A global collage of impressions: Preschools abroad

“What do you think of European preschools?” “Do they have good schools in Yemen?” “What are Chinese child care centers like?” I am always taken aback when asked such questions. Of course, I'm always taken aback when someone asks what I think of kindergarten education in the United States; I never know how to answer that either. Does the question refer to kindergarten classes in the school near my home? Or kindergartens across the United States? Even if the inquirer expected an answer based on the schools which I visit regularly to supervise student teachers I would have to give a general statement, followed by some qualifying statements related to different teachers, different schools, and different school districts — all withinone county! The old adage that “All generalizations are dangerous, including this one” always comes to mind.     

Occupational Therapy in Preschools: A Synthesis of Current Knowledge

This paper presents a synthesis of current knowledge about occupational therapy in preschools (for 3–6 year olds) in order to provide a better understanding of this field of practice and to guide the implementation or programming of this service. In the literature, occupational therapy in preschools has been documented mainly in the USA. Results revealed that this service helped all children, with and without difficulties, to improve their skills, especially fine motor and graphomotor skills, and their participation in educational and daily living activities. Occupational therapy also had positive effects on teachers, parents and services. A service delivery model based on Response-to-Intervention or collaborative model should guide the implementation or programming of occupational therapy in preschools, with the focus on prevention/health promotion, screening and early intervention as well as school inclusion and success. Future studies are needed to determine the best intervention approaches and methods to improve children’s motor skills and self-regulation in inclusive preschool settings.     

A Didactic Framework for Audiovisual Design

In contrast with many other design tasks, the design of audiovisual sequences seems to depend highly on the designers’ particular talents, insights and creativity. Some customers experience the intangibility or rather the sheer impossibility of discussion on design decisions, due to the lack of an overall audiovisual design methodology. Especially at the microlevel, that is the level of concrete images and sounds, audiovisual programme development tends to be a matter of taste instead of well‐considered decisions. To provide a vocabulary for functional programme design, the present article introduces a didactic framework that serves as a classification scheme. It constitutes some 49 microlevel functional categories that support both the design and the analysis of audiovisual sequences. The structure and content of the framework are based on empirical evidence on learning and instruction. The present article describes and discusses all categories of the framework.     

Integrating Mathematical Learning During Caregiving Routines: A Study of Toddlers in Swedish Preschools

In recent years the interest in preschool mathematics has increased. However, studies seldom focus on children under the age of three and research is scarce on the early use of mathematics observed in natural settings. This article reports a study of mathematical possibilities during diaper changing in a preschool setting. A diaper change can be a communicative moment when the child can experience mathematics with a professional preschool teacher, but it can also be a moment of mechanical routine with no pedagogical context. The intention of the study presented here was to investigate the mathematical potential preschool teachers described in relation to diaper changing and to examine the ways this potential was put into action. Both similarities and differences emerged regarding the mathematical potential preschool teachers described in relation to diaper changing and the mathematical content that they were observed to communicate. The results show that it is possible to communicate mathematical content in a pedagogical way during diaper changes, making this routine a learning opportunity for children. However, the results also show variations in the observed range and context of such communication, and therefore the potential for mathematical learning during diaper changes seems to differ widely.     

教育适应自然教育思想解析——研读夸美纽斯《大教学论》

夸美纽斯是17世纪捷克杰出的教育理论家,是近现代教育、教育理论的最伟大的奠基者之一。他的教育思想集中体现在其专著《大教学论》中,该书系统完整地阐述了其教育目的、自然主义教育思想、教学过程以及教学组织形式等,他依据自然适应性原则,详述了教学过程中应遵循的规则,首次提出了一个较为完整的教育原则体系,是近代第一部教育学著作,他的教育体系为现代的系统的教育学奠定了始基,对我国教育改革具有一定的启发意义。     

美国学前教育机构家长志愿者现状探析

学前教育机构、教师、家长、儿童均能从家长志愿者的服务中获益.美国学前教育机构注重广泛招募家长志愿者,既为他们提供有针对性的指导,又重视为他们安排适当的工作,还对他们的工作进行恰当评估.我国幼教工作者可借鉴美国同行的经验,充分认识家长志愿者的价值,充分发挥家长志愿者的作用,感谢家长志愿者的奉献,从而吸引更多的家长为幼儿园提供志愿服务.     

公办园教师对民办园教师形成工资参照的实证分析——以北京市海淀区和朝阳区为例

一直以来,幼教行业内民办园教师工资较低是业界难题.为解决此困境,2018年中共中央、国务院出台了《关于学前教育深化改革规范发展的若干意见》,文件中明确要求"民办园要参照当地公办园教师工资收入水平".在公办园用人"双轨制"的当下,民办园教师参照公办园哪类群体(在编教师还是非在编教师)成为政策能否破局的关键,但这在《意见》...     

Knowledge of Sets: a Didactic Phenomenon

International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education - This paper examines a didactic phenomenon, a perception that the elements of sets have a common property, e.g. that {1, 2, 3} and {a, b,...     

美国学前教育机构的家访工作及其启示

家访是美国学前教育机构与儿童家庭建立友好关系的一种重要形式.为了充分发挥家访的独特作用,美国学前教育机构的教师会认真做好家访前的准备工作,准时到达儿童家庭进行访问,全面落实家访后的强化工作.这一经验值得我们借鉴.     

