Conceptual Coherence in the Child's Theory of Mind: Training Children to Understand Belief

Intuitive theories are defined as coherently interrelated systems of concepts that generate explanations and predictions in a particular domain of experience. 2 studies tested whether the child's theory of mind can be characterized as an intuitive theory. In Study 1, 3-year-old children who did not pass a false belief pretest were trained in 2 groups: (1) on the concept of belief, or (2) on the related concepts of desire and perception. Training took place over 2 weeks, with children given mental state tasks and receiving feedback according to their performance. Both training groups showed improved false belief performance on the posttest, compared to a control group trained on number conservation. This result is interpreted as demonstrating coherence in the child's theory of mind. In Study 2, these findings were repeated and expanded: training on belief as well as training on desire and perception resulted in improved performance on a variety of standard theory of mind posttests. Results are discussed with respect to competing theories of children's intuitive psychological knowledge.     

柯尔伯格与哈贝马斯儿童道德发展阶段理论比较研究

柯尔伯格与哈贝马斯的儿童道德发展阶段理论对当前儿童道德教育的理念、形式和方法具有重要的指导意义.当前儿童道德教育要关注儿童的道德发展阶段和主体间的相互作用,采用儿童道德两难故事讨论和话语实践的形式,通过设置教学情境和角色扮演的方法促进儿童的道德发展.     

Mexican-American and Anglo-American Children's Responsiveness to a Theory-Centered AIDS Education Program

Third, fifth, and seventh graders, most of them Mexican-American, were exposed to an empirically based and culturally sensitive AIDS curriculum designed to replace their intuitive theories with a coherent, scientific account of the causal processes that lead from risk behavior to AIDS symptomatology. Compared to students in control classes, experimental students knew more about AIDS risk factors and AIDS generally, displayed more conceptual understanding of the causes of AIDS and flu, and were more willing to interact with people who have AIDS (although not less worried about AIDS) at posttest and typically at follow-up 10–11 months later. The findings point to the potential value of adopting an intuitive theories approach in assessing and modifying children's concepts of health and illness and suggest, contrary to Piagetian formulations, that even relatively young children can, with appropriate instruction, grasp scientific theories of disease.     

Form-Function Correspondences in Children's Inference

Perceptual similarity among concept members has been viewed as inadequate to motivate concept formation. Instead, it has been argued that intuitive beliefs about the world offer more structured motivation for concepts. Our research explores children's beliefs about the relations between perceptually based similarity among things and their predicted behaviors. We focus on form-function correspondences as fundamental components of very young children's belief systems. Groups of 2- and 4-year-old children were asked to choose which of 2 line-drawn animals evidenced a particular "function," a special behavior. Even the youngest children showed sensitivity to form-function correspondences by selecting the animal whose form afforded the particular function. A second study investigated how form-function correspondences affect the relative influences of perceptual similarity and shared labels over patterns of children's inference. Perceptual similarity, if "motivated" by intuitive beliefs about correspondences between form and function, was found to be sufficient basis for inference and a more robust basis than shared labels when children attributed meaningful functions to novel animal forms.     

幼儿对死亡概念认知特点的研究

死亡概念是生命科学领域内一个非常重要的科学概念。本研究选取100名3-6岁的幼儿作为被试,采用个别访谈法对幼儿死亡概念认知的特点进行了考察。结果表明:(1)幼儿对死亡概念认知的年龄主效应显著、性别主效应不显著。(2)幼儿对死亡概念的内涵有一定认知,但是同时这种认知还不太成熟。其中,对死亡的适用性和死亡无功能性认知较高,对死亡的不可逆性认知居中,对死亡的普遍性和死亡原因性认知较低。(3)在三类生命体死亡概念的认知中,对动物死亡和人体死亡概念认知要高于对植物死亡概念的认知。     

Constraints on conceptual development: a case study of the acquisition of folkbiological and folksociological knowledge in Madagascar

