We examined the prevalence of comorbidity of dysfluent reading and math skills longitudinally in a representative sample (N = 1,928) and the stability of comorbid and single difficulties from first to fourth grades. The findings indicated that half the children who showed very low performance in one skill also evidenced low or very low performance…

This research was undertaken in Finnish and Icelandic schools during the years 2013-14, in order to explore students' technological knowledge and reasoning at the ages of eleven and thirteen. The research considered the congruence between students' undertakings within Craft and Design education in the national curriculum and their ability to…

The present study reports on the psychometric properties of the Early Childhood Classroom Observation Measure (ECCOM) in Finnish and Estonian first and third grade classrooms. The observation data were collected from 91 first grade teachers and 70 third grade teachers. Teachers' curriculum goals, teaching experience and the classroom size were…

This study investigated the interindividual stability and mean-level changes in parents' causal attributions for their children's academic performance across a 9-year period from the first year in primary school (Grade 1, age 7) to the end of lower secondary school (Grade 9, age 16). In all, 212 children participated in the study. The results…

The current article provides an important insight into measurement differences between two commonly used self-reports and accelerometer-determined moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) scores within matched samples across 1 school year. Participants were 998 fifth- through eighth-grade students who completed self-reports and 76 fifth- and…

Many people have serious difficulties in understanding rational numbers, limiting their ability to interpret and make use of them in modern daily life. This also leads to later difficulties in learning more advanced mathematical content. In this study, novel tasks are used to measure 263 late primary school students' spontaneous focusing on…

Positive student-teacher relationships are related to students' academic achievement and behavioural and emotional adjustment. How a student's behavioural and emotional strengths are associated with these relationships and how the relationships influence students' academic performance remains unknown. We examined this framework using a…

This longitudinal study investigated the associations among children's externalizing problems, task-avoidant behavior, and academic performance in early school years. The participants were 586 children (43% girls, 57% boys). Data pertaining to externalizing problems (teacher ratings) and task-avoidant behaviors (mother and teacher ratings) were…

In this study, the relationship between adolescents' difficulty in mathematics and reading and the influence on academic self-concept and school grades was examined. The participants (N = 585; 299 girls, 286 boys) were one age group of ninth-graders whose mathematics and reading skills were assessed at the end of comprehensive school at age…

The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to determine the degree that creative and playful learning (CPL) in a technology-enriched playground influences academic achievement of students and what factors are responsible for successes. The participants were 276 students from 12 elementary classrooms in the Netherlands and Finland. The…

This study examined the longitudinal associations between children's academic skills and the instructional support teachers gave individual students. A total of 253 Finnish children were tested on reading and math skills twice in the first grade and once in the second grade. The teachers of these children rated the instructional support that they…

This paper reports the results of the improving thinking skills (ITS-1) intervention study on the thinking skills of low-achieving first graders. The intervention programme consists of 12 lessons, each lasting for 45 min. Lessons offer enriched-discovery learning activities and tasks to be solved through inductive reasoning. We used a…

This study examined the reliability and validity of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System-Secondary (CLASS-S) in Finnish classrooms. Trained observers coded classroom interactions based on video recordings of 46 Grade 6 classrooms (450 cycles). Concurrent associations were investigated with respect to teacher self-ratings (e.g., efficacy beliefs…

This study explored the double-deficit hypothesis (DDH) in a transparent orthography (Finnish) and extended the view from reading disabilities to comorbidity of learning-related problems in math and attention. Children referred for evaluation of learning disabilities in second through sixth grade (N = 205) were divided into four groups based on…

This article presents results on how students became engaged and motivated when using digital storytelling in knowledge creation in Finland, Greece and California. The theoretical framework is based on sociocultural theories. Learning is seen as a result of dialogical interactions between people, substances and artefacts. This approach has been…