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Museums offer great potential for learning, mediated by parent–child conversations. Despite much qualitative research conducting informative observations of family museum interactions, limited experimental work has investigated how to maximize these experiences. Recent studies have begun to quantitatively examine the potential of researcher-facilitated and resource-based interventions to enhance parent–child conversation in the museum context. This meta-analysis synthesized data from all identified experimental studies in this emerging field (n = 9, k = 111). Findings suggest that museum interventions significantly improve parent–child dyadic conversations (g = .43, p < .001). Sub-analyses showed that the most successful interventions were those which targeted parents (rather than the parent–child dyad) and explicitly guided parental use of conversational strategies. Implications for practice are discussed.

Help-seeking research has traditionally inferred behavioural responses to the need for help from post-hoc reflections and experiments outside of the classroom context.We aimed to gain an ecologically valid understanding of the help-seeking process by examining the association between pupils' task-specific perceptions and their help-seeking interactions with teachers and peers during lessons.Participants were 290 pupils in Years 4-6 (aged 8.22-11.48) and 12 teachers in 12 classrooms in three schools across two local authorities in South East England, UK.The microlongitudinal data consisted of 6,592 task-specific reports. Pupils reported on their task understanding and need for help and their help-seeking (teacher and peer) and help-giving behaviours at the end of each lesson. On average, pupils completed 25.44 reports across 14.64 lessons, 13 school subjects and 4.80 days. Teachers reported on pupils' academic performance. Data were analysed using two-level logistic and multinomial logistic regressions.Task-specific understanding and need for help were associated with help-seeking and help-giving behaviour during lessons. Understanding was associated also with the type of help sought and given among classmates and appeared to influence whether pupils were help-seekers or help-givers during peer interactions. There was an apparent reciprocity in peer help-seeking interactions, occurring namely among girls and higher performers. Overall, girls were more likely than boys to seek and give help across tasks. Pupils for whom English was an additional language were less likely than classmates to seek help when they needed it. The study (1) sheds new light on the dynamics of everyday help-seeking interactions in the classroom, (2) provides a conceptual framework for researchers interested in reciprocal processes of social interaction in self-regulated learning, and (3) highlights groups who might benefit from intervention.

Since teaching is a demanding and stressful profession, the study of teachers’ physiological stress in the classroom setting is an emerging field. In cross-sectional studies self-reported stress and affect are related, but less is known about the intraindividual relations between situational physiological stress and corresponding positive and negative affect. The aim of our study was to investigate the associations between situational physiological stress (six salivary cortisol samples per day) and self-reported situational affect (Positive and Negative Affect Schedule four times a day) among 61 Finnish primary school teachers over two workdays. We present a novel multilevel structural equation model (MSEM) that includes cortisol, with time since awakening as a flexibly coded time-varying covariate and affect with time since cortisol measurement as a time-varying covariate. Higher levels of teachers’ situational physiological stress were related to lower situational positive affect (e.g., enthusiasm) and higher negative affect (e.g., nervousness), demonstrating the acute/situational effects of stress on affect. In our discussion, we emphasize the importance of the sequence of sampling and observations for further theoretical modeling of relations between stress and affect. We also propose practical implications for improving teachers’ awareness of their well-being. peerReviewed

Research has shown that teachers’ autonomy support and provision of structure relate to students’ agentic and behavioral engagement. Moreover, agentic engagement elicits higher teacher autonomy support. In the present 5-week diary study, we investigated the dynamic nature of this interplay between teachers and students through their cross-assessment of students’ agentic and behavioral engagement. We also considered the week-to-week student-reported teacher autonomy support and provision of structure as well as two student personal characteristics — proactive personality and situational autonomous versus controlled motivation. Two hundred fifty-seven Turkish middle school students and their teachers from 13 classes participated in the study. Multilevel analyses showed that students’ week-to-week perceived autonomy support and initial level of autonomous motivation positively predicted week-to-week agentic engagement (teacher- and student-reported). Students’ week-to-week perceived structure positively predicted week-to-week agentic and behavioral engagement (student-, but not teacher-, reported). These findings indicate the interplay between students’ situational engagement and teachers’ situational motivating style (i.e., autonomy support and provision of structure). They also suggest greater predictive power for students’ situational motivation over the personal trait of proactive personality.

