eve kikas - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by eve kikas

Research paper thumbnail of Student teachers’ knowledge about children with ADHD and depression and its relations to emotions

Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties, 2015

Research paper thumbnail of Interaction of self-efficacy and ability while predicting the use of metacognitive strategies

Research paper thumbnail of Classroom Practices in Finnish and Estonian preschools: Subgroups of Observed Teaching Practices

Research paper thumbnail of Cultural universality and specificity of student engagement in school: The results of an international study from 12 countries

British Journal of Educational Psychology, 2015

Background. A comprehensive understanding of the contextual factors that are linked to student en... more Background. A comprehensive understanding of the contextual factors that are linked to student engagement requires research that includes cross-cultural perspectives.

Research paper thumbnail of Transactional development of parental beliefs and academic skills in primary school

Early Child Development and Care, 2014

This study examined transactional development of mothers' beliefs (self-efficacy, success attribu... more This study examined transactional development of mothers' beliefs (self-efficacy, success attributions of a child's success to maternal effort) and children's 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 child's academic skills. Mutual negative relations between attributions of a child's success to maternal effort and children's academic skills were identified. When children's initial skills were low, mothers' success attributions increased. In turn, mothers' higher success attributions at the beginning of school predicted children's lower skills at the end of the third grade. Mothers' higher education was related to their higher selfefficacy and lower success attributions. The findings emphasise the need to educate parents about attributions and the best ways to support their children's academic development.

Research paper thumbnail of Cross-lagged relations between math-related interest, performance goals and skills in groups of children with different general abilities

Learning and Individual Differences, 2015

This study examined the longitudinal relations among math-related interest, performance goals, an... more This study examined the longitudinal relations among math-related interest, performance goals, and math skills in different ability groups. The participants were 790 Estonian children who were assessed at Grade 2 and Grade 3. The results of SEM analysis showed that previous math skills predicted positively math interest and negatively performance-avoidance goals at Grade 3. Also, Grade 2 performance-avoidance goals were negatively related to subsequent interest towards math. Comparing low-ability students with other students indicated that Grade 3 interest was positively predicted by previous skills, and negatively by performance-approach and -avoidance goals specifically in low-ability group. The results have a practical value, emphasizing the crucial role of mathrelated skills and goals in the development of young students' interest and goals in math and indicating that relations among interest, goals, and skills in math may be stronger for low-ability students.

Research paper thumbnail of Does early reading instruction promote the rate of acquisition? A comparison of two transparent orthographies

Learning and Instruction, 2015

This study examines the development of children's reading skills in two transparent orthographies... more This study examines the development of children's reading skills in two transparent orthographies, Estonian and Finnish. Formal reading instruction begins one year earlier in Estonia than in Finland; thus, it was expected that Estonian children would outperform their Finnish peers in reading achievement during grade 1. In this study, 433 Estonian and 353 Finnish first graders were assessed for letter knowledge, phoneme awareness, and reading accuracy and fluency at the beginning of first grade while reading fluency and reading comprehension were assessed in the final semester of first grade. The results showed that, despite Estonian children's better reading skills at the beginning of the school, fluency and reading comprehension skills were at the same level across both groups by the end of first grade. This finding indicates that early reading instruction in transparent orthographies does not necessarily give any long-term advantage for further success in reading development at school.

Research paper thumbnail of The Relationships among Verbal Skills of Primary School Students with Specific Learning Disabilities and a Typically Developing Comparison Group

International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, 2008

Research paper thumbnail of Vahendamata ja vahendatud narratiiv laste kõnearengu hindamisel

Eesti Rakenduslingvistika Uhingu Aastaraamat, 2010

Ülevaade. Artikkel käsitleb 162 eakohase kõnearenguga ja 27 alakõnega 6−7-aastase lapse kolmel vi... more Ülevaade. Artikkel käsitleb 162 eakohase kõnearenguga ja 27 alakõnega 6−7-aastase lapse kolmel viisil jutustatud suulisi narratiivevahendamata narratiive ilma eelneva narratiivi mudelita, eelnevalt mudeldatud vahendamata narratiive ning vahendatud narratiive. Analüüs hõlmab narratiivide mikrostruktuuri (lausungite keskmist pikkust, grammatilist õigsust) ning makrostruktuuri (infoüksuste hulka, komplekssust). Eesmärgiks on selgitada, missugusel viisil koostatud narratiivid eristavad kõnearengu mahajäämust eakohasest arengust kõige paremini. Tulemustest selgub, et jutustamisoskuse hindamiseks narratiivi mikrostruktuuri tasandil sobivad kõigil kolmel viisil jutustatud narratiivid. Makrostruktuuri tasandil on parimaks hindamisvahendiks vahendatud narratiiv, millele järgneb eelnevalt mudeldatud vahendamata narratiiv.* Võtmesõnad: keeleline areng, kõnepuuded, narratiiv, suuline keel, süntaks, morfoloogia, tekstistruktuur, eesti keel

