Parallelism in the development of children's ideas and the historical development of projectile motion theories

A study of the development of children's conceptions with respect to projectile motion was carried out in Ukraine and Israel, with the participation of 1017 subjects in grades 3 to 12. The purpose of the research was to investigate the fundamental hypothesis of genetic epistemology with respect to concepts of motion. The fundamental hypothesis states that the development of children's concepts of nature parallel the historical development of the concepts. It was found that the development of children's concepts of motion proceeds by stages, with the concepts at each stage parallel to a corresponding historical stage. A mathematical model was constructed to describe development by stages quantitatively. The theoretical model gave an excellent fit to the empirical data, and this supports the hypothesis of parallelism. The two‐country research made it possible to compare the effects of quite different school science curricula upon the development of children's concepts.     

Conflict Resolution in Japanese Social Interactions

The aim of this study was to examine Japanese preschool children's social conflicts and methods of conflict resolution in order to shed light on existing cultural characterizations of Japanese preschool education and social development. Japanese preschool-age children were observed during school-time free-play and they and their mothers were interviewed about teacher methods of conflict resolution in the preschool setting. The results showed that Japanese children's conflicts stemmed from a wide range of issues, including concerns about justice, rights, and fairness. Moreover, teachers encouraged children to work out conflicts on their own, stressing self-reliance and autonomy. Japanese children and mothers chose resolution choices which pertained to the intrinsic consequences of the acts. Japanese children and mothers, however, preferred teacher-directed nonintervention over punishment as a form of teacher response. This was in contrast to previous research which has shown that American children and mothers prefer punishment over nonintervention. The results indicated that issues of independence (e.g., autonomy) and interdependence (e.g., group orientations) were both present in Japanese children's social interactions and in children's and mothers' judgments about teacher methods of conflict resolution.     

Reading self‐concepts and task choices for children with reading difficulties

Abstract

This project examined the personal and the social basis of children's self‐concepts about reading. Study 1 [N= 55] was a correlational study. Results suggest a stronger personal than social basis for children's self‐concepts about reading. In particular, children made stronger comparisons among content areas than gender groups. Study 2 [N= 18] was an intervention study. The focus was on the personal basis of self‐concepts, for children with reading difficulties. Results showed that self‐concepts were responsive to the intervention, with associated change in task choices. Findings support a self‐categorization approach to understanding children's self‐concepts, and imply that this approach would be useful in motivating children about reading.

Reading is regarded as integral to general living skills and is central to children's learning across many areas of schooling. This means that we need to understand more about the self‐concepts that motivate children to take up and persist with reading activities. H is a particularly pressing issue for children who experience difficulties with reading. This project therefore examined the personal and social basis of children's self‐concepts about reading. The focus was the salience of children's personal and social categorisations about reading that underpin reading self‐concepts and associated choices of reading tasks.     

Motivation and Morality: a response to John Wilson

Abstract

This report of children's concepts of fairness takes as its rationale that the tentativeness of contemporary moral education reflects a lack of precise developmental schedules, and that there is a need for research to examine recent outlines of growth before widespread adoption of them by teachers. The Damon hierarchy of development of children's sense of positive justice is examined for its usefulness in predicting fairness in behaviour, and reliability in age patterning of its stated levels of reasoning. In general, it is the attributes of the various situations in which distribution is carried out, rather than conceptual growth, that seems to determine behaviour. The changes occurring with age are more quantitative than qualitative, and do not accord with expectations based on the Damon analysis. The hierarchy's value as a developmental schedule for teacher guidance may be questionable.     

Social justice storytelling and young children's active citizenship

This paper examines empirical data with regard to recent theorizing and conceptualizing of children's citizenship. It draws on a doctoral study where the author told social justice stories to one class of children aged five to six years to investigate the active citizenship that the stories set in motion. By imagining this action research study rhizomatically, organic and tangent pathways were mapped of what the stories set in motion. Analysis was informed by poststructuralist discourse theory and critical theory on political action, which enabled identification of enablers and constrainers of young children's actual practice of citizenship. A case is argued for acknowledgement of young children's political identities and capacity to act as communitarian citizens.     