While completing a science test and science survey, 155 high school students wore a biometric wristband (measuring electrodermal activity; EDA) and self-reported their science self-efficacy and sci...

We explore the effect of students’ perceived task difficulty on the mathematics self-efficacy – performance relationship. Specifically, we expand on previous reciprocal effects studies through including students’ self-efficacy for different levels of task difficulty in an empirical investigation. We examined students’ self-efficacy for easy, medium difficulty, and hard tasks and performance on a national mathematics test in a longitudinal study of 95 Norwegian students from grade 8 to grade 9. We found differential relationships between self-efficacy for different levels of task difficulty and national test performance. In support of the ‘skill development’ model, grade 8 national test performance predicted grade 9 self-efficacy for medium and hard, but not easy, tasks. While mastery experiences are likely to arise more easily on easier tasks, such experiences are likely to matter more on harder tasks. Our findings highlight the importance of supporting students’ engagement with challenging tasks to strengthen both their performance and self-efficacy.

Digital Voice Assistants (DVAs) have become a ubiquitous technology in today’s home and childhood environments. Inspired by (Bernstein and Crowley, J Learn Sci 17:225–247, 2008) original study (n = 60, age 4–7 years) on how children’s ontological conceptualizations of life and technology were systematically associated with their real-world exposure to robotic entities, the current study explored this association for children in their middle childhood (n = 143, age 7–11 years) and with different levels of DVA-exposure. We analyzed correlational survey data from 143 parent–child dyads who were recruited on ‘Amazon Mechanical Turk’ (MTurk). Children’s ontological conceptualization patterns of life and technology were measured by asking them to conceptualize nine prototypical organically living and technological entities (e.g., humans, cats, smartphones, DVAs) with respect to their biology, intelligence, and psychology. Their ontological conceptualization patterns were then associated with their DVA-exposure and additional control variables (e.g., children’s technological affinity, demographic/individual characteristics). Compared to biology and psychology, intelligence was a less differentiating factor for children to differentiate between organically living and technological entities. This differentiation pattern became more pronounced with technological affinity. There was some evidence that children with higher DVA-exposure differentiated more rigorously between organically living and technological entities on the basis of psychology. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study exploring children’s real-world exposure to DVAs and how it is associated with their conceptual understandings of life and technology. Findings suggest although psychological conceptualizations of technology may become more pronounced with DVA-exposure, it is far from clear such tendencies blur ontological boundaries between life and technology from children’s perspective.

Self-efficacy in mathematics is related to engagement, persistence, and academic performance. Prior research focused mostly on examining changes to students’ self-efficacy across large time intervals (months or years), and paid less attention to changes at the level of lesson sequences. Knowledge of how self-efficacy changes during a sequence of lessons is important as it can help teachers better support students’ self-efficacy in their everyday work. In this paper, we expanded previous studies by investigating changes in students’ self-efficacy across a sequence of 3–4 lessons when students were learning a new topic in mathematics (nStudents = 170, nTime-points = 596). Nine classes of Norwegian grade 6 (n = 77) and grade 10 students (n = 93) reported their self-efficacy for easy, medium difficulty, and hard tasks. Using multilevel models for change, we found (a) change of students’ self-efficacy across lesson sequences, (b) differences in the starting point and change of students’ self-efficacy according to perceived task difficulty and grade, (c) more individual variation of self-efficacy starting point and change in association with harder tasks, and (d) students in classes who were taught a new topic in geometry had stronger self-efficacy at the beginning of the first lesson as compared to those who were taught a new topic in algebra (grade 10), and students in classes who were taught a new topic in fractions had steeper growth across the lesson sequence as compared to those who were taught a new topic in measurement (grade 6). Implications for both research and practice on how new mathematics topics are introduced to students are discussed.

