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 action at a distance

Children's ideas about action at a distance are analysed according to the commonsense theory. These ideas can be organized around three presuppositions which express concrete realizations of the abstract idea of interaction at a distance. The presuppositions are concerned with the uniqueness of earth, the need for connection between objects interacting at a distance, and how various forces support and focus each other. These ideas do not form a self‐consistent set of axioms to be applied coherently, but rather form a guiding framework. The chosen presuppositions are context dependent and related to the different environments of earth, a satellite, the moon and outer space. Support is preferred over connection. The relevance of these findings for instruction are discussed.     

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 suggestibility in relation to their understanding about sources of knowledge

In the experiments reported here, children chose either to maintain their initial belief about an object's identity or to accept the experimenter's contradicting suggestion. Both 3- to 4-year-olds and 4- to 5-year-olds were good at accepting the suggestion only when the experimenter was better informed than they were (implicit source monitoring). They were less accurate at recalling both their own and the experimenter's information access (explicit recall of experience), though they performed well above chance. Children were least accurate at reporting whether their final belief was based on what they were told or on what they experienced directly (explicit source monitoring). Contrasting results emerged when children decided between contradictory suggestions from two differentially informed adults: Three- to 4-year-olds were more accurate at reporting the knowledge source of the adult they believed than at deciding which suggestion was reliable. Decision making in this observation task may require reflective understanding akin to that required for explicit source judgments when the child participates in the task.     

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 drawings in different cultures: an analysis of five-year-old Jordanian children's drawings

Research results have shown that what a child draws is influenced by many factors, including the child’s culture and environment. The aim of this study was to analyse the drawings of five-year-old Jordanian children to determine the extent to which culture informs the content of their drawings. A total of 736 children took part in this research project (387 boys and 349 girls). Their sample drawings were categorised according to specific themes. Results revealed that children drew pictures related to nature, people, surroundings, letters, numbers, symbols, animals, and transportation. The most frequent content of the drawings related to nature (38.9%) and the least frequent were drawings depicting violence (0.32%). Drawings also showed English and Arabic numbers and mathematical shapes separately and combined on the paper. Implications and recommendations for further research are presented.     

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.     

A Way of Visualising Children's and Young People's Thoughts about the Environment: A study of drawings

This article attempts to visualise the way in which children and young people think about a specific topic, namely the environment. The aim is to make the thinking of children and young people available and to interpret the meaning of their thoughts about our environment. The theoretical roots of the study are to be found within the phenomenology of the lifeworld. The study is based on empirical material consisting of drawings produced by 109 children and young people, combined with subsequent oral comments. During the drawing analysis different structures and patterns gradually crystallised, and eventually four different themes emerged, consisting of thoughts which focus on the following: the good world, the bad world, the dialectics between the good and the bad world, and symbols and actions protecting the environment. It can be stated that the results which emerged, in the form of the thoughts of the children and young people on the environment, reflect a thinking characterisedby many nuances, such as clean and unspoilt nature in different manifestations, the need for human beings to use nature for recreation and well-being, environmental destruction in different forms, and direct or indirect ways of taking care of the prevailing environmental situation.     

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 responses to questions about transformations and their relationship to strategies used in problem solving

This paper describes some preliminary results comparing two groups of children's performance on a set of Piagetian conservation tasks. The findings point to the need to sensitise parents and teachers to current views on appropriate learning environments for young children, in particular, the strategies that they might use to make sense of their experiences. In addition, the findings are used to support the argument that it is important to emphasise adults’ roles in giving structure and direction to children's early learning experiences. It is anticipated that if parents and some teachers understand the basis for this approach to tutoring, their support and encouragement will relieve the potentially damaging pressure to ‘ succeed at all costs ‘, a current dilemma for parents of children in Singapore. Given the emphasis on structure and attainment in the Singaporean Pre‐Schools in this paper, experiences involving aspects of problem solving are selected for investigation, given their reported relationship with school attainment. (Bruner, 1972).     

湖南科技期刊发展的新思路--86731网站的策划与运作

湖南省科技期刊编辑学会期刊专业委员会率先在全国创建了一个以全省100多家科技期刊为基础,具有国际顶级域名的专业网站（www.86731.com)。网站的建立是信息时代的需要,更是湖南科技期刊发展的新思路。该网站由湖南的科技编辑们自己策划、自己创建、自己创建、自己维护、自己管理,具有独特的运作方式和鲜明地域特色,它将全面推进湖南科技期刊的电子化与网络化进程,为树立湖南期刊的良好形象,让更多期刊走向全国,走向世界创造条件。     

Children’s perceptions and learning about tropical rainforests: an analysis of their drawings

This study analysed 9 to 11 year old children’s drawings of tropical rainforests immediately before and after a visit to the Humid Tropics Biome at the Eden Project, Cornwall, UK. A theoretical framework derived from considerations of informal learning and constructivism was used as a basis to develop a methodology to interpret the children’s drawings and to measure the change in children’s perceptions and learning after their visit. The children’s pre‐visit drawings mainly showed tree and plant outlines familiar to an English countryside. Rainforest animals were to the fore in the pictures and there was a general lack of scale, depth and perspective in the drawings. In the post‐visit drawings, the animals had mainly disappeared. There was often remarkable accuracy in the shape and detail of the tropical rainforest trees and plants now drawn. The post‐visit drawings also demonstrated far greater depth, scale and perspective than the pre‐visit drawings. The interpretation and analysis of the drawings gave insights into children’s understanding and learning about tropical rainforests and demonstrated that analysis of children’s drawings can be an effective method of assessing some aspects of their learning.     

论黑格尔关于艺术摹仿说的思想

在西方文论史上,摹仿说占据着统治地位达两千年之久。是黑格尔继康德之后,从其“美是理念的感性显现”的哲学、美学思想出发,认识到传统摹仿说的弊端,进而反对摹仿说,提出新观点。他的这一思想具有重要的理论意义和现实意义,却没有受到足够的重视。发掘和探讨黑格尔关于艺术摹仿说的思想也就很有必要和意义了。     

Educational Psychologists' Orientation to Inclusion and Assumptions about Children's Learning

Despite their important role in the assessment and decision-making process, there has been very little research on the attitudes of educational psychologists (EPs) to inclusion. In this article, we report a recent study in which 144 EPs from 37 English local education authorities responded to a postal questionnaire. This examined their hypothetical and ideal placement of a range of children with different special educational needs, and their orientation to inclusion and beliefs about the nature and process of children's learning. Results reveal that the majority were supportive of inclusion and adopt a social constructionist philosophy toward the nature and process of children's learning.     

Children's Perceptions of their Nursery Education

There is much in the literature reporting details of children's experience of their preschool educational setting as perceived by adults; however, few reports exist with regard to children's own perceptions of their experience. This article discusses some of the problems associated with interviewing young children and suggests an interviewing technique involving the use of role play. Children in three nursery classes were interviewed in order to ascertain their perceptions of their nursery experience. Phenomenography has provided a useful framework for the interpretation of findings. This approach is based upon the theory that there are a limited number of qualitatively different ways in which people perceive or understand various aspects of, or phenomena in, the world (Marton, 1988). The present study has attempted to identify the qualitatively different ways in which children perceive aspects of their experience in nursery education.