Teaching quality: relationships between passion,deep strategy to learn,and epistemic curiosity

The current study examines the impact of alternative education on children's early school engagement in terms of school enjoyment and independent participation. A sample of 2,776 children from traditional (e.g., mainstream) and alternative (Freinet and Waldorf) Flemish schools was followed from their 3rd year of kindergarten until 3rd grade. The present study does not evidence a positive effect of alternative education on school engagement. In contrast, it was found that in alternative education children acted less independent compared to traditional schools. Furthermore, differential effects in terms of children's socioeconomic status and initial language achievement are explored. In alternative schools, children's initial level of language achievement tends to be less determinative for their school engagement compared to traditional schools.     

School rituals as educational contexts: symbolizing the world,others, and self in Waldorf and college prep schools

This paper examines school rituals as educational contexts. Rituals in two private schools, an elite preparatory school and a Waldorf school, are compared. The schools were studied through extended fieldwork over a school year. School rituals and related symbolic relationships serve to orient participants in schools to particular world‐views. College Prep is shown to foster an instrumental‐rational way of perceiving the world. Waldorf School, in contrast, encourages an organic, holistic, and aesthetic perspective. The implications of differing perceptions of the world, relations to others, and the individual or “self” are discussed.     

实践教学法在《电子商务概论》教学中的应用

实践教学法是华德福教育的核心。1996年,联合国教科文组织将华德福教育郑重的推荐给全世界。目前,全球共有600多所华德福学校。华德福教育主要集中在幼儿园、小学和中学,在大学教育中运用的很少。本文探讨了在高校《电子商务概论》课程里,采用实践教学法与电商理论相结合,实验课为辅助的教学方法。在教学中,全部采用实践性作业,用开网店的形式进行期末考评,教学收效明显,学生创业热情高涨。通过这次教学实践,对于在高校电子商务教学中如何走出大学生自我创业的路子有借鉴意义。     

华德福教师教育实践对我国中小学教师职后培训的启示

通过考察华德福教师教育实践,从我国各地区的实际出发,借鉴华德福教师教育的有益经验,进一步完善我国的中小学教师职后培训体系。     

华德福幼儿教育课程观简析

华德福教育,由斯坦纳创立,经过90多年的发展,其影响已波及全世界。华德福幼儿教育课程观以斯坦纳自创的理论为思想基础,幼儿教育的课程目标主要是发展健康的身体,培养想象力和创造力,唤醒个体潜能;课程内容不提倡"正规学习",以游戏方式开展活动,整个教育充满艺术气息;课程实施中,游戏与艺术教育最具特色;课程评价在日常活动中进行,让每个幼儿能发现自己的进步。华德福幼儿教育真正做到了让幼儿在玩中快乐地学习和成长。     

Give Them Time – an analysis of school readiness in Ireland's early education system: a Steiner Waldorf Perspective

This paper examines a Steiner Waldorf Perspective to School Readiness and applies that international ideology to educational practice and curriculum policy in modern Ireland. The case for a later school start is championed with strong arguments underpinning the reasons why a later start is better in the long run for children's formal learning capacity and enthusiasm. Current primary school curriculums for the early years are also analysed and catalogued against Steiner philosophical best practice in early learning to promote a child-centred early learning curriculum within the Irish primary educational system.     

父母教育期望与留守儿童的学习投入:父母教育卷入和自我教育期望的中介作用

为系统考察父母教育期望与留守儿童学习投入的关系,以及父母教育卷入和自我教育期望在其中的双重中介作用,采用父母教育期望问卷、自我教育期望问卷、父母教育卷入问卷以及学习投入问卷,对我国河南、四川、贵州、山西等地1535名留守儿童进行了调查研究。结果发现:(1)单亲外出和双亲外出留守儿童知觉到的父母教育期望、自我教育期望、父母教育卷入和学习投入得分均显著低于非留守儿童,而单亲外出和双亲外出留守儿童之间差异未达显著性水平;(2)父母教育期望和留守儿童学习投入呈显著正相关关系;(3)父母教育卷入与自我教育期望在父母教育期望和留守儿童学习投入之间起到双重中介作用。因此,父母教育期望既直接影响留守儿童的学习投入,又通过父母教育卷入和自我教育期望的中介作用影响留守儿童的学习投入。     

