A positive approach to discipline in an early childhood setting

Sit Down! shouts Judy, with more than a trace of frustration in her voice. She is trying to maintain control of a group of preschoolers who are none too interested in the lesson she has worked so hard to prepare. Jonathan, if you won't join the circle you'll have to sit in the time-out chair, she states with determination.Marianne Modica is Program Coordinator for the Calvary Christian Academy and Happy Day Child Care Center in Wayne, NJ.     

From learning to development: a sociocultural approach to instruction

Theories of human development and learning provide an essential framework in which to understand the mechanisms involved in the process of formal instruction as a specific form of teaching and learning in the school setting. The sociocultural theory of development, founded on the works of Lev Vygotsky, espouses the view that social interaction among two or more people is the greatest motivating force in human development. Communication, via the use of language, provides one of the most effective means of social interaction. By collaborating toward a common cultural goal, people co‐construct new knowledge by building on each participant's contribution. Based on the main tenets of sociocultural theory, the following eight interrelated principles for instruction are presented, namely, that it should be: mediated; discursive; collaborative; responsive; contextualized; activity‐oriented; developmental; and integrated.     

Socially constructed learning in early childhood science education

This paper outlines the findings of a study in which the concept of electricity was introduced to young children in a child care centre. Three areas were examined: first, the perceived difficulties associated with the teaching of science to very young children (3–5 year olds); second, a discussion of the approach used to teach electricity to young children, and finally, the study and its findings. When the teaching of electricity (through a unit on torches) followed a socially constructed approach to learning, all of the children were able to connect up a simple electric circuit and talk about the electricity flowing around the circuit. Specialization: early childhood science education.     

How young people respond to learning spaces outside school: A sociocultural perspective

This article focuses on educational enterprises outside the formal sector, such as museums, botanical gardens and interactive science centres. International research is drawn on to illuminate how design, culture, educational strategies and settings combine to affect the way in which young people respond to experiences on offer, leading to analysis of the impact of such settings in promoting learning, and the likely implications for those who staff such venues. Aikenhead’s concept of the educator as ‘culture broker’ is developed to suggest ways in which learning might be best supported. It envisages a shift from ‘delivery’ strategies targeted at large groups towards approaches which focus on what learners choose to know about using dialogue between children and ‘known and trusted people’. Analysis of observed responses in various settings is undertaken from a sociocultural perspective using the notion of communities of practice. Implications for the roles of education managers and their staff in further research are developed.     

History through drama an enactive approach to learning

The prevailing accountability climate assumes that we can identify the quality of teachers by discovering what their pupils have learned from them. However teachers are only good if they are responsible for worthwhile learning. The current pressures to improve test performance are linked with some learning of questionable value. In any case we are necessarily limited in our ability to attribute responsibility for learning to particular teachers and to identify in any detail what learning has taken place. We need a radical change of direction. We should judge teaching quality on the basis of audited self-review.     

Service-learning in early childhood teacher education: Using service to put meaning back into learning

Service-learning is defined as a teaching/learning method that connects meaningful community service with academic learning, personal growth, and civic responsibility. In this study, conducted at an American University, we describe a cascading model of integrating early childhood teacher education and service-learning for preservice teachers who then implemented the combined model in their field classrooms with young children. Examples of the projects from the two cohorts of 25 and 26 undergraduate students are provided. We demonstrate that service-learning projects provide an instructional avenue for preservice students to teach in an integrated and/or experiential manner in their field classrooms and discuss why service-learning is an appropriate and meaningful strategy to use with preservice teachers and children.     

Using science songs to enhance learning: an interdisciplinary approach

Music is recognized as an effective mode of teaching young children but is rarely used in university-level science courses. This article reviews the somewhat limited evidence on whether and how content-rich music might affect college students' understanding of science and offers practical suggestions for incorporating music into courses. Aside from aiding memorization, songs may potentially improve learning by helping students feel relaxed and welcome in stressful settings, engaging students through multiple modes (verbal vs. nonverbal) and modalities (auditory vs. visual vs. kinesthetic) simultaneously, challenging students to integrate and "own" the material through the medium of song lyrics, and increasing students' time on task outside of class through enjoyable listening or songwriting assignments. Students may produce content-rich songs of good quality if given sufficient assistance and encouragement by instructors and peers. The challenges ahead include 1) defining the circumstances in which music is most likely to promote learning and 2) developing rubrics for evaluating the quality of songs.     

