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.     

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’ Understanding of How Others Learn Through Action and Instruction

It is widely believed that exploration is a mechanism for young children's learning. The present investigation examines preschoolers’ beliefs about how learning occurs. We asked 3‐ to 5‐year‐olds to articulate how characters in a set of stories learned about a new toy. Younger preschoolers were more likely to overemphasize the role of characters’ actions in learning than older children were (Experiment 1, N = 53). Overall performance improved when the stories explicitly stated that characters were originally ignorant and clarified the characters’ actions, but general developmental trends remained (Experiment 2, N = 48). These data suggest that explicit metacognitive understanding of the relation between actions and learning is developing during the preschool years, which might have implications for how children learn from exploration.     

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.     

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.     

A Genealogical Analysis of the Concept of ‘Good’ Teaching: A Polemic

In this essay I intentionally employ Nietzsche's genealogical method as a means to critique the complex concept of ‘good’ teaching, and at the same time reconstitute ‘good’ teaching in a form that is radically different from contemporary accounts. In order to do this, I start out by undertaking a genealogical analysis to both reveal the complicated historical development of ‘good’ teaching and also disentangle the intertwining threads that remain hidden from us so we are aware of the core threads that hold it together. Two major threads are identified in my analysis, which I refer to as: Genealogy I: Teaching as applied science or practice; and, Genealogy II: Teaching as a vocational calling or neutral profession. With this in mind, I take the two value systems (Genealogy I and II) presented in my critique of ‘good’ teaching, and rather than return to old, or create new values, I argue that the true task of any educational endeavour is to make human beings human. Therefore, in the spirit of Nietzsche, I revive and extend Nietzsche's account of Bildung as a dynamic way of living timeless educational aims, such as learning to see, think, speak, write and feel in becoming true human beings.     

Suprasegmental Phonology Development and Reading Acquisition: A Longitudinal Study

Previous studies implicate suprasegmental phonology in reading acquisition. However, little is known about how suprasegmental sensitivity develops or how it contributes to reading. Here, 130 Spanish primary-school children participated in this 2-year longitudinal study. Nonlinguistic rhythm, lexical-stress sensitivity and metrical-stress sensitivity, along with phonological awareness, vocabulary, nonverbal intelligence, and reading aloud, were assessed on five occasions. Results suggest that prosody abilities have different developmental trajectories and that prosody explains unique variance in reading beyond that explained by other factors. There was some evidence that the contribution of each prosody skill occurred at different phases in reading development. Nonlinguistic rhythm, lexical-stress sensitivity, and metrical-stress sensitivity assessed at the end of kindergarten, the start of Grade 1, and the end of Grade 1, respectively, predicted reading performance 6 months later. Nevertheless, sample size and reliability temper the conclusions that can be made. The implications of prosody skills for literacy development are discussed.     

科学发展观:中国共产党发展观的新突破

科学发展观是中国共产党发展观的新突破。它是马克思主义发展观与中国实际相结合的最新成果；是吸收了世界明进步的科学结晶；是对我国社会主义建设历史经验和教训的最新总结。它必将为中国全面建设小康社会和早日实现中华民族的伟大复兴注入新的活力。     

Becoming a Counselor: A Longitudinal Study of Student Cognitive Development

This study investigated the cognitive development of counseling students during their training program. Results suggest a need to emphasize student cognitive development as strongly as skills development in graduate programs.     

The Development of the Subconcepts of Death in Young Children: A Short-Term Longitudinal Study

A short-term longitudinal design and the probabilistic latent class method of analysis were used to study the development of young children's understanding of death. 99 first and second graders were interviewed individually in the fall and spring. The results support the notion that the subconcepts of death--irreversibility, cessation, causality, and inevitability--need to be studied separately and in relation to one another. Children first understand the subconcepts of irreversibility and inevitability. Development of these subconcepts does not seem to be conditional on each other. However, at least one of these subconcepts must be understood before the child understands the subconcepts of cessation or causality. The pattern of development of these subconcepts is different when the referent object is human versus animal. The overall methodology offers promise in understanding the development of these concepts in young children.     

Linguistic Diversity and the Development of Reading Skills: A Longitudinal Study

The purpose of this study was to examine whether the same component processes are involved in reading acquisition for children with varying levels of proficiency in English in kindergarten and the first grade. The performance of 858 children was examined on tasks assessing basic literacy skills, phonological processing, verbal memory, and syntactic awareness. There were 727 children who were native English speakers (NS children) and 131 children who spoke English as a second language (ESL children). Although ESL children performed more poorly than NS children on most measures of phonological and linguistic processing in kindergarten and first grade, the acquisition of basic literacy skills for children from both language groups developed in a similar manner. Furthermore, alphabetic knowledge and phonological processing were important contributors to early reading skill for children from both language groups. Therefore, children learning English may acquire literacy skills in English in a similar manner to NS children, although their alphabetic knowledge may precede and facilitate the acquisition of phonological awareness in English.     

