Children creating ways to represent changing situations: On the development of homogeneous spaces

This paper focuses on children creating representations on paper for situations that change over time. We articulate the distinction between homogeneous and heterogeneous spaces and reflect on children's tendency to create hybrids between them. Through classroom and interview examples we discuss two families of tasks that seem to facilitate children's development of homogeneous spaces: 1) Making selected features directly visible, instead of requiring intermediate steps and calculations; for example, to be able to directly compare different sets of data combined in a single graph, and 2) Exploring well-defined figural components that can be used in graphing, such as line segments or sequencing from left to right, that are introduced as a resource.This revised version was published online in October 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Parents supporting learning: a non-intensive intervention supporting literacy and numeracy in the home learning environment

In Australia, emphasis in early childhood education policy is placed on the importance of the role of the family as a child's first educator, and finding effective ways to raise the effectiveness of parents in supporting children's learning, development and well-being. International studies demonstrate that the home learning environment (HLE) provided by parents is closely associated with children's cognitive outcomes: literacy activities at home are likely to predict children's literacy abilities and numeracy activities at home are likely to predict children's numeracy abilities. However, studies focusing on building the capacity of primary caregivers to increase informal learning opportunities, such as enhancing children's literacy and numeracy learning in the HLE, have rarely been the focus of research. This study uses a sample of 113 four-year-old children to explore the association of specific aspects of the HLE with different child outcomes while controlling for child and family characteristics. In addition, a non-intensive, yet purposeful and systematic intervention to draw parents’ attention to the principles of dialogic reading and the principles of counting was introduced. Study findings suggest that parents responded positively to this approach, and that literacy and numeracy aspects of the HLE were specific predictors for children's numeracy and literacy competencies.     

学习支持服务系统建设探索

在现代通信技术、计算机多媒体技术和网络技术高度发展的今天，如何应用现代教育理论和现代教育技术，进一步完善学习支持服务系统是现代远程开放教育的迫切需求，也是现代教育工作者长期探索、研究的主要课题。 宁波广播电视大学围绕着中央电大“人才培养模式改革和开放教育试点”这一项目的试点工作，在学习支持服务系统建设的探索中，就如何以学习者最容易接受的方式呈现教学信息，以最快捷的方式传递教学信息以最符合人的思维规律和思维习惯的方式处理教学信息如何为学习者创新一个有利于其学习的环境，满足学习者的个体化自主学习、自…     

Teacher storytelling: A means for creating and learning within a collaborative space

Research has suggested that collaborative professional communities of teachers support on-going teacher professional development, school reform, and student achievement. Little research has outlined how teachers, especially high school teachers, develop new patterns of interaction to create such communities. This articles focuses on how teacher storytelling fostered collegiality and learning for a cross-disciplinary group of high school teachers. The storytelling helped the teachers create a collaborative learning space, link the personal–private realm of teaching to the public-conceptual realm, reflect on their teaching and see new practical directions, and co-construct a shared understanding of good pedagogy.     

Student learning assistants: the journey from learning advice to creating community

Abstract

This study reports on a generic peer-assistance programme conducted by Learning and Academic Skills Advisors and Student Learning Assistants (SLAs) at an Australian university. The research explores SLAs’ perspective of their role and its development. Drawing on data collected from focus groups and a questionnaire it was found that SLAs, drawing on their experience and a dialogic process, empowered students to become decision-makers and more autonomous and successful as academic learners. This study contributes to the previous body of research on peer advising by showing that the sense of community created through interactive and psychosocial aspects of the relationship between an assistant and assisted is inseparable from the development of academic skills.     

Interaction and learning in mathematics classroom situations

An analysis of one ten minute episode in which three seven year-old students engage in collaborative small group activity is presented to explore the relationship between individual learning and group development. Particular attention is given to the establishment of a taken-as-shared basis for mathematical activity and to the attainment of intersubjectivity. From a perspective which treats communication as a process of active interpretation and mutual adaptation, learning as it occurs in the course of social interaction is characterized as a circular, self-referential sequence of events rather than a linear cause-effect chain. In addition, the relationship between individual learning and group development is such that the students can be said to have participated in the establishment of the situations in which they learned.     

School evolution: scientist-practitioner educators creating optimal learning environments for all students

Similarities and differences between discursive practitioners and scientist-practitioners are discussed in reference to a variety of issues. The scientist-practitioner's approach to generating and evaluating new knowledge is illustrated with two partnerships: (a) between the University of Washington Multidisciplinary Learning Disability Center and a school district (at-risk first graders in the Los Angeles Unified School District) and (b) between the University of Washington Literacy Trek Project and a local school (at-risk second graders in Seattle public schools). Both partnerships involved mostly children who were English language learners. These partnerships also illustrated how Vygotsky's approach to fostering cognitive development through social interaction can be integrated with that of his pupil Luria, who assessed the neuropsychological processes of the individual mind/brain. The most effective instruction for school-age children, who exhibit biological and cultural diversity, takes into account individual and social-cultural variables.     

An online authoring tool for creating activity-based learning objects

As higher education increasingly relies on e-learning, the need for tools that will allow teachers themselves to develop effective e-learning objects as simply and quickly as possible has also been increasingly recognized. This article discusses the design and development of a novel tool, Enook (Evolutionary note book), for creating activity-based learning objects (LOs). This tool has three general foci: 1) creation of various activity-based objects for experimental learning or learning by doing while simultaneously offering as many learning resources as a real e-book that services as both a textbook and a notebook, dual functions that paperback books can never provide; 2) management of all aspects of live instructor-led classroom training in a network environment, such the Web and or a mobile network; 3) facilitated use of data on students’ progress to monitor their understanding of the material and to provide other meaningful information through learning analytics.     

