Early understanding of mental entities: a reexamination of childhood realism

Real physical objects (e.g., a chair) can be distinguished from mental entities (e.g., a thought about a chair) on the basis of a number of criteria. 3 of these are behavioral-sensory evidence--whether the entity can be seen, touched, and physically acted upon; public existence--whether other persons experience the entity; and consistent existence--whether the entity consistently exists over time. Two studies tested 3-5-year-old children's ability to distinguish real versus mental entities on the basis of these criteria and to categorize such entities suitably. Even 3-year-olds were able to judge real and mental entities appropriately on the basis of the 3 criteria, to sort such entities as explicitly real and not-real, and to provide cogent explanations of their choices as well. A further distinction between real and mental entities is that mental entities can be about physically impossible, nonexistent things (e.g., a dog that flies). A third study demonstrated that 3-5-year-olds also appreciated this distinction. Taken together, these results contradict a common characterization of the young child as unaware of the fundamental ontological distinction between the internal mental world and objective reality. The implications of these findings are discussed for 3 other bodies of research: Piaget's characterization of young children as realists, Keil's theory of ontological development, and recent research on children's understanding of the mind.     

罗钦顺对佛学的批判

罗钦顺认为佛学自传入中国以来,在社会上和思想界造成了极大的危害。佛氏与“吾儒“的最大区别在于对“性”理解不同。佛教唯识宗将“八识”中的“阿赖耶识“视为超然自足、永恒不变的本体,而且以本体为真,以现象为妄,其错误在于割裂了本体与现象的关系,又混淆了真与妄的标准。     

Early Constraints on the Imagination: The Realism of Young Children

The imagination of young children has notable constraints. The outcomes and possibilities that they imagine rarely deviate from the everyday regularities they have observed and remembered. Their reality-based imagination is evident in a variety of contexts: early pretend play, envisioning the future, judgments about what is possible, the instructive role of thought experiments, tool making, and figurative drawing. Overall, the evidence shows that children’s imagination helps them to anticipate reality and its close alternatives. This perspective invites future research on the scope of children's thinking about counterfactual possibilities, their ability to make discoveries about reality on the basis of thought experiments, and the ways in which cultural input can expand the scope of the possibilities that they entertain.     

Mathematics as part of technology

Competence in dealing with fundamental problems connected with mathematical model building requires three different forms of knowledge. Mathematical knowledge itself, technological knowledge about how to develop a model, and reflective knowledge relevant for evaluation of the model building process. We find that reflective knowledge cannot be reduced to technological knowledge, so that it is important for mathematical education that is to be consistent with a critical pedagogy to provide opportunities for development of that type of knowledge.A general conceptual framework for identification of reflective knowledge is presented via a structural (synchronic) and a developmental (diachronic) perspective of a mathematical model.The synchronic perspective includes relationships between the model, its object in reality, a complex of theories, a complex of interests, and a conceptual framework or system mediating the connection between model and object. The diachronic perspective includes the components: problem identification, structure of argumentation, basis for critique, and space of possible actions, all of them sensitive to the application of mathematics. In that sense mathematics is not a neutral tool in a technological investigation, a fact which mathematical education has to reflect.     

The functional use of a mathematical sign

The question of how a mathematics student at university-level makes sense of a new mathematical sign, presented to her or him in the form of a definition, is a fundamental problem in mathematics education. Using an analogy with Vygotsky's theory (1986, 1994) of how a child learns a new word, I argue that a learner uses a new mathematical sign both as an object with which to communicate (like a word is used) and as an object on which to focus and to organise her or his mathematical ideas (again as a word is used) even before she or he fully comprehends the meaning of this sign. Through this sign usage, I claim that the mathematical concept evolves for that learner so that it eventually has personal meaning, like the meaning of a new word does for a child; furthermore, because the usage is socially regulated, I claim that the concept evolves for the learner so that its usage concurs with its usage in the mathematical community. In line with Vygotsky, I call this usage of the mathematical sign before mature understanding, ‘functional use’. I demonstrate ‘functional use’ of signs (manipulations, imitations, template-matching and associations) through an analysis of an interview in which a mathematics university student engages with a ‘new’ mathematical sign, the improper integral, using pedagogically designed tasks and a standard Calculus textbook as resources.     

