Children's ideas about evaporation

This article reports on research conducted as part of the Primary Science Processes and Concept Exploration (space) Project. The background to, and orientation of, space is briefly described.

Classroom‐based research into children's thinking about evaporation is reported. This work was conducted in close collaboration with teachers of the 5‐11 years age range with the intention of establishing the viability of the techniques for eliciting ideas and managing subsequent interventions within classrooms.

Children's thinking in relation to three main evaporation phenomena are discussed. Ideas about evaporation were categorized by reference to notions of conservation, change of location and change of form of the water.     

Children's ideas about the reliability of experimental data

This paper reports some of the findings of the Procedural and Conceptual Knowledge in Science (PACKS) project. It documents children's ides about the reliability of experimental data, an important element of their understanding of science procedures. These ideas were elicited using a written survey instrument completed by over 1000 students aged 11, 14 and 16, chosen to be representative of the full ability range. The results show progression with age in understanding of empirical data. A range of ideas about the function of repeat measurements, how to handle repeat measurements and anomalous readings, and the significance of the spread of a set of repeated measurements emerge and are discussed.     

Children's choice of drawings to communicate their ideas about technology

This study examines children's choice of drawing to communicate their understanding of the concept “technology”. The study explored whether the children's drawings accurately reflected the depth and range of their understanding of technology in a way that was interpretable by others. Data were collected from 314 primary school children in England and 745 children in Western Australia. Children were invited to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding about technology by responding to a writing/drawing activity and a representative subsample were then interviewed about their responses. About two-thirds of children's responses to the activity included drawings. Children held a wide range of ideas about technology and only rarely was a drawing difficult to interpret. Although overall the drawings reflected the range of children's ideas, sometimes they did not reveal the depth or breadth of an individual child's understanding. Consistent with the ideas represented in the drawings, the interviews found that younger children held simpler ideas about technology, while older children held more complex, and sometimes quite abstract concepts of technology. A notable difference between the two countries was the emphasis on “design and make” and a smaller proportion of no response in the English sample, reflecting the greater length of time technology education has been implemented in England compared to Western Australia.     

The mind is not a black box: Children's ideas about the writing process

We studied children's conceptions of the writing process while the complex cognitive activity of writing is carried out through a pictorial representation of the writing process. Sixty children attending Kindergarten, first grade and fourth grade in Bariloche, Argentina, were presented individually with a sequence of four questions about the content of a child's thought at four key moments of writing production (anticipating, writing, revising, rereading), which were depicted on picture cards. Textual analysis, the application of Simple Correspondence Factorial Analysis (SCFA) and Modal Response procedures, indicated significant developmental changes in the focus of children's ideas about writing. More specifically, we looked at children's conceptions of the nature of thinking while writing, given cognitive processes of increasing complexity and internalization. Main educational implications indicate the need to rethink practices for teaching writing at initial and primary school levels in order to promote teaching interventions directed at getting pupils to be explicit, revise and redescribe their conceptions about the writing process. We suggest that learners' conceptions of writing processes outline a tacit learning curriculum of writing, which operates by guiding learning efforts and self-evaluation standards.     

Children's ideas about ecology 1: theoretical background,design and methodology

Abstract

This paper provides an introduction to a study of the ecological understandings of children aged 5‐16 years in schools in the north of England. Children's ideas about selected ecological concepts were elicited through a series of written tasks and individual interviews set in a range of contexts, referred to here as probes. Responses of about 200 pupils, across the age range, were obtained on each probe. In this paper, issues relating to theoretical background, design and methodology are outlined. Two further papers present the major findings of the study: the first reports children's ideas about the cycling of matter between organisms and between organisms and the abiotic environment (Leach et al. in press a); the second reports children's ideas about the interdependency of organisms in ecosystems (Leach et al. in press b).     

Children's observations,ideas, and the development of classroom theories about light

The purpose of this study was to examine the interaction between children's observations of light and shadows and their developing theories in the context of a series of lessons in a third-grade classroom. Detailed analysis of videotapes of the children's discussions of their investigations into light and shadows led to the finding that the children's observations of light led to the development of a limited theory about light that was largely useful in explaining classroom investigations. However, this theory of light was less helpful in helping them understanding shadow phenomena and was too limited to explain out-of-classroom observations of light and shadows.     