Peer-Assisted Student Support: A new approach to learning

The Great Britain Committee of Enquiry into Higher Education (1997) highlighted the significant role that higher education would be required to play in providing the United Kingdom with individuals that could consistently meet the demands of a global market place. Higher education institutions have been entrusted with the task of removing existing barriers to learning and implementing initiatives that will enable students to achieve beyond current expectations. A current initiative by the University of Glamorgan aims to meet some of the challenges laid down by the Great Britain Committee of Enquiry into Higher Education (1997). Peer-Assisted Student Support (PASS) is a scheme directed at facilitating student-centred learning. The initiative encourages students to take responsibility for the learning process in terms of academic achievement and social development. This article offers a unique insight into the scheme, detailing demographic and subject attendance patterns during Semester B of the 1997/98 academic year. Furthermore, the research undertaken also builds on previous work investigating the effect of support mechanisms on academic performance. The article reports that the scheme is primarily dominated by female attendees and students in the under-21 age group. Moreover, whilst the research substantiates previous claims that schemes such as PASS have a positive effect on academic performance, the nature of academic appraisal within the context studied suggests that this generalisation can only be extended to coursework-related assessment.     

A modern and interactive approach to learning engineering mathematics

The challenges facing those charged with teaching mathematics to engineers are enormous. Faced with large groups of students possessing a considerable range of abilities, prior experiences, and motivations, it is incumbent upon the developers and deliverers of mathematics programmes to engineers to ensure that such programmes are as inclusive as possible and take into account the particular and often individual needs of the student. Often a mathematics lecturer is caught between the demands of an engineering department expecting students to know and apply advanced techniques, and the needs of groups of students who lack confidence, have serious gaps in their knowledge and sometimes lack ability in mathematics. This paper describes an innovative approach to these challenges which involves a mix of traditional and modern technologies and which has been used with some effect at Loughborough University, for the teaching of mathematics to first year undergraduate engineering students.     

大学生创新学习方式的构建策略

随着知识经济时代的来临,创新型人才的培养对建设创新型国家和创新型社会具有举足轻重的作用。创新性学习作为一种学习方式,是创新型人才必备的基本素质。培养德、智、体、美全面发展的创新型人才是大学的根本任务。高等学校作为人才培养基地,构建以创新型人才培养为取向的大学生创新学习方式,既是社会发展的需要。也是学生自身成长的需求。在大学生自主创新学习能力形成过程中,需要采取多种策略构建自主创新学习的课堂模式和学习方式,并以此培养大学生的学习兴趣,改变学习态度．使之由被动学习转为主动学习．养成自主创新学习习惯,形成自主创新学习能力．并最终获得终身学习的能力。     

Building an educative community for early childhood development

This article briefly describes the policy changes in Early Childhood Development in South Africa since 1994. It describes an attempt in Northern Province to generate discussion about the changes with a group of teacher‐practitioners and to highlight the action necessary to develop and implement the policies. The methodology of the process is discussed, with particular reference to the role of the researcher as an agent for change.     

Exploring Business Skills: an innovative approach to promoting lifelong learning

Abstract

The article describes an innovative module designed for the HND Business Studies/Administration courses in the Nottingham Business School. Several features of particular interest, for example an explicit focus on skills development, incorporation of lifelong learning values and skills, vertical integration within an overall programme and horizontal integration with same level modules, non‐standard approaches to and methods of teaching and learning and student involvement in assessment are highlighted and examined in detail. The context which gave rise to the module is also explored as is the module development process. This provides some valuable and transferable insights. Early experiences of implementing the module are also included and form the basis for examining some of the operational implications of adopting innovative approaches. Although not primarily concerned with arguing a particular theoretical position, the article makes reference to appropriate literature to both support and assess the rationale of such a module.     

