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Teamwork capabilities are essential for 21st century life, with groupwork emerging as a fruitful context to develop these skills. Case studies that explore interpersonal affect dynamics in authentic higher education groupwork settings can highlight collaborative skills development needs. This comparative case-study traced the sociodynamic evolution of two groups of first-year university students to investigate the high collaborative variance outcomes of the two groups, which reported starkly contrasting group dynamics (negative and dysfunctional or positive and collaborative). Mixedmethods (video-recorded observations of five groupwork labs over one semester, and group interviews) provided interpersonal affect data as real-time visible behaviours, and the felt experiences and perceptions of participants. The study traced interpersonal affect dynamics in the natural fluctuation of not just task-focused (on-task), but also explicitly relational (off-task) interactions, which revealed their function in both task participation and group dynamics. Findings illustrate visible interpersonal affect behaviours that manifested and evolved over time as interactive patterns, and group dynamics outcomes. Fine-grained analysis of interactions unveiled interpersonal affect as a collective, evolving process, and the mechanism through which one group started and stayed highly positive and collaborative over the semester. The other group showed a tendency towards splitting to undertake tasks early, leading to low group-level interpersonal attentiveness, and over time, subgroups emerged through interactions both off-task and on-task. The study made visible the pervasive nature of interpersonal affect as enacted through seemingly inconsequential everyday behaviours that supported the relational and task-based needs of groupwork, and those behaviours which impeded collaboration.

Providing adequate writing instruction and practice in schools is an essential cornerstone of writing development and it affords a diagnostic approach for teachers. But what writing instruction is being practiced in Australian primary schools? The aim of this study was to survey a sample of teachers (n = 310) about their instructional practices for writing and their preparation and self-efficacy to teach writing. The majority of the teachers surveyed indicated they allocated on average less than three hours per week for writing practice in their classrooms, with findings further showing a large variability in the frequency of writing practice ranging from 15 min to 7.5 h per week. Findings suggested an emphasis placed on teaching foundational skills, such as spelling, over the teaching of process skills, such as planning and revising. Results further indicated that less emphasis is placed on teaching handwriting and typing. The majority of participating teachers reported implementing only six of the 20 different instructional practices included in the survey on a weekly basis, with school-home strategies being the least frequently reported strategies to foster students' writing development. Most teachers expressed positive beliefs about their preparation and self-efficacy for teaching writing. Results from multiple regression analysis showed that preparation and self-efficacy for teaching writing significantly and statistically accounted for variability in using evidence-based practices, teaching foundational skills, and teaching process skills. However, only self-efficacy made a statically significant contribution to predicting strategies to extend writing to the home environment. Implications for teaching and recommendations for research are provided.

Two hundred ninety-eight primary teachers (88% female) from across all Australian states and territories reported on the frequency with which they implemented instructional adaptations for struggling writers in their classrooms. They also rated their preparation and self-efficacy for teaching writing. The majority of participating teachers indicated they provided additional instruction on spelling, capitalization and punctuation, and sentence construction at least once a week or more often. Teachers further reported implementing additional minilessons and reteaching strategies and skills, as well as extra instruction on grammar, handwriting, text structure, revising, and planning on a monthly basis or more often. The majority of teachers reported never or only once a year using adaptations to support digital writing. The frequency with which teachers provided extra instruction on spelling, handwriting, text structure, revising, and computer use differed by grade. Only teachers' perceived efficacy to teach writing made a unique and statistically significant contribution to predicting the use of instructional adaptations for writing and adaptations to support digital writing after controlling for teacher and classroom variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates associations between pre-service primary teachers' attitudinal profiles towards science learning (n = 108) and their learning outcomes in an introductory science unit. It expands on previous work on this cohort that used person-centred analyses (cluster analysis) to identify attitudinal profiles at the start and end of the unit (i.e. "Optimal," "Promising," "Vulnerable," and "Uncommitted"). In the present study, profile transitions from start to end were calculated to determine transition patterns (i.e. "Stays Favourable," "Stays Unfavourable," "Migrates to Favourable," and "Migrates toUnfavourable"). Subsequently, one-way multivariate analyses of variance were conducted to test differences in learning outcomes by initial attitudinal profile and transition patterns. Total assignment mark and final exam mark were used as indicators of achievement of unit learning outcomes, while number of quizzes completed was used as an indicator of student commitment to unit assessment. The results indicate that pre-service primary teachers who started the unit with "Optimal" and "Promising" profiles achieved better outcomes and engaged more with unit assessment than those who started with "Uncommitted" or "Vulnerable" profiles. In terms of transition patterns, starting and staying in a "Favourable" profile ("Optimal" and "Promising") led to the most successful outcomes, while the opposite was the case for students who started and stayed in the least favourable profiles ("Vulnerable" and "Uncommitted"). These findings suggest the importance of the early identification of students whose attitudes towards learning science may show vulnerability or lack of commitment so targeted interventions and suitable adaptations to curriculum and classroom environment can be put in place.

