The development of children's understanding of intensive quantities

Researchers have been aware for some time of the differences between extensive and intensive quantities but the significance of these differences has not been recognized in mathematics curricula. In England children are provided with many opportunities in their first few years in school to manipulate, measure and reason about extensive quantities but have virtually no opportunity to do the same with intensive quantities. This paper contrasts extensive and intensive quantities and describes the obstacles to primary school children's understanding of intensive quantities: the need to consider two variables simultaneously and the difficulty of understanding inverse relations between variables. Study 1 shows that children have considerable difficulty in using inverse relations reasoning. Study 2 shows that this form of reasoning is more difficult in the context of intensive than extensive quantities problems. Implications for education are considered and examples of experiences with intensive quantities that could provided in school are presented.     

The development of children's knowledge of temporal structure

Adults have a rich understanding of a number of time systems, but little is known about how this knowledge develops. 3 experiments were conducted to test a model in which the first representations of the days of the week and months of the year have verbal-list properties, and these are later supplemented by image representations. In Experiments 1 and 2, fourth or fifth graders could judge forward relative order for these contents, but not until adolescence could backward order judgments be made accurately. In Experiment 3, fourth graders used a serial process to solve a categorical distance judgment task, whereas older groups shifted to a process with more rapid access to information about the position of remote items. The results are interpreted as supporting the 2-stage model and appear inconsistent with a number of alternative models.     

The art of freedom in HE teacher development

This paper considers the benefits of framing the education of Higher Education teachers as an art, and of facilitating a creative and artistic approach to teaching in Higher Education. It recognises the difficulties this poses in an international context in which Higher Education is increasingly presented as a commodity which must be standardised to provide guaranteed outcomes for students and governments. It presents the findings from a study of two cohorts of academic staff at a UK University who followed an arts-informed development programme and suggests that they and their students benefitted from the freedom to improvise and experiment. The study suggests that teachers appreciate the structure and discipline offered by the arts, as well as the opportunity to work with methods and materials outside their normal comfort zones.     

绘本阅读对幼儿发展的影响

绘本作为被世界公认的最适合幼儿阅读的图书,以其夸张的想象,充满童趣的笔触,新鲜的事物以及符合儿童的情感、审美、思维模式等方式促进着儿童的健康发展。绘本在儿童的发展中扮演着极其重要的角色。从幼儿的认知、情感、社会性的发展等方面展开来探究绘本对幼儿的影响,并从中总结出绘本的重要之处,以便于教师及家长能较好地通过绘本来对幼儿进行科学的教育,以促进儿童健康的成长。     

The role of prosodic sensitivity in children's reading development

While the critical importance of phonological awareness (segmental phonology) to reading ability is well established, the potential role of prosody (suprasegmental phonology) in reading development has only recently been explored. This study examined the relationship between children's prosodic skills and reading ability. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses examined the unique contribution of word‐level and phrase‐level prosodic skills to the prediction of three concurrent measures of reading ability in 81 fourth‐grade children (mean age 9.3 years). After controlling for phonological awareness and general rhythmic sensitivity, children's prosodic skills predicted unique variation in word‐reading accuracy and in reading comprehension. Phrase‐level prosodic skills, assessed by means of a reiterative speech task, predicted unique variance in reading comprehension, after controlling for word reading accuracy, phonological awareness and general rhythmic sensitivity. These results add to the growing body of evidence of the importance of prosodic skills in reading development.     

科学与艺术的发展关系探析

科学是社会发展的第一推动力,科学的发展必然对艺术的发展起到一定的作用,本文从艺术社会学、艺术表现手法、艺术材料、艺术家族四个角度立足与艺术史的视野来探究科学与艺术发展的关系。     

辽宁满族文化艺术发展变迁

辽宁是满族的发祥地,在几千年的发展历史中辽宁地区的满族人民创造了无数文化、艺术,具有极强的民族特色.本文从辽宁地区满族文化的发展历史入手,对有代表性的满族故事、诗歌、剪纸、舞蹈等文化艺术的变迁发展进行了分析、整理.     

