The Grieving Process in Children: Strategies for Understanding, Educating, and Reconciling Children's Perceptions of Death

Just like adults, children of all ages need time and understanding in order to process the concept of death and dying. This process is much different for children than it is for adults. There are 4 components relative to children's understanding of death: (a) the irreversibility factor, (b) finality, (c) inevitability, and (d) causality. These 4 components relate directly to the developmental level of the child at the time the death occurs. Knowing how children's concept of death is constructed provides parents and caregivers important information and helps them respond more sensitively to what children might feel and experience. This article provides an overview of how children understand death, concrete strategies for talking to children about death, and suggestions for teachers about how to help children through grief and mourning.     

The Talking Drawings Strategy: Using Primary Children’s Illustrations and Oral Language to Improve Comprehension of Expository Text

Listening and reading comprehension can be assessed by analyzing children’s visual, verbal, and written representations of their understandings. “Talking Drawings” (McConnell, S. (1993). Talking drawings: A strategy for assisting learners. Journal of Reading, 36(4), 260–269 is one strategy that enables children to combine their prior knowledge with the new information derived from an expository text and “translate” those newly-acquired understandings into other symbol systems, including an oral discussion with a partner, a more detailed drawing, and written labels for the drawing. The Talking Drawings strategy begins by inviting children to create pre-learning drawings. These initial drawings are a way of taking inventory of a child’s current content knowledge about a particular topic. After pre-learning drawings are created and shared, children listen to or read an expository text (e.g., information book, passage from a textbook) on the same topic as their drawing. Pairs of students discuss the information and either modify their pre-learning drawings to be more detailed or create completely new drawings that reflect the recently-acquired information. Students are encouraged to label their drawings with words in a diagram or schematic fashion. By evaluating the “before” and “after” artwork, educators can identify advances in students’ reading and listening comprehension of the terminology, facts, and principles on a particular topic.     

家长教育政策了解度与子女教育获得——基于课外补习的中介效应分析

家长教育政策了解度作为一项重要的教育素养,对完善家庭教育体系有着重要的意义。文章运用描述统计和结构方程的方法得出,目前家长教育政策了解度处在较低水平;家长教育政策了解度与子女教育获得呈显著正相关;课外补习在家长教育政策了解度与学生成绩间起中介作用;课外补习在中考政策了解度的中介效应高于高考政策和“双一流”政策。政府应从完善教育政策宣传路径,提升家长教育政策了解度;引导家长合理参与补习教育,制定低产阶层参与补习的帮扶机制;优化义务教育阶段资源配置,加快推动考试改革等方面提升家长教育政策认知度及教育获得感。     

The Relationship Between Children's Drawings of Rectangular Solids from Memory and Performance in Cognitive Tests,Art and Practical Subjects

A total of 127 11 + and 81 12 + subjects drew rectangular solids from memory, after viewing them from different positions. The results were correlated with IQ, vocabulary, verbal judgement and reasoning, and a spatial test with assessment in art and crafts. Unexpectedly high and significant correlations were yielded between drawing solids and cognitive tests involving verbal ability, when compared with correlations between solids, the spatial test and craft subjects, especially for the 12 + group. This appeared contrary to received views on the association of aptitude in drawing with spatial ability. Furthermore, as spatial factors are considered to underpin drawing and craft subjects, a closer association between these, rather than between drawing and verbal ability, was expected. This outcome raised certain theoretical questions concerning drawing and its interaction with perception, language, memory and intellectual development.     

Representation, Identification and Trust: Towards an Ethics of Educational Research

Crudely put, educational research is unethical when it misrepresents or misidentifies—and so betrays—its putative beneficiaries or the goods and values they hold dear. How can researchers guard against these vulnerabilities? While acknowledging the vulnerabilities of educational research to abuses of trust and representation, and that there is no Archimedean point from which to approach research into people’s practices, we defend a universalist conception of research ethics in education. This universalist conception is developed via an examination of a central debate in feminism, contrasting Alcoff’s positionality, Caughie’s performative conception and Nussbaum’s universalist conception of feminism.     

Posture,Musculoskeletal Activities,and Possible Musculoskeletal Discomfort Among Children Using Laptops or Tablet Computers for Educational Purposes: A Literature Review

Educational ergonomics focuses on the interaction between educational performance and educational design. By improving the design or pointing out the possible problems, educational ergonomics can be utilized to have positive impacts on the student performance and thus on education process. Laptops and tablet computers are becoming widely used by school children and beginning to be used effectively for educational purposes. As the latest generation of laptops and tablet computers are mobile and lightweight compared to conventional personal computers, they support student-centred interaction-based learning. However, these technologies have been introduced into schools with minimal adaptations to furniture or attention to ergonomics. There are increasing reports of an association between increased musculoskeletal (MSK) problems in children and use of such technologies. Although children are among the users of laptops and tablet computers both in their everyday lives and at schools, the literature investigating MSK activities and possible MSK discomfort regarding children using portable technologies is limited. This study reviews the literature to identify published studies that investigated posture, MSK activities, and possible MSK discomfort among children using mobile technologies (laptops or tablet computers) for educational purposes. An electronic search of the literature published in English between January 1994 and January 2014 was performed in several databases. The literature search terms were identified and combined to search the databases. The search results that the resources investigating MSK outcomes of laptop or tablet use of children are very scarce. This review points out the research gaps in this field, and identifying areas for future studies.     

