Many studies have explored how Language-Minority Bilingual Children (LMBC) read and comprehend, while the way they learn to spell and write has received less attention. This study aimed to assess a comprehensive profile of spelling and writing skills in LMBC, comparing performances of 4th and 5th grade bilingual (n = 74) and monolingual (n = 131)…

Although the impact of non-cognitive factors, such as math anxiety, math test-taking anxiety, and attitudes toward mathematics, has been extensively studied, this area remains partially unexplored in the realm of national assessments. This research focuses on the analysis of the validity and reliability of an 11-item questionnaire introduced by…

The present study, based on data concerning 2328 immigrant children attending a representative sample of 561 schools, investigates the impact of various group, family and individual characteristics as well as proficiency in the national language on acceptance and friendship among classmates, while controlling for measurement errors by means of a…

The present research aims to extend findings from a recent study in which a large sample of primary and secondary school pupils was asked to choose a hypothetical classmate they would invite to share five different activities. Results demonstrated that a visible disability represents a barrier for social participation and involvement. In the…

Phonemic awareness refers to the ability to reflect on and process the sounds of spoken language and to conduct mental operations on the units that represent them, that is, phonemes. This study intended to examine the descriptive and psychometric properties of the phonemic awareness of schoolers test assessment (PASTA), a new tool that assesses…

This study investigated the enjoyment, boredom, and anxiety of elementary school students and the relations of these emotions with achievement in two domains. Seven-hundred-and-sixty-seven second- and fourth-graders completed an adaptation of the Achievement Emotions Questionnaire-Elementary School (AEQ-ES: Lichtenfeld, Pekrun, Stupnisky, Reiss,…

The present study examined what impact various constellations of acculturation orientations of immigrant students and their teachers have on the students' school adjustment. For this purpose, the study analysed the acculturation orientations of 1106 5th graders and their class teachers in Switzerland. Using multiple regression analysis, we found…

In today's world, technology and digital media are no longer separate, "other" than "natural" human and social life. Technology has become pervasive, transparent, reaching a "stable" form, no longer revolutionary. A new concept, "the post-digital," is emerging and gradually taking hold in a wide range of…

The role of children's receptive vocabulary knowledge in word and nonword reading (decoding) in an orthographically transparent language is debated. Moreover, we have little understanding of how the role of vocabulary might differ between monolingual children and bilingual children from immigrant families (or language minority bilingual children…

We present a design study developed in an Italian school. Taking inspiration from the work of the Russian psychologist V. V. Davydov, we have reformulated some activities of his curriculum for the first grade, in order to adapt them to a didactic project for a fifth grade class. In the paper we firstly expose our theoretical assumptions and the…

We aimed to validate a long and a short version of the popular SDO6 scale for children, by testing their reliability and factorial structure, as well as divergent and criterion validity. Italian fourth- and fifth-graders (N = 271; 49.45% female) were administered the Child SDO6 scale, composed of 16 items, along with a series of personality and…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a tactical games model instructional plan on game-play volleyball performances of elementary school students, taking into account their skill level. In total, 39 fourth-grade students (average age: 8.9 years) participated in a 13-week unit, in which each lesson exaggerated the use of…

The paper contains progress reports supported by data about two short activities aimed at introducing physics themes in primary school. The first is a formal storytelling intervention named "Mommy Comet" carried out in first- and fifth-grade classes and concerning motion in the absence of forces in the Solar System broad context. The…

The present study investigates whether exposure to multilingual pedagogies enhances emergent bilingual children's narrative abilities. These abilities are among the most reliable indicators of children's literacy skills. We compare two groups of emergent bilingual children with migrant background attending the fourth and fifth grade of a public…

Literature highlights how education in the twenty-first century begins to advocate multiple new concepts, such as new technology, new pedagogies, interdisciplinary curricula, open learning, etc. Among these concepts, the recognition and awareness about one's character strengths are demonstrated to improve emotional management and…