How Young Children Learn from Others

Existing accounts of teaching and the teacher-learner relationship stand in the tradition of epistemic individualism: The teacher produces signals or utterances that the learner uses as evidence to form beliefs. In this article, I argue for an alternative, second-personal, account of teaching in which teacher and learner mutually recognise their participation in a joint enterprise to get the learner to acquire knowledge and capacities that she does not yet possess. A particular version of this account is defended which regards children as ‘self-conscious learners’ who place their epistemic trust in teachers and recognise them as providing the standards of evaluation against which their behaviour is measured. Empirical work is cited to support these ideas.     

教学生学会关心

长期以来。我们一直重视知识获得。忽略了学生其他方面的发展。导致了学生缺失关心。这种关心的缺失引起了一系列的问题。本文探讨了如何教育学生学会关心，使学生能够在充满关心的环境中健康成长。     

学会关心——论青少年关心品质的培养

学会关心,是教育对青少年必须承担的责任。关心品质的培养,首先要使青少年明确关心是一种关心者与被关心者的互动关系,是一种道德品质;其次,要通过教师的榜样作用、与学生的平等对话、为学生提供实践机会、积极认可学生的关心行动来培养学生的关心品质。     

Investigating Preschoolers’ Categorical Thinking About Gender Through Imitation,Attention, and the Use of Self‐Categories

Whereas traditional theories of gender development have focused on individualistic paths, recent analyses have argued for a more social categorical approach to children’s understanding of gender. Using a modeling paradigm based on K. Bussey and A. Bandura (1984) , 3 experiments (N = 62, N = 32, and N = 64) examined preschoolers’ (M age = 52.9 months) imitation of, and memory for, behaviors of same‐sex and opposite‐sex children and adults. In all experiments, children’s imitation of models varied according to the emphasis given to the particular category of models, despite equal attention being paid to both categories. It is suggested that the categorical nature of gender, or age, informs children’s choice of imitative behaviors.     

Learning in Action: How Competent Professionals Learn

The studies pertaining to expertise development are diverse and broad (Bjork, 1994; Einstein & McDaniel, 2005; Schneider, Healy, & Bourne, 2002), yet empirical research that bridges expertise development into instructional design theories is still in its very formative stages (Ertmer et al., 2008; Fadde, 2009). This article is intended to identify the instructional principles that are effective in accelerating the performance of journeymen, considering the significant impact of the journeyman stage and the need for hastening performance in that stage. With the introduction to the major scholarly works and principles that have led to the elaboration of training methods, strategies, and materials, this review of literature proposes a learning model that has four components: (1) development plan, (2) action, (3) reflection‐on‐action, and (4) remedies.     

Preschoolers’ use of count information to judge relative quantity

We examined preschool children's use of count information in making quantity judgments. Study 1 involved 35 children 3–5 years old using a balance-scale task to judge relative quantity with or without count information provided. Study 2 replicated and extended the exploration as 54 children 3–4 years old judged relative quantity in multiple counting contexts. Children who were given count information successfully used count information in quantity evaluation when visual cues were not useful. Limited experience of counting skills, strategy choice, and limited processing capacity are each discussed as potential explanations. Implications for early childhood practice and teacher education, as well as directions for future research are explored.     

Preschoolers’ Use of Talker Information in On‐Line Comprehension

A crucial part of language development is learning how various social and contextual language‐external factors constrain an utterance’s meaning. This learning process is poorly understood. Five experiments addressed one hundred thirty‐one 3‐ to 5‐year‐old children’s use of one such socially relevant information source: talker characteristics. Participants learned 2 characters’ favorite colors; then, those characters asked participants to select colored shapes, as eye movements were tracked. Results suggest that by preschool, children use voice characteristics predictively to constrain a talker’s domain of reference, visually fixating the talker’s preferred color shapes. Indicating flexibility, children used talker information when the talker made a request for herself but not when she made a request for the other character. Children’s ease at using voice characteristics and possible developmental changes are discussed.     

