Prisoners of The Method breaking open the child‐centred pedagogy in day care centres

The twentieth century has known many splendid examples of professional care and education for young children. But in spite of that, research shows that the practice often does not coincide with our ideals. In this paper basic concepts and their historical roots, that form the foundations of professional care and education of young children are analysed: could these concepts possibly impede contact between teachers/caregivers and children? The concepts of ‘natural development’, ‘develop‐mentally appropriate curriculum’ and ‘child centredness’ are criticised. The drawbacks of a separate children's world (child care centres) are explored. Based on Vygotsky's sociocultural approach the author pleads for scaffolding by giving learning through social looking and participation in adult‐activities a place in child care centres. Besides that, teachers have to value peer‐relationships and to acknowledge that young children do not only play but also want to work and learn together.     

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。     

New concepts of play and the problem of technology,digital media and popular-culture integration with play-based learning in early childhood education

Technology, digital media and popular culture form an important aspect of young children’s life-worlds in contemporary post-industrial societies. A problem for early childhood educators is how to most effectively integrate these aspects of children’s life-worlds into the provision of play-based learning. Traditionally, research has considered barriers to teacher uptake of technologies in the early years, or teacher beliefs and attitudes about using technologies with young children. An alternative perspective focuses on children’s play as the foundation for early childhood curriculum provision and argues that what is needed instead are ‘new’ concepts of play more appropriate for explaining children’s contemporary play experiences in post-industrial societies. This article examines the influence of a new concept of play called ‘web-mapping’ on teachers’ curriculum practices in early childhood education, and finds that, according to Vygotsky’s ideas about explicit and implicit mediation, new concepts of play are likely to provide a fruitful avenue for addressing the ‘problem’ of technology, digital media and popular-culture integration in early childhood education.     

THE EFFECTS OF CURRICULUM ON PRESCHOOL CHILDREN'S PERCEPTIONS OF THE ELDERLY

Perceptions of the elderly were determined for 42 4‐ and 5‐year‐old children. The Social Attitude Scale of Ageist Prejudice (SASAP) was used to examine how these young children perceived elderly people after being exposed to a developmentally appropriate classroom curriculum that focused on the characteristics and positive aspects of the elderly. In a pretest‐posttest design, a decrease in prejudice score was found for children in the experimental group from pretest to posttest; an increase in prejudice score was determined for the control group. Results of this study also indicate that young children are more negative toward elderly persons’ abilities than toward their social characteristics and that level of grandparent visitation is unrelated to SASAP score.     

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。     

Applying Emotional Intelligence: Exploring the Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies curriculum

This paper describes a collaborative action research project in one primary school that arose from a mutual interest in applying the concept of “Emotional Intelligence”. It involves an exploratory qualitative study of the Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) curriculum. This is an approach aimed at promoting emotional competence in children and young people. The PATHS curriculum was chosen because of its clear conceptualisation of emotion, its emphasis upon cognitive and developmental aspects and its research history. One class of 9 and 10 year olds took part in the project. Target children were selected from within this group for closer monitoring. The outcomes suggest that PATHS was rated very positively by class teachers, pupils and other staff involved in the project. Positive emotional, social and behavioural changes at a class and individual level were attributed to the effects of PATHS. Finally, the importance of developing a positive school ethos was highlighted as promoting these effects.     

Learning-by-Designing literacy-based concept-oriented play (LBCOP) activities: emergent curriculum for/with young CLD children and their teacher

It has been argued that developing interactive learning environments that involve learners in integrating contextualized literacy experiences leads to more successful concept formation in young children. This study attempts to revisit Vygotsky’s view of the dialectical relations between culture and individual psychological functioning as mutually constitutive. By highlighting a specific literacy event, this qualitative study investigates an emergent curriculum by designing literacy-based and concept-oriented play (LBCOP) activities to foster young culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) children’s mathematical concept formation. The paper concludes with implications of co-designing LBCOP activities by the teacher and young CLD children for both children’s concept formation and teacher design work.     

