The effect of school entry age on children's later performance is a long-debated topic without any convergence. Besides, existing studies have mostly limited themselves to examining the impact of entry age on children's cognitive achievements. In Germany, where different entry-age regulations exist across federal states and academic tracking takes…

Writing can be a challenging task for students--especially for those who have grown up as second language (L2) learners. In particular, planning and structuring written content can be especially difficult for them. For this reason, the effects of a combined strategy instruction intervention consisting of a graphic organizer and storytelling on the…

Primary school students often do not have differentiated conceptions of human organs and organ systems. As understanding the inner structure of the human body is an elementary prerequisite for the development of health awareness, appropriate forms of teaching must be developed to modify students' fragmented preconceptions about the inside of their…

With the rapid spread of COVID-19, countries around the world implemented strict protocols ordering schools to close. As a result, educational institutions were forced to establish a new form of schooling by implementing emergency remote education. Learning from home during the COVID-19 pandemic brought numerous changes, challenges, and stressors…

In their recently renamed theory, situated expectancy-value theory (SEVT), Eccles and Wigfield (2020) emphasized the importance of situations in influencing individuals' motivational beliefs and academic choices. Adopting a novel approach--network analysis--this study aimed to examine how situations may impact the associations among expectancies,…

Our study aims to provide empirical evidence for and against the valid use of primary school students' ratings of three generic dimensions of teaching quality (classroom management, supportive climate, cognitive activation). We examine whether students discriminate between corresponding dimensions in different subjects, taking into account whether…

Children with neurodevelopmental diagnoses often experience discrimination from their peers at school. This may result from a lack of understanding, and intolerance of differences in their thinking, communication and social interactions. Learning About Neurodiversity at School (LEANS) is a teaching programme designed to educate primary school…

Having friends influences students' academic, socio-emotional as well as health development. Especially, students with special educational needs (SEN) are at a high risk to belong to the subgroup of students without friends in class. Within a sequential explanatory design, two study phases have been implemented in the present study. In phase 1, a…

This paper presents evidence how pupils choose different types of non-monetary rewards for educational attainment. These rewards are external to the learning process, but unlike cash-for-grades rewards internal to the practice of schooling. We collected data from a non-incentivized survey and an incentivized survey, which was part of a larger…

Students' issues dealing with reflection tasks, especially with inclined mirror lines, are widely known. Previous research conducted with primary school students mainly focussed on task difficulty and students' outcomes, especially their errors of reflection. Little is known about which not obviously sustainable understanding of reflection leads…

In the field of epistemic belief research, more studies on how these beliefs are formed in different cultural contexts are called for. Moreover, there are strong assumptions that teachers' instructional practices are paramount to the development of students' epistemic beliefs. The current study aims at investigating differences between Sweden and…

The topic of keeping livestock is very well suited to addressing the ecological, social, and economic aspects of the sustainable production of our food in school lessons. However, the production of animal-based foods is mainly outside the personal experience of children and young people. To derive relevant implications for teaching, this paper…

Children with externalizing behavior problems are likely to show poor school achievements, problems in social interactions with teachers and peers and an elevated school-related stress. Though class climate is a meaningful variable to explain school achievements and aspects of emotional well-being, there are hardly any studies that consider class…

At the beginning of primary school, young children need to adapt academically, socially, and emotionally to their new school environment. Enjoying going to school and becoming socially integrated are important preconditions for successful learning. However, children from disadvantaged families have fewer resources and receive less support, and…

This study with 850 students examined the interrelations of students' own and perceived teacher reference norms in combination with estimating the relations of these constructs to self-concept in the domain of mathematics. All reference norms were positively interrelated. Regression models yielded different results across school tracks: In…