This study examines primary-school children's beliefs about their school performance at the end of their first school year in Finland and feedback that they have received, and furthermore possible gender differences between these beliefs. Children from Grade 1 (N = 544), approximately 7 years old, were interviewed. The data were assessed using…

The aim of this study is to identify if children's play behaviour, temperament, and special educational needs (SEN) are interrelated. It is important to increase the awareness of the joint effects of temperament and SEN on behaviour so that early childhood special education (ECSE) teachers can provide the appropriate support for children with SEN…

This paper investigates adult-child interaction in the early years of education. The intention is to understand how children's initiatives and practitioners' responses support and/or hinder children's agency. Our ethnographic data include 150 h of video data supplemented by observational field notes from a Finnish Early Childhood Education (ECE)…

The purpose of this paper is to analyze how positive pedagogical practices are implemented by early childhood education (ECE) teachers in Finland. A survey was conducted among 625 teachers, enquiring about specific positive pedagogical practices in ECEC. It was found that the correlation between the sum variables and principal components were…

This study sought an answer to the question whether the digitalization of play is technological mutation or digital evolution. To this end, 14 studies published over the last five years were reviewed and discussed under four themes, namely digital technology and children, parents', and teachers' perceptions of digital technology, screen effects,…

To be able to support young children in learning to learn--an ability that requires adapting often-unprecedented changes in society--teachers need to be aware of the ways in which children understand learning. In this qualitative study, 177 micro-interviews conducted with 41 Finnish children were analysed using an abductive method to understand…

Quality factors are the subject of increasing interest in the research and practice of early childhood education and care (ECEC). The purpose of the article is to emphasize the importance of the children's voice in relation to the quality of ECEC. This article focuses on children's negative experiences of ECEC as they can be used to improve…

The study presented in this article is part of a larger study called Progressive Feedback (blogs.helsinki.fi/orientate), which is an early childhood education and care (ECEC) research and development project. The aim of this article is to find out: (1) how children's tested creative thinking abilities, fluency, originality and imagination…

Self-regulation skills are fundamental for a child's development and learning. Yet, problems in self-regulation are common and several programmes with varying results have been created to overcome them. In this article, we have reported on a controlled ten-week intervention study. Twenty-eight children aged 4-7 years and with poor self-regulation…

This study focused on associations between children's socioemotional development (prosocial behaviour, internalizing and externalizing problems) and parenting styles (affection, behavioural control, and psychological control), and the moderating role of children's social withdrawal (as a temperamental characteristic) in these associations.…

This paper aims to determine possible gender differences in children's observed emotional expressions and their relationship with teacher-rated self-regulation (SR) skills in the setting of early childhood education and care (ECEC). Supporting SR and emotional wellbeing in early childhood can be considered a favourable pathway towards holistic…

Children with non-Finnish cultural or linguistic background face challenges to interact socially in the early childhood education (ECE) context in Finland. The present study aims to clarify (1) what kind of social roles children typically have in ECE, and (2) what sort of activities and play are typical to children with Finnish and non-Finnish…

The purpose of this study is to examine children's performed joy in their everyday peer relations in early childhood education (ECE) settings. The theoretical and methodological frameworks draw on a narrative approach, the postmodern formulations of emotions and Erwin Goffman's dramaturgical perspectives in children's everyday social relations.…

With the increasing acknowledgement of the benefits of early childhood education, there is a need to ask critical questions about whether ample leadership exists for guiding ambitious systemic change in the field. This review of leadership in early childhood educational contexts between 1995 and 2015 examines the epistemological assumptions…

This international study compared motivational tendencies among pre-school children from Israel, Finland and the Netherlands. Teachers were asked to rate students' behaviours during semi-structured tasks using the Child Behaviour Motivational Scale (CBeMo) which measures task orientation, task avoidance, and social dependence. Motivational…