Developing Model‐Based Reasoning

Key elements of the structure and function of models in mathematics and science are identified. These elements are used as a basis for discussing the development of model‐based reasoning. A microgenetic study examines the beginnings of model‐based reasoning in a pair of fourth‐ and fifth‐grade children who solved several problems about chance and probability. Results are reported in the form of a cognitive model of children's problem‐solving performance. The cognitive model explains a transition in children's reasoning from tacit reliance on empirical regularity to a form of model‐based reasoning. Several factors fostering change in children's thinking are identified, including the role of notations, peer interaction, and teacher assistance. We suggest that model‐based reasoning is a slowly‐developing capability that emerges only with proper contextual and social support and that future study should be carried out in classrooms, where these forms of assistance can also be part of the object of study.

Model‐based reasoning is a significant intellectual milestone because it bridges the worlds of personal, intuitive knowledge, on the one hand, and mathematical‐scientific theory, on the other. However, across disciplines, consensus is still forming about what model‐based reasoning comprises, and there is little knowledge about its ontogenetic origins or how it develops. We consider analogy as the core of modeling, because in model‐based reasoning a system in one domain is used to understand a system in another. To understand how models come to play a role in reasoning, it is important to initiate study of their origins. Accordingly, we report a microgenetic study examining the beginnings of model‐based reasoning in a pair of young children solving problems about chance and probability. In this study we are engaged in the enterprise of modeling the development of modeling. That is, we report our results in the form of a cognitive model of children's problem‐solving performance that explains a transition in reasoning from a tacit reliance on empirical regularity to a form of model‐based reasoning. It is important to note the two distinct meanings for the term model used in this article. The first describes how children come to understand and appropriate a system of reasoning exemplified in practices of modeling. The second describes a research tool, a model of human reasoning—specifically, how children in this study began to use models of probability to reason about uncertain events. In this report, we use the terms model or model‐based reasoning to refer to the former interpretation, whereas references to a cognitive model denote the simulation of children's thinking—in this case, implemented as a computer program.

Before describing the empirical work, we first identify some key elements of the structure and function of models. Next, these elements of modeling are used as the basis for generating some conjectures about the development of model‐based reasoning. We describe a task that we used as a window to understanding progression in student reasoning toward reliance on models as tools for thought. We present our rationale for developing cognitive models of student performance and explain some choices concerning the implementation of the cognitive model reported here. Finally, we turn to the children's performance on chance and probability tasks and explain how that performance illuminates both what children do not understand about models and the kinds of relevant knowledge that they are acquiring.     

Indian in the Cupboard: A case study in perspective

The children's book, The Indian in the Cupboard, by British author Lynne Reid Banks, provides a case study which contrasts American Indian and non-Indian perspectives about stereotypes of Native Americans in children's literature, as reflected in the review literature. Exploration of the reasons why the book is becoming a classic in children's literature reinforce the need for teachers, librarians, and parents to find a role in: encouraging practitioners to understand what constitutes stereotypes of American Indians; educating potential teachers and librarians about cultural diversity; including works reflecting the voices of Native Americans in library collections for children; using caution when relying on book reviews; helping children learn critical thinking skills that enable them to recognize stereotyping; and providing and hearing the voices of Native Americans explaining why portrayals of Indian characters are often fantasized literary constructions.     

Bugs,butterflies, and spiders: Children's understandings about insects

This article explores elementary children's ideas about insects. The study involved 20 children from each grade level, kindergarten through fifth-grade, for a total of 120 children. The data collection procedure was designed to investigate what an insect means to children, through the use of three different tasks: draw and explain, interview about instances, and the formulation of a general rule. Considering children's responses to the three tasks, I found that their ideas about insects reflect understandings based on physical characteristics of size and shape, arthropod characteristics, insect characteristics, human-insect interactions, life habits of insects, feeding habits of insects, and means of locomotion. Children's understandings are juxtaposed to that of a scientific perspective, elucidating implications for curriculum development and instructional practice.     