一项关于儿童、教师与课程隐喻的调查报告

本文通过问卷调查的方式,了解幼儿园教师对儿童、教师、课程等的隐喻性表述。研究者通过对这些资料的深入分析,梳理出幼儿园教师的儿童观、教师观与课程观。研究者认为,教师有必要树立科学的儿童观,珍视儿童当下的生活;也要正视自身的角色,将科学教育观念转化为教育行为;还要致力于树立科学的课程观,倡导生命对话,促进儿童发展。     

Developmentally Appropriate Career Guidance: Building Concepts to Last a Lifetime

Many young children have very limited knowledge about the world of work. Yet, because work-readiness concepts and competencies are built over time, career decisions made by young adults have their roots in early childhood. Developmentally appropriate career guidance considers not only the age of each child but also his or her talents, needs, and cultural antecedents. Objectives for working with young children include increasing children's occupational awareness and exploration, enhancing their knowledge of self and others, and continuing their development of academic and work-related competencies. By infusing work-readiness activities throughout the curriculum, teachers can help children to build strong concepts that support the decisions they must make a decade or more in the future.     

Developmental growth in students' concept of energy: Analysis of selected items from the TIMSS database

The aim of this study was to develop a model of students' energy concept development. Applying Case's (1985, 1992) structural theory of cognitive development, we hypothesized that students' concept of energy undergoes a series of transitions, corresponding to systematic increases in working memory capacity. The US national sample from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) database was used to test our hypothesis. Items relevant to the energy concept in the TIMSS test booklets for three populations were identified. Item difficulty from Rasch modeling was used to test the hypothesized developmental sequence, and percentage of students' correct responses was used to test the correspondence between students' age/grade level and level of the energy concepts. The analysis supported our hypothesized sequence of energy concept development and suggested mixed effects of maturation and schooling on energy concept development. Further, the results suggest that curriculum and instruction design take into consideration the developmental progression of students' concept of energy. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

美国建桥评价方案及其启示

美国建桥评价方案(Bridging Assessment)是一个适合3-8岁儿童的课堂教学评价体系,它是以活动为基本分析单位,通过任务、儿童、教师三个维度之间构架起的框架结构而展开的儿童学习评价,是一套基于幼儿行为表现与课程理念思想相结合的儿童学习评估工具。文章从美国建桥评价方案的基本理念与内容特色的介绍入手,分析出其对我国幼儿发展与学习评价的若干启示,即以活动为评价单位,观察和描述幼儿的动态发展;关注幼儿的个体差异,实现促进幼儿发展的目的;发挥教师在评价中的中介作用;以评价在课程和教学之间建起桥梁等,这对我国幼儿发展评价具有一定的借鉴和促进作用。     

Validation of an Interdisciplinary Food Safety Curriculum Targeted at Middle School Students and Correlated to State Educational Standards

ABSTRACT:  Providing effective food safety education to young consumers is a national health priority to combat the nearly 76 million cases of foodborne illness in the United States annually. With the tremendous pressures on teachers for accountability in core subject areas, the focus of classrooms is on covering concepts that are tested on state performance examinations. As a result, topics such as food safety are rarely addressed in middle school classrooms. Middle school is an ideal time to teach food safety because adolescents are in the process of setting lifelong behaviors; therefore, they are more likely to synthesize new food safety knowledge in a way that will lead to the development of lifelong behaviors. The purpose of this study was to scientifically validate an educational resource that provides a method for classroom teachers to involve young consumers in food safety education while meeting state content area curriculum standards. An interdisciplinary curriculum targeted at middle school students and correlated directly to state content standards was designed to include highly effective instructional strategies that teach food safety concepts through all core subject classes (science, math, social studies, and language arts). The curriculum was pilot tested in 5 schools using a pretest, posttest, and follow-up test assessment model. The results showed that the curriculum was highly effective at raising student knowledge (21% gain) and improving students' food handling behaviors (8.47% gain) from pretests to posttests. In addition, 6 wk after implementation, students retained 86% of their total knowledge gain as measured by a follow-up assessment.     

