LESSONS LEARNED IN FOUR URBAN EARLY CHILDHOOD PROGRAMS AND THE IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHER EDUCATION

Abstract

Teacher educators are often searching for methods and/or techniques to enhance and expand the content of their courses. As teacher educators, we do not want to introduce new methodology that detracts our students’ attention away from the course content. However, we need to keep our courses current and interesting for ourselves as well as for our students. Several teacher educators at one institution have begun including service‐learning projects into their preservice and inservice teachers’ courses as a way to augment the standard curriculum. The focus of this study is to illustrate how service‐learning was incorporated into the existing children's literature course and share the five cooperative projects that resulted from this integration.     

THE IMPLICATIONS OF NATIONAL POLICIES IN THE UNITED STATES,BRAZIL, EL SALVADOR,AND PERU ON EARLY CHILDHOOD TEACHER EDUCATION

It may seem obvious but the world is filled with believers in the value of good care and attention to children during the earliest months and years. That belief is embedded in virtually all cultural traditions. Indeed, both common wisdom and hard scientific research evidence lead to the forceful conclusion that the earliest years of life are critical in the development of the intelligence, personality, and the social values and behaviors that will characterize later life... But if the value of the early years is so evident... why is there such neglect by families and social institutions? Among the reasons that might be offered are the following: Families living in extreme poverty or victimized by war and famine, may be so busy surviving that they cannot give the

loving attention to their children they would like to give. Families living in luxury may be too busy making money, or spending it, to give the needed time to their children. At the same time, some institutions that could help families to help their children take the position that the child development is best left to families. ‐‐Robert G. Myers, 1991     

COGNITIVE,ATTITUDINAL, AND AFFECTIVE ASPECTS OF DEATH AND DYING IN ADULTHOOD: IMPLICATIONS FOR CARE PROVIDERS

Relationships among general anxiety, age, and measures of conscious and unconscious death anxiety were assessed in three groups of adult subjects varying in age and extent of contact with elderly persons. Data suggested that these relationships are complex, but that some degree of overlap exists among these factors both within and across groups. Knowledge and attitudinal data relating to death and aging suggested that similarities rather than differences should be emphasized in comparing these groups of students and care and service providers, and that there is less reason to assume a perceived conscious association between death and aging than previously believed based on current literature. These data are discussed from an applied developmental perspective.     

THE BLURRING OF CHILDHOOD AND THE MEDIA

Time is not lost, I deem, in bewailing and mourning our fate when answering tears stand ready in the listener's eye.

Prometheus Bound ^{1 1} Lynch's 1970 work, Christ and Prometheus: A New Image of the Secular, explores in three “acts” two pivotal questions that run throughout most of his works: “What is the place of the secular in a totally religious world?” and “What is the place of the sacred in an overwhelmingly secular world?” (p. 15). On page 49 he refers particularly to Images of Hope with these words: “In an earlier book, on hope, I tried to sketch a path of approximation to innocence for the mentally ill. There it was a matter of taking away from the sick the burden of finding a one, nonexistent right way in all situations, an inscrutable way of the will of God, that would come from outside our own wishes and would condition all of these wishes. There is no greater torment than this kind of endless, external search for innocence. We must restore the primacy of man as a wishing being who, as long as he is within reality, creates the right thing by the absolute unconditionality of his own wishing. This wish does not have to go out of itself.” Ironically, he wanted Christ and Prometheus entitled “In Search of Innocence” (p. 36). Presumably, the editors prevailed.