Early learning about light: mapping preschool children's thinking about light before,during and after involvement in a two week teaching program

This paper reports the findings of a study which sought to first, find out four‐year‐old children's views on light and dark and second, trace the development of children's thinking about the scientific concept of light during a two‐week teaching program.     

What Lies Beneath Seemingly Positive Campus Climate Results: Institutional Sexism,Racism, and Male Hostility Toward Equity Initiatives and Liberal Bias

This study investigates what preservice elementary school teachers assume about children's capacities to learn about equity issues and how teachers might translate teaching for social justice into actual classroom practices. Participants said they did not see the age of their students as a barrier to teaching for social justice, although their ways of conceptualizing this varied considerably, and those teaching grade 4–6 students were generally more risk-taking in the curricular and pedagogical choices they made. We found that the concepts of childhood innocence and developmental appropriateness mediated the topics and approach to topics that beginning teachers considered. Roughly half the participants believed that younger children are relatively uninterested in the events of the day, are incapable of forming nuanced opinions, and are unable to analyze political issues; while the other half disagreed. Participants concerned about engendering negative emotional responses from elementary students made more limited and generic responses to name-calling or teasing rather than naming specific forms of oppression or prompting students to reflect critically on hurtful language and behavior.     

Three approaches to measuring children's perceptions about technology

Abstract

This paper reports the development and use of three instruments which comprise a comprehensive technique for describing children's perceptions about technology. The instruments are a questionnaire for upper primary school children, a quiz using pictures instead of written items for lower primary school children and, for both age‐groups, a combined writing/drawing activity which complements the questionnaire or quiz. The instruments are designed to cater for children from a range of age levels, provide information helpful to teachers about children's perceptions of technology, and be suitable for use in research. The instruments were trialled in a total of 28 classes in Western Australian schools and construct validity established by examining the pattern of responses between pairs of instruments completed by the same children. The teachers stated that participating in the processes of developing and administering the instruments was useful and gave them valuable information about children's views of technology.     

Cultural concepts of giftedness

Different cultures have different conceptions of what it means to be gifted. But in identifying children as gifted, we often use only our own conception, ignoring the cultural context in which the children grew up. Such identification is inadequate and fails to do justice to the richness of the world's cultures. It also misses children who are gifted and may identify as gifted children those who are not.     

Children's Preliteracy Skills: Influence of Mothers' Education and Beliefs About Shared-Reading Interactions

Research Findings: This research investigated the associations among children's preliteracy skills, mothers' education, and mothers' beliefs about shared-reading interactions for 45 Appalachian families. These variables were studied for lower income, primarily European American, families residing in a geographically isolated, small, rural community in the Appalachian Mountains. Children's performance on standardized measures of preliteracy skills pertaining to print concepts and alphabet knowledge was substantially lower than normative references, but their performance on tasks assessing their understanding of environmental print was similar to normative references. The preliteracy skills of children with more educated mothers were significantly better than those of children with less educated mothers. More educated mothers had higher ratings on a measure of parental beliefs about shared reading than less educated mothers had; however, maternal reports of the frequency of home literacy practices were similar for both groups. Mediation analyses indicated that mothers' beliefs about shared-reading interactions served as a mediator for the association between maternal education and children's understanding of reading conventions. Practice or Policy: Future directions for research and implications for practice are discussed.     