Pointing sets the stage for learning language--and creating language

Tomasello, Carpenter, and Liszkowski (2007) have argued that pointing gestures do much more than single out objects in the world. Pointing gestures function as part of a system of shared intentionality even at early stages of development. As such, pointing gestures form the platform on which linguistic communication rests, paving the way for later language learning. This commentary provides evidence that pointing gestures do establish a foundation for learning a language and, moreover, set the stage for creating a language.     

New models for the learning process: Beyond constructivism?

A biographical note on André Giordan appears on page 23.     

Beyond method: assessment and learning practices and values

This article reports the findings of a survey of 558 teachers in England. It describes how conceptual and empirical insights from the literature informed the construction of questionnaire items to provide answers to questions about the way in which teachers value different classroom assessment practices and how congruent with these values they perceive their practices to be. Results from item, factor and cluster analyses reveal three underlying dimensions of assessment practice, sizeable values-practice gaps on two dimensions that appear to be in tension (promoting learning autonomy and performance orientation), and differences among teachers which show that over half of this sample report that they are unable to sustain practices across all dimensions in line with their values. We conclude that teachers are demonstrably committed to the values (not just the methods) of assessment for learning within a moral framework that gives importance to the quality of students' learning, yet they experience and need to resolve contradictions in order to realize their values.     

例谈高中生物学教学中问题情境创设的八种策略

加强问题情境创设是实施新一轮课程改革的重要举措,本文通过列举高中生物学教学中问题情境创设的八种教学策略,来探讨优化课堂教学的实施途径,落实学生核心素养的培养。     

Personalised context-aware ubiquitous learning system for supporting effective English vocabulary learning

Because learning English is extremely popular in non-native English speaking countries, developing modern assisted-learning schemes that facilitate effective English learning is a critical issue in English-language education. Vocabulary learning is vital within English learning because vocabulary comprises the basic building blocks of English sentences. Therefore, numerous studies have attempted to increase the efficiency and performance of learning English vocabulary. ‘The situational learning approach’ proposed that ‘context’ is an important consideration in the language learning process and can enhance learner learning interest and efficiency. Restated, meaningful vocabulary learning occurs only when the learning process is integrated with social, cultural and life contexts. With the rapid development of context-awareness techniques, the development of context-aware mobile learning systems, which can support learners in learning without constraints of time or place via mobile devices and associate learning activities with real learning environment, enables the conduct of a novel context-aware ubiquitous learning mode to enhance English vocabulary learning. Accordingly, this study proposes a personalised context-aware ubiquitous learning system (PCULS) for learning English vocabulary based on learner location as detected by wireless positioning techniques, learning time, individual English vocabulary abilities and leisure time, enabling learners to adapt their learning content to effectively support English vocabulary learning in a school environment. Experimental results indicated that the accuracy of the employed wireless positioning scheme is over 92%, which is sufficient to help learners detect their locations. Additionally, the PCULS has been successfully implemented on PDA devices in a school environment to support effective situational English vocabulary learning. Experimental result indicates that the learning performance of learners who used personalised English vocabulary learning systems with context awareness (i.e. PCULS) was superior to learners who used personalised English vocabulary learning systems without context awareness.     

Exploring the role of father development workers in supporting early years learning

This qualitative study presents findings from initial exploratory work that examined how father development workers (FDWs) supported fathers to become involved in their children's learning, within the context of father groups. The study found that there were two main purposes behind the father groups and the subsequent role of FDWs in supporting father involvement. First, its purpose was to raise confidence and responsibility amongst fathers; and second, it was to improve and influence children's learning. As part of raising confidence and responsibility, FDWs supported fathers to ‘be themselves’, to interact with the group, to develop a father–child relationship and to make decisions. FDWs used both indirect and direct learning approaches with fathers in order to improve and influence children's learning. The study calls for further research into the area of father groups and supporting father involvement in children's learning, as this is an important area that is currently under‐researched in the UK.     

The effectiveness of the toward affective development program in creating an awareness of alternatives to psycho-social situations in children

This study was designed to determine the effectiveness of selected lessons from the Toward Affective Development (TAD) program in creating an awareness of alternatives in psycho-social situations. The experimenter utilized a sample consisting of 60 children randomly selected from a sixth-grade population of 111 pupils. Treatment consisted of the presentation of 18 selected lessons from the program. Individual pretest and posttest measures were conducted in consonance with the Randomized Solomon Four-Group Design. These measures consisted of the presentation of three pictures depicting different psycho-social situations. Individual responses to these pictures were analyzed, using objective criteria to determine change in the awareness of alternatives. Posttest data subjected to a three-way analysis of variance clearly indicated the positive effect of treatment, F(1, 168) = 194.10, p < .001.     

A low-cost approach for rapidly creating demonstration models for hands-on learning

Demonstration models allow students to readily grasp theory and relate difficult concepts and equations to real life. However drawbacks of using these demonstration models are that they are can be costly to purchase from vendors or take a significant amount of time to build. These two limiting factors can pose a significant obstacle for adding demonstrations to the curriculum. This article presents an assignment to overcome these obstacles, which has resulted in 36 demonstration models being added to the curriculum. The article also presents the results of student performance on course objectives as a result of the developed models being used in the classroom. Overall, significant improvement in student learning outcomes, due to the addition of demonstration models, has been observed.