Intensive longitudinal studies typically examine phenomena that vary across time, individuals, contexts, and other boundary conditions. This poses challenges to the conceptualization and identification of replicability and generalizability, which refer to the invariance of research findings across samples and contexts as crucial criteria for trustworthiness. Some of these challenges are specific to intensive longitudinal studies, others are similarly relevant for the work with other complex datasets that contain multilayered sources of variation (individuals nested in different types of activities or organizations, regions, countries, etc.)This article opens with discussing the reasons why research findings may fail to replicate. We then analyze reasons why research findings may falsely appear to be non-replicable when in fact they were as such replicable, but lacked generalizability due to heterogeneity between samples, subgroups, individuals, time points, and contexts. Following that, we propose conceptual and methodological approaches to better disentangle non-replicability from non-generalizability and to better understand the exact causes of either problem. In particular, we apply Lakatos’s proposition to examine not only whether but under what boundary conditions a theory is a useful description of the world, to the question whether and under which conditions a research finding is replicable and generalizable. Not only will that contribute to a more systematic understanding of and research on replicability and generalizability in longitudinal studies and beyond, but it will also be a contribution to what has been called the heterogeneity revolution (Bryan et al., 2021; Moeller, 2021).

Background Student engagement denotes active participation in academic work through commitment and involvement in learning tasks (Appleton et al., 2006, Journal of School Psychology, 44, 427). This study looks at questions such as whether engagement experiences in one lesson have an effect on the next lesson. In the present study, process‐oriented analyses were conducted to examine lower secondary school students’ engagement experiences and the stability of those experiences from one lesson to the next. Aims (1) To what extent are students’ engagement experiences, in terms of behavioural and cognitive engagement, emotional engagement, and disaffection, stable from one lesson to the next (autoregressive cyclic effects)? (2) What are the cross‐lagged relationships (dynamic effects) between engagement experiences from one lesson to the next? Sample The sample consisted of 56 Finnish lower secondary school students. The students provided ratings of their engagement experiences at the end of each lesson for one week (5 days, 975 ratings). Each student rated, on average, 17.4 lessons (SD = 5.67). Methods We specified multilevel dynamic structural equation models with random slopes. Results The models showed small significant sustainability in behavioural and cognitive engagement, emotional engagement, and disaffection from one lesson to the next, regardless of subject matter and teacher continuity. Higher behavioural and cognitive engagement in a lesson also had a self‐diminishing effect on disaffection. Conclusions The present study provides valuable information to teachers by showing that an experience in one lesson can have an effect on subsequent ones. peerReviewed

In order to expand previous intraindividual studies of student engagement we investigated students' observed engagement (i.e., on- and off-task behaviour), instructional activities (i.e., teacher-led whole class, individual work, pair-work, student-teacher interaction, assessment, and ”other”), and self-reported learning experiences (cognitive engagement, difficulty, competence, emotional engagement, positive and negative emotions), within lessons during one calendar week. Eighteen fourth and fifth grade target students (Mage=10.1, SD=0.44) were observed every 30 sec during two to four lessons each day for five school days (engagement and instructional activities), on average 66.05 times per lesson (SD=19.16, Range=15-80, nobs=14,994) between 9-18 lessons during a week. Simultaneously, students provided 1-3 electronic questionnaire self-reports per lesson (Mself_report=35.1, SD=12.6, Range=19-52, nself_report=631). We regressed observed engagement (0 = off-task, 1 = on-task) on self-reported learning experiences using 3-level (time-points nested in lessons, nested in students) Bayesian logistic regression models in brms. Observed engagement diminished during lessons, and was predicted by higher cognitive engagement, and instructional activities. As compared to teacher-led instruction, engagement was higher during individual tasks, teacher-supported tasks, and assessments. Overall self-reported and observed engagement within lessons converged, supporting their use in intraindividual research.

