Browsing by Subject "ei-tehtäväsuuntautuneisuus"

The focus of this study was on kirgergartners' mathematical skills and task avoidance. Previous studies have shown that task avoidance is not a stable child characteristics in kindergarten-aged children, but may begin to stabilize during the first school years. Task avoidance has been shown to be linked to mathematical skills during the first school years. Furthermore, task avoidance behavior in kindergarten-aged children has been shown to be linked to slower acquisition of mathematical skills in the course of school years. his study examines the prevalence and stability of task avoidance in kindergarten-aged children. Moreover, it was studied how children's task avoidance was linked to mathematical skills and their development during the kindergarten year. The study was a longitudinal study (N = 235), where kindergartners' mathematical skills, more precisely, the mastery of relations and number sequences, were evaluated by The Early Numeracy Test for Toddlers three times during one school year. In addition, task avoidance was evaluated by teachers in the first and last measurement points using the following variables: diffidence, difficulties in motivation, difficulties in attention, tension and cooperate difficulties. The data was analyzed by quantitative research methods. The kindergartners were divided into three groups based on the level of their task avoidance behavior: no problems (N = 128), some amount of problems (N = 86), lots of problems (N = 19). The children with most task avoidance behavior had weaker mathematical skills than the others in the beginning of kindergarten. Those belonging to the lots of problems -group improved the most during the kindergarten year, reaching the skill level of those with less task avoidance characteristics. The belonging to a task avoidance group was relatively stable during kindergarten, especially within the lots of problems -group. According to the results, children's task avoidance should be monitored already in kindergarten to ensure the earliest possible support in terms of both task avoidance and mathematical skills. Further studies are needed to form a reliable overview on the developmental relationship between task avoidance and mathematical skills in children below school-age.