Lap Reading for Young at-Risk Children: Introducing Families to Books

Many at-risk children do not experience lap reading to the degree their more advantaged peers do. To investigate the effects lap reading might have on such children, three families with at-risk children were taught lap reading techniques and were provided with books for lap reading over a 12- to 16-week period. Changes in the children's behavior included choosing books and reading as free-time activities, developing positive attitudes toward books, and persisting in attending to books in the face of other activity choices. Additional outcomes included an increase in higher level questions asked by the children, some improvement in their oral language, and an increase in literacy-specific knowledge. Lap reading is recommended as a tool for parents to increase instructional motivation for their at-risk children.     

Introducing a Precursor Model of Inheritance to Young Children

This paper reports on a mixed-model case study of designing and implementing a constructivist teaching intervention about reproduction and physical family resemblance for young children. The objective of the study was to explore whether the ways that preschoolers reason about the resemblance between offspring and parents can be improved with a teaching intervention that introduces a rudimentary idea of genes through reproduction. The participants were 60 preschoolers (age 5–5.5 years) from public kindergartens of Patras. The qualitative analysis of their pre- and post semi-structured interviews showed a remarkable improvement in their reasoning, which was found to be statistically significant as well. After the three-part teaching intervention, children appeared to recognize the biological contribution of both parents to a child's creation. Moreover, most of them appeared able to attribute a child's species and body traits to the parental genes passed to the child through reproduction and not to the parents’ or child's intention.     

Early Mathematical Growth: How to Support Young Children’s Mathematical Development

The purpose of this critical analysis was to investigate the young children’s sense of numerical magnitudes and the important attributes of classrooms where children in kindergarten and first grade are exposed to mathematics. This study aimed to offer guidelines that will assist teachers as they teach mathematics to children between the ages of five and seven.     

Assessment of Mathematical Concepts of Five-Year-Old Children

An instrument, the Schwartz Early Mathematics Inventory (SEMI), was devised to assess, by means of group administration, the mathematical achievement of children ages 3 through 5. The data presented concern only the first stages of the process and deal only with 215 kindergartners. A reliability of . 94 was obtained on the eighty-one items administered on 64 pages. The mean for items correct 43. 2. The proportion of correct responses for various items ranged from . 85 to . 12. The children had satisfactorily acquired the physical and emotional attributes necessary for completing the inventory, namely, holding a pencil or crayon, turning pages, recording responses in designated areas, and maintaining satisfactory attention for the 12 to 28 minutes required for administering each of the three portions of the SEMI.     

Fly's Eye View: Introducing Young Children to Digital Art through Virtual Reality

This paper describes ‘Fly’s Eye View', a project devised and directed by David Smith and supported by a grant from the UK Techniquest Pantechnicon Millennium Awards (intended to help bridge the gap in public perception between science and art). ‘Fly’s Eye View' was specifically aimed at young children, aged 7–11 years (Key Stage Two of the UK National Curriculum). The project used a low-level VR fly-by system to represent a garden scene as it might be experienced by a dragonfly. The analogy between the mosaic visual ‘perception’ of insects and image representation in computer systems allowed some interesting explorations into what may be involved in ‘seeing’. This analogy was used as the starting point for a series of exploratory activities using digital art work. The paper reviews the outcomes of the project and discusses their possible significance in the context of current approaches to art education and the stimulation of creative thinking in young children.     

浅谈数学概念教学中应注意的问题

数学概念教学是构成数学基础知识的重要组成部分,准确地理解概念是学好数学的前提,概念的引入、形成、理解、掌握、运用是数学概念教学中应该注意的问题。     

Teacher Behaviors Related to the Mathematical Achievement of Young Children

Abstract

Some scholars argue that the effects of small classes in the early grades are not cumulative—that the benefits of small classes accrue in the 1st year of small classes. That argument suggests both policy implications and scientific questions of why additional benefits should not accrue from additional exposure to small classes. In this article, the cumulative effects of small classes on achievement were investigated with data from Project STAR, a 4-year, large-scale randomized experiment on the effects of class size. Controlling for achievement in the previous-year small classes in Grades 1, 2, and 3 yielded additional positive effects on reading and mathematics achievement. Thus, there are additional (cumulative) effects of small classes after the 1st year that may be large enough to be important for education policy.     

Astronomical Concepts and Events Awareness for Young Children

In the present study, we test the effectiveness of a teaching intervention aiming at acquainting children aged four to six years with the concept of the sphericity of the earth and the causes of the phenomenon of day and night. The treatment comprised three units of activities that were developed collaboratively by a researcher and early years teachers employing action research processes. In the present study, student knowledge is considered context specific. The selected approach to learning can be characterized as socially constructed. In the activities, children were presented with appropriate information along with conceptual tools, such as a globe and an instructional video. The activities were implemented in a sample of 104 children of the above age group. Children’s learning outcomes were assessed two weeks after the activities. Assessment tasks comprised children’s construction and handling of concrete 3‐D material models, children’s use of pictures and the globe, and children’s verbal explanations. Results revealed awareness of the concepts and events that the activities dealt with in high percentages of children and children’s storage of new knowledge in the long‐term memory and easy retrieval from it. The outcomes suggest that the approach adopted in the present study is fruitful and promising for helping very young children develop their understanding of fundamental astronomical concepts and events considered difficult for their age and for raising their motivation for astronomy. The approach used in the present study could also find application in other areas of science.     