How different are the concepts held by children who grow up in a North American middle class neighborhood and by children who grow up in a rural Malagasy fishing village? By probing Malagasy children's and adults' conceptual representations of human and animal kind, biological inheritance, innate potential and family relations, the studies presented in this Monograph address current debates about the acquisition and the nature of concepts in the domains of folkbiology and folksociology. Cross-cultural and developmental studies of this kind bear on the hypothesis that conceptual development in these domains is supported and constrained by innate conceptual content. If so, one would expect cross-cultural universality in the relevant adult concepts and their early emergence in childhood regardless of widely different input conditions. We chose to conduct these studies among the Vezo of Madagascar because the ethnographic literature has attributed to them folkbiological and folksociological theories that are radically different, even in commensurable, with those of North American adults. Vezo therefore provide a challenging test for the innate conceptual constraints hypothesis.Four studies probed aspects of biological and sociological reasoning of Vezo children, adolescents and adults through a number of adoption scenarios. Despite ethnographic reports to the contrary, we found cross-cultural convergence in adult concepts of biological inheritance, but the pattern of development of this concept differed greatly from that seen in North America. Moreover, in agreement with the ethnographic literature, we found that Vezo adults have constructed a distinctive theory of social group identity. However, we found that children's reasoning in this domain is under the influence of endogenous constraints that are overturned in the course of development. Finally, we found cross-cultural convergence in adults' concept of species kind, as well as evidence for the early emergence of this concept. In light of these findings, we discuss the nature of the constraints on children's conceptual representations, the developmental process through which the adults' concepts are constructed, and relations between Vezotheories of folkbiology and folksociology.     

课程游戏化背景下的幼儿生成活动实施策略探研

游戏在幼儿的成长和发展历程中扮演的角色至关重要,在推动幼儿身心发展方面具有极高的现实价值,这就决定了幼儿园的各项教育教学活动要尽可能地用游戏活动形式开展。教师应进一步加强对幼儿园课程游戏化的研究,提高对这一环节中生成活动的重视程度,使课程游戏化背景下的幼儿生成活动更加丰富多彩。     

儿童文学的概念是一个模糊集

根据美国科学家札德的模糊集理论,认为“儿童文学”的概念是一个模糊集。首先,作为“儿童文学”根本属性的“儿童”、“文学”都是具有模糊义素的模糊词,这就使“儿童文学”内涵成为由两个模糊概念组成的集。其次,“儿童文学”的外延模糊。无论儿童文学的创作主体、文本,还是读者的范围,都是模糊的。这三重模糊又构成一个模糊集。造成“儿童文学”概念是模糊集的原因,一是与概念涉及的对象。儿童文学创作的复杂性有关,儿童文学创作是儿童直觉的产物。直觉的特点是形象的,它凭借心灵的力量对事物进行整体性的把握。用以表现作家直觉感受的东西只能是意象,并且具有独特性。创作是形象而具体的,而儿童文学概念却是理性的、逻辑的。用理性的、逻辑的语言去概括形象的、极富个性化的创作,这本身就是一个悖论。理论不可能准确地指涉对象本身。儿童文学是一个不断发展变化的过程,它多姿多彩,博大精深,每一个理论家受到历史的局限,都只能站在一个特定的点上给儿童文学下定义,要让一个固定的有局限的概念去阐释不断发展变化的儿童文学创作过程,也是难以做到的。这些就是造成儿童文学概念是模糊集的原因。     

从学习过程视角看蒙氏教具在幼儿数学活动中的运用

蒙台梭利教具有很强的教育功能,在特定的环境中使用,对幼儿思维能力培养具有重要作用。文章阐述从学习过程性发展幼儿数学学习观,对幼儿使用数棒、大数字卡的学习过程进行分析,以充分发挥蒙台梭利教具的作用,培养幼儿数学学习能力,提升幼儿数学素养,促进幼儿全面发展。     

Knowledge, Concepts, and Inferences in Childhood

The role of knowledge in children's inferences was investigated in 3 experiments. Experiment 1 examined developmental changes in the role of categorical membership, perceptual appearance, and item complexity in inferences for natural kind and artifact concepts. Preschoolers (5-year-olds), second graders (8-year-olds), and fourth graders (10-year-olds) were taught novel properties about target concepts and asked whether each of 4 probes had those properties. Probes varied in category membership and perceptual appearance relative to the target item. Item complexity also varied. Experiments 2 and 3 examined inferences with known and unknown concepts for familiar and unfamiliar properties. Older children's knowledge led to differential weighting of categorical information over appearance but only for known concepts and/or familiar properties. Preschoolers made no distinction between category and appearance for either known or unknown concepts. Additionally, as target item complexity increased, older children made more inferences than preschoolers. No differences between inferences about natural kind and artifact concepts were found. The role of theories and knowledge in children's drawing of inferences is discussed.     

