Distributing learning over time: the spacing effect in children's acquisition and generalization of science concepts

The spacing effect describes the robust finding that long‐term learning is promoted when learning events are spaced out in time rather than presented in immediate succession. Studies of the spacing effect have focused on memory processes rather than for other types of learning, such as the acquisition and generalization of new concepts. In this study, early elementary school children (5‐ to 7‐year‐olds; N = 36) were presented with science lessons on 1 of 3 schedules: massed, clumped, and spaced. The results revealed that spacing lessons out in time resulted in higher generalization performance for both simple and complex concepts. Spaced learning schedules promote several types of learning, strengthening the implications of the spacing effect for educational practices and curriculum.     

“从基因到社会”——约翰·霍普金斯大学医学院新型课程体系的设计逻辑与实施进程

2009年,约翰·霍普金斯大学医学院实施了一项全新的课程体系——"从基因到社会",其目的在于:更为宽泛地重构健康与疾病的相互关系,鼓励学生们在一个包含社会、文化、心理和环境等多维变量的综合系统中探索与患者的健康状况相关的生物学特性。本文描述了新课程的设计理念及其五年规划过程,包括课程目标的确定、课程的构建、新教学楼的建造、学生自身能力及教师发展的促进、横向和纵向结构的建立等。应对新课程挑战的关键因素在于:领导的支持、与教职员工的对话和沟通、不同群体和层面的广泛参与、避免井蛙之见、通过课程试点来测试教学理念和方法等。     

Acquisition of the cardinal word principle: The role of input

We investigated whether specific input helps 3-1/2-year-olds discover that the last word in a count represents its cardinal value (i.e., the cardinal word principle). In Study 1, we contrasted four training approaches. The only approach to yield significant improvement was to label a set's cardinality and then immediately count it. This training is consistent with previously hypothesized mechanisms based on juxtaposing a set's cardinal label with its count in close temporal contiguity (e.g., 0105 and 0175), as well as general theories of comparison and categorization (e.g., Gentner, 2005). In Study 2, we asked parents to read picture books to their preschool children and found that they rarely provide cardinal labels immediately followed by counting, even when asked to read a book about number.     

How Symbolic Experience Shapes Children's Symbolic Flexibility

The current experiments asked whether children with dual‐symbolic experience (e.g., unimodal bilingual and bimodal) develop a preference for words like monolingual children (Namy & Waxman, 1998). In Experiment 1, ninety‐five 18‐ and 24‐month‐olds, with monolingual, unimodal bilingual, or bimodal symbolic experience, were tested in their willingness to treat digitized sounds as referents. In Experiment 2, forty‐seven 24‐month‐olds, with the same types of symbolic experience, were tested in their willingness to treat novel words as referents. Monolingual children performed in ways indicative of a growing preference for words, whereas children with dual‐symbolic experience performed in ways indicative of consistency in symbolic flexibility over time. Results suggest that the developmental trajectory of children's symbolic flexibility might depend on their symbolic experience.