The First Year at School: An International Perspective

Switzerland : Springer, 2023.

Under the general editorship: Tymms P., T. Bartholo, S. Howie, Kardanova E., M. Campelo Koslinski, Merrell C., H. Wildy

This book explores an under-researched but vital part of education: the first year at primary/elementary school. The work shows that children’s progress varies enormously from school to school, class to class and child to child. This variation is important because the more progress that children make in that first year of school, the higher their academic attainment at the end of compulsory schooling.

The iPIPS (international Performance Indicators in Primary Schools) project, upon which this book is based, has been able to provide deeper insights into some of the key issues within and across different contexts whilst highlighting new and some ongoing issues. Despite all the work there remain unanswered or new puzzling issues which are also explored.

 

We need to know how to improve the education at that stage and, more broadly, we need greater clarity about when children should be taught to read and be introduced to formal arithmetic, in other words, when they should start school.  We also need to be clearer about whether, when and how young children should be assessed. The book will suggest some answers but it will raise important questions and dilemmas for which we do not, as yet, have answers.

Chapters

The Use of iPIPS Data for Policy Assessment, Government Evidence-Based Decision Making and Pedagogical Use by Schools in Russia

Ivanova A., , in: The First Year at School: An International Perspective.: Switzerland: Springer, 2023. P. 221–227.

The chapter describes the use of the international Performance Indicators in Primary Schools (iPIPS) study in Russia. The feedback forms and the instrument were gradually developed to better meet the needs of teachers and other users of the iPIPS data. ...

Added: July 3, 2023

Inattentiveness Predicts Reading Achievement in Primary School, but with Hyperactivity/Impulsivity It’s More Complicated

Kulikova (Ponomareva) A., Ivanova A., Orel E. et al., , in: The First Year at School: An International Perspective.: Switzerland: Springer, 2023. P. 281–292.

This chapter describes the results of the study that was aimed at investigating the relationship between pupils’ ADHD symptoms and their reading achievement during the first three years of primary school. ...

Added: July 3, 2023

The Effects of Class Composition on First-Graders’ Mathematics and Reading Results: Two Countries’ Cases

Ivanova A., Kuzmina Y., , in: The First Year at School: An International Perspective.: Switzerland: Springer, 2023. P. 293–305.

This section considers the issue of class composition in primary schools and its effect on pupils’ educational progress. It contains the results of two independent studies conducted in two countries with quite different contexts – Russia and the Netherlands. ...

Added: July 3, 2023

Keywords: school effectiveness, school monitoring, assessing young children with objective measures, role of teachers in the assessment process, child growth, pedagogy and the curriculum