Research paper thumbnail of Cognitive Functioning in Children With and Without Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder With and Without Comorbid Learning Disabilities

Journal of Learning Disabilities, 2007

This study attempted to determine whether children with the combined subtype of attention-deficit... more This study attempted to determine whether children with the combined subtype of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have impairments in cognitive functioning and motor skills. The specific effect of the comorbidity of learning disabilities (LD) was also investigated. A battery of cognitive tests was administered to 26 children with a clinical diagnosis of ADHD-combined subtype (ADHD/C), to 24 children with ADHD/C with a comorbid diagnosis of LD (ADHD/C+LD), and to 102 participants without disabilities, all between ages 7 and 10. The testing battery consisted of tasks assessing memory, visuospatial and verbal abilities, and fine motor skills. In general, the test results of children with ADHD/C were poorer than those of the control group but better than the results of children with a combined ADHD/C+LD diagnosis (with the exception of motor skills). The predictive accuracy of the testing battery tasks in children with ADHD/C and ADHD/C+LD was examined. The results of a standard procedure of discriminant function analyses revealed that the measures correctly classified 73.6% of the children.

Research paper thumbnail of Performance‐approach goals, task‐avoidant behaviour and conceptual knowledge as predictors of first graders’ school performance

Educational Psychology, 2010

The present paper aims to examine the relationship between first grade children’s performance‐app... more 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

Research paper thumbnail of Collective student characteristics alter the effects of teaching practices on academic outcomes

Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 2014

The goal of this study was to examine the influence of collective student characteristics (academ... more The goal of this study was to examine the influence of collective student characteristics (academic skills and task persistence at the beginning of first grade) and different teaching practices (child-centered, teacher-directed, and child-dominated) on the development of academic skills and task persistence during the first two years in school. We hypothesized that teaching practices would differentially impact the development of academic skills and task persistence depending on the collective needs of the classroom. Participants were 523 students (273 boys) from 32 classrooms across Estonia. By using multilevel modeling, we found several interactions indicating that both contextual influences are important in determining subsequent academic functioning and task persistence but that some teaching practices are more beneficial depending on the collective starting point of students. These findings highlight the importance of studying different contextual influences hand in hand when trying to understand what enhances young children's academic development.

Research paper thumbnail of Understanding and measuring student engagement in school: the results of an international study from 12 countries

School psychology quarterly : the official journal of the Division of School Psychology, American Psychological Association, 2014

The objective of the present study was to develop a scale that is appropriate for use internation... more The objective of the present study was to develop a scale that is appropriate for use internationally to measure affective, behavioral, and cognitive dimensions of student engagement. Psychometric properties of this scale were examined with data of 3,420 students (7th, 8th, and 9th grade) from 12 countries (Austria, Canada, China, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Malta, Portugal, Romania, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States). The intraclass correlation of the full-scale scores of student engagement between countries revealed that it was appropriate to aggregate the data from the 12 countries for further analyses. Coefficient alphas revealed good internal consistency. Test-retest reliability coefficients were also acceptable. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the data fit well to a second-order model with affective, behavioral, and cognitive engagement as the first-order factors and student engagement as the second-order factor. The results support the use of thi...

Research paper thumbnail of Changes in Children's Answers to Open Questions about the Earth and Gravity

Child Development Research, 2012

Many studies that have been conducted to describe children's knowledge about the Earth and gravit... more Many studies that have been conducted to describe children's knowledge about the Earth and gravity have produced discrepant results. However, as most of these studies have been cross-sectional and they have used different methods for collecting and analyzing data, the question Do children at some point construct internally consistent but incorrect explanations to elementary astronomical phenomena? has not been fully answered. The aim of the study was to further explore this question by examining how children respond to open questions about the Earth and gravity and how these answers change over time. Schoolchildren's (N = 159) answers were examined four times with one-year intervals. It was found that directly after learning the topics in school many children gave synthetic responses and some oscillated between correct and incorrect explanations for a time. By the fourth grade more than half of the children were able to give scientifically accurate answers and good knowledge of facts supported children's ability to correctly generalize their existing knowledge. It was also shown that most children do not construct consistent nonscientific models of the Earth and that only thorough understanding of the discussed phenomena will lead to consistent answering.

