Teacher-student relationship and students' social competence were investigated in relation to the quality of educational dialogue. The data consisted of 151 video-recorded Grade 2 lessons. The teachers (N = 50) also rated their students' (N = 664) social competence and the teacher-student relationship. In terms of teacher-student relationships,…

Teacher Efficacy (TE) refers to teachers' confidence in their ability to promote student's learning. Research shows that generalist teachers' TE for music education is generally low, with many teachers associating music education with innate musical talents -- a problem exacerbated by music education programmes that focus on singing or playing…

This study examined the occurrence and quality of educational dialogue in the preschool classrooms of teachers with low, moderate and high stress levels. Video-recordings of 21 preschool teachers were analysed based on episodes of educational dialogue and categorised with respect to patterns of dialogic teaching and shared knowledge building. The…

Educational classroom talk is beneficial for children's learning and communicative development (Alexander 2018); however, current research has focused predominantly on classroom talk starting at the primary school level. This study explored types of educational classroom talk between teachers and children as early as in early childhood education…

This study considers a contextualized approach to grammar instruction, asking: "Does embedded instruction using published authors as mentors improve grammar and usage for young writers?" Twenty-three students in one second-grade classroom participated. Students were taught grammar conventions through use of mentor texts for 45 minutes a…

This study of whole class minilesson talk adds to the literature on how teacher talk shapes student involvement with learning. Minilesson talk is commonly associated with monologic, authoritative teacher telling -- but there are few empirical studies of minilesson talk. Our systematic examination of the types of talk within and across the 14…

Intervention to raise the literacy achievement of disadvantaged groups in society has focused on preschool literacy development because it is predictive of later educational achievement and because research has shown that key strands of literacy emerge very early in childhood. Intervention programmes to promote emergent literacy are likely to be…

Early language ability is a strong predictor of later language and reading outcomes. Whilst young children with home languages that differ from the dominant language spoken in their country of residence may lag behind their peers in literacy and academic achievement, effective supports for young dual-language users may be overlooked in mainstream…

Greater public and scholarly awareness of the educational influence of males (men and fathers) on child development has generated a parallel need for empirical research into the gender-related structure and dynamics of relationships between girls/boys and female/male educators in early childhood education institutions. The Austrian W-INN pilot…

Research has shown that in Germany, language skills differ greatly already at the preschool age. There is, therefore, a strong need for high-quality language education in institutional early childhood education and care. The fact that Early childhood education and care quality has been shown to be rather low calls for implementing evidence-based…

Schools are expected to fulfil different types of goals, including citizenship development. An important question is to what extent schools can simultaneously promote different learning outcomes. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between language ability and youth citizenship. Using a representative sample of 2429 grade 6 pupils (age…

This paper reports on the findings in the first phase of a design-based research project as part of a large-scale intervention study in Dutch kindergartens. The project aims at enhancing differentiated instruction and evaluating its effects on children's development, in particular high-ability children. This study investigates relevant…

School-based mental health services are a promising context for evidence-based interventions to promote early socio-emotional development, yet implementation presents significant challenges. This paper describes the rationale, content and format of a school-based intervention, Starting Strong in Kindergarten (Starting Strong). Starting Strong is a…

This paper examines an initiative promoting collaboration between schools located in a city setting in Northern Ireland, which is broadly divided along ethnic and political lines. The schools involved, like the vast majority of schools in Northern Ireland, educate Protestant and Catholic children separately. This presents particular challenges for…

It is a challenge for an early education teacher to enhance the development of self-regulation of young children to become and stay motivated for tasks that elicit school-related skills that do not immediately make sense for them. Being aware of motivational orientations in young students is therefore a must. In the study, a cross-cultural…