Teacher self-efficacy (TSE) is assumed to affect classroom environment, although empirical evidence for this assumption is still elusive. This study examines the relationship between TSE in behaviour management and classroom behavioural climate using a two-level cross-lagged model. TSE in behaviour management was assessed with six-item subscale of…

There is a global concern regarding boys' poor engagement in literacy activities. It is suggested that boys enjoy ways of learning that are active and have explicit goals. Readers' theater (RT) provides an active and collaborative means of practicing oral reading fluency, with a clear goal of performing for an audience at the end of training. In…

Mathematics teachers' beliefs are central to mathematics teaching and student learning. Because different aspects of motivation and affect--particularly enjoyment--primarily develop within the classroom context, examining how different teachers' beliefs may affect student outcomes in mathematics is imperative. The current study examines teachers'…

The Finnish National Core Curriculum (NCC), which took effect at the primary school level in autumn 2016, includes ICT competence for all school grades, and encourages pupils to document their working processes in crafts. However, the literature provides evidence of the barriers faced by teachers in integrating information and communication…

The Moving Maths study was conducted to increase third grade pupils' physical activity and support their learning in Finland. Altogether 397 children (mean age 9.3 years) and 22 teachers took part in an intervention with two types of physically active maths lessons for five months. One group carried out lessons in which PA was integrated into…

Research has shown that some students who underperform in mathematics overestimate their performance, while others who excel in mathematics underestimate it. Looking at this mismatch of performance and confidence judgement--the Dunning-Kruger effect (DKE)--the current study investigates how well students' confidence judgement and item-specific…

The vast development and expansion of educational technology has led to the deconstruction of various barriers and challenges that the traditional approaches were incapable of overcoming. However, a field that still holds a great deal of interest and needs to be strengthened concerns the practices that surround mathematics education. Digital…

The present study focuses on views of Finnish basic education students on open and flexible learning environments and the extent to which these views are associated with students' liking of school. The data were based on an online questionnaire containing both structured ratings and open-ended questions filled out by primary school students (n =…

Purpose: The present study investigated whether the number of syllables affects developing readers' word recognition when controlling for word length and word frequency and, if so, whether the effect is dependent on reading fluency. The target language was Finnish, a language with a transparent orthography and a simple syllable structure. Method:…

Many behavioural and emotional characteristics are associated with children's peer relationships. The purpose of this study is to examine behavioural and emotional strengths of sociometrically popular, rejected, controversial, neglected, and average children. 773 third-grade children (51% girls) are assessed with a sociometric questionnaire and…

As a result of educational reforms in many countries, including Finland, new or renovated comprehensive schools have increasingly begun to incorporate open and flexible designs and principles. Multipurpose and adaptable open learning spaces can provide children with amplified opportunities to be physically active during general education.…

The present study compares two methods for assessing peer influence: the longitudinal actor-partner interdependence model (L-APIM) and the longitudinal social network analysis (L-SNA) Model. The data were drawn from 1,995 (49% girls and 51% boys) third grade students (M[subscript age] = 9.68 years). From this sample, L-APIM (n = 206…

In this longitudinal study, we examined what kind of profiles of reading fluency and spelling skills could be identified among pupils (N = 467) and how stable these profiles were during the first three years of school. We also investigated how monolingual (Swedish) and simultaneously bilingual (Finnish-Swedish) pupils and gender were distributed…

A randomized controlled trial was conducted to study the effectiveness of two readers' theater (RT) programs in promoting reading skills and motivation of dysfluent readers in Grades 3-4. One program (RT Goal) included a goal of preparing a performance for an audience (n = 50), while another program (RT Practice) did not include such a goal (n =…

This is a study of early picture book comprehension, its determinants and later development through primary school. More specifically, picture book comprehension was analyzed longitudinally from age 5 to age 9, delineating the unique contributions of vocabulary, metacognitive knowledge and task orientation to the initial level as well as to the…