Katrin Mägi

Performance-Approach Goals, Task-Avoidant Behaviour and Conceptual Knowledge as Predictors of First Graders' School Performance.

The present paper aims to examine the relationship between first grade children’s performance‐approach goal orientation, task‐avoidant behaviours, conceptual knowledge and their achievement in maths and literacy. The sample consisted of 174 first grade children and their class teachers. Children’s self reports of their performance‐approach goals and avoidant behaviours as well as teacher‐reports of children’s avoidant behaviours were used. Our results indicate that performance‐approach goal orientation positively predicts children’s self‐reported task‐avoidant behaviours which in turn have a negative effect on children’s achievement outcomes. The negative effect of teacher‐rated avoidant behaviours on children’s achievement outcomes was even greater than the positive influence of children’s conceptual knowledge. These results suggest that the relationships between goal‐orientations, achievement behaviours and achievement outcomes start to form early in children’s school career (or even before that) and that children’s self‐report of their achievement goals and behaviours provide a valuable knowledge already in this early age.

Relations Between Achievement Goal Orientations and Math Achievement in Primary Grades: A Follow‐Up Study

The aim of the present study was to investigate children’s achievement goal orientations and their relations to math achievement in the primary grades. The sample consisted of 179 children who were in the 2nd and 3rd grades during the first measurement and in the 3rd and 4th grades during the second measurement. Children’s self‐ratings were obtained on their goal orientations, their math performance was tested and their math grades were taken into account. Teacher ratings were obtained on each child’s effort in class. Children’s self‐reported performance‐avoidance goals were found to be related to their achievement outcomes. Math achievement seems to influence children’s achievement goal orientation rather than vice versa in the primary grades.

School Psychologists’ Role in School: Expectations of School Principals on the Work of School Psychologists

The aim of the present study was to investigate the expectations and evaluations of Estonian school principals on the work of school psychologists. Surveys have shown that teachers and school principals value traditional assessment activities but also desire more consultation. School psychologists emphasize the importance of system counselling, but in practice it can seldom be seen. One of the obstacles to the change of school psychologists’ roles might be the expectations of school principals. Therefore, school principals were questioned regarding these issues. One hundred and seven principals participated in the study. In addition, interviews were carried out with three school principals. The results showed that the most desired services by Estonian school principals are individual counselling of children and consultation with teachers and parents. System counselling is expected less frequently, but no strong resistance to it was found. It seems that school principals do not desire it because they are not yet aware of its possibilities.

Transactional development of parental beliefs and academic skills in primary school

This study examined transactional development of mothers’ beliefs (self-efficacy, success attributions of a childs success to maternal effort) and childrens academic skills. Six hundred sixty-eight children and their mothers were evaluated twice: at the beginning of the first grade and at the end of the third grade. Mothers’ beliefs were measured with a modified Teacher Efficacy Scale; math and reading skills were assessed with tests. The results showed that mothers’ self-efficacy was not related to a childs academic skills. Mutual negative relations between attributions of a childs success to maternal effort and childrens academic skills were identified. When childrens initial skills were low, mothers’ success attributions increased. In turn, mothers’ higher success attributions at the beginning of school predicted childrens lower skills at the end of the third grade. Mothers’ higher education was related to their higher self-efficacy and lower success attributions. The findings emphasise the need to educate parents about attributions and the best ways to support their childrens academic development.

Does Self-Efficacy Mediate the Effect of Primary School Teachers’ Emotional Support on Learning Behavior and Academic Skills?

This study examined the effects of first-grade teachers’ emotional support on task persistence and academic skills in the sixth grade and the mediational role of children’s academic self-concept in these effects. Participants were 524 children (263 boys, X ¯ age in the first grade = 7.47 years), their first-grade homeroom teachers (n = 53), and sixth-grade math (n = 34) and literacy (n = 34) teachers. Academic skills were tested, and students’ task persistence was reported by teachers in the first and in the sixth grade. Students reported on their academic self-concept and their first-grade teacher’s emotional support retrospectively in the sixth grade. First-grade teachers’ emotional support had low facilitative effect on children’s task persistence in language and math lessons, and it supported reading skills. Teacher’s emotional support was related to higher self-concept in reading, and it mediated the effect of emotional support on task persistence and reading skills.

Teacher Judgments of Student Reading and Math Skills: Associations With Child- and Classroom-Related Factors

ABSTRACT The purpose of the study was to examine whether students’ linguistic skills and task-avoidant behavior (i.e., the child-related factors) and the mean level of academic skills (reading comprehension and math) of classmates (i.e., the class-related factor) are associated with teacher judgments of children’s reading comprehension and math skills. The participants were third-grade Estonian-speaking students (n = 656; age 9−11 years) and their classroom teachers (n = 51). The results of the structural equation modeling path analyses indicated that teachers tend to judge students showing higher academic and linguistic skills and lower avoidance behavior as higher on the reading comprehension and math skills. In contrast, the classmates’ higher academic skill level was related to lower judgments of individual children’s reading comprehension and math skills by teachers.

Perspectives of children and adolescents on the perceived determinants of physical activity during recess

Abstract Promotion of healthy lifestyles in youth focuses on school-based interventions with the aim to increase physical activity (PA) during school days. Drawing on seventeen focus group discussions from three purposively selected Estonian schools, we explored factors that perceivably affect students’ recess physical activity (RPA). Both inductive and deductive principles of data analysis were used to extract major and subthemes related to factors that inhibit or enhance RPA. Participants identified barriers and facilitators to recess PA as originating mainly from physical and organizational school environment. Also, unsuitable weather was described as a barrier to being active. Additionally, feelings, behavioral and normative beliefs were described as constraining or facilitating RPA. Results highlighted two culture-specific unique perceived determinants of RPA that need to be addressed during the development of school-based interventions to increase PA.