Research paper thumbnail of Controlled Drawing Observation for Assessing a Child’s Readiness for School and Predicting Academic Achievement at the End of the First Grade

Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 2011

Controlled Drawing Observation (CDO) was developed by Tove Krogh and it has been used in Denmark,... more Controlled Drawing Observation (CDO) was developed by Tove Krogh and it has been used in Denmark, Finland and Estonia for assessing a child's readiness for school. CDO is a group test, it gives information about a child's functioning in an educational setting and it serves as a starting point for later individual assessment. The goal of the study was to examine the suitability of CDO for assessing a child's readiness for school and predicting school achievement during the transition period from kindergarten to school in Estonia. A total of 112 children were studied longitudinally at two points in time. Forward-stepwise multiple regression analysis showed that results of CDO predict a child's success in mathematics and the Estonian language at the end of the first grade better than teacher reports and the results of individual tests.

Research paper thumbnail of Mutual Trust between Kindergarten Teachers and Mothers and its Associations with Family Characteristics in Estonia and Finland

Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 2011

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

Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 2010

The aim of the present study was to investigate children’s achievement goal orientations and thei... more 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,

Research paper thumbnail of Do girls and boys perceive themselves as equally engaged in school? The results of an international study from 12 countries

Journal of School Psychology, 2012

Research paper thumbnail of Associations Between Verbal Reasoning, Normative Beliefs About Aggression, and Different Forms of Aggression

Journal of Research on Adolescence, 2009

Research paper thumbnail of The Effect of Testing Condition on Word Guessing in Elementary School Children

Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 2007

Elementary school children's word guessing is studied, and the results from individual and collec... more Elementary school children's word guessing is studied, and the results from individual and collective testing conditions are compared. The participants are 764 students from the second, third, and fourth grades (ages 8-11, 541 students from mainstream regular classes and 223 students with learning disabilities). About half of these students are collectively tested in the classroom, and half of the students are individually tested in a separate room. The psychometric properties of the test are good for both individual and collective testing conditions. Students generally score higher in the collective condition compared to the individual condition in both groups. In the control group, this tendency is apparent in all three grades, whereas in the group of students with learning disabilities, it is demonstrated only in the third grade.

Research paper thumbnail of Student teachers’ knowledge about children with ADHD and depression and its relations to emotions

Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties, 2015

Research paper thumbnail of Interaction of self-efficacy and ability while predicting the use of metacognitive strategies

Research paper thumbnail of Classroom Practices in Finnish and Estonian preschools: Subgroups of Observed Teaching Practices

Research paper thumbnail of Cultural universality and specificity of student engagement in school: The results of an international study from 12 countries

British Journal of Educational Psychology, 2015

Background. A comprehensive understanding of the contextual factors that are linked to student en... more Background. A comprehensive understanding of the contextual factors that are linked to student engagement requires research that includes cross-cultural perspectives.

Research paper thumbnail of Transactional development of parental beliefs and academic skills in primary school

Early Child Development and Care, 2014

This study examined transactional development of mothers' beliefs (self-efficacy, success attribu... more This study examined transactional development of mothers' beliefs (self-efficacy, success attributions of a child's success to maternal effort) and children's 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 child's academic skills. Mutual negative relations between attributions of a child's success to maternal effort and children's academic skills were identified. When children's initial skills were low, mothers' success attributions increased. In turn, mothers' higher success attributions at the beginning of school predicted children's lower skills at the end of the third grade. Mothers' higher education was related to their higher selfefficacy and lower success attributions. The findings emphasise the need to educate parents about attributions and the best ways to support their children's academic development.

Research paper thumbnail of Cross-lagged relations between math-related interest, performance goals and skills in groups of children with different general abilities

Learning and Individual Differences, 2015

This study examined the longitudinal relations among math-related interest, performance goals, an... more This study examined the longitudinal relations among math-related interest, performance goals, and math skills in different ability groups. The participants were 790 Estonian children who were assessed at Grade 2 and Grade 3. The results of SEM analysis showed that previous math skills predicted positively math interest and negatively performance-avoidance goals at Grade 3. Also, Grade 2 performance-avoidance goals were negatively related to subsequent interest towards math. Comparing low-ability students with other students indicated that Grade 3 interest was positively predicted by previous skills, and negatively by performance-approach and -avoidance goals specifically in low-ability group. The results have a practical value, emphasizing the crucial role of mathrelated skills and goals in the development of young students' interest and goals in math and indicating that relations among interest, goals, and skills in math may be stronger for low-ability students.