高职建筑类力学课程改革与实践研究

我国建筑业的快速发展给建筑工程技术人员带来了挑战与机遇。高职高专建筑工程技术专业的相关课程应满足岗位对职业能力的要求,在建筑工程技术专业相关改革的基础上对《建筑力学》课程的教学内容和方法加以改革。课程教学内容的选择和编排以建筑工程为载体,采用项目教学法将建筑力学的概念和理论融为一体,使得学生对力学知识在工程上的应用具有更直观的认识和理解,并为后续建筑结构及施工课程的学习奠定良好的力学理论基础。     

A Good Story: Children With Imaginary Companions Create Richer Narratives

In line with theories that children's pretend play reflects and extends their narrative skills, children with imaginary companions were predicted to have better narrative skills than children without imaginary companions. Forty-eight 5½-year-old children and their mothers participated in interviews about children's imaginary companions. Children also completed language and narrative assessments. Twenty-three of the children (48%) were deemed to have engaged in imaginary companion play. Children with and without imaginary companions were similar in their vocabulary skills, but children with imaginary companions told richer narratives about a storybook and a personal experience compared to children without imaginary companions. This finding supports theories of a connection between pretend play and storytelling by the end of early childhood.     

Cultural Differences in Korean- and Anglo-American Preschoolers' Social Interaction and Play Behaviors

48 Korean- and 48 Anglo-American children were observed in their preschool settings to examine the role of culture in organizing children's activities and in shaping their pretend play behavior. Observers recorded the presence or absence of preselected social behaviors and levels of play complexity. Parents completed a questionnaire about play in the home, teachers rated children's social competence, and children were given the PPVT-R and a socio-metric interview. Korean parents completed an acculturation questionnaire. The findings revealed cultural differences in children's social interaction, play complexity, adult-child interaction and play in the home and in the preschool, adult beliefs about play, scores on the PPVT-R, and children's social functioning with peers. The results suggest that children's social interaction and pretend play behavior are influenced by culture-specific socialization practices that serve adaptive functions.     

Language as resource: a key notion for understanding the complexity of mathematics learning

Many mathematical concepts may have prototypical images associated with them. While prototypes can be beneficial for efficient thinking or reasoning, they may also have self-attributes that may impact reasoning about the concept. It is essential that mathematics educators understand these prototype images in order to fully recognize their benefits and limitations. In this paper, I examine prototypes in a context in which they seem to play an important role: graphical representations of the calculus concept of the definite integral. I use student data to empirically describe the makeup of the definite integral prototype image, and I report on the frequency of its appearance among student, instructor, and textbook image data. I end by discussing the possible benefits and drawbacks of this particular prototype, as well as what the results of this study may say about prototypes more generally.     

关于高等代数中几何实例的初步探讨

高等代数的概念是整个教学的核心环节,其中一些概念不仅抽象难懂而且易于混淆,严重影响了高等代数的教学质量,文章主要研究这些概念的几何实例,通过几何直观加深对概念的理解.     

VISUAL IMAGES AS EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS IN MATHEMATICS

In general, students in school learn mathematical concepts by words. Some mathematical concepts, however, are difficult to understand by words. This is especially true of some of the more complicated concepts in mathematics taught in higher education. For students who are studying to become engineers, it is very important to understand mathematics intuitively. Ways must be found for them to learn mathematics that will promote intuitive understanding. We often find that a figure helps us understand mathematical concepts and provides important clues for solving problems. A figure may serve as a concrete expression of an abstract mathematical concept; it is a visual image of the mathematical concept. A visual image is a figure with no words but its title. The aim of this article is to introduce some visual images that are effective in mathematical education.     

创设情境提高生物核心概念教学效率探究

核心概念是高中生物学教学中的重中之重,主要包括重要的概念、原理和理论等,对学生生物核心素养的形成与提高有重要作用.这就要求教师把握生物学学科的本质,了解学生的认知能力,创设合理的情境,给学生提出适合的问题,引导学生独立思考,帮助学生理解核心概念,以提高学生的生物素养.     

维果茨基的儿童科学概念及其教学启示——基于对《思维与语言》的解读

基于维果茨基的经典著作《思维与语言》,深入梳理其关于科学概念的论述,逐一讨论科学概念的本质、形成过程以及发展规律,探讨维果茨基对科学概念发展的研究为教学带来的启示。维果茨基对科学概念和日常概念作出区分,开创性地指出二者是同一概念形成过程的两个方面。他结合儿童思维发展的特点,重点分析了科学概念的发展方式,指出儿童智力发展与学校教学之间的紧密联系,认为教学先于发展。教师教授科学概念时,儿童的高级心理机能尚未成熟,而是在互动教学中通过与所学概念不断建立内在联系而逐渐发展的。在这个过程中,儿童的主动性、教师的积极性和他们所处的社会环境共同构建了概念的发展,而这些教学概念和方法同时也为科学概念在儿童内部心理机能中的发展提供了有效的路径,不断深化人们对掌握概念和学科知识规律的认识。维果茨基对儿童科学概念的研究为教学研究注入了新的动力、开拓了新的角度,推动了社会建构主义理论的发展。