With a growing interest in research on educational processes, there is a need to overview suitable latent variable models for students' learning experiences in real-time. This tutorial provides an introduction to intraindividual (multilevel) structural equation models (ISEM) for the analysis of process data (e.g. intensive longitudinal, intraindividual, diary, or person-period data) collected in educational settings. Using example data on 202 students' ecological momentary assessment of 10 to 24 reports (M = 14.9, SD = 3.2), of controlled (extrinsic) and autonomous (intrinsic) motivation the following models are presented: (1) measurement models and covariate effects models; (2) models for fixed, random, and moderator effects; and (3) models for reciprocal effects of chronologically ordered data. Step-by-step instructions for modelling, and substantive interpretations are given. Overall, ISEM establishes an important window into research on real-time educational processes.

The potential contribution of Multilevel Structural Equation Modelling (MSEM 1 ) to educational research was recognized early in the development of MSEM – at least within Anglophone peer-reviewed j...

We examined whether learning experiences (value of success, mastery experience) and task properties (challenge) are related to early adolescents’ (n = 190, median age = 12) emotional responses and psychophysiological states (autonomic nervous system, ANS) in achievement situations in an ambulatory laboratory. They completed four achievement tasks (two math and two reading) at different challenge levels in randomized order, and reported their learning and task perceptions for each task. The proportion of errors indicated the objective demandingness of each task. As indices of sympathetic nervous system activity, we recorded skin conductance response (SCR) and heart rate (HR), and, as parasympathetic nervous system activity, their heart rate variability (HRV). Following control-value and flow theories, we proposed hypotheses for main and interaction effects and specified multilevel models (tasks nested in persons). Novel findings emerged. Aside from the anticipated main effects, Challenge × Mastery interaction also was related to adolescents’ emotions and SCR at the within-person (task) level. Furthermore, Value × Mastery Experience interaction was related to SCR and HRV at the task level, whereas Value × Errors interaction contributed to experienced anger and anxiety at the between-person (individual) level. The findings provide novel understanding of situational interplay between the value of success, challenge, and mastery experience in adolescents’ experienced emotions and psychophysiological states. peerReviewed

When classroom observations are increasingly used for accountability and evaluation purposes, a deeper understanding of the psychometric properties of such measurement tools is needed. The present study took a unique approach to examine the psychometric properties of a commonly used classroom observation measure by testing the reliability of indicators for higher-order constructs (i.e. dimensions). We investigated the reliability of indicator ratings of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) Pre-K instrument in Finnish kindergarten and first grade classrooms. Twenty-one observer pairs rated 838 segments identified from the 413 lessons of 48 teachers. Variance components models were specified to investigate variance proportions of each indicator and dimension. The results showed that most observer disagreement was found for the instructional support domain. Observers disagreed relatively more depending on the teacher they observed. There is a clear need for additional understanding on how observers process information on the complex elements of classroom interaction in order to improve training programmes and the reliability and accuracy of the assessment procedure. peerReviewed

In a replication and extension of an earlier study, we relied on person-centered analyses to identify teacher (Level 1) and school (Level 2) profiles based on teachers' experiences of job demands (barriers to professional development, disruptive student behavior), job resources (teacher collaboration, input in decision-making), and personal resources (self-efficacy). We examined data from 5,439 teachers working in 364 schools in Australia and 2,216 teachers working in 149 schools in England. Latent profile analysis revealed six teacher profiles: Low-Demand-Flourisher (11%), Mixed-Demand-Flourisher (17%), Job-Resourced-Average (11%), Balanced-Average (14%), Mixed-Resourced-Struggler (11%), and Low-Resourced-Struggler (36%). Two school profiles were identified: an Unsupportive school profile (43%) and a Supportive school profile (57%). Several significant relations between these profiles and teacher/school characteristics and work-related outcomes were also identified at both levels. Although our results generally replicated prior findings, some differences were also observed, possibly as a results of recent changes in policies regarding in teacher support and accountability. Next, we extended prior work using a subsample of the Australian teachers for whom we had matching student data. This second set of results revealed that schools with a greater proportion of low-SES students were more likely to present an Unsupportive school profile. Moreover, the Supportive school profile was associated with higher levels of student-reported instructional support and school-average achievement in reading, mathematics, and science.

