The research project was constructed in a number of early childhood centres in a variety of socio‐economic areas. All of these centres had an early intervention program in operation so that special needs or ‘exceptional’ children could be observed along with mainstream children.
The researcher is investigating children's learning styles to determine the children's preferred learning styles when exploring spatial concepts. The question of whether exceptional children progress through the same stages and in the same order as the mainstream children is also being considered.
Spatial concepts in early childhood is an area that seems to have been neglected by researchers in favour of the development of number concepts. This research project aims to add to our knowledge of how young children learn spatial concepts.
All plans for this integrated training program are designed to provide training normally encompassed by the traditional two‐stage programm.
The integrated training program includes:
- studies in the areas of education and social science;
- studies in two major subjects which are later to be taught at school;
- practical studies and activities.
The new model leads to the following degrees:
- nine semesters of study for a Certificate of Qualification for primary and lower‐level secondary school;
- eleven semesters for a Certificate of Qualification for higher‐level secon dary school and the education of exceptional children.
Theoretic training in major subject areas and related didactic training as well as education and social studies take place chiefly in the form of projects. A basic assumption is that interdisciplinary projects which are practice‐ and problemoriented permit a highly desirable integration of theory and practice on the whole.
In the project, contact teachers are an essential link between field practice at school and academic training at the university. Contact teachers are under contact to the university for an extended period of time (generally three years). In place of remunation, their teaching loads are reduced by ten hours per week.
In 1978/79 the project will be put to the test as the first generation of students prepares for State Board Examinations. 相似文献
The kindergarten teachers had started a reading project to stimulate parents to read books to their children. Teachers did not know how parents actually read to their children. We conducted the study to describe parent and child activities during joint story‐book reading. We use this project as a case to clarify some of the tensions between notions based on research findings from studies which were mainly conducted with middle class families and projects for educational change which tend to focus on lower class families. Theory tells us that reading with young children should be interactive. Conversations, in which the child actively engages, linking the story or pictures to the child's own knowledge and experiences, are more important to the child's development than reading the story as such. The Curaçaoan reading project is just one example of many project swhich aim at stimulating parental book‐reading without training the parents how book‐reading best can be done.
In the study we found that the parent‐child dyads talkeda lot during book reading. The conversations of some dyads, however, contained many instances of unsuccessful dialogue, and few moments of construction of meaning beyond the actual text. In addition, mothers strongly structured the dialogue that consisted for a large part of retelling the story. It is doubtful whether this type of book reading is as developmen‐tally enriching for the children as is expected and suggested by the teachers. 相似文献
There is worldwide research concerning the application of social studies to kindergarten. In Greece, specifically, there is no relevant data about this subject.
Therefore, the current study was carried out in order to find out, interalia, I) whether kindergarten teachers occupy students with social studies activities, 2) if they do occupy them, in what social studies activities children engage more frequently and 3) the self‐assessed adequacy of the kindergarten teachers’ training and their attitudes concerning the application of social studies activities to kindergarten.
In order to collect the necessary data for this study, three hundred kindergarten teachers, from urban and non‐urban areas of Greece, were given a questionnaire and the conclusions drawn from their answers form the basis of the study.
In order to gain greater data validity, the recorded answers were cross‐referenced with informal observations in classrooms of teachers who participated in the study. 相似文献
The study is based on the concepts of the creativity theory of Wallach and Kogan (1970) and the capacity theory of Renzulli (1986) and Monks (1981) developed within the framework of humanistic and cognitive psychology.
The researcher analysed 6,000 drawings and the same number of oral statements produced by 643 children attending two types of pre‐schools and living in three different habitats. The research also covered teachers working with the 6‐year‐old children.
The following were used in the study: the test ‘Draw‐a‐Man’ of Goodenough; Guilford's tests of divergent thinking; Uszynska's Questionnaire of self‐estimation; The Schaefer's and Aaronson's Classroom Behaviour Inventory Pre‐school to Primary Scale; Popek's Questionnaire of Creative Behaviour ‘KANH’, and Uszynska's Questionnaire for parents.
The results of the research confirm a great differentiation of creative capacity levels of children and suggest that the most significant factors determining them are the pedagogic ones, which may directly or indirectly be influenced by the preschool teacher. 相似文献
The overall approach to health education is identified as highly individualistic in its emphasis on individual responsibilities, attributes and skills necessary for achieving health. Contradictions, distortions and gaps inherent in this model are revealed. These contribute to identifying this kind of health education as an ideology, which serves least the needs and interests of those children who are likely to experience the greatest ill‐health.
The ways in which this approach is inappropriate for schoolchildren are illustrated by a case study, which compares the drinking experiences of a group of children with the alcohol education materials designed for them.
To conclude, improvements to both health education for slow learners and more generally to health education in schools are discussed. These include the development of an approach which is both child‐centred, and critical in locating individual choices about health within the social, economic and political contexts of local communities and wider society.