Teaching Young Children Basic Concepts of Geography: A Literature-Based Approach

Teaching young children basic concepts of geography such as location, place, human–environment interaction, movement, and region is a great challenge. This article advocates literature-based instruction as a way of promoting geographic awareness in early childhood classrooms. Examples of children's picture books are given to show what early childhood teachers can do to make the five geographic concepts more concrete and understandable to young children via picture books.     

Early Intervention for Behaviour Problems in Young Children with Developmental Disabilities

This article reviews research on intervention for young children with dual developmental and behavioural problems. It makes a case for intervention to include family variables and to occur in the preschool years. Behaviour problems are common in young children with developmental disabilities. If untreated these problems are likely to persist and become more challenging and severe in adulthood. Behaviour problems interfere with cognitive, social and emotional development, create additional family stress, often lead to exclusion from community services, and result in additional financial costs to the community. Intervention research provides some support for the effectiveness of parent management training and interventions based upon applied behaviour analysis. However, randomised controlled trials with adequate follow-up periods are required, along with the measurement of outcomes for the family as a whole.     

Using the Multiple Intelligences to Enhance Instruction for Young Children and Young Children with Disabilities

The theory of the multiple intelligences are discussed in relation to working with young children and young children with disabilities. A rationale for the use of the multiple intelligences is discussed as well as practical suggestions on how they can be incorporated into early childhood programs.     

Preparing Teachers of Young Children in Brazil: Recent Problems and Issues

Early childhood teachers in Brazil might teach in a number of settings – crèches, preschools, and grades 1–4. Crèches, funded largely by the state and local governments, were designed to care for the physical needs and well-being of children ages 4 months to about 4 years. These facilities developed very rapidly during the period of military government from 1964–1985 (Rosemberg, 1992). In crèches, mothers have long been considered suitable caregivers for these children. Thus, it is easy to understand the current public perception of crèches as being facilities for “baby-sitting.” Teachers, then, are viewed primarily as entertainers and monitors of children. Further, because the official purpose is to assure children's physical health and hygiene, without regard to educational purposes, nurses are the professionals who generally take care of infants and young children (Campos, Grosbaum, Pahim & Rosemberg 1986).     

在《数学分析》教学中引进数学开放题的尝试

本文论证《数学分析》课程教学引进开放题的必要性与可行性，提出编拟开放题一般方法并举相应实例，从教学经验归纳传统题与开放题在教学中的作用与关系。     

Introducing Iranian Primary Children to Atoms and Molecules

Research in Science Education - In common with many other countries, the Iranian science curriculum does not introduce primary children to atoms and molecules but instead leaves the teaching of...     

A Developmental Study of Conservation Concepts with Five- to Ten-Year-Old Children

The concept of conservation and its development form one of the most interesting aspects of Piaget's theories. According to Inhelder, the foundation of reasoning, including logical, mathematical, geometrical, and physical reasoning, is built upon the concept of conservation of quantity. In a way, children's discovery of conservation is comparable to discoveries in science. Many studies have been conducted of the sequence of development of the concept of conservation in children. However, the results of these studies are not always consistent. The inconsistencies are usually in the age at which a certain type of conservation first appears and in the sequential order of appearance of different types of conservation.     

Helping Young Children to Delay Gratification

The ability to delay gratification (DG) in young children is vital to their later development. Such ability should be taught as early as possible. One hundred kindergartners (Mean age = 6.11), randomly assigned to three groups; a, labeling: received the treatment of being labeled as “patient” kids; b, story-telling: were read a story about the patient antagonist rewarded double gifts, while the impulsive character got only one same reward; c, control: received no treatment. Under the DG task of Ball-Moving Activity, the ANOVA results showed the children in labeling group delayed longer (M = 13.23 m) than the control one (M = 11.25 m), showed marginal significant difference at p = .06, medium effect size magnitude at η² = .06. No significant mean differences were found between the story-telling (M = 12.68 m) and the control group, though the story-telling group delayed more than 1 min longer than their counterparts. Sex differences on the task are also discussed.     

Beyond a Pets Theme: Teaching Young Children to Interact Safely with Dogs

Although it is commonplace for early childhood educators to include a theme or unit on pets, opportunities to incorporate safety goals frequently are overlooked. Approximately 400,000 incidents of dog bites to children are documented in the United States annually and this estimate may be low, due to the fact that not all injuries are reported. Young children are the group at highest risk of sustaining dog bites. Due to the child’s smaller stature, these bites are more likely to be severe or disfiguring. Yet research from various disciplines supports that many of dog bite injuries to children are preventable with education and even brief interventions appear to be effective. This article offers research-based, developmentally appropriate strategies as well as a wide array of free or inexpensive resources that teachers can use to coach children in ways of interacting more safely with dogs. By making health and safety concerns a key component of themes or units about pets, teachers not only improve the curriculum but also make an important contribution to young children’s well-being.