We pose a process perspective of learning experiences of effort exertion, competence beliefs, and motivation (autonomous and controlled motivation). Following a process-model of cyclic (“self-sustaining”, auto-regressive) and dynamic (“self-enhancing” and “self-diminishing”, cross-lagged) associations over time, we investigated the effects of lagged within-day and within-school-subject constructs, and associations with teacher-perceptions of each student ( n teacher = 22 ). In total, 231 students in grade 5 and 6 in primary schools in England (108 boys and 123 girls; M age = 10.5 years) responded to the Learning Experience Questionnaire an average of 15.1 time-points during a week (SD = 3.3; Range = 10–26, in total 3490 time-points). Multilevel structural equation models (MSEM) showed that effort exertion was the least self-sustaining. Competence beliefs and autonomous motivation were sustained within school-subjects. Controlled motivation was sustained both within days and school subjects. Teachers were more involved with students who felt less competent during the week. Within days controlled motivation showed a self-enhancing effect on effort, while effort showed a self-diminishing effect on controlled motivation. Within school-subjects controlled motivation showed a self-diminishing effect on competence belief and autonomous motivation. Overall our study provides insights into cyclic and dynamic processes of learning experiences in real-time and how these processes are related with student-teacher interactions.

Make-believe play has been theorized to promote self-regulation skills and other positive child outcomes. In this study, we examine the make-believe play approach featured in the Tools of t...

Using mobile technology and experience sampling in junior high school, real-time motivation and engagement were explored at four-levels: between lessons (up to 2 lessons per day; Level 1), between ...

The present study investigated the dynamic nature of students' daily experiences and general study engagement using intra-individual assessment. More specifically, we examined individual differences in the relationship between university students' task-specific value and situational emotions and, further, whether first-year study engagement would moderate this association during the first two years of studies. Intra-individual state assessments were conducted via mobile phone-based experience sampling method (ESM) during participants' first (N = 72) and second (N = 56) academic years, resulting in 3089 and 2912 fully completed state questionnaires. In both years, students were asked five times a day over two weeks how important they perceived their current activity and their positive and negative emotions. Using multilevel structural equation modeling, we found that, on average, a higher perception of task-specific value was associated with higher positive emotions and lower negative emotions within individuals. However, individual differences were detected in the value-emotion relations especially during the second academic year. Finally, the findings indicated that overall study engagement, measured at the beginning of the first academic year, predicted between-person differences in these within-person relationships both years.

Objective: Experimental studies show small to moderate effects of both acute and regular physical activity on executive functions, these being strongly associated with academic performance at school. In order to understand the naturally occurring associations between primary school-aged children's working memory, self-reported sustained attention, and physical activity, 35 children (Mage = 9.8 years, range = 7.6–11.4 years old) in Years 3–6 of primary school took part in a two-week long intraindividual study. Methods: Participants wore an accelerometer wristband throughout the study, and carried out a working memory task (digit recall) and completed a sustained attention measure each morning and afternoon, giving 517 time-points nested in 4–10 school-days (Mobs = 15.8 situations, nobs = 4–18). Results: Using multilevel structural equation models (MSEM), we found that working memory was stable across time (within-person b = 0.29) and trait-like (ICCs = 0.58). Across situations, state-working memory was higher later in the calendar week. Acute moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) was not associated with state-working memory, but exertion of a higher level of MVPA than usual the previous day was associated with lower state-working memory the following day. Trait-sustained attention (across the two weeks) predicted higher trait-working memory and older students outperformed younger students. Conclusions: Implications for timing and intensity of students’ physical activity in educational settings is discussed.

