Children’s beliefs concerning school transition

ABSTRACT

This study examines preschoolers’ beliefs concerning their transfer into primary education. Data from 1386 Finnish preschoolers were obtained using interviews with parents at the end of the children’s preschool year. The qualitative content analysis revealed categories, which encompassed peer relationships, relationship with teacher, learning, formal schoolwork, informal activities, comfortable school entry and no concerns. The results indicated that children’s beliefs concerning their prospective school entry centred on maintaining and making friendships, and that children possessed both negative and positive expectations about their relationship with their future teacher. Both girls and boys expressed concerns about managing school life. One-third of the children did not express any concerns. Children anticipated new learning experiences and were eager to meet more challenging tasks. The anticipation of positive learning encounters emphasizes the gradual, proactive construction of children’s self-conceptions as learners. Some differences were found between genders, as well as the type of preschool context.

KEYWORDS:

• Beliefs
• preschool
• transfer
• positive expectations
• negative preconceptions

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Sirpa Eskelä-Haapanen is a Senior Lecturer in early childhood education in the Department of Teacher Education at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Her research interests concern early childhood learning processes, literacy, classroom dialogue and technology usage among young children. She teaches a variety of early childhood and literacy courses.

Marja-Kristiina Lerkkanen is Professor of Education in the Department of Teacher Education at the University of Jyväskylä. Her research foci include individual, family and teacher factors contributing to children’s academic learning and motivation in preschool and early school years. In particular, she has been interested in the developmental trajectories of young children’s reading and math skills and the effects of motivation, teacher–student interaction and teacher–parents partnership to child’s learning. Also interventions for supporting reading skills development by computer games and iPad apps, and teacher interventions supporting teacher–child interaction, motivation and engagement in classrooms are in her interest.

Helena Rasku-Puttonen is Vice-Rector of the University of Jyväskylä and Professor in the Department of Teacher Education at the University of Jyväskylä. Her duties as a vice-rector cover education and development of human resources. Her research interest concerns learning environments, student–teacher interaction, dialogical discussions and teaching practices.

Anna-Maija Poikkeus is Professor in the Department of Teacher Education at the University of Jyväskylä. Her research interests focus on how motivation, home environment and teacher–student relationships influence young children’s skill development in the areas of language, social skills, self-regulation, reading and math. In particular, she has been interested in the paths of children with risks for learning problems and factors that help them to achieve against the odds, and intervention studies for families of young children with over activity and self-regulation problems, and teacher intervention for supporting student’s active engagement and motivation in the classroom.

Additional information

Funding

This study has been carried out in the Centre of Excellence in Learning and Motivation Research financed by the Academy of Finland (No. 213486 for 2006–2011; No. 268586 for 2013–2017 and No. 292466 for 2015–2019).