This study examined the nature of effort towards challenge in stories recommended for young children in Indonesian schools. One hundred and nine stories with challenge information, recommended by the Indonesian government for Years 1 and 2 were analyzed, using a combination of content and structural analyses. When exploring the characters' efforts towards challenge, the findings revealed that the most prominent type of effort depicted in the stories was exerted by characters other than the protagonist (other-initiated effort). Furthermore, while all stories with this type of effort had a successful outcome, self-initiated individual effort (exerted by the main character) was the most prevalent type of effort in stories with an unsuccessful outcome. These findings can be interpreted in more than one way. From the perspective of the achievement motivation literature, the responses to challenges depicted in the stories do not seem to promote a proactive approach towards difficulties. From the perspective of prevalent local values, however, the examples of effort presented in the stories may represent societal expectations concerning the acceptance of life events (in Indonesian: nrimo) and the promotion of caring values towards individuals in need. By integrating findings of the extant literature on achievement motivation with a contextually sensitive approach to the interpretation of the stories' content, this study raises important questions for future research in this area.

Recent research indicates that parental behaviours may influence the development of executive functions (EFs) during early childhood, which are proposed to serve as domain-general building blocks for later classroom behaviour and academic achievement. However, questions remain about the strength of the association between parenting and child EFs, more specifically which parental behaviours are most strongly associated with child EFs, and whether there is a critical period in early childhood during which parental behaviour is more influential. A meta-analysis was therefore conducted to determine the strength of the relation between various parental behaviours and EFs in children aged 0 to 8 years. We identified 42 studies published between 2000 and 2016, with an average of 12.77 months elapsing in the measurement of parent and child variables. Parental behaviours were categorised as positive (e.g. warmth, responsiveness, sensitivity), negative (e.g. control, intrusiveness, detachment) and cognitive (e.g. autonomy support, scaffolding, cognitive stimulation). Results revealed significant associations (ps < 0.001) between composite EF and positive (r = 0.25), negative (r = -0.22) and cognitive (r = 0.20) parental behaviours. Associations between cognitive parental behaviours and EFs were significantly moderated by child age, with younger children showing a stronger effect size, whereas positive and negative parental behaviours showed a stable association with EFs across ages. We conclude that modest, naturally occurring associations exist between parental behaviours and future EFs and that early childhood may be a critical period during which cognitive parental behaviour is especially influential.

This qualitative study explored the interactions of six triads of Year One students in the United Kingdom (n = 18; mean age = 5 years, 7 months; 9 female) investigating interpersonal regulation of learning, social dynamics, and "group dialogue," evident in instances of productive collaboration during problem-solving activities. Group activity was captured through video (total footage = 8 hours) and subjected to two "sequential phases" of qualitative analysis, undertaken by three researchers: (1) comprehensive qualitative descriptions of group activity, and (2) multidimensional analysis of group interaction with a focus on interpersonal regulation of learning, social dynamics, and group dialogue. Consistent with prior research, the findings show that productive collaboration, though prevalent only in some groups, was characterized by (a) distributed forms of co-regulation where all members took turns in taking regulatory roles; (b) positive social dynamics marked by equitable patterns of participation, playful interludes, uptake of contributions, and use of persuasive language in the event of disagreements; and (c) use of exploratory forms of talk (e.g., asking questions and volunteering reasons) directed toward the achievement of task goals. Different positional preferences were identified among the most regulated students, who consistently assumed leading roles in their groups.

Accumulating evidence indicates handwriting automaticity is related to the development of effective writing skills. The present study examined the levels of handwriting automaticity of Australian children at the end of kindergarten and the amount and type of writing instruction they experienced before entering first grade. The current study involved 177 kindergarten children enrolled in 23 classrooms from seven government-funded primary schools in Western Australia. Individual child level data (e.g., handwriting automaticity and word-reading skills) were collected and teachers were asked to complete a survey assessing "the amount of time and types of writing activities developed in their classrooms (e.g., teaching basic skills and teaching writing processes). Hierarchical linear models were conducted to examine total variance attributable to child and classroom levels. Results showed a total variance of approximately 20% in children's handwriting automaticity attributable to differences among classrooms when gender and word-reading skills were controlled for." Large variability was noted in the amount and type of writing instruction reported by a subset of participating teachers. Handwriting automaticity was associated with the teaching of revising strategies but not with the teaching of handwriting. Implications for writing development and writing instruction are discussed.