This paper uses nationally representative survey data of adults Internet use in Britain to examine current patterns in the uptake of lifelong learning via the Internet. We develop and test a model that accounts for structure, agency and outcomes using structural equation modelling to address two questions: (1) how structure (as measured by age, gender, SES, Education and ACORN) is related to personal and capital enhancing outcomes of learning online; and (2) how agency (as measured by digital skills and engagement with online learning) mediates this relationship. We demonstrate that social structure remains an important factor in understanding patterns of uptake and outcomes of online learning, alongside an individual’s agentic behaviours. We suggest that countries such as the UK, which have become overly focused on individual interventions to increase the uptake of lifelong learning via the Internet, are going in the wrong direction. Such interventions have failed in the past, and we suggest that they will continue to do so unless policy makers reconceptualise lifelong learning and the Internet in ways that take social structures into account.

Teachers’ healthy and effective functioning at work is impacted by the demands they face and the resources they can access. In this study, person-centered analysis was adopted to identify distinct teacher profiles of demands and resources. We investigated teachers’ experiences of two job demands (barriers to professional development and disruptive student behavior), two job resources (teacher collaboration and input in decision-making), and one personal resource (self-efficacy for teaching). Using data from the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2013, the study involved 6,411 teachers from 369 schools in Australia and 2,400 teachers from 154 schools in England. In phase one, latent profile analysis revealed five teacher profiles that were similar across the two countries: the Low-Demand-Flourisher (12%), Mixed-Demand-Flourisher (17%), Job-Resourced-Average (34%), Balanced-Average (15%), and Struggler (21%). The profiles were differently associated with two background characteristics (teacher gender and teaching experience) and two work-related well-being outcomes (job satisfaction and occupational commitment). In phase two, we extended our analysis to the school-level to identify school profiles based on the relative prevalence of the five teacher profiles within a school. Indeed, a yield of large scale datasets such as TALIS is that there are sufficient units at the school-level to enable institutional insights, beyond insights garnered at the individual teacher-level. Two school profiles that were similar in both countries were revealed: the Unsupportive school profile (58%) and the Supportive school profile (42%). The Supportive school profile was associated with higher school-average teacher job satisfaction and occupational commitment than the Unsupportive school profile. Taken together, the findings yield knowledge about salient teacher and school profiles, and provide guidance for possible interventions at the teacher- and school level.

This paper presents a new methodological model termed Airbag Moderation: That the relationship between two variables varies as a function of a third, and that this third variable depends upon one of the others. Airbag Moderation extends and bridges a number of theories and it can be implemented using existing statistical models and software packages. Airbag Moderation is more suitable than Moderation for conceptualizing and testing a range of theories, interventions, and policies across educational, social, and behavioural research. An empirical example demonstrates the effectiveness of UK Sure Start Children’s Centres as an intervention in the context of financial disadvantage and the internalizing behaviours of preschoolers. Parallel statistical implementation follows via two Structural Equation Models featuring either a statistical interaction term or a random coefficient. Both indicate that greater use of a Children’s Centre is a significant Airbag Moderator of the relationship between financial disadvantage and internalizing behaviours in preschoolers.

This study investigates school effects on primary school students’ language and mathematics achievement trajectories in Chile, a context of particular interest given its large between-school variability in educational outcomes. The sample features an accelerated longitudinal design (three time-points, four cohorts) together spanning Grades 3 to 8 (n = 19,704 students in 156 schools). The magnitudes of school effects on students’ growth trajectories were found to be sizeable (generally larger than school effects in Western industrialised countries) and moderately consistent across school subjects. School composition effects on student achievement status were found for both school subjects. However, there was no evidence of composition effects on student achievement growth. The study provides new evidence on the size and nature of school effects in a developing country context based on state-of-the-art methods (i.e., accelerated longitudinal and growth curve models).

