Journal for the Study of Education and Development: Infancia y Aprendizaje

This study examines the relationship between maternal self-esteem and children’s reading time, mediated sequentially by maternal educational involvement and children’s academic stress. Using a large (N = 1,190) sample of Korean sixth-grade elementary students, M_age = 12.23 years, from the thirteenth wave of the Panel Study on Korean Children (2020), this study conducted a mediation analysis. The findings indicate that higher maternal self-esteem is associated with greater maternal educational involvement, which is in turn related to lower levels of children’s academic stress and linked to increased reading time. These patterns are notable in the context of sixth-grade students—the final year of elementary school in Korea—where parental involvement may still be perceived as encouraging rather than controlling. The data were collected during the COVID-19 pandemic, a period in which home-based support may have been salient due to the combination of in-person and remote learning. These associations remained significant after controlling for mother’s employment status, mother’s education, children’s gender and household income. These insights contribute to a deeper understanding of how to foster a positive reading environment for children.

As generative artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly provides knowledge and outperforms students on conventional assessments, education faces a fundamental challenge. This paper argues that the appropriate response is to rethink what we mean by intelligence and reposition dialogic intelligence as a central educational aim. Dominant conceptions of intelligence as an individual trait, measured through rapid problem-solving, are historically tied to print literacy’s cognitive affordances and obscure the relational conditions under which meaning emerges. The rise of large language models creates an opportunity to recover an older conception of intelligence as the capacity to sustain responsive relationships through which truth and value emerge. Dialogic intelligence arises in the relational space between people, between people and nature, and between people and technology. It involves dwelling in open inquiry, allowing new insights to emerge, and critically testing and refining them. While AI can support knowledge generation and verification, dialogic intelligence depends on uniquely human capacities for care, ethical responsibility, and sustained attention. The paper outlines pedagogical approaches and assessment frameworks foregrounding relational processes rather than individual performance alone.

This study analyses the development of shape-bias, a cognitive mechanism that favours the categorisation and learning of new words, in Spanish-speaking children. The framework of reference used was the Attentional Learning Account model, which suggests that this bias develops gradually with experience and increased vocabulary. Ninety Mexican children ages 12, 18 and 24 months old participated by performing a word-generalisation task using the Intermodal Preferential Looking Paradigm. The results showed that the 24-month-olds paid more attention to images that are similar in shape than 12- and 18-month-olds. Furthermore, a correlation was found between attention to shape and lexical production through the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI). These results suggest that shape-bias is present in the Spanish language at the age of 24 months and is related to vocabulary development, supporting the idea that experience with statistical regularities in the environment influences this process.

To examine whether zero-sum reasoning is related to children’s envy-schadenfreude responses, we asked participants (N = 178, aged five to 11 years, 90 girls) about the characters’ emotions in four stories depicting situations of upward social comparison—envy. When the envied person loses the advantage (in one condition it is deserved, in the other it is not) the envious person either gains it—in the “You lose, I win” condition—or does not gain it and the two become equal—in the “Nobody wins” condition. The results show that schadenfreude attribution is greater when the envied person’s loss means a gain for the envious person than when equality is restored and no one wins. Older children (aged eight and over), but not younger children, rated schadenfreude as more intense when the advantage was undeserved than when it was deserved. The analysis of the arguments provided by participants shows that the zero-sum principle predominates in children’s expectations in situations of envy.

The main aim of the research presented here was to explore the relevance of vocabulary knowledge, primarily deep vocabulary knowledge, in the reading accuracy and speed of Spanish readers. A total of 352 children took part in the research, all pupils in the third, fourth and fifth years of Spain’s primary education system. They completed tasks to assess the breadth and depth of their receptive and expressive vocabulary, reading accuracy and speed, non-verbal intelligence and phonemic awareness. Our findings show that vocabulary depth and phonemic awareness are significant variables in predicting success in reading performance. We explore in greater depth the idea that as pupils progress on their learning path in reading, linguistic variables such as vocabulary have a greater influence on predicting reading accuracy and speed. We also discuss the implications for theory and practice.

The increasing prevalence of media use among students has led to frequent media multitasking, which has been associated with higher levels of academic procrastination and its detrimental outcomes. This study seeks to identify protective factors that may mitigate academic procrastination in the era of media multitasking. A sample of 953 adolescents completed a paper-based survey at school. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed to address the study’s objectives. Suppression effects were found for both self-control and grit on academic procrastination. While self-control was negatively associated with academic procrastination through its link to lower media multitasking, it was also related to more academic procrastination. Grit was directly and negatively associated with academic procrastination but might also be positively related to academic procrastination through its association with higher academic self-efficacy. This study has significant implications for preventing academic procrastination in the media multitasking era.

Across Australia, early childhood (EC) teachers can work in a variety of settings in the prior-to-school sector (profit and not for profit). The EC teacher qualification must be recognised by the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority. The settings are governed by differing enterprise bargaining agreements (EBAs) that oversee salaries and conditions. The literature reveals that gender, socioeconomic status and diversity underpin the experiences of the early childhood education and care (ECEC) workforce, yet the impacts of these dynamics are largely silent in the policy discourse. This article provides a snapshot of EBA variations for early childhood teachers by looking at salaries and conditions across the different settings and states. Drawing on EBAs that are publicly available, a content analysis was conducted to determine salary and condition variation. Findings show strong variation across settings, state and qualification, suggesting EC teachers need to be aware of the variation when they are applying for positions and engaged in enterprise bargaining with their employer. Questions must also be raised with the sector, however, on why there is strong variation for the same qualification, especially given the current shortage of EC teachers across Australia.

The rapid adoption of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in education has created an urgent need to rethink how we conceptualize and study learning. While GenAI tools can improve academic performance, they also raise a deeper concern: the displacement or erosion of essential cognitive, affective, behavioural and self-regulatory processes. This article introduces the concept of decremental research, a methodological agenda focused not only on what technology enables but also on what it may prevent, bypass or render obsolete in the learning process. In Part 1, we present a conceptual framework grounded in the theory of cognitive offloading, extending it to include affective and behavioural offloading and briefly introducing the concept of decremental research. In Part 2, we use self-regulated learning (SRL) as a case study to illustrate how GenAI may undermine learners’ capacities, and we present three lessons drawn from SRL research. In Part 3, we propose four methodological pillars for investigating what disappears: detailed comparisons with control groups, process data, multimethod and triangulation approaches, and transfer designs. We conclude with a decremental research and design decalogue to help reclaim student agency in the age of GenAI.