Effects of experimenting with physical and virtual manipulatives on students' conceptual understanding in heat and temperature

This study aimed to investigate the comparative value of experimenting with physical manipulatives (PM) in a sequential combination with virtual manipulatives (VM), with the use of PM preceding the use of VM, and of experimenting with PM alone, with respect to changes in students' conceptual understanding in the domain of heat and temperature. A pre–post‐comparison study design was used which involved 62 undergraduate students that attended an introductory course in physics. The participants were randomly assigned to one experimental and one control group. Both groups used the same inquiry‐oriented curriculum materials. Participants in the control group used PM to conduct the experiments, whereas, participants in the experimental group used first PM and then VM. VM differed from PM in that it could provide the possibility of faster manipulation, whereas, it retained any other features and interactions of the study's subject domain identical to the PM condition. Conceptual tests were administered to assess students' understanding before, during, and after the study's treatments. Results indicated that experimenting with the combination of PM and VM enhanced students' conceptual understanding more than experimenting with PM alone. The use of VM was identified as the cause of this differentiation. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 45: 1021–1035, 2008     

Three‐ to six‐year‐old children’s recognition of geometric shapes

The main purpose of this research was to determine three‐ to six‐year‐old pre‐schoolers’ recognition of basic geometric shapes, the criteria they use to distinguish members of a shape class and whether or not those criteria change in relation to age. Participants were 100 children aged three to six. Data were gathered from individual interviews conducted with participants. The results of this study indicate that pre‐school children fail to distinguish circle, square, triangle and rectangle and recognize atypical examples which differ due to orientation, aspect ratio, skewness and size. Furthermore, children in this period are capable of attending to both defining and non‐defining attributes while classifying, but they mostly rely on non‐defining attributes.     

Prevalence of father-child rough-and-tumble play and physical aggression in preschool children

Three samples of francophone subjects from Quebec (Canada) are used to establish the prevalence of parent-child RTP according to different personal, social and family variables, and to verify if children who engage in more RTP with their father exhibit less physical aggression towards other children and are more competitive without resorting to aggression. Our results showed that 24 to 43% of fathers engaged in RTP with their children on a daily basis, and only 4 to 16% of fathers never do. Moreover, personal characteristics such as the age and sex of the participants seemed to have a greater influence on the frequency of parent-child RTP than variables related for example to work, socio-economic conditions, or the living environment. The hypothesis that children who engage in more RTP with their fathers display less physical aggression towards their peers is invalidated here. We have concluded that it is important that not only RTP frequency, but also and especially indicators of RTP quality be used. Future observational studies of father-child RTP are required in order to do so. Finally, certain preliminary results support the hypothesis that father-child RTP fosters the development of the competition skills in children without using aggression.     

Conformity to peer pressure in preschool children

Both adults and adolescents often conform their behavior and opinions to peer groups, even when they themselves know better. The current study investigated this phenomenon in 24 groups of 4 children between 4;2 and 4;9 years of age. Children often made their judgments conform to those of 3 peers, who had made obviously erroneous but unanimous public judgments right before them. A follow-up study with 18 groups of 4 children between 4;0 and 4;6 years of age revealed that children did not change their "real" judgment of the situation, but only their public expression of it. Preschool children are subject to peer pressure, indicating sensitivity to peers as a primary social reference group already during the preschool years.     

关于学前教育美术手工教学的建议

手工是学前教育专业的主要教学内容之一,用以培养学生手工技能。传统的美术手工教育,以强调学生学习知识、技法和模仿作品为主,没有考虑到学生的文化基础和生活背景、没有考虑手工的地域特殊性和学生的实践训练,使学习与现实脱离关系,学习的主体没有得到尊重。手工教学应考虑学生的发展需要,培养其动手能力。     

蒙台梭利教学思想对幼儿教育的启示

蒙台梭利教育思想是由意大利著名的幼儿教育家玛利亚·蒙台梭利提出来的,她创办了举世闻名的"儿童之家",并从事著述活动和开设国际训练班,经过长期的发展,形成一套独特的教育体系。该教育思想的核心是自由,强调对幼儿的自由教育。本文对蒙台梭利教育进行了深入的分析,并提出了蒙台梭利教育思想对我国幼儿教育的一些启示。     