How Children Learn From Others: An Analysis of Selective Word Learning

One way children are remarkable learners is that they learn from others. Critically, children are selective when assessing from whom to learn, particularly in the domain of word learning. We conducted an analysis of children’s selective word learning, reviewing 63 papers on 6,525 participants. Children’s ability to engage in selective word learning appeared to be present in the youngest samples surveyed. Their more metacognitive understanding that epistemic competence indicates reliability or that others are good sources of knowledge has more of a developmental trajectory. We also found that various methodological factors used to assess children influence performance. We conclude with a synthesis of theoretical accounts of how children learn from others.     

Learning How to Learn,Art Education and the ‘Background’

This paper describes the conditions that make learning how to learn in art possible. Rather than privileging risk-taking or the playfulness of primary process thinking, I will use a Wittgensteinian understanding of mind to argue against this approach in favour of one that raises students’ awareness of the cultural and cognitive ‘backgrounds’ (forms of life and language games) against which our individual actions and risks are framed and understood. Instead of building art education on a metaphysical view of the self, this paper will advocate a social constructivist approach to curriculum, pedagogy and assessment to create a cognitive map for ‘the background’ of art. When these three are practised in a mutual way they connect individual minds to the resources or mind of culture which, in turn, makes lifelong learning possible, reclaiming the idea of art-for-life’s sake.     

Encouraging Maternal Guidance of Preschoolers’ Spatial Thinking During Block Play

Spatial thinking, an important component of cognition, supports academic achievement and daily activities (e.g., learning science and math; using maps). Better spatial skills are correlated with more spatial play and more parental attention to spatial concepts. Tested here was whether informing mothers about spatial thinking and ways to encourage it would increase the spatial guidance they provide to their preschool children (N = 41; M = 5.23 years) during dyadic block play. Mothers given such instructions indeed produced more spatial language and spatial guidance than mothers asked to play as usual. In instructed dyads, children also used more spatial language; both mothers and children engaged in less pretend play. Findings offer support for designing interventions to encourage parents to foster their children's spatial skills.     

Preschoolers’ Search for Explanatory Information Within Adult–Child Conversation

This research examined children’s questions and the reactions to the answers they receive in conversations with adults. If children actively seek explanatory knowledge, they should react differently depending on whether they receive a causal explanation. Study 1 examined conversations following 6 preschoolers’ (ages 2–4 years) causal questions in naturalistic situations (using the Child Language Data Exchange System [CHILDES] database). Children more often agreed and asked follow‐up questions following adult explanations and, conversely, more often reasked their original question and provided their own explanation following nonexplanations. Study 2 replicated these patterns within an experimental task in 42 children ages 3–5 years. Children’s reactions following explanatory versus nonexplanatory information confirm that young children are motivated to seek causal information actively and use specific conversational strategies to obtain it.     

Understanding Changes in Teacher Roles Through Collaborative Action Research

The purpose of this article is to present the design and findings of a collaborative action research study that involved five secondary science teachers as action researchers and me, as facilitator, collectively articulating the teachers’ changing teaching roles when the teachers taught with computer technology. Data included interviews, observations, and focus group discussions. Data analysis entailed thematic analysis of data to identify initial and changes in teachers’ roles. Collaborative action research context helped the teachers to perceive their changing teaching roles through collective negotiation. Implications for facilitators of action research include the need to articulate their theoretical orientation prior to the onset of facilitating action research projects and to acknowledge and accept action researchers as fellow active knowledge producers.     

