What teachers can learn from parents' perceptions of young children's literacy learning

Research in the last ten to fifteen years has provided a strong knowledge base for understanding how children learn to read and write in naturally developing ways. *These findings and conclusions are drawn from the wealth of early literacy research. The research provides a keener understanding of how the learning environment contributes enabling children to construct their own personally meaningful rule systems for making written language work for them, even at very young ages.Stevie Hoffman is Professor of Early Childhood Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, and Larry Kantner is Professor in the Departments of Curriculum and Instruction and Fine Arts, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO.     

Children's sexual play and behavior in pre-school settings: staff's perceptions, reports, and responses

OBJECTIVES: The aims of this study were to learn about the nature, frequency, and patterns of young children's observed sexual play and behavior in pre-school settings, and staff responses to them. METHOD: Fifty eight staff in 11 pre-school settings were interviewed and data obtained about their recall of observed sexualized play and behaviors of children in their care. Responses were sought both to an open question and to 20 different hypothetical scenarios describing children's behaviors with a genital or sexual content. They were asked about the proportion of children observed and the frequency of the behaviors. They were also asked for their predicted responses to encountering each of these scenarios. RESULTS: Children's curiosity about genitalia, looking and limited touching were more commonly observed, and drawing or modeling of genitalia and simulating sexual intercourse were also reported. Children inserting anything into another child and oral-genital contact had only rarely been observed. Rare behaviors always caused concern and led to some intervention. Concern about the more common behaviors was related to additional factors such as frequency, manner and talk accompanying the behavior and to other information known about the child. CONCLUSIONS: The results confirm findings from studies in other countries about the reported prevalence of more and less commonly observed sexual and genitally orientated behaviors in young children. They lend justification for concerns about children showing rarely observed behaviors or showing preoccupation with genitalia and indicate the need for a search for an explanation of these behaviors when observed.     

Researching teachers' and parents' perceptions of dialogue

While there has been a great deal of research done on parent involvement and the challenges of conducting effective dialogue in parent–teacher meetings, less attention has been paid to how teachers and parents themselves perceive dialogue. The purpose of the present article is to study whether deliberative principles are vital to teachers' and parents' perceptions of dialogue. The study seeks to answer this question by initiating qualitative interviews with teachers and parents. The findings show that deliberative principles are definitively vital to the participants' perceptions of dialogue. They include basic deliberation values and procedural aspects of deliberation. However, it must be noted that the informants also include aspects that are not highlighted as core elements of deliberation, especially the importance of good relational qualities and informal talk. They also assign the professional a moderator role in parent–teacher meetings. Practical implications are discussed.     

The work,perceptions and professional development of teachers

This article presents work from an ongoing investigation, where the objective is to understand the impact of recent Portuguese legislation – the Teaching Career Statute and its respective Evaluation of Teacher Performance regulations – on the (re)construction of teacher identity, the teaching career and professional development. From an analysis of the results obtained, it can be noted that the aforesaid legislation had a negative impact on the perceptions of teachers about their professional development, which is evidenced in their pedagogical practice, the educational success of their students, team work and professional investment for a significant percentage of teachers.     

Students’ perceptions of career conversations with their teachers

Internationally, schools acknowledge their responsibility in guiding students not only in their academic growth, but also in their lifelong career development. In relation to this development, vocational schools in the Netherlands are implementing integral career guidance in which teachers receive a new task in guiding students in developing their own learning and career paths. A questionnaire was developed to investigate students’ perceptions of career guidance by teachers during career conversations, and data involving 28 teachers were collected from 579 students. The study identified four different teacher guidance profiles. Remarkable is that teachers spoke very little about career issues, and school issues were mostly on the agenda. The results indicate that teachers struggle with the transition towards becoming a career guide of students, and aspects influencing the transition into this new role need to be considered.     

Children's perceptions of deviance and disorder.

First-, fourth-, seventh-, and eleventh-grade boys and girls were interviewed on the topic of deviant behavior among their peers. They were also asked to make deviance judgments on 2 story characters whose behaviors exemplified qualities that typically evoke an attribution of psychological disorder on the part of adult judges. 1 story described loss of control and aggression, the other a distorted and paranoid perception of social reality. The pattern of reaction to the stories was consistent with age-related shifts in the basic for deviant status. First graders largely failed to think in terms of group norms. The transition from the middle grades to adolescence was marked by greater emphasis on social consensus--both in psychological perspective and group behavior.     

A cross-cultural study of parents' perceptions of early childhood programs

Cross-cultural studies in early childhood education assist in expanding perspectives and gaining increased understanding and appreciation of programs in other countries. Because both Sweden and the United States are interested in parent involvement in early childhood programs, a survey was conducted to assess parent's perceptions of these programs. Following a review of family life and early childhood education in Sweden and the United States are the specific components of the cross-cultural study. A stratified random sample of parents whose children were involved in early childhood programs was done in St. Louis County, MN, United States, and Kronobergs Lan, Småland, Sweden. In the first section of the five-part survey, parents indicated the degree to which they agreed or disagreed with statements about such areas as governmental support of children and families. Parents in Sweden felt more support of the government, whereas parents in the United States used early childhood programs as a support mechanism to increase their confidence. In the other four sections of the survey, parents rated the importance of various types of parental involvement and the importance of various materials, activities, and caregiver actions in their children's programs. In general, parents in Sweden valued informal contact and inner-directed creative materials and activities. Parents in the United States valued more confining activities such as rote counting, community-based experiences, and compliance with adult expectations. The influence of the macro-society on parents' perceptions as well as microsystem interactions and environments is evident in this study. As early childhood educators learn about and adapt new ideas to their own programs, the potential of cross-cultural studies becomes realized in improved opportunities for young children and their families.     