     

COGNITIVE LOAD THEORY AND THE ACQUISITION OF COMPLEX COGNITIVE SKILLS IN THE ELDERLY: TOWARDS AN INTEGRATIVE FRAMEWORK

The purpose of this article is to explore the advantages of instructional formats based on cognitive load theory for elderly learners engaged in the acquisition of complex cognitive skills. A great body of research has demonstrated that cognitive aging is accompanied by a reduction of working - memory capacity, a general slowing of mental processes, and a decline of the ability to repress irrelevant information. The core idea of cognitive load theory is that working - memory capacity is limited and should therefore be managed with great care and discretion. Cognitive load theory claims that this can be achieved by minimizing the level of extraneous cognitive load, which is the portion of load that does not contribute to schema acquisition, and by maximizing the level of germane cognitive load, which directly contributes to the construction of cognitive schemata. Since instructions based on cognitive load theory deal with cognitive limitations, in that they lead to an efficient use of the available resources, it was hypothesized that they are especially effective when elderly people are involved. This idea was analyzed by means of a framework merging cognitive load theory with the aforementioned research findings concerning cognitive aging. It was concluded that cognitive load theory, enabling elderly people to acquire new complex skills, can be regarded as an essential guide for educational gerontology.     

认识群体的分类及互补

认识的主体以群体的形式与客体相对应。这一群体又是多种多样十分复杂的,人们对此划分的标准也各有差异,这就不利于对认识群体的了解和把握。笔者试从认识论的角度,从认识的客体方面进行分类,即以主体的认识对象来划分。这既可以促进对认识群体研究的深化,同时对调动认识群体在社会主义现代化建设中的积极性,充分发挥其在社会发展中的作用有着十分重要的现实意义。     

SCHEFFLER AND THE COGNITIVE ENDS OF TEACHING

A bstract .  The Schefflerian notion that teaching intentionally tries to bring about knowledge has been spiritedly challenged by Catherine Elgin. Perhaps, in light of our enlightened understanding of the limits of our claims to knowledge in the scientific realm, knowledge emerges as too ambitious a goal for teaching to set itself. In this essay, George Pollack explores the maneuvers Israel Scheffler employs to deflect the onslaught of this challenge. Pollack addresses this issue by examining the so-called rationality constraints on teaching championed by Scheffler. The thesis that these constraints are definitive of teaching is, the author argues, not arrived at on conceptual grounds, but draws for its support on the several strands of epistemological reasoning woven together in Scheffler's celebrated work, Conditions of Knowledge . The notion of a dynamically engaged-in teacher-pupil interaction, harnessed to a mutually shared system of beliefs, is shown to take on a heightened prominence.     

THE STRUCTURE OF COGNITIVE ABILITIES IN HIGHLY AND MODERATELY GIFTED YOUNG PEOPLE

In order to assess the structure of cognitive abilities in highly and moderately gifted young people, data from the Munich Longitudinal Study of Giftedness were analyzed by conventional factor analysis. In the total group as well as in the subsample of the moderately gifted, a three factor solution was obtained which was subsequently confirmed by a LISREL analysis of the same data. In the subsample of the highly gifted, a two factor solution was obtained by conventional factor analysis and confirmed by a LISREL analysis. Contrary to the opinion voiced in the statistical literature that in groups formed on the basis of some cutoff value the reduced variances and covariances will lead to factorial artifacts, we argue that the factors obtained can be interpreted meaningfully. We were also able to predict, on the basis of the two factor solution, the occurrence of specific types of highly gifted youths.     

THE VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY OF ORAL EXAMINATIONS IN ASSESSING COGNITIVE SKILLS IN MEDICINE1

In order to attempt to assess aspects of clinical competence, not adequately assessed by other means, the Center for the Study of Medical Education, University of Illinois College of Medicine together with the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery developed oral examinations in formats specifically designed to yield information on high level cognitive functioning. The examinations were administered to 784 candidates for certification in January 1968. Reliability of the oral problem-solving component score pooled from four examiners was approximately .50. Assessment of content, construct, and concurrent validity made by questionnaire and factor analytic studies indicated that the oral tests identified factors not measured by multiple-choice tests and, therefore, significantly improved the relationship between supervisory evaluations and test scores.     