华德福教育思想中的学前儿童生命教育

生命教育不应是一段风潮,而是成为教育的常态,这需要教育者不断思考与实践。华德福教育思想以整体的眼光看待儿童的生命、用想象力滋养儿童的生命、将教育与儿童的生命紧密相连等观点,给予生命教育以启示:回归本质,教育本应当是生命的教育;敬畏生命,是生命教育的宝贵初心;平等意识,是生命教育的永恒主题;生命美育,是生命教育的有效方法。     

Age of entry,sex, and academic achievement in elementary school children

It was hypothesized that children who enter school at a relatively early age do less well on standard measures of school achievement than do their older peers. One hundred fifty-two children born in 1970 and attending grades one through six in an upper-middle-class, suburban school district were studied. In general, it was found that children born in the later quarters of the year did, in fact, perform less well than children in the same grade born earlier through grades one to four. Analyses of covariance yielded a main effect for birth quartile (p < .05) in most cases. A significant main effect for sex was found for language scores at grades two and three. Implications of these findings for age of school entry, educational programming, and screening procedures are discussed.     

The influences of parental acceptance and parental control on school adjustment and academic achievement for South Korean children: the mediation role of self-regulation

This study examined the effects of parental acceptance, psychological control, and behavioral control on children??s school adjustment and academic achievement, as well as the possible mediation effect of children??s self-regulation in those processes. To do so, we examined 388 upper-level elementary school students (mean age?=?11.38?years) in South Korea. In addition, the study examined whether the influences of parental psychological and behavioral control on children??s school outcomes were consistent between Western and East Asian cultures. Children reported on perceived parental acceptance, psychological control, behavioral control, self-regulation, and their own school adjustment and academic achievement. The results showed that parental acceptance, psychological control, and behavioral control were not directly related to children??s school outcomes. Parental acceptance and behavioral control indirectly influenced the children??s school outcomes but were mediated by the children??s self-regulation. However, the mediation effect of self-regulation between psychological control and children??s school outcomes was not statistically significant. These results suggested that children??s self-regulation plays a more significant role vis-à-vis children??s school outcomes than the direct effects of parenting and that parental psychological control did not have a negative effect on South Korean children??s school outcomes.     

Private School Diversity in Denmark's National Voucher System

The voucher system in Denmark combines unrestricted generous subsidies with substantial autonomy of private schools as to schedule and teaching methods. This has produced a private school sector with a wide variety of school types. This paper uses data on eight cohorts of students (over 510,000 individuals) to compare educational attainment in public and private voucher schools, including religious schools (Catholic and Protestant) and various types of non‐religious schools. The findings suggest that, after controlling for individual and peer characteristics, the average public student would attain moderately higher levels of education if he/she attended grammar or Catholic school, relative to the public alternative. Attainment of students at Protestant, international and German minority schools is not different from public schools. However, attending free, boarding and, particularly, little and Waldorf schools is associated with substantially lower completion rates at the upper secondary level, which is probably at least partly due to the clustering of special education students in these school types, which cannot be controlled for. At the tertiary level, differences between private and public schools generally vanish.     

A MIRCENS’ Network to Safeguard Nature's Invisible Assets

The effect of age on the way that children aged 7–16 years classify food was examined in a cross‐section of Welsh school children. Primary school children were interviewed and invited to classify photographs of food into groups. Secondary school children undertook a similar task using cards on which were written the names of foods. Although by 7 years of age children had well‐established food classification strategies, there are considerable differences between those used by older and younger children. A time of particular change was seen in the use of classification labels during the first year of senior school with children aged 11–12. Potential implications of the findings for the design and implementation of nutrition education programmes are considered.     

Industriousness and development of the school‐system in the eighteenth century: the experience of Norwegian cities

This article discusses how the Norwegian urban school system was developed during the eighteenth century. In the cities, there were laws for Latin as well as Danish schools. During the eighteenth century, schools for poor children were established, while towards the end of the century the importance of the school system in relation to the economic functioning of society was discussed. A broader range of schools was developed in most cities, meant for children of different social origins and social prospects, and different for boys and girls. The article argues that the school system was used to make the population more industrious during a period when trade capitalism made the social division in society sharper and different forms of organisation of labour were attempted. The attention on children’s education was turned from consideration of the children’s spiritual future to their preparation for a working life that served economic ends.     