The importance of parent-child reminiscing for young children's social and cognitive development has been well established, but despite the increasing numbers of children attending formal early childhood settings such as nurseries and preschools, there has been surprisingly little research exploring educator-child reminiscing in these contexts. Furthermore, existing research into educator-child interaction in the early years has focused on the identification and categorization of explicit learning episodes, neglecting the potential significance of implicit learning and limiting our understanding of the dialogic mechanisms underpinning developmental change. Through a systematic review of evidence pertaining to the parent-child reminiscing literature and that of dialogic practices in early childhood, this paper argues that research into the role of reminiscing in early childhood settings, combined with the wider application of formalized, micro-level approaches to analyzing educator-child conversations, is needed to broaden our understanding of early child development and effective early childhood provision. We conclude by proposing a research agenda to investigate reminiscing and elaborative styles in early childhood settings which consists of three strands: description and taxonomy; individual differences; and links to child outcomes.

Background: Extant research has traditionally associated children's achievement motivation with socio-emotional parental behaviours such as demonstrations of affect, responsiveness, and the degree of parental control. Aims: This study explored the extent to which parental socio-emotional and instructional behaviours (including the contingency of instructional scaffolding) both related to children's mastery and performance tendencies towards homework-like activities. Sample: The study involved nine underachieving primary-aged children and their parents, with four children showing predominantly mastery-oriented behaviours in the homework context and five showing predominantly performance-oriented behaviours. Methods: An in-depth observational analysis of video-recorded parent-child interactions during four homework-like sessions was carried out for each case. Socio-emotional and instructional parental behaviours were coded and subjected to nonparametric quantitative analyses. Subsequently, thick descriptions of parent-child interactions were used to identify critical aspects of parental assistance. Results: Moderate cognitive demand was associated with mastery orientation, while negative affect was related to performance orientation. As revealed quantitatively and qualitatively, socio-emotional and instructional parental behaviours were also associated with each other, forming distinct profiles of parental behaviours related to children's homework motivation. Conclusions: The findings support the idea that instructional parental behaviours are as important as socio-emotional ones in the analysis of children's homework motivation. The value of observational methods in investigating the target variables is discussed.

There is a strong body of research showing associations between handwriting automaticity and children's writing performance. However, less is known about keyboarding automaticity and young students' writing performance. We investigated the relationship between handwriting and keyboarding automaticity and writing performance in both modalities in a sample of 49 students, as well as children's attitudes toward writing in each modality. We also examined the frequency and the nature of the teaching strategies implemented to support children's writing development at school, and the writing practices and support that children reported experiencing at home. Our findings showed statistically significant associations between letter writing automaticity in both modalities and the quality and the length of Year 2 children's handwritten and keyboarded texts. Results further suggested statistically significant moderate to strong associations between all handwriting and keyboarding variables assessed. While our findings concur with research stressing the importance of preparing students to become "hybrid" writers by mastering both handwritten and keyboarding modalities, they also stress the need to examine contextual factors, such as teaching and home writing practices, to gain a more comprehensive view of factors impacting children's writing acquisition and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored the extent to which parents were able to scaffold their children's Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) in the context of authentic academic tasks and attempted to identify specific dimensions within the parent-child interaction (socioemotional and instructional) that were related to children's SRL. Fifteen Chilean parents and their underachieving primary-aged children participated in set of six SRL-enhancing activities in the areas of reading comprehension and mathematical problem solving. Individual assessments of children's SRL in the same curriculum areas were carried out before and after these activities. The assessment outcomes revealed that, although at the group level children showed positive changes in some aspects of SRL (metacognitive knowledge and regulation of cognition), individual variation was also noticeable within the group. Children's evidence of SRL during the parent-child activities was related to both social and instructional dimensions of the interaction. SRL posttest outcomes, however, showed stronger associations with instructional behaviors. (Contains 17 tables, 4 figures and 12 footnotes.)

This paper reports the results of a systematic literature review on empirical studies exploring relationships between parental behaviours and children's self-regulated learning (SRL). The literature search resulted in 22 studies published between 1980 and 2009. Studies were analysed in terms of their research findings and their methodological approaches. The analysis of the studies' findings led to the formulation of a theoretical model identifying three parenting dimensions (challenge, autonomy and contingency) and six parenting behaviours (metacognitive talk; active participation; understanding of control; shifts in responsibility; emotional responsiveness and contingent instructional scaffolds) that were differentially related to metacognitive and motivational aspects of SRL. The methodological analysis revealed that the great majority of the studies targeted Caucasian and highly educated families, were correlational, predictive or comparative in nature, focused on individual behaviours of parents and children, and used mostly quantitative data analysis techniques. Challenges and future directions in this area of research are discussed. (Contains 5 tables and 1 figure.)