The aim of this study was to identify factors that help toddlers form attachment relationships with their caregivers during the transition from sole home care to out-of-home childcare. We investigated relationship building between toddlers and their new caregivers during the first four months in childcare. In a sample of 104 toddlers (aged 10–33 months) in 71 Viennese childcare centres, we assessed attachment security (using the Attachment Q-Sort) at three time points. We also assessed children’s experiences with their new care providers at each time point, focusing on dyadic caregiver sensitivity (a) during one-to-one interactions with the individual target child, and (b) during interactions with all children in the group. We investigated whether attachment security in the early months of childcare differs between girls and boys, to see if gender, in combination with caregiver interaction, has a role in predicting differences between toddlers’ attachment security. Higher attachment security was found in girls, and in those children with caregivers scoring higher on the group-related measure of sensitivity. Dyadic sensitivity did not predict toddlers’ attachment security. Findings support the development of attachment/relationship theory, in the context of childcare for young children, that takes account of children’s experiences in groups rather than only in one-to-one interactions.

This Campbell systematic review examines the evidence on the effectiveness of the Tools of the Mind curriculum in promoting children?s self‐regulation and academic skills, in order to inform its implementation in schools. The participants included students of all ages, gender, ethnicity, special education status, language‐learning status, and socio‐economic status. The review summarizes findings from 14 records across six studies conducted in the USA. The Tools curriculum significantly improved children?s math skills relative to comparison curricula, but the effect size was small. There are also shortcomings in the quality of evidence. Although the average effect sizes for self‐regulation and literacy favored tools compared to other approaches, the effect was not statistically significant. The evidence from the small number of included studies is mostly consistent with the evidence observed for other similar programs, but again the evidence is weak. The results for the outcome measures were not statistically significant. Plain language summary The Tools of the Mind curriculum improves self‐regulation and academic skills in early childhood The Tools of the Mind early childhood curriculum appear to improve children's self‐regulation and academic skills. The assessment of the tools curriculum is hampered by a lack of rigorous evidence and more research is necessary to corroborate this finding. What did the review study? Tools of the Mind (Tools) is an early childhood education curriculum, which involves structured make‐believe play scenarios and a series of other curricular activities. Tools aims to promote and improve children's self‐regulation and academic skills by having a dual focus on self‐regulation and other social‐emotional skills in educational contexts. This review examines the evidence on the effectiveness of Tools in promoting children's self‐regulation and academic skills, in order to inform its implementation in schools. What is the aim of this review? This Campbell systematic review examines the evidence on the effectiveness of the Tools of the Mind curriculum in promoting children's self‐regulation and academic skills, in order to inform its implementation in schools. The participants included students of all ages, gender, ethnicity, special education status, language‐learning status, and socio‐economic status. The review summarizes findings from 14 records across six studies conducted in the USA. What studies are included? Included studies had to have used randomized controlled trials or quasi‐experimental studies and reported on one or more quantitative effect sizes regarding tools’ effectiveness in self‐regulatory or academic domains. A total of 14 records across six studies were included in the review. The participants included students of all ages, gender, ethnicity, special education status, language learning status, and socio‐economic status. The studies included measured at least one of four primary outcomes and did not measure any secondary outcome. Studies that compared Tools with a business‐as‐usual or another intervention were included in the review. All included studies were conducted in the USA. What are the main results of the review? The Tools curriculum significantly improved children's math skills relative to comparison curricula, but the effect size was small. There are also shortcomings in the quality of evidence. Although the average effect sizes for self‐regulation and literacy favored tools compared to other approaches, the effect was not statistically significant. The evidence from the small number of included studies is mostly consistent with the evidence observed for other similar programs, but again the evidence is weak. The results for the outcome measures were not statistically significant. What do the findings of this review mean? Generally, the