In countries of low and moderate levels of human development children are more likely to use commercial symbol‐making tools first in schools, not homes. The symbol‐making tools most widely available to young children are pencils and crayons. Yet, when commercial tools are unavailable, children create their own, using objects from the natural environment.
The pencils used by most young children are standard adult‐sized while crayons, brushes, and markers are more varied in size. In most countries children use symbol‐making tools freely and with adult direction. Nonetheless, adult‐directed tool use decreases and free use increases as human development levels rise.
Place of residence, socio‐economic status, teacher and parent educational levels, and commercial availability account for often wide within‐country variations in child access to and use of symbol‐making tools. Finally, symbol‐making tool design and use appear to be based on tradition rather than research.
Aims.
The aims of the study were to investigate whether the style of pupils with behaviour problems was different from that of children with no reported problems, and also to consider how pupils of different style manifested their problem behaviours.
Sample.
The sample comprised 83 male pupils aged 10‐18 years from two residential special schools.
Method.
The sample were given the Cognitive Styles Analysis to assess their positions on the Wholist‐Analytic and Verbal‐Imagery style dimensions. The pupil records of the special school pupils who were at the extreme of the style dimensions were also examined.
Results.
When their style characteristics were contrasted with a Comparison Sample of 413 12‐16‐year‐old males attending 10 secondary schools, the special school pupils had a significantly higher proportion of both Wholists and Verbalisers, than the Comparison Group. Further, the inspection of the records indicated that the types of social behaviour and behaviour problems exhibited varied with style, and particularly on the Wholist‐Analytic dimension.
Conclusion.
The results were considered to have implications for the origins and treatment of problem behaviour. 相似文献
Human activity takes place principally in a social context. For this reason it is important to pay attention to two‐subject relationships. Their features are above all purposefulness, bi‐directionality and co‐ordination. Two‐subject activity may be of two sorts—negative co‐operation (conflict) or positive co‐operation, co‐ordination of a line of action including dialogue and collaboration.
Educational activity, particularly when directed at younger children, is characterized by different planes of functioning. The adult acts in a longer‐term perspective and formulates his aims in terms of general concepts but a small child acts in a short term perspective and formulates aims in concrete terms.
A system of priorities is put forward here, a two‐task model for the educational situation which makes subjective activity possible both for the child and for the adult. In the last part of the article an experiment is described which illustrates how such a two‐task situation works with a system of priorities and the results that were obtained.
In the first section an overall picture is given from the different types of teacher training, their certification and their developments.
In the second section two key‐issues in teacher training are discussed, particularly the different training concepts and the developments in teaching practice in schools. Specific attention is given to the training of the co‐operating teachers.
In the third section two of the author's research projects are reviewed: the first is a project on problems of beginning teachers, and the second a project on teaching practice in schools. 相似文献
Our youngest children have not been untouched by this. For the first time in our history there is a political commitment to serve young children and to provide resources for this.
Supported by intense research and investigation, and a sector deeply committed to improving conditions for young children, their families and communities, a comprehensive national policy and training framework for early childhood education and care has been developed.
This article begins by setting the context for early childhood education and care in South Africa. The article focuses on the principles which direct programme and service delivery, the development of a training framework, the role of lobbying and advocacy networks, strategies for improving the quality and increasing quantity of provision, and the role of non‐governmental organisations in service delivery. 相似文献
The system is aware of the need to promote a real change in the pedagogical‐educational approach to teaching and learning, and recent reforms have implemented structural innovations and have required changes in the teachers’ roles and functions.
The new professional profile of the teacher points out the need for initial and in‐service education and training; given the insufficient provisions available, in 1979 the Ministry of Education, in cooperation with OECD, has initiated a project for introducing PRESET pilot projects in a number of Italian universities.
The MPI/OECD Project has gone through a four‐phase preparation process, including a background report, a national seminar, feasibility studies, planning of pilot projects.
The basic ideas were to improve the scientific/cultural and methodological preparation of teachers: curricula of study must ensure an appropriate balance between scientific knowledge in a subject‐matter or in a discipline area and educational studies. Teaching practice is considered as essential all through the course of study.
Starting November 1983 the University of Bologna will start a PRESET course of study for primary school teachers as a joint activity between the Faculty of Education and the Faculty of Sciences.
Other projects are on study at other universities. 相似文献
This account is that of one country teacher operating in northern South Australia where distance education has now changed to be offered, Statewide, by a series of open access schools and has also been regionalised to be offered at the initiative of Education Department Regional Centres with a broad responsibility for education of children in their region. The article makes no pretence to being considered as ‘international research literature’ — some will question whether or not it is even distance education. It is being published at my request.
The teacher functions in an areaof small country towns 50 km apart and with 500 or so people. Not too much further north, into sparsely‐watered country, the towns are likely to have 50 or so people and are up to 500 km apart!
What the paper does highlight is that there are professional people ‘out there’ who see themselves as having a stake in distance education. Central administrators and those who regard themselves as scholars in distance education are only a part of the personnel in distance education.
