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Objective: In this study, we assessed children's perception of healthy eating and investigated the contents of lunch boxes packed from home. Methods: Overall, 728 pupils in first to sixth class across 25 primary schools in Ibadan, South West Nigeria wrote their perceptions of healthy eating on small colored papers. Contents of lunch boxes were observed during the school lunch period. Descriptive and qualitative analysis was carried out and data were represented in word clouds and figures. Results: Most pupils (97.9%) listed food items that they referred to as healthy food, represented in a word cloud. Further categorization showed that few pupils identified fruits (5.3%) and vegetables (2.4%) as healthy food. Pupils in private schools were 1.9 times more likely to have pastries in their lunch boxes than public schools (OR = 1.914, 95% CI: 1.121-3.268). Conclusions: Multiple educational interventions should be targeted at the pupil-, parent-, and school-level to promote healthy eating behaviors. The use of communication materials with pictorial depiction of examples of healthy food could serve as a reinforcing factor to help maintain positive behavioral change.

Background Short-term memory, the ability to temporarily hold and manipulate information, plays a critical role in learning and academic performance. This study aims to assess factors associated with low short-term memory in 524 children aged 8–14 years who attended public government schools in the Benin. Methodology Sixteen randomly selected schools located in peri-urban areas in northern and southern Benin participated in this cross-sectional study. Short-term memory was assessed via the WISC digit span tool. Food insecurity was evaluated with the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS). Socioeconomic and health data were collected through a digitalized questionnaire. Nutritional status was determined through anthropometric measurements and a hemoglobin test. Results The prevalence of below average short-term memory was 53.47% in the Northern and 28.81% in the southern Benin. In the northern region, 5.56%, 8.68%, and 13.19% of the pupils were, mildly, moderately, and severely food-insecure, respectively. In the southern region, 22.46%, 6.36%, and 3.38% of the pupils fell into the same categories, respectively. Multivariate logistic regression revealed that severe food insecurity (OR = 3.461, p  < 0.05), moderate and severe thinness (OR = 1.680, p  < 0.005), poverty (OR = 2.916, p  < 0.001), caregivers’ illiteracy (OR = 1.89, p  < 0.05), pupils’ age (OR = 0.864, p  < 0.05) and being from the northern regions (OR = 2.263, p  < 0.05) were significant predictors of low short-term memory ability. Conclusion Even with access to a school canteen program, pupils from northern regions, malnourished, food-insecure and from socioeconomically disadvantaged households are more likely to exhibit low short-term memory skills. Policymakers should prioritize the implementation of evidence-based interventions and policies aimed at alleviating food insecurity, malnutrition, and poverty, alongside initiatives to enhance infrastructure and essential services, including access to electricity in underserved and remote areas.

According to the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2015 measurements, Slovak primary school pupils commonly can reach some below average scores in terms of scientific literacy and have less and less positive attitudes towards the natural sciences. Natural sciences and statistics are intertwined disciplines. This implies that there is a room for teachers to try using interdisciplinarity and including basic statistics in the laboratory lessons of natural sciences. The aim of this research paper is to identify the difficulties that can occur when primary pupils collect and process data during a practical research task, combining, here, the knowledge stemming from the natural sciences and statistical reasoning. The research sample consisted of nine primary pupils from grade 1 to grade 4; the average age was 9.44 ± 1.33 years. Pupils were divided into the three age heterogeneous groups who were assigned a laboratory exam. The data were collected via an unstructured participatory observation. The results of our analysis of verbal expressions and practical activities suggest that pupils in our research sample are in the range of levels of nonformal and inconsistent understanding of statistics. In addition, we observed here some characteristics of consistent noncritical understanding. These findings suggest that, with the proper stimulation and frequent research activities requiring the direct activity and involvement of pupils, they could achieve higher levels of statistical literacy as well.

With the end of civil war in 1991, Ethiopia’s government launched a New Education and Training Policy in 1994 which, by the early 2000s, had already produced remarkable results. The gross enrollment ratio rose from 20 to 62 percent in primary education between 1993-94 and 2001-02; and in secondary and higher education it climbed, respectively, from 8 to 12 percent and from 0.5 to 1.7 percent. Yet the government can hardly afford to rest on its laurels. Primary education is still not universal, and already there are concerns about plummeting educational quality and the growing pressures to expand post-primary education. Addressing these challenges will require more resources, both public and private. Yet money alone is insufficient. Focusing on primary and secondary education, Education in Ethiopia argues for wise tradeoffs in the use of resources—a result that will often require reforming the arrangements for service delivery. These changes, in turn, need to be fostered by giving lower levels of government more leeway to adapt central standards—such as those for teacher recruitment and school construction—to local conditions, including local resource constraints; and by strengthening accountability for results at all levels of administration in the education system.

The present study aimed to explore ‘what’s happening’ and ‘what’s possible’, when young pupils jointly create multimodal texts in small groups. This was achieved by studying the process when pupils in a grade 2 classroom (i) created handwritten fairy tales, (ii) drew images, and then, (iii) transformed them into animated multimodal texts using a digital application during three small-group activities. Data comprises video recordings, pupils’ multimodal texts (writing and drawings), teaching materials, and lesson plans. This qualitative case study focuses on one group of three pupils aged 8–9. The study is theoretically grounded in the designs for learning perspective, with the Learning Design Sequence Model utilized as an analytical tool. The teacher’s design for learning—including her planned activities and the resources made available to the pupils—appeared to have a major impact on what happens and what becomes possible for the pupils in their design for learning. The teacher’s design also influenced what competencies the pupils could (and chose) to draw upon in the different activities. An important result was that the pupils positioned themselves and each other in quite different ways during the small-group activities, which partly could be explained by the different affordances of the resources provided, as well as the teacher’s design. The detailed descriptions of how the pupils’ positioning changed in relation to the teacher’s design for learning and the available resources add valuable knowledge to the field of educational research.