学前儿童焦虑状况的追踪研究

本研究采用问卷法分别于2005年6月、2006年6月对346名4—5岁学前儿童的焦虑状况进行了追踪研究。结果显示：（1）一年之后,学前儿童的焦虑水平明显下降;（2）从两次测查的情况看,学前儿童最高水平的焦虑症状为躯体伤害恐惧,其次为分离焦虑,再次为社交恐惧和广泛性焦虑,最低水平的为强迫性神经症障碍;（3）5岁组儿童第一次测查的焦虑水平存在显著的性别差异,男孩的焦虑水平高于女孩,而5岁组儿童第二次测查的焦虑水平以及4岁组儿童第一次和第二次测查的焦虑水平都无显著的性别差异。     

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.     

Lies and Truth: A Study of the Development of the Concept

This study examined the developmental questions of when children begin to use the terms lie and truth, how they understand them, and when their understanding approaches that of adults. 150 subjects in 5 groups (nursery schoolers, preschoolers, first graders, fifth graders, and adults) were presented a series of 8 short puppet plays that systematically varied the presence of absence of the 3 prototype elements: factuality of a statement, the speaker's belief in the factuality or falsity of the statement, and the speaker's intent to deceive the listeners. The interactions of age, factuality, and belief most fully accounted for the use of the terms lie and truth. Persons at different ages differentially weighed the prototypic elements. Responses of fifth graders were transitional between those of the younger children and adults. The results are interpreted as supporting the development of definitional prototypes for these moral concepts.     

"公平的发展":一种新的教育发展观

文章在建立和谐社会的大视野中,阐述了我国教育公共政策向教育公平的宏观转变的情况,从理论角度探讨了教育公平与教育发展的关系、教育的"外部公正"和"内部公正"、"效率优先"思路对教育的误导、教育的发展性差距和制度性差距等问题,提出了"公平的发展"的教育理念.其中着重论述了公平发展的基本准则、教育资源配置的优先顺序、公平与优秀的关系、政府与市场的关系等问题.     

The Development of Advanced Theory of Mind in Middle Childhood: A Longitudinal Study From Age 5 to 10 Years

This 5-year longitudinal study investigated advanced theory-of-mind (AToM) development in 161 German 5- to 10-year-olds (89 females, 72 males). Core aspects of AToM developed nonlinearly, with children reaching a milestone at the age of 7 years, around when they attained the conceptual insight that mental states can be recursive. In late elementary school, a multicomponent battery was used. Performance on many aspects of AToM was predicted by information-processing skills (intelligence and language at 6 years), but not by the age when children acquired the basic conceptual insight; only some naturalistic, social-interpretative tasks were correlated with children’s age at acquisition. This study documents significant developmental progressions in middle-childhood AToM and suggests that different mechanisms may underlie diverse aspects of social cognition.     

Longitudinal Links Between Fathers’ and Mothers’ Harsh Verbal Discipline and Adolescents’ Conduct Problems and Depressive Symptoms

This study used cross‐lagged modeling to examine reciprocal relations between maternal and paternal harsh verbal discipline and adolescents’ conduct problems and depressive symptoms. Data were from a sample of 976 two‐parent families and their children (51% males; 54% European American, 40% African American). Mothers’ and fathers’ harsh verbal discipline at age 13 predicted an increase in adolescent conduct problems and depressive symptoms between ages 13 and 14. A child effect was also present, with adolescent misconduct at age 13 predicting increases in mothers’ and fathers’ harsh verbal discipline between ages 13 and 14. Furthermore, maternal and paternal warmth did not moderate the longitudinal associations between mothers’ and fathers’ use of harsh verbal discipline and adolescent conduct problems and depressive symptoms.     

A Longitudinal Study Showing how Students use a Molecule Concept when Explaining Everyday Situations

In this paper we present results from a 10‐year (1997–2006) longitudinal study in which we, by interviews once or twice every year, followed how students, throughout the compulsory school, developed their understanding of three situations in which transformations of matter occur. We believe that students have to meet scientific ideas early in order to gradually, in social cooperation with classmates, friends, teachers, and other grown‐ups, elaborate the meaning of a concept. We followed 23 students all born in 1990. In 1997 we introduced the idea of the particulate nature of matter. We have conducted interviews allowing students to explain the transformation of matter in fading leaves left lying on the ground, burning candles, and a glass of water with a lid on. In the interview at 16 years of age, less than one‐fifth of the students use molecular ideas in scientifically acceptable ways. The overall conclusion is that most students do not connect the knowledge they gain in school about the particulate nature of matter to these everyday situations. On the other hand, the students seem capable of using a simple particle model and the model can help them understand the invisible gas state. The question of how to use this capability in order to develop students’ scientific ideas is still not solved and more research is argued for.