高等职业教育本质属性的再认识

本质是指事物固有的、决定事物性质、面貌和发展的根本属性,是一事物与另一事物的根本区别.我国学者从不同角度对高等职业教育本质属性做出不同的界定,既有实践性、社会性、职业性、多样性之说,也有高技能性、技术性之论,揭示的是高等职业教育局部的真.从高等职业教育作为一种类型来看,应用性应是其本质属性,以此与普通高等教育相区别.     

论教师教育学术性与师范性之整合

学术性与师范性是教师教育的一对基本矛盾,教师教育一直面临着学术性与师范性之争的问题,而且始终未能较好地协调好这一对关系.教师专业化作为教师教育发展的目标和趋势,已成为教师教育学术性与师范性逐步整合的根本途径.     

The phenomenology of the mathematics classroom

This paper describes the mathematics classroom from the perspective of social phenomenology. Here the classroom is seen as an environment of signs, comprising things and people, which impinge on the reality of the individual child. The paper introduces a framework through which mathematical work is seen as taking place in the imagined world through the filter of the world in immediate perception. This provides an approach to structuring evolving mathematical understanding. It is suggested that mathematical ideas are contained and shaped by the child's personal phenomenology, which evolves through time. Further, I argue these ideas are never encountered directly but rather are met through a circular hermeneutic process of reconciling expectation with experience.     

THE ROLE OF THE PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHER

The teaching of reading is complicated by the fact that no one commercially produced set of ‘readers’ is adequate in all respects for the development of reading skills. The article which follows provides guidelines by which a complete reading scheme can be developed from a combination of reading schemes; including consideration of such fundamentals as compatibility of vocabulary, degree of repetition, phonic criteria and the selection of supplementary reading material.

This article has been prepared as a result of the author's conviction that no single available reading scheme alone provides sufficient material in the depth or variety necessary to effect the acquisition of reading skills by the normal child. The objective of the study described below was to establish a reading system which would, as nearly as possible, provide a continuous progression of reading material suitable for the wide range of ability of children passing through an infant school. For obvious reasons, the reading material needs to be selected from that which is commercially available and marketed as purportedly complete reading schemes.     

论《看不见的人》中的"眼睛"意象及其象征意义

拉尔夫·艾里森在小说<看不见的人>中采用了大量的眼睛意象并赋予其不同的象征意义,从而生动揭示了主人公的内心世界与他眼中超越现实和虚幻的外在物质世界的紧密联系.     

Epistemic schemes and epistemic states. A study of mathematics convincement in elementary school classes

The paper introduces an interpretative framework that contains a characterization of epistemic schemes (constructs that are used to explain how class agents themselves are able to gain convincement in or promote convincement of mathematical statements) and epistemic states (a person’s internal states, such as convincement or certainty related to the person’s beliefs and to the schemes that explain them); a taxonomy for the epistemic schemes is also proposed. On the basis of the interpretative framework, an analysis is made of an excerpt of a regular elementary school class, a school level at which explicit mathematics reasoning rarely arises. The paper contends that teachers and students use schemes based on reasons in order to make mathematical statements credible, but that they also resort–perhaps unconsciously–to epistemic schemes that are governed by extra-rational considerations.     

The child psychiatric examination of the sexually abused child

Child psychiatric examination of the sexually abused child is strongly indicated as more than two-thirds of these children have concomitant emotional problems. Special considerations which are important in approaching these children but would not be a part of the routine child psychiatric evaluation are highlighted. The approach to the child who has been sexually assaulted by someone outside the family is contrasted with the evaluation of an incestuous family.Five specific expectations of the child psychiatric examination are as follows: 1. The nature of any emotional problem must be defined and an appropriate treatment plan established. 2. An immediate proposal must be made for the care of the child which will provide protection from future abuse while minimizing emotional stress. 3. Long-term planning for the family should be initiated based on an assessment of the likelihood of future recurrence of sexual abuse. 4. The child's reality testing should be evaluated if there is a question regarding the occurrence of the sexual abuse. 5. Psychological characteristics of the child which might influence the success of long-term care proposals should be documented.     

