The authors have, for some years, studied the concept of "possibility thinking" (PT), or "what if" and "as if" thinking in children aged 3-11, which generates novelty -- and the pedagogical strategies which foster it. They have argued, on the basis of previous qualitative studies, that "PT" is at the core of…

This study examined the social functioning of bistrategic youths (i.e., those who employ both aggressive and prosocial behavior) in order to further understand their social competence in peer social networks. Within our sample of 318 fifth-grade participants recruited from an urban school district in the northeastern US, bistrategic preadolescents…

In this study, I discuss the need to increase girls' involvement with game design due to the numerous benefits that engaging in this practice might have. In particular, I discuss the tool Twine, an accessible and relatively easy-to-use platform for creating text-based games. I provide an overview of the tool and its potential benefits for…

This study presents the development process and initial validation of the NyTid test, a process-oriented movement assessment tool for compulsory school pupils. A sample of 1,260 (627 girls and 633 boys; mean age of 14.39) Swedish school children participated in the study. In the first step, exploratory factor analyses (EFAs) were performed in…

The ability to read is essential for cognitive development. To deepen our understanding of reading acquisition, we explored the neuroanatomical correlates (cortical thickness; CT) of word-reading fluency and sentence comprehension efficiency in Chinese with a group of typically developing children (N = 21; 12 females and 9 males; age range…

This article analyzes data from a summer literacy program for intermediate and middle-level children of migrant farmworkers. The program was grounded in a sociocultural perspective on literacy, stressing the importance of interaction and collaboration within socioculturally responsive pedagogy, using enabling literature to empower students.…

This article reports on an analysis of 320 empirical research articles published between 1993 and 2010 in three of the leading "childhood" journals. The study looked to establish the potential samples used in accounts of empirical research studies with children; and to explore the methodology employed. The first part of this article…

Threshold concepts are essential ideas about the natural world that present either a barrier or a gateway to a deep understanding of science. Weight, mass, and gravity are threshold concepts that underpin students' abilities to understand important ideas in all fields of science, embodied in the performance expectations in the Next Generation…

The aim of this longitudinal study is to examine the contribution of morphological awareness to the prediction of reading and spelling in Greek. The target group (N = 404) consisted of children, aged 6-9 years at the start of the project, who learn literacy in Cyprus. Because there are no standardized measures of morphological awareness for Greek…

Drawing on 1386 questionnaire responses, 11- and 12-year old primary students in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan valued the same six orientations in their mathematics learning. These are achievement, relevance, practice, communication, information and communication technologies [ICT], and feedback. Each of these six values was also embraced…

"Successful learners" is one of the four capacities, or purposes, of "Curriculum for Excellence" (CfE). This paper reports on a project which aimed to clarify its meaning, explore children's understanding of the term, and consider possible implications of both for classroom practice. The project was thus conducted in two parts:…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the acute dose-response relationship of classroom exercise breaks with executive function and math performance in 9- to 12-year-old children by comparing 5-min, 10-min, or 20-min classroom exercise breaks to 10 min of sedentary classroom activity. Method: This study used a within-subjects…

The integration of engineering concepts and practices into elementary science education has become an emerging concern for science educators and practitioners, alike. Moreover, how children, specifically preadolescents (grades 1-5), engage in engineering design-based learning activities may help science educators and researchers learn more about…

Among the various theories proposed to explain developmental dyslexia (DD), the theory of specific procedural learning difficulties has gained certain support and is the framework for the current research. This theory claims that an inability to achieve skill automaticity explains the difficulties experienced by individuals with DD. Previous…

Although multiple studies of misconceptions in Earth science have been completed using samples of North American and European students and teachers, little research has been conducted on alternative Earth science conceptions in developing countries. The current study was conducted in 5th- and 6th-grade classrooms in eastern Honduras, Central…