Metacognitive knowledge in children at early elementary school

In metacognition research, many studies focused on metacognitive knowledge of preschoolers or children at the end of elementary school or secondary school, but investigations of children starting elementary school are quite limited. The present study, thus, took a closer look at children’s knowledge about mental processes and strategies in early elementary school aiming to extend findings on the respective age period. Therefore, at first, a new test that can be administered in group settings and that assesses a broad concept of children’s metacognitive knowledge in early elementary school was evaluated. Furthermore, analyses on the structure of metacognitive knowledge were carried out in cross-sectional as well as longitudinal analyses. In a longitudinal design, the new test instrument was administered to 870 children at the end of first grade and again one year later (N?=?720). Item Response models were used to evaluate the construct validity of the test. Test characteristics were checked based on different fit statistics, test fairness, and discriminant validity. In summary, the test exhibited good psychometric properties. Analyses on the dimensionality of the assessed metacognitive knowledge revealed that different strategies seemed to form rather distinct dimensions of metacognitive knowledge. However, these dimensions showed a rather homogeneous development from first to second grade. Impacts of the findings on theoretical considerations and on the theoretical understanding of metacognitive knowledge and further analyses with metacognitive competence data are discussed.     

鲁道夫·斯坦纳教育思想述评

鲁道夫斯·坦纳是教育家、哲学家、科学家和艺术家,他所创建的华德福学校教育逐渐为许多国家所重视和实践.斯坦纳教育思想以人智学为哲学基础,蕴含着丰富的教育内涵,本文通过对斯坦纳教育思想内涵的阐释和评价,分析斯坦纳教育思想对我国当前基础教育改革的启示.     

THE STRUCTURE AND IMPLICATIONS OF CHILDREN'S ATTITUDES TO SCHOOL

ABSTRACT:  The paper reports a study of children's attitudes to school based on a questionnaire survey of 845 pupils in their first year of secondary school in England, together with interviews with a sample of the children. A clearly structured set of attitudes emerged from a factor analysis which showed a distinction between instrumental and affective aspects of attitudes but also dimensions within these, including a sense of teacher commitment and school as a difficult environment. Virtually all children had a strong sense of the importance of doing well at school. However, a substantial minority were not sure that they would stay on after 16. There were few differences between boys and girls or between children from different socio-economic backgrounds but children planning to leave at 16 enjoyed school less and were less sure that it had anything to offer them. There was an almost universal commitment to the value of education but, for a minority, an ambivalence about the experience and relevance of schooling for them.     

Migrant preschool children's school readiness and early elementary school performance

Little is known about the early educational performance of children in migrant farmworker families. The authors examined the school readiness and early school success of 289 four-year-old preschool children of migrant families attending Redlands Christian Migrant Association centers. Children's school readiness was assessed and public school records were used for longitudinal follow-up. Children improved on age-4 school readiness domains, and although some struggled with emergent English literacy, many performed well on school readiness measures and later coursework. Children quickly became proficient in oral English, and had above-average school attendance. Many scored low on high-stakes tests; however, typically well enough for grade promotion. Students in the sample were comparable to similar students in poverty. School teachers and administrators should have high expectations for students from migrant families because many of them do stay in the public school system, and appear to be quite resilient despite many challenges they face.     

Power,rights and play: control of play in school grounds,an action research project from Wales

This paper focuses on the role of control, power and people in utilising school grounds for play. Despite children’s right to play in statute and evidence that play has positive outcomes for children, evidence suggests that school grounds are under-utilised. An action research methodology was adopted with three primary schools in Wales (UK), opening school grounds after school hours. Findings indicate that power and control are factors affecting accessibility and use of outdoor spaces, particularly in relation to who was allowed access to play spaces, where children were allowed, as well as when and what types of play were acceptable.     

What makes a successful transition to school? Views of Australian parents and teachers

This paper reports a survey of 355 parents and 166 teachers of young children starting school in New South Wales, Australia. Parents and teachers were asked to rate a list of 20 items in answer to the question 'How important are the following for deciding whether a child has had a successful first two terms of school?' The results are presented in relation to individual items as well as broad categories, with comparisons between the perceptions of teachers and parents. Overall, teachers placed most emphasis on the areas of children's adjustment to the school context and their dispositions or feelings about being at school. Less emphasis was attributed to areas such as knowledge. Parents were more likely than teachers to focus on knowledge, as well as children's dispositions. Implications are drawn for collaborative interaction between parents and teachers as children start school.