Research paper thumbnail of Does early reading instruction promote the rate of acquisition? A comparison of two transparent orthographies

Learning and Instruction, 2015

This study examines the development of children's reading skills in two transparent orthographies... more This study examines the development of children's reading skills in two transparent orthographies, Estonian and Finnish. Formal reading instruction begins one year earlier in Estonia than in Finland; thus, it was expected that Estonian children would outperform their Finnish peers in reading achievement during grade 1. In this study, 433 Estonian and 353 Finnish first graders were assessed for letter knowledge, phoneme awareness, and reading accuracy and fluency at the beginning of first grade while reading fluency and reading comprehension were assessed in the final semester of first grade. The results showed that, despite Estonian children's better reading skills at the beginning of the school, fluency and reading comprehension skills were at the same level across both groups by the end of first grade. This finding indicates that early reading instruction in transparent orthographies does not necessarily give any long-term advantage for further success in reading development at school.

Research paper thumbnail of The Relationships among Verbal Skills of Primary School Students with Specific Learning Disabilities and a Typically Developing Comparison Group

International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, 2008

Research paper thumbnail of Vahendamata ja vahendatud narratiiv laste kõnearengu hindamisel

Eesti Rakenduslingvistika Uhingu Aastaraamat, 2010

Ülevaade. Artikkel käsitleb 162 eakohase kõnearenguga ja 27 alakõnega 6−7-aastase lapse kolmel vi... more Ülevaade. Artikkel käsitleb 162 eakohase kõnearenguga ja 27 alakõnega 6−7-aastase lapse kolmel viisil jutustatud suulisi narratiivevahendamata narratiive ilma eelneva narratiivi mudelita, eelnevalt mudeldatud vahendamata narratiive ning vahendatud narratiive. Analüüs hõlmab narratiivide mikrostruktuuri (lausungite keskmist pikkust, grammatilist õigsust) ning makrostruktuuri (infoüksuste hulka, komplekssust). Eesmärgiks on selgitada, missugusel viisil koostatud narratiivid eristavad kõnearengu mahajäämust eakohasest arengust kõige paremini. Tulemustest selgub, et jutustamisoskuse hindamiseks narratiivi mikrostruktuuri tasandil sobivad kõigil kolmel viisil jutustatud narratiivid. Makrostruktuuri tasandil on parimaks hindamisvahendiks vahendatud narratiiv, millele järgneb eelnevalt mudeldatud vahendamata narratiiv.* Võtmesõnad: keeleline areng, kõnepuuded, narratiiv, suuline keel, süntaks, morfoloogia, tekstistruktuur, eesti keel

Research paper thumbnail of Cognitive Functioning in Children With and Without Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder With and Without Comorbid Learning Disabilities

Journal of Learning Disabilities, 2007

This study attempted to determine whether children with the combined subtype of attention-deficit... more This study attempted to determine whether children with the combined subtype of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have impairments in cognitive functioning and motor skills. The specific effect of the comorbidity of learning disabilities (LD) was also investigated. A battery of cognitive tests was administered to 26 children with a clinical diagnosis of ADHD-combined subtype (ADHD/C), to 24 children with ADHD/C with a comorbid diagnosis of LD (ADHD/C+LD), and to 102 participants without disabilities, all between ages 7 and 10. The testing battery consisted of tasks assessing memory, visuospatial and verbal abilities, and fine motor skills. In general, the test results of children with ADHD/C were poorer than those of the control group but better than the results of children with a combined ADHD/C+LD diagnosis (with the exception of motor skills). The predictive accuracy of the testing battery tasks in children with ADHD/C and ADHD/C+LD was examined. The results of a standard procedure of discriminant function analyses revealed that the measures correctly classified 73.6% of the children.

Research paper thumbnail of Performance‐approach goals, task‐avoidant behaviour and conceptual knowledge as predictors of first graders’ school performance

Educational Psychology, 2010

The present paper aims to examine the relationship between first grade children’s performance‐app... more 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

Research paper thumbnail of Collective student characteristics alter the effects of teaching practices on academic outcomes

Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 2014

The goal of this study was to examine the influence of collective student characteristics (academ... more The goal of this study was to examine the influence of collective student characteristics (academic skills and task persistence at the beginning of first grade) and different teaching practices (child-centered, teacher-directed, and child-dominated) on the development of academic skills and task persistence during the first two years in school. We hypothesized that teaching practices would differentially impact the development of academic skills and task persistence depending on the collective needs of the classroom. Participants were 523 students (273 boys) from 32 classrooms across Estonia. By using multilevel modeling, we found several interactions indicating that both contextual influences are important in determining subsequent academic functioning and task persistence but that some teaching practices are more beneficial depending on the collective starting point of students. These findings highlight the importance of studying different contextual influences hand in hand when trying to understand what enhances young children's academic development.