History at the Open University

Abstract

Conventional assumptions about how children should be brought up seem no longer tenable in the face of recent trends. Yet policy makers and professionals as well as parents of young children must establish criteria for judging the boundaries of adequacy. Identifying children's needs is one commonly used strategy, which appears both objective and authoritative. But this is deceptive. ‘Need’ statements project decision criteria on to children, and disguise complex implicit assumptions. Four different bases for identifying children's needs can be distinguished. They can be thought of as reflecting: basic qualities of human nature; prerequisites for mental health; processes of cultural adaptation; or conformity with dominant social values. A more explicit specification of the empirical and evaluative basis of judgments about early child rearing is called for.     

Networks,Lobbies and Pressures: Children's Aid Societies and the Adoption of the Canadian Juvenile Delinquents Act of 1908

The Juvenile Delinquents Act of 1908 laid the foundations for the development of juvenile justice in Canada at the same time as similar laws were passed in other European nations and American states. It was adopted by Parliament in spite of opposition from the Justice Minister. Its content reflected the fact that it was conceived and processed through Parliament under the initiative of children's aid societies that wanted to extend to juvenile delinquents protective interventions that had been developed for children in danger. This paper shows how one man who was part of several networks successfully used his associations with children's aid societies, the American child saving movement and Canadian political circles to play a key role in the adoption of the act.     

Counterfactual choices and moral judgments in children

When making moral judgments of past actions, adults often think counterfactually about what could have been done differently. Considerable evidence suggests that counterfactual thinking emerges around age 6, but it remains unknown how this development influences children's moral judgments. Across two studies, Australian children aged 4–9 (N = 236, 142 Females) were told stories about two characters who had a choice that led to a good or bad outcome, and two characters who had no choice over a good or bad outcome. Results showed that 4- and 5-year-olds’ moral judgments were influenced only by the actual outcome. From age 6, children's moral judgments were also influenced by the counterfactual choices that had been available to the characters.     

Understanding technology: the development of a concept

Children's perceptions about technology were measured using a Writing/Drawing Activity and a Picture Quiz, administered to approximately 300 grade three to six children in six primary schools in the English Midlands. The results indicate that although many children associate technology only with computers and modern appliances, overall there is a variety of ideas, with the more complex and coherent among older children. Subsequently interviews were carried out with 81 of the children to explore their reasons for choosing items which they said were something to do with technology. The children were able to respond in a thoughtful and consistent manner. Even when the children professed not to know what technology is, they often used an alternative but consistent explanation. A tentative model describing the development of children's ideas about technology is presented.     

The Position of the Fine Art Student in the Context of Public Accountability of Higher Education,with Specific Reference to the Quality Assurance Agency Experience

This paper investigates the Quality Assurance Agency and the potential problems in applying its criteria to a Fine Art undergraduate degree programme. Starting with a suspicion that such a generic criteria cannot account for some of the attributes valued in Fine Art, the paper suggests that the QAA strategy needs to be addressed at the level of discourse. In the light of a general discourse of public accountability in Higher Education, I argue that the QAA experience naturalises certain forms of knowledge and marginalises others, some of which pertain in particular to Fine Arts education. In raising questions about what counts as knowledge and which 'skills' count as 'key', I argue that, contrary to appearances, the QAA structure is far from neutral as a measuring strategy.     

Doctor/Nurse,Teacher/Caretaker: Children's Gendered Choice of Adult Occupation in Interviews and Role Plays

Abstract

A social constructionist analysis is used here to examine London primary school children's job choices in interview discussions and role play groups. Children's selections are compared according to gender, and according to the different interactive environments in which they made them. By analysing their responses this paper investigates which gendered constructions appeared to prevail, and the ways in which children explain their ideas. Previous studies of children's occupational choices have found their responses to be gender‐stereotypical. This paper shows that in their interviews the children in this study chose a diverse selection of jobs, which were less gender‐stereotypical than found in previous studies. However, a clear dichotomy remained between the attributes of the jobs chosen by the different genders, and few children chose jobs traditionally performed by the opposite sex. Moreover, in their role play groups children's constructions of gender and adult occupation often appeared different, and sometimes more gender‐stereotypical, than those in the interviews.