如何引导幼儿早期阅读

幼儿期是语言发展的最佳时期,而提高幼儿语言思维能力的最有效途径就是早期阅读。文章从阅读材料的选择、阅读环境的创设和成人的引导这几个方面探究如何引导幼儿进行早期阅读,以真正发挥早期阅读的作用。     

Using manipulatives to support an embodied approach to learning trigonometry in a South African school: A case study

ABSTRACT

Multiple Intelligence Theory suggests that individuals perceive knowledge in eight different ways. This article reports on a study that explored the role of manipulatives in the teaching and learning of trigonometric ratios in grade 10. The approach attempts in addressing three domains of the Multiple Intelligence Theory (linguistic/verbal intelligence, logical/mathematical intelligence and spatial intelligence). The foundation of this research was a case study contained in the interpretative paradigm involving five grade 10 mathematics pupils at a high school in South Africa. The data was collected from: (1) activity sheet containing written responses of pupils; (2) observations; and (3) semi-structured interviews. The data was analysed and it was found that the use of manipulatives in teaching and learning mathematics played a positive role in leaners understanding of trigonometric ratios at grade 10 level. In general the findings of this study supported other research findings that confirm that manipulatives were important mediating tools in the development of conceptual and procedural understanding of mathematical concepts. Besides these pedagogical implications the study proved that the manipulatives effectively consolidated the features of Lesh's model.     

A study of conceptual development in early childhood

This paper reports part of a study which investigated young children's conceptions of scientific and technological phenomena and the conceptual change that occurs during the teaching of science in pre-school, Transition/Year One and Year Two/Three classrooms. Science lessons from each school/centre were audio and video taped for a period of six months. Informal interviewing of teachers occurred in direct response to lessons observed. Informal interviewing of children was conducted to determine current scientific thinking in relation to the science lessons presented by the teacher. Two main elements emerged. First, different types of teacher-child interactions were evident during the science lessons observed and it was found that specifically focused interactions led to conceptual development in young children. Second, children's views (whether scientific or not) were maintained over a three month period.     

Co-regulation and knowledge construction in an online synchronous problem based learning setting

Learning to monitor and regulate one’s learning in an academic setting is a task that all students must engage in. Learning in “group” situations requires both self- and co-regulation. This research examines a case study of a small group of medical student interactions during an on-line problem based learning activity (PBL) where students learn to co-regulate their performance as they construct their understanding of how best to communicate bad news to patients. This paper introduces an approach for analyzing the group discourse to understand how collective knowledge building facilitates co-regulation. A mixed method analysis was used to analyze the case study data. A qualitative data analysis of verbal interactions was conducted to examine co-regulatory episodes. Collective knowledge building was examined by analyzing the group discourse for indicators of co-regulatory processes. The study follows two quantitative analyses: a frequency count analysis of types of questions asked by facilitators and students; and a sequential pattern mining for patterns of co-occurrences of learners’ discourse and co-regulation.     

A case study comparing the influence of LED and fluorescent lighting on early childhood student engagement in a classroom setting

Studies suggest that the learning environment can act as a third teacher in contributing towards student academic success. A variable within the physical learning environment that has received little attention in the literature is the interior lighting. Because of budget constraints and age, most American public school classrooms have fluorescent lighting fixtures installed. A new lighting technology, Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), is becoming popular in commercial facilities across the United States because of energy efficiency. Previous research has demonstrated that lighting influences adult worker productivity and mood in a workplace. However, because children process stimuli faster, it is unknown whether LED lighting would have the same influence in a learning environment. Researchers hypothesise that students display more engaged behaviours in classrooms lit with LEDs as compared with fluorescent lighting fixtures. The current study tested this hypothesis by observing child engagement behaviours in a pre-K classroom under LED lighting and fluorescent lighting fixtures to compare differences. Students displayed more engaged behaviours under the LED lighting condition.