Transition to formal schooling: Do transition practices matter for academic performance?     

Annarilla Ahtola  Gintautas SilinskasPirjo-Liisa Poikonen  Marita KontoniemiPekka Niemi  Jari-Erik Nurmi 《Early childhood research quarterly》2011,26(3):295

This study examined whether the transition practices implemented in preschool-elementary school pairs contribute to children's academic development during the first year of elementary school. Participants were 398 children who moved from 36 preschools to 22 elementary schools in two Finnish towns. Children were tested in respect to their reading, writing, and math skills in the preschool spring and in the grade 1 spring. The most common practices reported by preschool teachers were discussions about the school entrants and familiarizing preschool children with the school environment and the new teacher. Multilevel latent growth modeling showed that the more the preschool teachers and elementary-school teachers implemented various supportive activities during the preschool year, the faster the children's skills developed from preschool to grade 1 spring. Co-operation over curricula and passing on written information about children between the preschool and the elementary school were the best predictors of the children's skills, although they were the least commonly used practices. The need to restructure the transition to elementary school and the use of multiprofessional resources are discussed.  相似文献   

The Concordance between Teachers’ and Parents’ Perceptions of School Transition Practices: A Solid Base for the Future     

Annarilla Ahtola  Piia Maria Björn  Tiina Turunen  Pirjo-Liisa Poikonen  Marita Kontoniemi  Marja-Kristiina Lerkkanen 《Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research》2016,60(2):168-181

This study focuses on parents’ and teachers’ perceptions of practices aimed at easing the transition to formal schooling (e.g., familiarization with the school, discussions about the school entrants). A total of 230 preschool teachers, 131 elementary school teachers, and 2,662 mothers and fathers filled in a questionnaire containing items on how important they considered different preschool-school transition practices. The participants considered the various transition practices to be at least somewhat important. On average, familiarization with the school was considered to be most important, whereas teacher co-operation and joint writing of curricula were considered to be least important. The perceptions of the participant groups differed from each other significantly in almost all practices. We suggest that the information on school entrants should be transferred within joint meetings between transition partners and other professionals whenever possible.  相似文献   

For children only? Effects of the KiVa antibullying program on teachers     

Annarilla Ahtola  Anne Haataja  Antti Kärnä  Elisa Poskiparta  Christina Salmivalli 《Teaching and Teacher Education》2012

The effects of an antibullying program, KiVa, on Grade 1–3 teachers' perceptions of bullying were investigated. Data were gathered from 128 teachers in 33 intervention schools and 110 teachers in 29 control schools. Two-level regression models showed that, at the end of the intervention year, self-evaluated competence to tackle bullying was at a higher level in the intervention schools than in the control schools. In addition, in the intervention schools, participation in KiVa activities was associated with teacher perceptions of bullying. The need to take teacher and organization perspectives into consideration in future whole-school intervention studies is discussed.  相似文献   

Child Temperament and Total Diurnal Cortisol in Out-of-Home Center-Based Child Care and in At-Home Parental Care     

Katja Tervahartiala  Saara Nolvi  Susanna Kortesluoma  Juho Pelto  Sirpa Hyttinen  Niina Junttila  Annarilla Ahtola  Hasse Karlsson  Linnea Karlsson 《Child development》2021,92(1):408-424

The association between child temperament characteristics and total diurnal saliva cortisol in 84 children (M = 2.3 years, SD = 0.6) attending out-of-home, center-based child care and 79 children (M = 2.0 years, SD = 0.5) attending at-home parental care was examined. Saliva samples were collected during two consecutive days, that is, Sunday and Monday, with four samples taken per day. While children higher in surgency had higher total diurnal cortisol production, we did not find evidence that temperament moderated the associations between child-care context and total diurnal cortisol. Negative affectivity and effortful control were not related to cortisol output. Our findings suggest that temperamental surgency may be associated with higher total cortisol production in early childhood across child-care settings.  相似文献   

Implementation of anti-bullying lessons in primary classrooms: how important is head teacher support?     

Annarilla Ahtola  Anne Haataja  Antti Kärnä  Elisa Poskiparta  Christina Salmivalli 《Educational research; a review for teachers and all concerned with progress in education》2013,55(4):376-392

Background: Evidence suggests that the KiVa anti-bullying programme may contribute to a reduction in bullying and victimisation, especially in primary school level. What is more, the level of implementation moderates the programme effects: the more the programme was implemented, the more bullying was reduced.Purpose: Consequently, it is of interest to investigate the factors affecting the implementation of the KiVa anti-bullying programme. We analysed whether teachers’ perceptions of support from the head teacher predicted the implementation adherence of the programme.Sample: We used a randomised sample of 93 Grade 1–3 (students’ age 7–9 years) teachers in 27 Finnish primary schools.Design and methods: Online surveys on perceptions of two types of head teacher support: (1) general support as a superior and (2) programme support for the KiVa anti-bullying programme were administered to the teachers; written observational reports on implementation adherence (frequency, contents and duration) were also utilised. Data was collected during the academic year 2008–2009. Effects of head teacher support on implementation adherence were modelled both at the teacher level and at the school level.Results: On average, implementation adherence of the student lessons was good. Teacher’s experience of programme support from the head teacher was positively related to implementation adherence, whereas, surprisingly, teacher’s experience of general support did not enhance implementation and was even negatively related to it.Conclusions: The school-based prevention and intervention programmes are delivered through social systems and individuals, and they inevitably trigger multilevel dynamics. Implementation is not only the responsibility of individual teachers but it happens in the context of the school community, the head teacher and the local-level resources and policies.  相似文献