shown that achievement emotions, their regulation, and perceived competence play a compelling role in mathematics learning and achievement. Studies that have looked at these variables have, for the most part, adopted a person-centered approach, which examines relationships between variables found to a similar degree in all individuals of the group. Yet, scholars have outlined emotional inter-individual differences, in particular, in terms of gender and past performance. The present study examined differences among upper elementary students in how achievement emotions are related to each other. Cluster analysis revealed four distinct profiles based on a sample of upper elementary students (N = 354): those with high levels of positive emotions and low levels of negative emotions (positive); those with high levels of boredom and low levels of the other emotions (bored); those with high levels of nervousness, worry, and fear and low levels of positive emotions (anxious); and those with high levels of the six negative distinct emotions assessed and low levels of positive emotions (resigned). Analyses of variance showed that the first profile stood out advantageously from the last two regarding math performance and perceived competence. Findings regarding emotion regulation confirm the risky nature of the resigned profile. The bored profile ascribes no value, whether extrinsic or intrinsic, to problem-solving tasks. Practical implications for educational practices and possible avenues for further research are discussed.

Teaching aspects of the interrelationship between science and technology: a research report on the design, enactment and evaluation of a teaching proposal

ABSTRACTBackground: Helping upper elementary and lower secondary school students develop an awareness of various aspects of the nature of science (NOS) and nature of technology (NOT) is a widely recognized goal of science teaching. In this study, we focus on the connections between science and technology (S&T).Purpose: We report on the design, development, enactment and evaluation of a teaching-learning sequence (TLS) that combines hands-on activities in geometrical optics with explicit epistemological discourse for reflection purposes. The design of the TLS draws on perspectives from the inquiry-oriented and design-based teaching and learning frameworks.Sample: The enactment of the TLS involved a class of 17 sixth-grade students, aged 10–11 years old, of a public elementary school in Cyprus.Design and methods: We present findings from written responses to both closed and open-ended tasks as well as follow-up semi-structured interviews that probed students’ understanding of the difference between the main goals of S&T.Results: The results illustrate elementary students’ readiness to engage with epistemic issues and demonstrate the potential of prompting young learners’ ability to develop informed awareness of the NOS and NOT. The results also provided feedback for the revision of the TLS so as to further enhance its effectiveness in achieving the stated learning objectives.Conclusion: We discuss the implications of our findings for the teaching of the NOS and NOT and for the design and validation of TLSs. It is possible for students of this age group to develop an awareness of issues related to the NOS and NOT. TLSs can be improved through design-based research approaches to serve as productive tools to this end.

Upper Elementary School Students’ Attitudes Toward Physical Education in Skill-Themes and Multiactivity Approaches

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of the physical education curricular approach used in teaching upper elementary school students on students’ attitude toward physical education. An Approach Guide was developed to assist in categorizing school approaches as skill-themes (ST) or multiactivity (MA). Twenty schools meeting designated participation criteria were selected. An attitude instrument (Phillips & Silverman, 2012) was administered to fourth- or fifth-grade students (N = 313) in physical education classes in schools, 10 schools in each approach category. Multivariate analyses of variance were performed with the class as the unit of analysis for attitude sub-factor variables and attitude main factors, each using approach as the independent variable. A t-test was completed for overall attitude between the two approaches. Means and standard deviations were calculated for the sub-factors, main factors, and total attitude by curriculum, school, grade, gender, and approach. Analyses suggest that fourth- and fifth-grade students enjoy physical education and think it is important. No significant differences were found between grades, genders, or approaches. The range of attitude scores within the schools was wider in the MA approach than in the ST approach and may be a result of teacher influence. Larger standard deviations within schools using the MA approach may also indicate more varied attitudes toward physical education than in schools using the ST approach. Subscribe to TPE

Upper Elementary School Student Perceptions of Physical Education: High Attitude and Moderate/Low Attitudes

This study examined the perceptions of upper elementary school students toward physical education (PE). High and moderate/low attitude students (N = 16) participated. Two themes emerged: (a) it is important to have fun in PE (students are excited to go to PE, PE is their favorite class, the teacher influences perceptions of fun) and (b) class activities are important (moderate/low students enjoyed team problem solving, fitness activities were controversial). The results suggest that class organization and content influence perceptions.Subscribe to TPE

Improving Content Knowledge in Social Studies for Upper Elementary Students

Improving Content Knowledge in Social Studies for Upper Elementary Students

Cultural imaginaries and oral traditions as creative resources for connecting home storytelling to English learning

When teachers and learners of English face challenging circumstances such as limited access to books and teaching supplies, local practices such as oral storytelling traditions can provide creative resources for supporting language and literacy development. We describe how a cultural imaginary of stories told by Rwandan and U.S. students supported dramatic retelling through reader's theater in English camps for Rwandan upper elementary school students. The students embodied and dramatized their favorite stories written in English or Kinyarwanda and redesigned them into reader's theater scripts. Often these stories originated from creative storytelling practices by the students in their homes, thus illustrating how storytelling traditions connected funds of knowledge from home to resources for teaching and learning.

Effects and Development of an Experience-based Sex Education Program for Adjustment to Puberty in Upper Elementary Students

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop an experience-based sex education program to improve adjustment to puberty in elementary school students in the upper grades and to verify its effectiveness. Methods: This study had a pretest-posttest nonequivalent control group design. The subjects ...

Multiple Pathways to Success: An Examination of Integrative Motivational Profiles Among Upper Elementary and College Students.

Two studies were conducted with distinct samples to investigate how motivational beliefs cohere and function together (i.e., motivational profiles) and predict academic adjustment. Integrating across motivational theories, participants (N Study 1 = 160 upper elementary students; N Study 2 = 325 college students) reported on multiple types of motivation (achievement goals, task value, perceived competence) for schooling more generally (Study 1) and in science (Study 2). Three profiles characterized by Moderate-High All, Intrinsic and Confident, and Average All motivation were identified in both studies. Profiles characterized by Very High All motivation (Study 1) and Moderate Intrinsic and Confident (Study 2) were also present. Across studies, the Moderate-High All and Intrinsic and Confident profiles were associated with the highest academic engagement and achievement. Findings highlight the benefit of integrating across motivational theories when creating motivational profiles, provide initial evidence regarding similarities and differences in integrative motivational profiles across distinct samples, and identify which motivational combinations are associated with beneficial academic outcomes in two educational contexts.