A Model for Evaluating Didactic Profiles in an Engineering Curriculum

General and specific Content Didactic Profiles of engineering courseware have been developed in the framework of a proposed model for evaluating a given curriculum. To carry out a diagnosis of written material, a mapping sentence, including three facets (one for each of the two didactic profiles and a Complexity facet), has been prepared to establish a definitional system for the evaluating model. The common range is the student's score in the achievement tests. The model has been run on 119 students taking the self-instructional course ‘Digital Systems’ in the framework of Israel's Everyman's University. An Euclidean structure (Cylindrex) has been discovered repetitiously in four tests relating to learning units on separate subjects. This indicates that structural lawfulness exists between the general didactic profile, complexity of test items, and students’ achievements. The location of a test item within the cylindrex shows its degree of complexity and didactic profile level, thus providing an estimate for its cognitive difficulty level, required to arrive at a correct solution. A factor of Curriculum Awareness (FCA) has been established as an indicator providing a hierarchy of content subjects, in the written material, that need didactic improvement.     

Post's Machine: A Didactic Microworld as an Introduction to Formal Programming

Although formal programming is considered a recognised programming model, many avoid teaching it because of its very high mental cost. For that reason we developed a microscopic environment based on Emil Post's theoretical machine as an introduction to formal methods of programming and in the framework of an introductory computer science course.In this paper, we present a small formal system for the development and simultaneous verification of algorithms; we give an example of problem solving in this environment; we present a small existing software simulating Post's machine; we propose two modules to facilitate the work in this environment; and finally, we present the didactic uses of Post's machine as an introduction to formal methods.     

浅谈幼儿“创新教育”的氛围营建

1999年 5月 ,我园承担了省级重点科研课题“中小幼知识创新与技能教育的实验研究”一级课题研究 ,进行幼儿期创新素质培养、创新潜质开发的实验。随着实验的推进 ,孩子们的扩散联想力、表达的流畅力 ,较之对比班孩子迅速发展 ,实验人员常感动于孩子们稚嫩有趣且有新意的、出人意料的回答。 3岁的实验班孩子仅就如何取下挂在树上的帽子 ,就可扩散想出 2 0多种办法 ,且能运用聚合思维力选出最佳方法。在无数次组织实验模块的讨论、投放记录、分析后 ,我对如何更有效地营建创新教育的氛围 ,有了更深层次的思索。创新教育氛围涵盖学校和社区 ,社…     

学前全纳教育中自闭症幼儿的教育建议

自闭症儿童的早期教育康复在我国开展得相对较晚,其中大部分儿童是在隔离的特殊教育机构中接受学习训练的。随着全纳性教育理念的引入,自闭症儿童如何在全纳教育中享受与普通同龄伙伴一起生活、学习的权利,成为一个不容忽视的重要问题。为更好地提高全纳教育的效能,达到自闭症儿童与普通儿童的“双赢”,本文从不同角度对如何更好地开展全纳教育中自闭症儿童的早期教育进行了探讨。     

A Review of Children's,Teachers' and Parents' Influences on Children's Drawing Experience

In this article we argue that research into children's drawings should consider the context in which drawing occurs and that it is crucial to investigate the attitudes and practices of teachers, parents and children themselves that shape children's drawing experience and the drawings which they produce. We review the findings of seven empirical studies reporting data collected through direct observations, interviews and questionnaires from the three main players (teachers, parents and children) on the attitudes and practices shaping children's drawing. Issues covered include teachers' perceptions of the purposes and importance of drawing, support offered by teachers, parents and children for children's drawing endeavours, and possible factors that may lead to an age‐related decline in the amount of drawing children choose to do. We end the review by reporting some preliminary findings from our own large‐scale interview and survey study of 270 5–14 year old children, their parents and teachers, that provides a comprehensive assessment of attitudes and practices influencing children's drawing experience at home and at school. The findings provide further insight into the aforementioned issues, particularly children's, teachers' and parent's explanations of why children's drawing behaviour might decline with age. It is hoped that by reporting these preliminary findings some additional understanding of the context in which children produce their drawings can be gained and new areas for debate opened up.     

Didactic strategies in early science teaching

The purpose of the article is to show the results of empirical research on the prevailing teaching strategies for teaching contents of the subject environmental studies (specifically when dealing with natural content) in the first triennium of the nine‐year primary school in the Republic of Slovenia. The information was obtained through a survey of 141 teachers from 60 randomly selected primary schools in the Republic of Slovenia. We found that teachers use different teaching strategies as students gain knowledge through experience, participation in education, they express their opinion, views, solve simple problems and explore. Such notice shall then direct the transmissions to the transaction and transformation, which was an important objective of the reform of the subject.     

对美国学前教育机构中教师与家长会谈的介绍及思考

会谈是美国学前教育机构中教师与家长交流时最常用的一种沟通形式.会谈有利于教师与家长的平等对话,自由交谈,详细交流,经验共享.为了达到预期效果,教师重视会谈前的准备工作,在会谈中鼓励家长参与,在会谈结束后注重对会谈的评价.这些经验值得借鉴.