Ed. 相似文献
While searching for a new method that would be more effective, I was introduced to Louis Ormont's theories regarding the Group Experience involving adults.
Immediately I began to see the possibility of adjusting the adult Group Process to address the needs of the 5‐6‐year‐olds in my kindergarten class.
In my presentation I will discuss Dr Ormont's theory as I see it relating to my classroom and describe how I implement the Group Process and the results that were achieved over three years’ time with several classes of children.
My presentation will give new meaning to the terms ‘Group Meeting’ and ‘Behavioural Modification’ in the kindergarten classroom. In my mind the results are enormously positive. Children learn to take charge of their own behaviour and are strengthened by the feelings of group membership and personal empowerment. 相似文献
The purpose of the meeting was to analyse the main findings of nine national case studies which had been prepared in the framework of the project (Denmark, France, Federal Republic of Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Romania, United Kingdom) and to make suggestions regarding a synthesis study to be elaborated on that basis.
A preliminary draft of this study was presented as a working document to the Symposium. The main objectives of the meeting were, therefore, to facilitate an exchange of views and experience on the proposed topic and to identify the most significant data contained in the case studies which might be reflected in the synthesis study.
For information on the discussions of this meeting see page 36 in this issue.
The three following articles are based on the case studies on Hungary, Romania and Poland. 相似文献
The present basis of policy for special education in Norway is stated, and the author goes on to examine the needs of in‐service training in this field. The role of the Norwegian College of Education for Teachers of Vocational Subjects (NCETVS) is described, and the author examines also the developmental project based on Moholt and Brundalen Schools.
Particular attention is given to the role of evaluation in this project. 相似文献
Purpose: Noting the theoretical and practical significance of showing that recognition can support reasoning, the reported research aimed to examine the possibility in relation to horizontal motion.
Sample: The research was conducted with 167 children (mean age = 9.51 years) from Years 4, 5 and 6 of an English-medium school located in Lisbon, Portugal.
Design and methods: Individual pre-tests were administered to all participants to assess initial reasoning about the direction and speed with which rolling balls travel after collision. Reasoning was assessed in the sense of both predicting and explaining. Thereafter, about two-thirds of the sample worked with software that, via simulations of the incorrect patterns that were typically predicted (and comparison with simulations of correct patterns), engaged recognition as feedback on reasoning. The remaining children became an untutored control group. Replicating characteristic computer use in classrooms, half of the software sample worked as singletons with adult guidance available on request and half worked in pairs without the option of guidance. A few weeks later, all participants were post-tested following pre-test procedures.
Results: Pre- to post-test change amongst the children who worked with the software exceeded pre- to post-test change within the control group, and this was observed with both predictions and explanations. The differences were strongest amongst the children who worked as singletons, even though they seldom requested adult support.
Conclusions: Although issues remain to be addressed before the approach can be optimized, its viability as support for reasoning has been demonstrated, and this may have relevance beyond horizontal motion. 相似文献
The main aim of the study was to help the staff when advising prospective students (of various drop‐out risks) and to distinguish between students requiring different levels of assistance on the course.
The findings, based on a sample of 445 students from 1982–;88, indicate that particular attributes such as occupation affect the drop‐out rate, while achievement in the project course appears to be influenced by the students’ performance in some previous courses. 相似文献
It is considered a serious diagnostic‐prognostic error to forecast the end community at any early period in time within the developmental cycle of any individual.
For the moderately mentally handicapped the provision of the school, the half‐way centre and the sheltered workshop must still be deemed the result of community project effort rather than the just responsibility of central political institutions. 相似文献
The responsive social context is increasingly seen by developmental psychologists (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Wood, 1982) as of fundamental importance for the acquisition of intellectual skills. It is within responsive social contexts that individuals acquire not only specific skills but also generic knowledge about how to learn. It is this generic knowledge that allows individuals a measure of control over, and hence independence in, these social contexts.
Educational policy statements, school prospectuses and, more recently, the Core Curriculum, abound with aims and objectives to do with achieving individual autonomy and independence as a learner. Yet there is growing evidence that in many contemporary classrooms at primary, secondary and tertiary levels, we may be providing precisely the wrong contexts for students to become autonomous and independent learners. Too many classroom learning environments simply do not qualify as responsive social contexts. Individual learners have minimal control over learning interactions and hence are excessively dependent on external control by teachers.
Theoretical explanations for differences between unskilled and skilled performance are being sought increasingly in terms of characteristics of the specific contexts in which performance occurs and less in terms of qualitative differences in global capacities or in thinking processes between individuals (Wood, 1982). For example, differences in complexity of oral language between three‐year‐old children might be explained by differences in the amount and quality of language exchange with caregivers. They might also be explained by differences in caregiver skills in interpreting and responding to needs signalled by an individual child's use of language in a particular context. If we are genuinely concerned about aims of autonomy and independence in learning, then we need to discover and analyse those characteristics of responsive environments which support and promote independent learning. On the basis of existing research it is possible to specify four such characteristics of responsive learning contexts.