Children's ideas on light and vision

This paper reports a small‐scale longitudinal enquiry into the development of children's ideas on light and vision. It followed the same class from Year 4 (age 9) through to Year 6 (age 11), but the greater part of the information came from Year 5. The data were derived from the children's drawings and written responses, and from small group interviews. Care was taken to ensure that the ideas elicited were the true beliefs of the children. No formal instruction in the subject had been given, nor was any attempted. In the analysis, the children's views have been classified according to a hierarchical set of models, which reflect the strong adherence to an active vision interpretation held by the majority. The extent of progression towards the more scientific view is reported. In the introduction and discussion comparison is made between contemporary non‐scientific conceptions of vision, and the speculations of pre‐scientific philosophers. A final section presents some implications of these findings for teaching the topic.     

浅谈幼儿园自然角的设计与使用

自然角是幼儿园环境创设的一部分,是科学教育的重要资源。本文针对目前自然角设置中存在的问题,阐述了自然角设计应遵循的原则和自然角使用中应注意的问题,提出自然角的创设应突出丰富性、季节性、变化的显著性、实验性和层次性,自然角的使用应当重视教师的主导作用并充分发挥幼儿的主体作用,才能激发和促进幼儿的观察和探究活动,使自然角真正体现出对幼儿建构过程的支持。     

Teaching Physics at a distance

Opportunities to study physics in an external mode are at present severely limited by the difficulties of providing the necessary practical experience. This article describes the approach and the experience of teaching external degree level courses in physics at the Open University (U.K.). Although all examples are drawn from physics, most of the discussions would also apply to other science courses.     

Mathematical modelling at a distance

In this paper we describe the mathematical modelling components of the Open University second level course in applied mathematics called Mathematical Models and Methods. The teaching of mathematical modelling has been introduced in many British Universities and Poly technics. But teaching modelling at a distance is fraught with difficulties. What these are and how we overcame them is described by the authors. In doing so we,hope that other distance education institutes will find it attractive to offer components on mathematical modelling in some of their courses.     

Careers guidance at a distance

How can careers guidance, which in conventional institutions relies so much on personal contacts and the ability to browse through up‐to‐date information files, be adequately provided for distance students? Here, Martin Cawthome, Senior Counsellor in the Open University's West Midlands region and until recently chair of the Open University's Careers Information Research and Counselling Group, considers this question. Having outlined the stages involved in careers guidance, he reviews the use of printed materials, the telephone and computers, and looks forward to the possible improvements which computer systems may allow in the future.     

Problem-based learning in distance education: Practitioners' beliefs about an action learning project

Despite the advantages of problem based learning (PBL) and the fact that it has been utilised for some time in conventional higher education settings, it is not widely used in distance education in Hong Kong. Recently, a small group of course co‐ordinators at the Open University of Hong Kong engaged in a series of action learning projects to explore ways in which it could be incorporated into their courses. The purpose of this paper is to report the opinions of these academics about the suitability of PBL for a distance education environment. Generally, they concluded that it is possible, and perhaps desirable, to consider implementing PBL as one learning approach. However, most of the projects focussed on a fairly narrow application of PBL, namely in face‐to‐face tutorials. The limitations of the participants’ interpretations are discussed in the light of the constraints they face, and some recommendations are made for other ways of implementing PBL into distance education.     

物流实验室的建设构想

目前,物流在我国得到了较好地发展,如何将物流教育与市场需求紧密结合,培养出能够将理论与实践相结合的物流专业人才,已成为现代物流教育所面临的紧迫问题,构建符合社会需要和学校发展的物流实验室是解决这个问题的关键所在。     

Learning computer programming at a distance

Several strategies for distance education in computer programming are described with particular reference to the provision of computing facilities and the integration of theory and practical work. Experience from two years of presentation of two different courses has shown that the most satisfactory results are obtained with portable stand‐alone microcomputers loaned off‐campus, and course design based on a modified Keller plan in which each unit has interactive practical exercises preceding the discussion of theory topics.     

Training mathematics teachers at a distance

This article describes the development, with the help of international aid, of a distance education course for secondary school teachers located in a number of Caribbean countries. The course was designed to cover both content and teaching methods, and was able to introduce difficult and challenging ideas with some degree of success. The author of the course, and of this paper, Paul Ernest, is now at the University of Exeter.