幼儿用筷现状及教师相关观念调查——兼谈如何理解和贯彻落实《3～6岁儿童学习与发展指南》中有关幼儿用筷能力发展的要求

在中国文化背景下,用筷子进餐是一项重要的生活技能,同时也能促进幼儿精细动作的发展与脑的发育.对浙江省82所幼儿园及186位幼儿园教师就幼儿用筷现状及教师对幼儿用筷观念所作的调查表明,幼儿园对引导幼儿用筷的关注度较低,仅14.6％的幼儿园要求幼儿用筷进餐,其中75％的幼儿是从大班上学期开始学习用筷子的;教师不愿意教幼儿用筷或不愿意让幼儿用筷主要是出于对筷子的安全性和使用难度等问题的考虑.幼儿园如果安排用筷教学和幼儿用筷实践活动,宜从中班上学期(约4岁)开始,同时要强调家园合作,创设适宜的环境,对幼儿进行安全教育,以促使他们安全用筷,逐步熟练用筷.     

城市流动儿童的社会融合与政策取向：一个个案研究

调查结果显示,57%的流动儿童的同学关系比较融洽,36%的流动儿童的同学关系不好,7%的流动儿童的同学关系一般.大部分在公立学校就学的流动儿童的同学关系比较融洽,与城市当地学生的关系也比较好,但也有部分流动儿童有自卑感、孤僻感和受歧视感.同质交往是公立学校就学流动儿童的交往特征,他们交往的主要对象是同为流动儿童性质的同学和邻居.在私立学校就学的流动儿童内部整合程度较高,出现了程度较高的文化融合.但是,这个群体的流动儿童很容易与城市当地儿童发生冲突.调查结果证实了家庭经济地位、文化差异和空间隔离对社会融合的影响.     

Children Using Robotics for Engineering,Science, Technology,and Math (CREST-M): The Development and Evaluation of an Engaging Math Curriculum

Children using robotics for engineering, science, technology, and mathematics (CREST-M) is an ongoing curriculum creation and evaluation project developing math-focused science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) curriculum units that incorporate storytelling with math and are designed to be engaging for students from backgrounds traditionally underrepresented in STEM fields and to be appropriate for all ability levels including the gifted. This mixed-methods study evaluated one CREST-M unit, The Tale of the Monarchs, aligned to the Common Core State Standards: Mathematics (CCSS-M) for fourth- and fifth-grade fractions while incorporating all aspects of STEM. The unit includes an engineering design loop to help students create and program robots using LEGO WeDo 2.0. Students also use the scientific method in a problem-based learning (PBL) investigation in which they design and conduct experiments. The unit features a comprehensive storyline in which diverse characters solve real-world problems using STEM skills. The curriculum was evaluated through a CCSS-M aligned pre- and post-assessment of students’ understanding of fractions, the Cognitive Abilities Test Screening Form 7 (CogAT 7), and the Draw-a-Scientist pre- and post-assessment. The curriculum led to significant and meaningful gains in math achievement (Cohen’s d = 0.72) consistent for students at multiple ability levels (including high ability) and children from groups traditionally represented in STEM fields as well as those traditionally underrepresented (across gender, race, and socioeconomic status). In addition, the mental models of the career of a scientist that students articulated before the program were markedly more complex and less stereotypical following the program, indicating increased understanding of the career of a scientist.     

Global Educational Research in Western Times: The Rise and Plight of Chinese Educational Research

The paper offers a critical appraisal of the global knowledge developments in education using China’s contributions in a fashion similar to a case study. The paper scrutinizes the complicity of Western educational research to euro-centric biases and discusses the pursuit of a global epistemological eclecticism. To support this claim, the magnitude of the global knowledge economy, including country-by-country comparisons, is explored together with data pertaining to the success rate of submissions and citations. These data are used as the basis for arguments that the dominant research practices and developmental work serve Western interests, Western thought and a Western economy tied to standardization rather than eastern epistemological interests.     