浅谈数学基础课教学中学生数学能力的培养

《数学分析》、《高等代数》和《解析几何》是数学类专业三门重要的基础课程.这三门课程不仅对数学类后续课程的学习有着重要的影响,同时在培养学生的数学能力方面也起着举足轻重的作用.本文通过几个具体实例,讨论了在数学基础课程教学中如何培养学生的数学能力,这些能力主要包括分析计算能力、综合归纳和推广能力、创新能力以及数学建模能力等等.     

隐喻的现象与本质

传统理论把语言分为非比喻性语言和比喻性语言，认为隐喻是比喻性语言的一种。具有很大的局限性。本文认为隐喻不仅仅是一种修辞现象，其本质是认知活动，隐喻表达仅仅是深藏在我们隐喻概念体系中的表层语言体现。     

哈尼族郭合人的生态观及其生态美学意义——对元阳马街登云村的生态文化考察

哈尼族对自然生态的敬畏传统已经有上千年的历史,他们视良好的生态环境为民族繁衍的命脉,将生态环境视为维系生产和生活的根本所在。哈尼族郭合人所秉承的是天人合一、众生平等的自然主义生态观,具有深远的生态美学价值和意义,尊重自然、生态自我、生态平等、生态同情,深刻阐释了人类与自然的关系。     

翻译思维中的形象思维

翻译是一种渗透创造性的复杂的思维活动,需要译者运用形象思维。思维学中形象思维的研究为翻译思维中形象思维的研究提供了理论基础,二者存在着交叉关系。但是,翻译思维中的形象思维亦有其独特的思维模式,体现在翻译的两个阶段：即“言一象一意”（理解阶段）与“意一象一言”（表达阶段）。     

The promise and reality of formative assessment practice in a continuous assessment scheme: the case of Trinidad and Tobago

Continuous Assessment (CA) systems are externally directed, curriculum-based assessment schemes used for both summative and formative purposes within classrooms. CA has been implemented as national policy in several postcolonial developing countries and is believed to hold great promise for improving education outcomes. This theory-driven evaluation (TDE) used a mixed methods research design to interrogate the nature of CA practice. The focus was on stakeholders’ understanding and practice of formative assessment in the CA Programme (CAP) of Trinidad and Tobago. The integrated findings suggest that the programme planners’ formative intent was often not fulfilled. Instead, teachers routinely recorded assessment marks without using the data. There is evidence that formative assessment practice was not congruent with teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and practices. Although the design of CA schemes suggests the possibility of synergy between formative and summative purposes, in reality this ideal is rarely achieved in these particular contexts.     

Cognitive play and mathematical learning in computer microworlds

Based on the constructivist principle of active learning, we focus on children's transformation of their cognitive play activity into what we regard as independent mathematical activity. We analyze how, in the process of this transformation, children modify their cognitive play activities. For such a modification to occur, we argue that the cognitive play activity has to involve operations of intelligence which yield situations of mathematical schemes.We present two distinctly different cases. If the first case, the medium of the cognitive play activity was a discrete computer microworld. we illustrate how two children transformed the playful activity of making pluralities into situations of their counting schemes. In the second case, the medium was a continuous microworld. We illustrate two children's transformation of the playful activity of making line segments (sticks) into situations of their counting schemes. We explain one child's transformation as a generalizing assimilation because it was immediate and powerful. The transformation made by the other child was more protracted, and social interaction played a prominent role. We specify several types of accommodations induced by this social interaction, accommodations we see as critical for understanding active mathematics learning. Finally, we illustrate how a playful orientation of independent mathematical activity can be inherited from cognitive play.