OPEC音译名称和零翻译缩略语的广泛接受对引进外来语的启示

OPEC的音译名称“欧佩克”和汉语文章中零翻译缩略语的使用曾一度成为某些学者攻击的对象 ,今天它们已经得到广泛的接受。这个事实给我们三点启示 :不应以原则规范外来语的引进 ;同事同物异译并存可以丰富汉语的表现力、有利于汉语择优选用 ;谨慎看待语言污染。     

THE EFFECTS OF COGNITIVE CONFLICT MANAGEMENT ON COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT AND SCIENCE ACHIEVEMENT

Three teaching methods were compared in this study, namely a Cognitive Conflict Management Module (CCM) that is infused into Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education (CASE), (Module A) CASE without CCM (Module B) and a conventional teaching method. This study employed a pre- and post-test quasi-experimental design using non-equivalent control groups. The design involved 130 participants from Form 2 (Grade 7) in a Malaysian secondary school. The cognitive level of all participants was classified as non-formal operational on the pre-test and were allocated to one of the four intact groups: experimental group 1, EP1 experienced Module A, experimental group, and EP2 experienced Module B, while the others were divided between two control groups. The impact of the three teaching methods on the level of cognitive development and science achievement were observed after a 20-week intervention. Data were analysed using multivariate analysis of variance/multivariate analysis of covariance, analysis of covariance and a paired-samples t test. It is hoped that this study can contribute to knowledge in the field of cognitive intervention and cognitive conflict strategy. The findings show that a high dose of cognitive intervention in CASE activities within a short period has an effect on the levels of students’ cognitive development, standard science achievement and constructive cognitive conflict.     

OBESITY AND REPORTS OF NO LEISURE TIME ACTIVITY AMONG OLDER AMERICANS: RESULTS FROM THE THIRD NATIONAL HEALTH AND NUTRITION EXAMINATION SURVEY

Physical inactivity is a cardiovascular risk factor that has a higher prevalence among overweight adults. The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence of not participating in Leisure Time Physical Activity (LPTA) and the relationship to body weight class among older U.S. adults. A nationally representative cross-sectional survey with an in-person interview and medical examination was used. Between 1988 and 1994, 6569 adults 60 years of age or older responded to the household adult and family questionnaires as part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III. Mexican Americans and non-Hispanic blacks were oversampled to produce reliable estimates for these groups. Overall, 39% of older U.S. adults fall in the overweight range and 23.3% are obese. Obese older adults were more likely than their overweight and healthy weight counterparts to report participating in no LTPA The prevalence of adults reporting no leisure time physical activity (LPTA) is lowest among non-Hispanic whites compared to non-Hispanic blacks and Mexican-Americans in each body mass index category. Future interventions should address strategies to promote an increase in leisure time physical activity among older adults, especially among underserved populations, and help them to prevent weight gain.     

COGNITIVE STRUCTURES OF CREATIVITY: IMPLICATIONS FOR INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN

While creativity of the order which produces paradigm shifts in a knowledge domain is usually the result of the efforts of creative experts, any novel outcome of the work of a problem solver can be referred to as “creative”, be it process or product Any individual, regardless of level of expertise, is capable of creativity if he or she employs the entire cognitive system differentially and synergistically. Consequently, the aim of instruction aimed at enhancing creativity should be to provide opportunities for learners to use all three knowledge orders for creative problem solving. The paper provides various ways in which this may be done.     

THE SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPLICATIONS OF PROGRAMMED LEARNING

Information on five areas of social activity possibly related to English language learning was collected from three groups of secondary school pupils (Asian, West Indian and English). Results indicate considerable group differences in the use of school and public libraries, out‐of‐school activities, out‐group choice of friends, job aspirations and parental encouragement. Some factors would seem from the results to facilitate the English language learning of the Asian group.     

广告语篇中的语法隐喻及其认知分析

语法隐喻在语言的使用和交际过程中是十分普遍的语言现象。以概念隐喻、人际隐喻和情态隐喻为认知理据,结合广告语篇,从认知的视角来分析广告语篇中的英语投射。不仅有助于解读丰富的广告话语内涵,也反映了人类认知世界的发展。