我国特殊需要儿童教育诊断评估的研究现状与发展趋势

教育诊断评估是特殊需要儿童教育的起点,也是特殊需要儿童教育质量的保障。本文对近十年(1997-2006)国内关于特殊需要儿童教育诊断评估的研究成果进行分析、梳理、总结、概括,探讨国内特殊需要儿童教育诊断评估的研究现状及发展趋势,从而为我国特殊需要儿童的诊断评估的发展、完善提供借鉴。目前我国特殊需要儿童教育诊断评估研究反映出四个特征、六个问题与六个发展趋势。     

教育研究立场的选择与确立

教育问题的对象或事物是研究者依据自身的兴趣、价值判断与价值选择提出教育问题确立的。教育研究过程中,教育问题所针对的对象生成与发展同人的价值判断与选择无关时,研究者应处于教育问题所针对的对象之外,教育问题所针对的对象生成与发展有着人的价值依据时,研究者应进入对象;当研究目的是揭示教育问题所针对的对象中非价值因素构成时,研究者应处于教育问题所针对的对象之外,研究目的是揭示与介入价值因素时,研究者应处于教育问题所针对的对象之内;研究资料静态情形,研究者的立场应根据研究目的选择研究立场,研究资料动态情形,实证主义价值中立式的研究,研究者处于教育问题所针对的对象之外,人文主义价值无涉与价值介入式教育研究,研究者处于教育问题所针对的对象之内。     

Educational Provision for Mildly Intellectually Disabled Children in Queensland: Development and Decline

From the mid‐twenties to the early seventies children now designated as mildly intellectually disabled were the recipients of the greater part of the special education budget and the energies of special education staff in Queensland. These students were by far the largest category of children with special needs catered for by the Department of Education's special education section. The thrust towards separate provision for this group came from within the Department itself supported by visiting experts, with no apparent need for parent advocacy. The integration debate and expansion of services to more severely intellectually disabled children appear to have directed the mildly disabled group back into the educational mainstream, raising the question of whether the expertise and support developed over the years within special education have accompanied them.     

大学英语实验教学与评估平台的设计与应用

大学英语是我国高等学校重要的公共基础课,其教学质量一直受到广泛关注。大学英语网络教学系统作为支持外语教学的信息化平台,历经十载的研发与应用,在促进学生个性化自主学习方面已经发挥了积极的作用。然而,当前主流的大学英语教学系统还面临着诸多的挑战,如学习者开口说英语难,自主学习能力提高难,开展形成性评价难等问题仍然未得到有效的解决。针对这些问题,"大学英语实验教学与评估平台"以语言输出驱动假设、自我调节学习理论与教学评价理论为指导,综合运用现代信息技术手段,旨在有效地引导学生开展自主学习,全面记录学生语言学习过程,协助师生开展形成性评价。问卷调查及访谈的数据表明,平台的应用已取得了较好的效果。研究从理论基础、平台特色及应用效果三个方面介绍平台的设计与应用。     

分享、研究、督导:学校课程制度的创新

学校课程建设必须依靠课程制度创新,才能确保学校课程建设常态化实施与可持续发展。为此,学校必须具有战略眼光与务实的服务精神,精心搭建课程制度创新的平台,以充分激发教师进行课程制度创新的热情和智慧。太仓市实验小学在课程建设与课程创新过程中,构建了学校课程制度中具有现实意义和普遍意义的三项创新制度：信息分享制度、项目研究制度和课程督导制度。这三项创新制度支撑着学校课程建设,促进了教师的专业化发展,保障了学生的和谐成长,推动了学校的可持续发展。     

The Control-Value Theory of Achievement Emotions: Assumptions, Corollaries, and Implications for Educational Research and Practice

This article describes the control-value theory of achievement emotions and its implications for educational research and practice. The theory provides an integrative framework for analyzing the antecedents and effects of emotions experienced in achievement and academic settings. It is based on the premise that appraisals of control and values are central to the arousal of achievement emotions, including activity-related emotions such as enjoyment, frustration, and boredom experienced at learning, as well as outcome emotions such as joy, hope, pride, anxiety, hopelessness, shame, and anger relating to success or failure. Corollaries of the theory pertain to the multiplicity and domain specificity of achievement emotions; to their more distal individual and social antecedents, their effects on engagement and achievement, and the reciprocal linkages between emotions, antecedents and effects; to the regulation and development of these emotions; and to their relative universality across genders and cultures. Implications addressed concern the conceptual integration of emotion, motivation, and cognition, and the need to advance mixed-method paradigms. In closing, implications for educational practice are discussed.

对早期教育环境不良儿童的学前干预及追踪研究

对早期教育环境不良儿童进行学前干预,并对他们进入小学后进行追踪观察。结果表明,《儿童早期发展手册》的应用对早期教育环境不良儿童的干预效果是肯定的。学前干预不但提高了儿童认知水平,还使儿童在上小学前作好接受小学教育的心理准备,降低了留级和辍学率。