The relation between cognition and life satisfaction is shaped by several factors. The present research investigated whether mindreading skills are linked to subjective well-being and anxiety during the transition into adolescence. Specifically, our aim was to investigate individual differences in those constructs and gendered relational patterns.…

National and International standardized assessments have shown sharp differences between native and foreign students' performance in both text comprehension and mathematics. Based on the data gathered yearly by the INVALSI (Italian National Institute for the Evaluation of Educational Systems) at the national level, we performed a two-step…

This article explores how the adoption of educational robotics, cloud-based animation software, and simplified visual programming software can provide valuable opportunities for dialogic interaction and learning. The potentialities of this type of activity are often overlooked in dialogic investigations. Based on empirical illustration, we discuss…

The literature on school climate, albeit vast, is limited by a scarcity of longitudinal research. This two-wave longitudinal study aims to bridge this gap by (a) assessing, over two school years, the changes in students' perceptions of several dimensions of school climate and (b) exploring the reciprocal longitudinal effects of student perceptions…

While the development of creativity, or creative thinking, in mathematics is considered important by many researchers, there are several difficulties in implementing creative tasks, especially before secondary school. Within the original context of a mathematical escape game, this paper reports two episodes exemplifying the difficulties met by…

The study investigated the longitudinal relations between students' roles in bullying (i.e., bullying, defending, and victimization) and social status within the class. Moreover, we tested the hypothesis that students' perception of their own status may mediate these relations. A sample of 432 early adolescents completed peer nominations for…

Copying a text quickly and accurately is important both in school and in daily life. However, this skill has never been systematically studied, either in children with typical development (TD) or in children with specific learning disabilities (SLD). The aim of this research was to study the features of a copy task and its relationship with other…

This work refers to a research project named 'Math walks', whose aim is to investigate a few students' common conceptions and difficulties related to symmetries as well as to guide the student in the transition from visualization to conceptualization. As far as this issue is concerned, we designed a learning activity (LA) according to Dina van…

School closure and distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic have posed several challenges to children. Drawing upon the social--ecological framework, in this preliminary study, we tested what factors may help to explain students' difficulties with distance learning during COVID-19 lockdown, by analyzing family, school, and individual…

The present study investigated the antecedents of cyberbullying victimization and addressed the commonalities and differences between visual and written forms of cyberbullying victimization among 3172 Italian adolescents (51.6% male, M[subscript age] = 13.74 years, SD = 1.70) who participated in the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC,…

In this article, we describe the results of a research study investigating the effects of a programming model specifically designed to apply the pedagogy of gifted education to the overall process of schoolwide enrichment, "The Schoolwide Enrichment Model" ("SEM," Renzulli & Reis, 2014). The specific factors examined during…

We describe how young students situate themselves with respect to astronomy through an identity framework that features four dimensions: interest, utility value, confidence, and conceptual knowledge. Overall, about 900 Italian students, from 5th to 9th grade (9-14 years old), were involved in the study. We tested our model using confirmatory…

We study if the Italian school system suffers from gender bias when judging students. To this aim, we use a differences-in-differences approach that compares the teachers' assessments and the standardized test scores that the students receive during the school year. We have census data for all Italian fifth and sixth graders in two different…

Background: Children with dyslexia often show second-language reading and writing difficulties, but the cognitive mechanisms connected to this impairment need to be clarified. Aims: The present study examined the neuropsychological mechanisms underlying learning English as a foreign language in 4th- to the 8th-grade Italian students showing…

In this paper We present a pilot study providing ICT resources at some Italian junior high schools. In 2009, 156 classes at 6th grade were endowed with additional resources earmarked for purchasing ICT equipment. By selecting an equivalent number of classes in the same schools, we are able to conduct an evaluation of the causal effect of ICT on…