Reasoning about structure and function: Children's conceptions of gears

Twenty-three second graders and 20 fifth graders were interviewed about how gears move on a gearboard and work in commonplace machines. Questions focused on transmission of motion; direction, plane, and speed of turning; and mechanical advantage. Several children believed that meshed gears turn in the same direction and at the same speed. Many second graders provided very incomplete explanations of transmission of motion. Most children confused mechanical advantage with speed. Yet as the interview proceeded, several fifth graders generalized conceptions about transmission of motion into a rule about turning direction. They increasingly justified their ideas about gear speed by referring to ratio. Children's reasoning became more general, formal, and mathematical as problem complexity increased, suggesting that mathematical forms of reasoning may develop when they provide a clear advantage over simple causal generalizations. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 35: 3-25, 1998.     

A national systems view of university entrepreneurialism: Inferences from comparison of the German and US experience

Examining parallels in the long-term evolution of the German and US university systems, this paper formulates hypotheses about the rise and decline of university entrepreneurialism at the national level. Three macro-level antecedents of university entrepreneurialism are identified: (1) decentralized competition; (2) latitude in mission and revenue mix; (3) a nationwide, diversified bidding system for the funding of large-scale university-based research. Of these, the third is real lynchpin of university entrepreneurialism. Arguing for a multidimensional understanding of such entrepreneurialism (i.e. beyond just the commercialization of scientific discoveries), the paper identifies three developments within universities emanating from a favorable national environment: (1) organizational innovations for achieving economies of scope; (2) an institutionalized capacity for strategic selection of research foci; and (3) a capacity to contribute to the development of new industries. The analysis suggests that as national university systems grow and run into cost containment problems, political pressures for reform increase, leading to system homogenization; system homogenization weakens the contextual sources of entrepreneurialism and triggers a process of decline.     

Grade 1 Students’ Out-of-School Play and Its Relationship to School-Based Academic,Behavior, and Creativity Outcomes

Research Findings: This study explored the relationship between play and child development at the Grade 1 level. As previous research has noted a sudden curtailment of classroom play during this period, the relationship between play at home and children's school grades, behavior, and creativity scores was examined using correlational and regression analyses. In particular, this study sought to assess whether particular types of play (pretend play, active physical play, construction play, etc.) and social arrangements during play (play with siblings, with parents, alone, with friends) predicted any of the outcome measures. A total of 56 children ages 6 and 7 from suburban areas outside of Montreal, as well as their parents and teachers, participated in the study. Practice or Policy: Findings indicated that children spent between 1 and 2 hr playing after school each day and that the most common form of play was active physical play. The most common social arrangement during play was play with siblings. Children's free time in the morning and freedom to choose their play activities in the afternoon were predictive of children's academic progress. Watching others play and the ability to choose their own activities in the afternoon predicted positive adaptive behaviors at school. Play with commercial toys and playing alone were predictive of creativity scores.     

Early Childhood Educators’ Perceptions of Their Emotional State,Relationships with Parents,Challenges, and Opportunities During the Early Stage of the Pandemic

Early Childhood Education Journal - This article presents a study about the impact of COVID-19 on childcare center educators in Quebec (Canada). Regulated childcare services were closed...     

Logo as a Strategy for Developing Thinking?

Instruction in the Logo programming language proceeds amid increasing concern about its educational value. Proponents claim that Logo-based instruction increases intelligence, whereas critics contend that children learn little about Logo or about anything else during such instruction. Reasoned argument about the pitfalls and prospects of Logo in the classroom requires a common interpretive framework, which is often obscured by the distinct conceptions of intelligence held by proponents and critics. Accordingly, the implications of two different root metaphors of intelligence for the study of Logo-based learning are traced. Development of ideal educational practices and outcomes for Logo learning within each framework follows, with a selected review of research to support some conjectures and refute others. This presentation includes discussion of weak versus strong problem-solving methods, transfer, "powerful ideas," and discovery-based learning. The article concludes with a partition of cognition into cognitive, metacognitive, and epistemic levels, and it relates these to Logo as a strategy for developing thinking.     

Building functional models: Designing an elbow

Previous work suggests that children largely perceive science as the passive observation and recording of events. In contrast, studies of practicing scientists show a concern with building and testing models. In this study we investigated the role of a design context for developing children's understanding of science as the construction and revision of models. Grade 1–2 children were given the task of building a model that works like a human elbow. Via discussion, model building, evaluation, and revision, children came to understand that not only motion but also constraints on motion were important qualities to include in their models. Moreover, review of classroom activity and analysis of the postmodeling interview suggest that as early as first grade, children's model-evaluation skills may be quite amenable to development: In comparison to a nonmodeling peer group, modelers were largely able to ignore perceptual qualities when asked to judge the functional qualities of models. Further, they showed an understanding of the modeling process in general that was similar to that of children 3–4 years older. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 34 : 125–143, 1997.