The semantic differential technique in the examination of teacher attitudes to handicapped children

The study investigated the relationship between the attitudes of educators to exceptional children and the amount of contact with such children, knowledge about them, and the demographic variables: sex; age; and teaching experience of the respondents. A Semantic Differential technique was used and ten scales were rated over four concepts: physically handicapped children; emotionally disturbed children; mentally retarded children; speech impaired children. Attitude, represented by factor scores on a ‘social acceptability’ dimension, was correlated with the independent variables and produced low (r<.30) and inconsistent coefficients. An analysis of variance of the means of the ten scales over the four concepts indicated a more negative evaluation of the concept representing emotionally disturbed children than of the other three concepts. The evaluations were made in response to disability labels, and the results point to the need for further empirical research into the effects of labelling children on the attitudes of educators.     

Racial Perceptions of Young Children: A Review of Literature Post-1999

It has been argued that intervention strategies designed to reduce racial prejudice in young children have been based on weak theoretical models of racial stereotyping and prejudice with little effect on the reduction of racial bias. This paper examines the social-cognitive and intergroup scholarship post-Bigler (J Soc Issues 55(4), 687–705, 1999), with an emphasis on the development of racial prejudice in young children. The purpose of this paper is not to argue for a particular theoretical approach, but to provide an overview of some of the important pieces of research. Findings indicate that social learning and cognitive development models need to be understood when implementing curriculum designed to reduce racist beliefs and attitudes in young children.     

Community Child Care Inclusion: the development of two children

The development of two children with severe disabilities who were fully included in a community child care centre that implemented a developmentally appropriate play‐based curriculum is chronicled in this paper. The children's development was monitored over the course of a 9‐month school year using the traditional measure of a standardised assessment instrument, as well as monthly observations of the children in various play activities. The data are presented in a case study format and provide evidence that the children in this study made progress in all areas of development. The findings are important in that they show the children with severe disabilities progressed without intensive intervention, indicating that a play‐based curriculum utilising developmentally appropriate practice may provide an effective structure for the instruction of young children with disabilities.     

Educational effects of the Tools of the Mind curriculum: A randomized trial

The effectiveness of the Tools of the Mind (Tools) curriculum in improving the education of 3- and 4-year-old children was evaluated by means of a randomized trial. The Tools curriculum, based on the work of Vygotsky, focuses on the development of self-regulation at the same time as teaching literacy and mathematics skills in a way that is socially mediated by peers and teachers and with a focus on play. The control group experienced an established district-created model described as a “balanced literacy curriculum with themes.” Teachers and students were randomly assigned to either treatment or control classrooms. Children (88 Tools and 122 control) were compared on social behavior, language, and literacy growth. The Tools curriculum was found to improve classroom quality and children's executive function as indicated by lower scores on a problem behavior scale. There were indications that Tools also improved children's language development, but these effects were smaller and did not reach conventional levels of statistical significance in multi-level models or after adjustments for multiple comparisons. Our findings indicate that a developmentally appropriate curriculum with a strong emphasis on play can enhance learning and development so as to improve both the social and academic success of young children. Moreover, it is suggested that to the extent child care commonly increases behavior problems this outcome may be reversed through the use of more appropriate curricula that actually enhance self-regulation.     

论客家文化背景下的乡土教育

随着我国教育改革的不断深入,乡土教育这个理念逐渐引起教育界人士的关注。利用客家文化里的课程资源对客家青少年进行乡土教育,使他们了解自己、认识乡土、发展健全的乡土观念,从而获得积极的乡土认同,这样有利于他们树立正确的族群观。可以通过开设独立的乡土教程、建立地方文化数据库、培训师资、编写校本教材等途径对客家青少年进行有效的乡土教育。     

Children's Understanding of Agriculture as an economic activity: the role of figurative information

This paper presents the results of a curriculum of basic economic concepts given to 5 fourth-grade classes (Ss=95). The main topic of this curriculum was the production and distribution of agricultural produce, which had already proved to be difficult for the children. The proposed curriculum was largely inspired by the idea that familiarity with «social scenes» related to the economic process in question is necessary (although not sufficient) to allow children to understand such concepts. Children's level of understanding was tested before and after the curriculum by means of a semi-structured interview on 3 main topics: farmers' use of produce; farmers' use of earnings; produce distribution. Answers were scored according to their complexity and correctness; variance analyses performed on the scores showed significant improvements, as well as differences between classes. A qualitative analysis of children's answers was also performed, with the aim of interpreting the nature of change in each topic.