Research paper thumbnail of Understanding and measuring student engagement in school: the results of an international study from 12 countries

School psychology quarterly : the official journal of the Division of School Psychology, American Psychological Association, 2014

The objective of the present study was to develop a scale that is appropriate for use internation... more The objective of the present study was to develop a scale that is appropriate for use internationally to measure affective, behavioral, and cognitive dimensions of student engagement. Psychometric properties of this scale were examined with data of 3,420 students (7th, 8th, and 9th grade) from 12 countries (Austria, Canada, China, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Malta, Portugal, Romania, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States). The intraclass correlation of the full-scale scores of student engagement between countries revealed that it was appropriate to aggregate the data from the 12 countries for further analyses. Coefficient alphas revealed good internal consistency. Test-retest reliability coefficients were also acceptable. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the data fit well to a second-order model with affective, behavioral, and cognitive engagement as the first-order factors and student engagement as the second-order factor. The results support the use of thi...

Research paper thumbnail of Changes in Children's Answers to Open Questions about the Earth and Gravity

Child Development Research, 2012

Many studies that have been conducted to describe children's knowledge about the Earth and gravit... more Many studies that have been conducted to describe children's knowledge about the Earth and gravity have produced discrepant results. However, as most of these studies have been cross-sectional and they have used different methods for collecting and analyzing data, the question Do children at some point construct internally consistent but incorrect explanations to elementary astronomical phenomena? has not been fully answered. The aim of the study was to further explore this question by examining how children respond to open questions about the Earth and gravity and how these answers change over time. Schoolchildren's (N = 159) answers were examined four times with one-year intervals. It was found that directly after learning the topics in school many children gave synthetic responses and some oscillated between correct and incorrect explanations for a time. By the fourth grade more than half of the children were able to give scientifically accurate answers and good knowledge of facts supported children's ability to correctly generalize their existing knowledge. It was also shown that most children do not construct consistent nonscientific models of the Earth and that only thorough understanding of the discussed phenomena will lead to consistent answering.

Research paper thumbnail of Controlled Drawing Observation for Assessing a Child’s Readiness for School and Predicting Academic Achievement at the End of the First Grade

Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 2011

Controlled Drawing Observation (CDO) was developed by Tove Krogh and it has been used in Denmark,... more Controlled Drawing Observation (CDO) was developed by Tove Krogh and it has been used in Denmark, Finland and Estonia for assessing a child's readiness for school. CDO is a group test, it gives information about a child's functioning in an educational setting and it serves as a starting point for later individual assessment. The goal of the study was to examine the suitability of CDO for assessing a child's readiness for school and predicting school achievement during the transition period from kindergarten to school in Estonia. A total of 112 children were studied longitudinally at two points in time. Forward-stepwise multiple regression analysis showed that results of CDO predict a child's success in mathematics and the Estonian language at the end of the first grade better than teacher reports and the results of individual tests.

Research paper thumbnail of Mutual Trust between Kindergarten Teachers and Mothers and its Associations with Family Characteristics in Estonia and Finland

Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 2011

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

Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 2010

The aim of the present study was to investigate children’s achievement goal orientations and thei... more 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,

Research paper thumbnail of Do girls and boys perceive themselves as equally engaged in school? The results of an international study from 12 countries

Journal of School Psychology, 2012

Research paper thumbnail of Associations Between Verbal Reasoning, Normative Beliefs About Aggression, and Different Forms of Aggression

Journal of Research on Adolescence, 2009

Research paper thumbnail of The Effect of Testing Condition on Word Guessing in Elementary School Children

Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 2007

Elementary school children's word guessing is studied, and the results from individual and collec... more Elementary school children's word guessing is studied, and the results from individual and collective testing conditions are compared. The participants are 764 students from the second, third, and fourth grades (ages 8-11, 541 students from mainstream regular classes and 223 students with learning disabilities). About half of these students are collectively tested in the classroom, and half of the students are individually tested in a separate room. The psychometric properties of the test are good for both individual and collective testing conditions. Students generally score higher in the collective condition compared to the individual condition in both groups. In the control group, this tendency is apparent in all three grades, whereas in the group of students with learning disabilities, it is demonstrated only in the third grade.