Career plans and work perceptions of preservice teachers

This article examines the reasons for entry, work perceptions, and the future career plans of 272 preservice teachers who entered a highly selective graduate teacher education program in 1987 and 1988. The profile of their job expectations was compared with that of a sample of experienced teachers. The study concludes that these talented students are entering the profession mainly for altruistic reasons and have fairly realistic views of working conditions; however, many plan to remain only if they derive the expected satisfaction from working which children. The findings are compared to labor market forecasting theories which could direct policy makers in their efforts to attract and retain high ability individuals to the teaching profession.     

Children's concepts of gears and their promotion through play

The mechanical transmission of motion, which is observable in gears’ turning direction (TD) and turning speed (TS) can be understood as part of the core concept “force and motion”. Previous studies have suggested that most children before the age of nine have naïve concepts of gears’ TD and TS. However, these studies relied on children's explanation data and might have therefore underestimated young children's potential. Moreover, these studies did not examine whether preschoolers can overcome their naïve concepts through teaching. Recently, educators have proposed guided play as an educational approach that combines children's play with teacher guidance in a purposefully designed environment. We conducted two subsequent studies. In Study 1, we investigated the children's (naïve) concepts of gears’ TD and TS with a cross‐sectional approach using a nonverbal test procedure. This study comprised 248 children aged 5–10 years and 73 adults. The results showed that the proportion of children with adequate concepts increased with age. More specifically, 7‐ to 8‐year‐olds differed significantly from 5‐ to 6‐year‐olds, indicating a developmental shift around this age. However, naïve concepts of TS were more persistent with age than naïve concepts of TD. Altogether, the results indicated the potential to foster 5‐ to 6‐year‐olds’ concepts of both TD and TS in an intervention. Thus, in Study 2, we developed and tested a guided play intervention to foster 5‐ to 6‐year‐old children's concepts of TD and TS. We conducted a prepost‐intervention design with a guided play group (n = 19) and a free play group (n = 21). The results suggested stronger learning gains in the guided play group (d_TD = 0.337, d_TS = 0.758) than in the free play group (d_TD = 0.224, d_TS = 0.158).     

M‐learning adequacy and perceptions of students and teachers in secondary schools

In recent years, the use of mobile technologies has increased in a number of fields such as banking, economy, tourism, entertainment, library research, etc. These developments have also led to the use of mobile technologies for educational purposes. The successful integration of mobile learning (m‐learning) technologies in education primarily demands that teachers' and students' adequacy and perceptions of such technology should be determined. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare teachers' and students' abilities and perceptions concerning m‐learning. Research data for the analysis were obtained from a sample of 467 teachers and 1556 students from 32 schools that were surveyed in Northern Cyprus. Based on our results, we conclude that teachers and students want to use m‐learning in education. Their perceptions are positive but their m‐learning adequacy levels are not sufficient.     

Children's perceptions of national identity in Wales

The project forms part of a larger doctoral study which examines children's perceptions of national identity and its construction and importance in the world of the child in Wales. The research took place in a primary school class in the South Wales valleys, in a class of 27 children aged 7–8 years. Following an introductory activity, children drew a picture of a ‘Welsh person’. They were then interviewed with their artwork about their ideas of national identity in Wales. The initial findings revealed that the young children in this study, contrary to cognitive development theory (Piaget, J., and A.M. Weil. 1951. The development in children of the idea of the homeland and relations to other countries. International Social Science Journal 3: 561–578; Aboud, F., and M. Amato. 2001. Developmental and socialization influences on intergroup bias. In Blackwell handbook of social psychology: Intergroup processes, ed. R. Brown and A. Gaertner, 65–85. Oxford: Blackwell), had a complex and well-developed view of their own national identity. The children were able to consider in some depth, what characterises their concept of the national identity. Children categorised themselves using a range of parameters such as place of birth, parental nationality and current and previous residences. These findings contribute to previous studies in the Welsh context, which have been conducted with older children. The largest self-categorisation group was Welsh but a further interesting factor was that there were more children who categorised themselves as English rather than British.     

Playing Social Chess: Children's play and social intelligence

Humans live in complex social environments. By the time they reach adulthood, most people have developed highly sophisticated social skills, including the ability to infer the 'invisible' mental states in others, and to act upon those inferences; they have become experts at 'social chess'. This paper draws upon research from developmental and evolutionary psychology, primatology, as well as studies of autistic children, to explore the processes by which children acquire the complex skills underpinning social interaction. It also examines obstacles to social skill acquisition. In light of ethological studies of social play in humans and other primates, it is argued that play is a fundamental medium for acquiring social skills.     

Circle Time: The perceptions of teachers and pupils

The interest of teachers and educational psychologists in circle time has grown over recent years, and there has been an explosion of publications offering activities and curriculum on the subject. Despite this expansion in publications, there has not been an accompanying growth in efficacy-based research about circle time. The current literature contains little evidence of its effectiveness. The present paper outlines a research study, undertaken within one local education authority and as part of the researcher's work on the Education Doctorate programme at Sheffield University, that aimed to investigate teacher and pupil perceptions of circle time. It concludes that both groups view circle time as a positive intervention. The study raises questions about the possibilities regarding socially mediated learning.     

Parents as partners: parents' perceptions of partnership in Northeren Ireland

The introduction of the Code of Practice on the Identification and Assessment of Special Educational Needs in Northern Ireland has brought to the foreground the issue of parents as partners. Twenty parents of children attending two schools in Belfast for children experiencing learning difficulties were interviewed to determine their perceptions of their role during the process of Stages 4 and 5 of the implementation of the Code. The parents emphasised a sense of anger, frustration and isolation.