Tools curriculum seems to improve children's self‐regulation and academic skills. However, given the small number of included studies, as well as other methodological shortcomings, such as the high risk of bias in some of the included studies, this conclusion should be read with caution. While there is doubt as to the validity of the findings, tools’ educational approach seems to be consistent with many child developmental theories and as such, should not be ruled out. There is a need to conduct more high quality research, especially about studies focused on demonstrating tools’ effectiveness in promoting children's self‐regulation skills. How up‐to‐date is this review? The review authors searched for studies published up to December 2016. This Campbell Systematic Review was published in October 2017. Executive Summary/Abstract BACKGROUND Tools of the Mind (Tools) is an early childhood education curriculum that aims to simultaneously promote children's self‐regulation and academic skills. Given the increasing focus on self‐regulation and other social‐emotional skills in educational contexts, Tools has become increasingly implemented in classrooms around the United States, Canada, and Chile. Despite its growing popularity, Tools’ evidence base remains mixed. OBJECTIVES The aim of this review is to synthesize the evidence on the effectiveness of the Tools program in promoting children's self‐regulation and academic skills. SEARCH METHODS The systematic search was conducted from October 21 through December 3, 2016. The search yielded 176 titles and abstracts, 25 of them deemed potentially relevant. After full‐text screening, 14 reports from six studies were eligible for inclusion. SELECTION CRITERIA In order to be included, a study must have had one or more quantitative effect sizes regarding Tools’ effectiveness in the self‐regulatory or academic domains. Moreover, the study must have employed statistical mechanisms to control for potential confounds. Studies that compared Tools with a business‐as‐usual or another intervention were eligible for inclusion, whereas studies that did not pertain to the Tools curriculum were excluded. The reports, whether published or unpublished, could come from any national context, language, student population, or time period as long as the conditions outlined above were met. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS All included studies classified as randomized controlled trials, though, again, quasi‐experimental studies had been eligible for inclusion. Each included study yielded effect sizes in the form of standardized mean differences. The outcomes of interest included assessor‐reported self‐regulation skills (e.g., teachers or parents rating children's self‐regulation), task‐based self‐regulation skills (e.g., children performing a self‐regulation task on a computer and receiving a score), literacy skills, and math skills. All effect sizes were interpreted as Tools’ effect relative to other business‐as‐usual programs or other interventions. RESULTS The evidence indicated statistically significant benefits for Tools children on the math pooled effect size. The other pooled effect sizes for self‐regulation and literacy favored Tools but did not reach statistical significance. AUTHORS’ CONCLUSIONS The results indicate positive yet small effects for the Tools program. Three of the four pooled effect sizes did not reach statistical significance, but all four pooled effect sizes favored Tools. The small number of included studies reduced power, which could explain the lack of statistical significance across three of the four outcome measures. By contrast, it is also possible that Tools either does not substantially influence children's self‐regulation or that the influence is too small to be detected with the current evidence base. Background

Objectives: To investigate the effect of (i) physical education (PE) lesson intensity and (ii) skill complexity, and (iii) their interaction on students’ on-task behaviour in the classroom. Design: Within-subject repeated-measures. Methods: Participants were children (N = 101, age 7–11) recruited from four elementary schools in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. The experiment consisted of manipulating the aerobic intensity (low/medium/high) and skill complexity (low/high) of PE lessons. Children participated in all six conditions of the experiment: low intensity–low complexity (flexibility), medium intensity–low complexity (health related exercise), high intensity–low complexity (sprinting games), low intensity–high complexity (bi-lateral ball skills), medium intensity–high complexity (ball games), high intensity–high complexity (aerobics). Children’s behaviour in the classroom was observed every 30 s for 25 min before and after each PE lesson and rated as on-task or off-task. Results: A main effect of intensity on children’s on-task behaviour was found (F (2,51634) = 11.07, p Conclusions: These findings suggest that participation in PE lessons can improve children’s on-task behaviour in the classroom. PE lessons involving high complexity and high intensity, or low complexity and medium intensity appear to have the greatest benefits for students’ behaviour in the classroom.