浅谈高职院校大学生艺术类社团的发展与建设

高职院校艺术社团是学校校园文化的窗口,也是全面实施学生素质教育的重要载体,更是大学生展现自我风采的自由舞台。当前很多高职院校中出现越来越多的社团,并且有很多艺术类社团数量也非常多,并且很多的学生都会选择去参加这种社团。随着我国对高职院校的重视,因此大学生艺术类的社团也要得到发展和建设,让学生的兴趣爱好也得到发展。     

浅析科学技术对艺术发展的影响

随着科学技术的快速发展,我们的生活也已经发生了很大的变化,可以说科学技术在很大程度上影响到了我们的生活方式。同样对于艺术的发展来说,科学技术也在不断发展的过程中提高了前者的生命表现力,从而促进了艺术的发展。本文就科学技术对艺术发展的影响进行研究,希望能够为艺术更好地发展做出贡献,同时为相关工作者的研究提供借鉴。     

三国文化艺术衍生品的开发畅想

三国艺术在国内外有着很高的地位和广泛的影响,我国有着非常丰富的三国文化资源,然而缺少整体规划和统一的开发路线,以至于三国文化以及相关的艺术衍生市场不能完善的开发运行。所以寻求一些市场的开发方案是非常有必要的。     

现代美学的转型与美学危机

从美学史和艺术史的考察可以发现 ,在整个西方艺术史上 ,艺术惯例发生过几次大的突变 ,以至于用传统的“美”和“审美”的概念已经完全不能概括整个现代艺术的功能特点了。在面对艺术功能发展的不平衡性及艺术功能模式的现代转换时 ,美学似乎成了第一个 ,也是最大的牺牲品。现代美学的转型过程造成了美学的危机。美学危机的两个重要表征 ,即美学研究对象的泛化及术语使用上的混乱都出现了     

The development of children's understanding of cyclic aspects of time

Developmental psychological approaches to the study of time have fallen into 3 categories: studies of time perception; studies of logical, reconstructive abilities; and studies of the understanding of conventional time systems. The present work examines problems spanning the latter 2 categories--the development of children's understanding of temporal cycles and the relationship between cyclic concepts and cognitive development. 62 children, ranging in age from 4 to 10 years, were administered Piagetian tests of classification and seriation and a variety of specially designed cyclic tasks. Results show major progress in the representation of cyclic order and recurrence during the age period examined. For a variety of particular cycles, order responses were shown before continuity responses. The ability to produce a correct order is related to seriation performance but not classification performance when the variance attributable to age is partialed out. Continuity responses appear to be unrelated to performance on either of the Piagetian tasks tested when age is controlled.     

图片投射技术在儿童美术教学中的应用

儿童美术教育是早期教育的重要内容,可以培养儿童的想象力和创造力,培育非智力因素良好发展.通过对儿童的心理特点、认知特点和绘画特点的分析,论述图片投射技术在儿童美术教学中的应用,并阐述其教学意义.     

