In response to the big data era trend, statistics has become an indispensable part of mathematics education in junior high school. In this study, a pre-test and a post-test were developed for the six attributes of the data distribution characteristic. This research then used the cognitive diagnosis model to learn about the poorly mastered attributes and to verify whether cognitive diagnosis can be used for targeted intervention to improve students' abilities effectively. One hundred two eighth graders participated in the experiment (...) and were divided into two groups. Among them, the intervention materials read by the experimental group students only contained attributes that they could not grasp well. In contrast, the reading materials of the control group were non-targeted. The results of the study showed the following: The variance and the weighted average were poorly mastered by students in the pre-test; compared with the control group, the average test score of the experimental group was significantly improved; in terms of attributes, the experimental group students' mastery of variance and the weighted average was significantly improved than the pre-test, while the control group's mastery was not. Based on this, some teaching suggestions were put forward. (shrink)

This study aimed to investigate the features of only child status related to physical health, mathematics achievement, and school feelings and expectations from a different perspective. A representative sample of 91,619 Grade 4 students with an average age of 10.4 ± 0.7, among which 28,631 were only children, were assessed. We used propensity score matching and the average treatment effects on the treatment to analyze data. The treatment was the only child of a family. The results indicated that only children (...) have better academic achievement and school feelings, while non-only children have better physical status and anaerobic fitness. In addition, gender and rural vs. urban areas differences were also explored. The adverse situation for rural only boys is emphasized for families, researchers, and governments to focus on. Some suggestions are given under the Two- and Three-Child Policy. (shrink)

School belonging is of great significance to students' physical and mental health development, especially academic improvement. However, the mechanism of the influence of school belonging on student academic achievement should be further explored, especially reading performance. Based on ecological systems theory and self-determination theory, the present research constructs a multilevel design to examine a moderated mediation model in which school belonging as a level-1 predictor, mastery goal orientation as a level-1 mediator and school disciplinary climate as a level-2 moderator jointly (...) impact reading literacy. Results of the study were based on the questionnaires from 11,364 15-year-olds nested in 332 schools in mainland China that participated in PISA 2018. The cross-sectional analysis indicated that: school belonging had a direct and positive effect on student reading literacy; the relationship between school belonging and reading literacy was prominently mediated by mastery goal orientation; both school disciplinary climate level and strength could negatively moderate the latter half path of “school belonging → mastery goal orientation → reading literacy.” Implications, limitations, and future research directions are discussed. (shrink)

Block building is a popular play activity among young children and is also used by psychologists to assess their intelligence. However, little research has attempted to systematically explore the cognitive bases of block-building ability. The current study (N= 66 Chinese preschoolers, 32 boys and 34 girls; mean age = 4.7 years, SD = 0.29, range = 3.4 to 5.2 years) investigated the relationships between six measures of spatial skills (shape naming, shape recognition, shape composition, solid figure naming, cube transformation, and (...) mental rotation, with the former four representing form perception and the latter two representing visualization) and block-building complexity. Correlation results showed that three of the four measures of form perception (shape naming, shape recognition, and shape composition) were significantly and positively correlated with block-building complexity, whereas the two measures of visualization were not. Results from regression models indicated that shape recognition and shape composition, as well as shape-recognition-by-gender interaction, were unique predictors of children’s block-building complexity. These findings provide preliminary evidence for the basic spatial skills underlying children’s block-building complexity and have implications for classroom instructions aimed at improving preschoolers’ block-building complexity. (shrink)

This study explored the association between out-of-school physical activity and mathematical achievement in relation to mathematical anxiety, as well as the influence of parents’ support for their children’s physical activity on this association, to examine whether parental support for physical activity affects mental health and academic performance. Data were collected from the responses of 22,509 children in Grade 4 from six provinces across eastern, central, and western China who completed the mathematics component and the physical education and health component of (...) the national-level education quality assessment. A moderated moderated-mediation model was tested using PROCESS v3.4 and SPSS v19.0, with socioeconomic status, school location, and body mass index as controlled variables. Out-of-school physical activity had a positive effect on children’s mathematical achievement, and math anxiety partially mediated this association. The indices of conditional moderated mediation through the parental support of both girls and boys were, respectively, significant, indicating that children can benefit from physical activity, and that increased perceived parental support for physical activity can alleviate their children’s math anxiety and improve their mathematics, regardless of gender. However, gender differences were observed in the influence of parental support for physical activity on anxiety: Although girls’ math anxiety levels were significantly higher, the anxiety levels of girls with high parental support were significantly lower than those of boys with low parental support. (shrink)