Young Children,Television & Learning: Part I. The effects of children watching a continuous off‐air broadcast

Responses of 21 pre‐operational children, aged between 6#lb6 and 7#lb4 years, to an uninterrupted television programme, viewed in small groups, were surveyed by individual post‐viewing questioning. The indications are that the children viewed the programme passively except when something extraordinary or stimulating occurred; they recalled only isolated aspects that interested them or that they liked. They were unable to deduce the producer's intentions and gained only a vague idea of what the programme was about. Children are limited in what they can take from a broadcast by their own experiences and by how those relate to what is viewed, so teachers have a responsibility to assist young children to internalise and interpret what is viewed from educational television. Continuous ‘programmes’ seem unsuitable as learning media; children should view, via a videorecorder, short sequences or ‘modules’ of television material, linked to activities with which they are involved or familiar, to enable a three‐way interaction between children, teacher and television to be established     

Teaching television: the effects of critical television viewing curricula

Recognition of the important role television plays in children's lives has led during the 1970s to the beginnings of an effort to modify television's impact on children by teaching them how to manage their viewing behavior, how to understand the medium, and how to evaluate its content (so-called, “critical television viewing skills”). The objectives pursued by critical viewing curricula are discussed, and it is argued that critical viewing is strongly related to critical thinking. A review of studies of the effects achieved by television curricula indicates that television curricula can be effective in increasing children's knowledge of the medium and in altering children's perceptions of television content. However, there is little evidence that curricula can modify television's effects on children's attitudes and behaviors, and curricular effects on children's viewing behavior at home have yet to be demonstrated. The research conducted is evaluated, and suggestions are made for future work in this area.     

The child,the text and the teacher: reading primers and reading instruction

From the late sixteenth century, in response to the problem of how best to teach children to read, a variety of texts, such as primers, spellers and readers were produced in England for vernacular instruction. This paper describes how these materials were used by teachers to develop, first, a specific religious understanding according to the stricture of the time and, second, a moral reading practice that provided the child with a guide to secular conduct. The analysis focuses on the use of these texts as a productive means for shaping the child-reader in the context of newly emerging educational spaces, which fostered a particular, morally formative relation among teacher, child and text.     

Teaching Children to Evaluate Television Violence Critically: the impact of a Dutch schools television project

Using a quasi‐experimental pretest‐posttest control group design, the study investigated the educational effects of a six‐programme schools television series designed to encourage children aged 10‐12 to become more discriminating consumers of violent television crime series. Results indicated that the schools television project led to an increase in factual knowledge of differences between violence as depicted in crime series and real‐life violence, and a decrease in the perceived realism of violent television programmes. Children reacted very positively to the schools broadcasts and found them instructive and useful. Teachers reacted positively to the broadcasts and the related materials (student workbook and teacher's manual) that accompanied the programmes.     

对早期儿童的学习与发展的再认识

近年来早期儿童学习与发展两个研究领域的重点似乎在向同一方向转化。传统的静态、线性儿童发展观正在逐步被动态的、系统的儿童发展观所取代,对儿童发展的研究越来越关注作为一个主动的、正在发展中的生物有机体与周围环境中的他人、客体以及符号之间越来越复杂的双边互动过程。同样,对儿童学习的研究也从对学习过程中个人思维表征特点的关注转向对学习的社会性与参与性特点的关注。有效的学习不再是一种单纯的个体活动,它依赖于个体及其周围的成人、同伴以及可用的资源所组成的学习共同体。近来的研究证实了学习引导发展的观点,对儿童学习与发展的再认识促使我们重新审视成人在儿童学习中的作用。     

Educational Television as Part of a Learning Environment: dilemmas for the Dutch Open School broadcasts

What to do if you want to make an educational programme for 40% of the population and only 2% of them are watching? You can choose between giving up and a total face‐lift. The makers of the thematic educational broadcasts for Dutch television (TELEAC) chose to renew their product. The research activities reported here were undertaken to support the process of redesigning the programme through construction principles that can help to improve thematic educational television directed at independent learning. Three investigations were carried out: consultation with experts in the field of education, mass communication, and television programme design; consultation with educationally related groups; consultation with the audience at home. The results were interpreted in the light of an educational theory of self‐directed adult learning to produce proposals and suggestions on four main topics: context and image; content; form; and appeal to the audience     

Anarchist,Neoliberal, & Democratic Decision-Making: Deepening the Joy in Learning and Teaching

Using a critical postmodern framework, this article analyzes the relationship of the decision-making processes of anarchism and neoliberalism to that of deep democracy. Anarchist processes are found to share common core principals with deep democracy; but neoliberal processes are found to be antithetical to deep democracy. To increase the joy in learning and teaching, based upon this analysis, practical anarchist guidelines for school decision-making are suggested.     

Learning and unlearning: the education of teacher educators

Despite the many expectations that US and other teacher educators around the world are striving to meet, there has been little attention to development of a curriculum for educating teacher educators, or to local and larger policies that might support the development of what teacher educators need to know and do in order to meet the complex demands of preparing teachers for the 21st century. In this article, Cochran-Smith analyzes four teacher educator communities in different contexts and entry points across the career lifespan. She makes the case that the education of teacher educators is substantially enriched when inquiry is a stance on the overall enterprise of teaching, schooling, and teacher education.     

A story of culture and teaching: the complexity of teacher identity formation

Research in teacher education repeatedly suggests that the background and underlying beliefs held by pre-service teachers about teaching and assessment act to shape their interpretations of ideas, powerfully influencing their praxis and their developing teacher identity. This paper explores how a young New Zealand secondary science teacher, raised and educated in Māori-medium and then English-medium New Zealand schools, develops his identity as a teacher as he navigates a range of educational contexts and experiences. His views on assessment provide a focus. The paper presents a case study drawn from a two-year longitudinal study, comprising a series of interviews with the teacher, as he transitioned from a university graduate to a qualified science teacher working in his first school. The complexity of teacher identity development is highlighted, particularly for teachers for whom cultural identity and indigenous world view is important. It suggests that beginning teachers need more time in their pre-service teacher education to reflect on the influence their formative educational experiences have on who they are becoming as a teacher.     

Integrating instruction of science,reading, and writing: Goals,teacher development,and assessment

This article describes the interplay of goals, teacher development, and assessment in the context of a yearlong research and development project. The aim of the project was to integrate the teaching of science, reading, and writing processes in a conceptually based, constructivist curriculum for middle school students who read below grade level. A performance-based assessment was designed and implemented to determine the level of student awareness and control over the processes taught during a unit of instruction. Interviews with science teachers and supervisors revealed the important interaction of curricular goals, the performance assessment, and instructional practice.