The development of children's early numeracy through key stage 1

Abstract This paper describes a limited longitudinal study of young children's early numeracy development within three testing cycles, at the mid‐point and towards the end of their reception year (at five years‐of‐age) and again at the mid‐point of Year 1 (at six years‐of‐age), located within the broader context of progress through to Key Stage 1 SAT results (at seven years). Assessment was carried out using the Utrecht Early Mathematical Competence Test (Van Luit et al., 1994). This comprised eight sub‐topics, five items in each, including comparison, classification, correspondence, seriation, counting, calculation and real‐life number problem solving. Broadly, one set of sub‐tests related to understanding of relations in shape, size, quantity and order, whilst a second set of sub‐tests related to basic arithmetic. Three hundred pupils were selected from twenty‐one schools, large and small, from rural and urban areas, with high and low concentrations of children eligible for free school meals and/or with special educational needs, as well as representing a broad range of achievements levels based on standards assessment tasks. Whilst this paper focuses upon the performance of English pupils, reference is also made to the larger European sample which involved children from Flemish‐speaking Belgium, Germany, Greece, Slovenia and the Netherlands. Results showed that children's total scores at around the mid‐point of reception year were indeed predictive of later achievement at the end of KS1 though the combined scores over three testing cycles which extended to the mid‐point of Year 1, were more so. Discriminant analysis confirmed that a combination of a counting sub‐test (one seemed sufficient) and a sub‐test focusing on understanding of relations in shape, size, order or quantity (a different one at each testing cycle), together with the general number knowledge sub‐test was best predictive of final SAT levels. Comparison with the international data set suggested a different trajectory for English pupils, with more of a bias towards arithmetic sub‐tests than their European counterparts who start school later. Moreover, the pattern of dependence of scores on age in which no advantage was found in including any national differences was especially interesting. These findings are discussed within the context of different school start ages and traditions of preparation for formal schooling. Perhaps what emerged most strongly is the need for young English pupils to maintain a broad and balanced early mathematics curriculum, which places appropriate emphasis on practical problem solving.     

The development of children's ideas about others' difficulties in learning

In this paper, Professor Ann Lewis, of the School of Education, University of Birmingham, reviews the literature and current research on pupils' perceptions of others' difficulties in learning. She focuses, in particular, on three strands: children's perceptions about other people and their traits; children as 'naïve' biologists, attempting to explain growth and development in others; and children's responses to and use of cues based on achievement and ideas about ability. In a wide-ranging discussion, this article explores work on theory of mind and notes the different ways in which children explain learning difficulties in others at various ages. In her conclusion, Professor Lewis makes three key points: there is a need to supplement experimental work in this area with good quality, classroom-based studies; more effort should be devoted to finding ways of accessing children's views and perceptions in authentic and reliable ways; and staff working in inclusive classrooms are ideally placed to contribute to the development of research in this area.     

Short videos on children's development

David L. Giveans is an early childhood educator and noted authority on nonsexist education, fathering, parenting issues, as well as films and videos on these topics. In addition to writing and lecturing, he publishes the parenting quarterly, Nurturing Today: For Self and Family Growth.     

The development of children's knowledge of the times of future events

Four studies with 261 children were conducted to describe 4- through 10-year-olds' ability to differentiate the future distances of events. Distances ranged from later the same day through nearly a year in the future. Judgment methods included pointing to parts of a spatial scale representing future distances and answering open-ended questions. Although 4-year-olds failed to differentiate future distances, 5-year-olds were able to distinguish events that would occur in the coming weeks and months from those that would not occur for many months. However, like young children in earlier studies of memory for time, they confused the near future with the recent past. Children 6 through 8 years of age made more differentiated judgments but collapsed the distances of events more than a few months in the future. By 8 to 10 years of age, children accurately judged distances by using mental representations of the times of events in the annual cycle.     

The development of children's strategies for the social control of emotion

It has been shown that young children can recognize emotional states in their peers, that they understand many of the antecedents of emotion, and they are motivated to change negative emotional states in others. The present study examined children's ability to nominate strategic social action that would alter the ongoing emotional state of a peer. Children of 3 ages--5, 8, and 12 years of age--viewed a picture of a young child actually experiencing happiness, sadness, anger, or in a neutral state. In a portion of instances, information was also provided about the social or nonsocial experience that led to the target child's state. The strategies children nominated fell into a small set of agonistic (nurturant) and antagonistic (aggressive) behaviors intended to change positive or negative states. With increasing age, children tended to nominate a greater proportion of verbal strategies, social strategies (with the exception of strategies nominated to change anger), and strategies that directly addressed the cause of another's emotional state.