Hands on what? The relative effectiveness of physical versus virtual materials in an engineering design project by middle school children

“Hands‐on” activities play an important, but controversial, role in early science education. In this study we attempt to clarify some of the issues surrounding the controversy by calling attention to distinctions between: (a) type of instruction (direct or discovery); (b) type of knowledge to be acquired (domain‐general or domain‐specific); and (c) type of materials that are used (physical or virtual). We then describe an empirical study that investigates the relative effectiveness of the physical–virtual dimension. In the present study, seventh and eighth grade students assembled and tested mousetrap cars with the goal of designing a car that would go the farthest. Children were assigned to four different conditions, depending on whether they manipulated physical or virtual materials, and whether they had a fixed number of cars they could construct or a fixed amount of time in which to construct them. All four conditions were equally effective in producing significant gains in learners' knowledge about causal factors, in their ability to design optimal cars, and in their confidence in their knowledge. Girls' performance, knowledge, and effort were equal to boys' in all conditions, but girls' confidence remained below boys' throughout. Given the fact that, on several different measures, children were able to learn as well with virtual as with physical materials, the inherent pragmatic advantages of virtual materials in science may make them the preferred instructional medium in many hands‐on contexts. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach     

Automatic assessment of cognitive and emotional states in virtual reality-based flexibility training for four adolescents with autism

Tracking students’ learning states to provide tailored learner support is a critical element of an adaptive learning system. This study explores how an automatic assessment is capable of tracking learners’ cognitive and emotional states during virtual reality (VR)-based representational-flexibility training. This VR-based training program aims to promote the flexibility of adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in interpreting, selecting and creating multimodal representations during STEM-related design problem solving. For the automatic assessment, we used both natural language processing (NLP) and machine-learning techniques to develop a multi-label classification model. We then trained the model with the data from a total of audio- and video-recorded 66 training sessions of four adolescents with ASD. To validate the model, we implemented both k-fold cross-validations and the manual evaluations by expert reviewers. The study finding suggests the feasibility of implementing the NLP and machine-learning driven automatic assessment to track and assess the cognitive and emotional states of individuals with ASD during VR-based flexibility training. The study finding also denotes the importance and viability of providing adaptive supports to maintain learners’ cognitive and affective engagement in a highly interactive digital learning environment.     

高校体育教师如何适应俱乐部式体育教学的分析研究

文章通过对普通高校体育教师教学观念、教学模式及自身运动技术水平的观察和问卷分析，提出在当今普遍的俱乐部式教学模式中，体育教师必须从几个方面去改善、提高和充实，才能适应这样的个性化教学形式和现代化的教学趋势。     

Optical versus virtual: teaching assistant perceptions of the use of virtual microscopy in an undergraduate human anatomy course

Many studies that evaluate the introduction of technology in the classroom focus on student performance and student evaluations. This study focuses on instructor evaluation of the introduction of virtual microscopy into an undergraduate anatomy class. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with graduate teaching assistants (TA) and analyzed through qualitative methods. This analysis showed that the teaching assistants found the virtual microscope to be an advantageous change in the classroom. They cite the ease of use of the virtual microscope, access to histology outside of designated laboratory time, and increasing student collaboration in class as the primary advantages. The teaching assistants also discuss principal areas where the use of the virtual microscope can be improved from a pedagogical standpoint, including requiring students to spend more time working on histology in class.     

浅谈舞蹈教学对学前教育专业的重要作用

舞蹈教学作为学前教育专业的一个组成部分,它会伴随着学前教育专业的发展而发展,在发展的同时,舞蹈教学对学前教育专业的开展有着不可估量的意义和作用。因此,本文将结合目前我国各大高校的学前教育专业中舞蹈教学的现状和特点,浅析舞蹈教学对学前教育专业的重要作用。