In the effort to upgrade pupils' vocabulary learning experience, the potential of interactive educational games is increasingly explored as supplementary teaching and learning materials. While the eagerness to integrate mobile technology into English language education is noticeable, there is a lack of evidence on Malaysian English as Second Language (ESL) learners' views of the feasibility of online games in vocabulary learning. This study aims to determine the degree of improvement in pupils' vocabulary performance. The quantitative data was analysed using descriptive and dependent t-test analysis. The cross-sectional survey was adapted from the ACRS-V model. The questionnaire was distributed to Year 5 pupils from a national primary school in Negeri Sembilan who are using the syllabus of The English Language Curriculum for Primary Schools (KSSR). The findings show a moderate level of Satisfaction, Attention, Relevance, Confidence and Volition. In addition, a paired sample t-test indicates a significant improvement in the pupils’ vocabulary scores after using WordWall (WOW) as a vocabulary learning supplementary material. The effect size demonstrated is also larger regarding its effects in behavioural sciences. This study provides important insights as a guide for primary school English teachers in integrating online games as a learning tool for English language learning, especially in developing pupils’ English vocabulary repertoire.

The study deals with the development of pupils' intellectual assumptions and cognitive functions. The optimization strategy in the subject research are educational activities that are applied in primary education. The subject of the investigation is the identification of the impact of educational activities on the level of pupils' intellectual assumptions, operationalized at the level of pupils' general knowledge (factual, conceptual, procedural). The research design is based on a pedagogical experiment with pupils in the transition period. According the results, pupils who have been applied educational activities achieve a higher level of intellectual prerequisites at start of the primary school.

Programming has recently become part of Swedish technology education; pupils should now be able to analyse existing programmed technological solutions, and be able to design new ones. Teachers facing this curriculum change need guidance on how to teach and what to address, based on how pupils understand the content. The aim of this study is to investigate pupils’ different ways of understanding programmed technological solutions when analysing their structure and function. Taking a phenomenographic approach, interviews were conducted with pupils aged 11–12. In the interviews, prepared contexts were used: Micro:bit constructions and programmed technological solutions from everyday life. The results show that pupils have different approaches to programmed technological solutions based on what parts are discerned in the prepared contexts, and also that pupils approach the two prepared contexts differently. The parts that are critical to discern in both of the contexts are the physical structure of components in the technological solution, how the components work and what their function is in the solution, as well as the logic in the code and how it controls the components and the flow of information that determines the function of the solution. The discernment of these parts is necessary to transcend the contextual details and generalize the understanding of structure and function in programmed technological solutions. These results have implications for teaching with concrete programming materials, suggesting a need to focus on facilitating discernment of the parts and addressing the similarities and the differences between different contexts in order to reach a generalized understanding.

Background Absence from school can lead to lower educational achievement and poor health. Little is known about school absence in primary education. This study’s first aim was to examine the prevalence of school absence in primary schools and differing types of absence, including sickness absence. The second aim was to determine which pupil characteristics and types of absence were associated with extensive sickness absence. Methods The school absence registries for the school year 2015–2016 were analysed retrospectively in eight mainstream primary schools with 2216 pupils, and six schools for special primary education with 1000 pupils in the West-Brabant region of the Netherlands. Descriptive analyses, χ 2 -tests, Mann-Whitney U tests and logistic regression analyses were performed. Results The one-year prevalence of school absence was 85% in mainstream primary schools and 79% in special schools. Sickness absence was the most prevalent type of absence, occurring in 75 and 71% of pupils, respectively The prevalence of extensive sickness absence was 13 and 23%, respectively. In mainstream schools, extensive sickness absence was associated with a young age, low parental educational level, more doctor’s visits and unauthorised absence, and in special schools with more doctor’s visits, other authorised absence, tardiness and unauthorised absence. Conclusions The prevalence of extensive sickness absence was high, and as this was associated with other types of absence, these pupils missed even more days of school. Public health research, policy and practice should address sickness absence among primary school pupils, to prevent adverse effects on children’s development.

As global environmental challenges intensify, there is an increasing need to equip younger generations with the knowledge, values, and sense of responsibility necessary for a sustainable future. This study explores how environmental citizenship education (ECE), implemented through a nature-based learning program within a Nature and Science School (NSS) in Türkiye, was experienced and interpreted by primary school pupils in relation to their development of understanding of sustainability and environmental citizenship. NSSs, integrated into the formal education system by the Turkish Ministry of National Education, offer inquiry-driven and experiential learning in natural settings. The study took place in Talat Göktepe Grove, a biodiverse site including forest and marine ecosystems, where a four-month ECE program was conducted. A holistic single-case study design was employed, drawing on pupil diaries and semi-structured interviews. A total of 88 pupils engaged in structured outdoor activities addressing biodiversity, sustainability, and the climate crisis. Initially, pupils described environmental citizenship through individual actions. Over time, their perspectives expanded to include civic participation, environmental rights, and collective responsibility. Their reflections also revealed a more nuanced understanding of sustainability, encompassing concepts such as ecosystem balance, renewable energy, and environmental justice. The study provides insight into how nature-based education may support meaning-making around environmental citizenship and sustainability in early education.