The Development of Preschoolers’ Living Kinds Concept: A Longitudinal Study

Given limitations in the integrative scope of past research, basic questions about the organization and development of preschoolers’ living kinds concept remain open to debate. This study was designed to address past limitations through use of a longitudinal design, extensive stimulus set, and alternate indices of understanding. Thirty‐five English‐speaking 3‐year‐olds from middle‐class families in Albuquerque, NM participated in four testing sessions over 1 year. Indices of understanding included statements that preschoolers generated about various living and nonliving objects, biological properties they attributed to the objects, and their characterization of objects as “alive” or not. Results reveal a multifaceted picture of developmental change in preschoolers’ living kinds concept involving both the construction and elaboration of a core biological understanding.     

Understanding the Why Behind the How in Reading Instruction

One of the most critical pedagogical areas for student success is reading development and the use of reading to learn in the content areas. Teachers’ knowledge and the materials, methods, and strategies employed are essential factors in students’ abilities to read. In their inquiry study, the authors examined the congruence between the content of preservice literacy methods courses at their college and the practices of recent alumni. Although practice varied for each teacher, alumni students emphasized some components of reading over others, often because those components were stressed in their college courses. These findings led the authors to rethink why and how reading methods are taught to preservice teachers.     

How Young Children Learn to Program With Sensor,Action, and Logic Blocks

Electronic Blocks are a new programming environment designed specifically for children aged between 3 and 8 years. These physical, stackable blocks include sensor blocks, action blocks, and logic blocks. By connecting these blocks, children can program a wide variety of structures that interact with one another and the environment. Electronic Blocks provide young children with opportunities to program and observe dynamic behavior without having to acquire complex symbolic notation systems. Young children are able to build and debug program structures by using Electronic Blocks because the syntactic and semantic problems that confront users of conventional programming languages have been reduced.     

Preschoolers’ engagement with reading behaviours: a statistical discourse analysis of peer buddy‐reading interactions

Developing reading behaviours in early childhood is essential for later reading comprehension. This study explored how peer buddy reading could potentially support emergent readers’ engagement with reading behaviours. Across 40 buddy‐reading events, 14 preschoolers (ages 4.0–5.5 years) produced 1,359 conversation turns, which were coded for a variety of reading behaviours including comprehension, thematic vocabulary use and concepts about print. Using statistical discourse analysis, we examined how children's engagement with reading behaviours was related to their buddies’ engagement with reading behaviours in subsequent conversation turns during buddy‐reading events. Findings suggest that some of preschoolers’ reading behaviours, such as literal text representation, inferential text interpretation, character development and comprehension monitoring were related to their buddies’ engagement with reading behaviours; others, such as vocabulary and concepts about print, were not. Implications include that buddy reading can be used to support preschoolers’ engagement with some reading behaviours, such as certain aspects of comprehension.     

试析如何在学科教学中渗透国际理解教育

兴起于20世纪40年代,为增进民族国家间的相互理解和相互合作、促进世界和平的国际理解教育,伴随着全球化浪潮的推进,越来越受到基础教育的关注。近年来在我国,国际理解教育以学科渗透方式在许多学校展开。国际理解之所以能够在学科教学中渗透,是因为国际理解无论在知识、技能,还是在情感态度培养上都在某些基本点上与学科教育相契合。找准国际理解教育和学科教学的结合点,可以增进学科教育的人文价值。     

Assessment of Students’ Understanding of Variation

Several tasks used in research studies are presented with assessment rubrics and examples of the development of student understanding. The tasks focus on students’ appreciation of variation in several contexts and illustrate the need to discuss variation in the classroom and to ask students specifically about it during assessment.     

让学生在正确认识自我与他人中获得发展--双"I"课程的实践初探

认识自我,学会交往,是世界各国教育的共同话题。学校教育本应高扬起学生“认识自我”的火炬,让学生在人际交往中成长,但受工具理性的影响,学校教育往往较多地关注学生学业的发展,而对学生自我认识能力与交往能力的发展缺乏更多的思考。近年来,美国学者加德纳提出的“把人际智能(interpersonal intelligence)、自我认识智能(intrapersonal intelligence)作为多元智能结构中的重要组成部分”之命题已被广为接