Children as readers: what we learn from their conversations about reading

This article analyses a conversation about reading with three Year 8 students. Drawing on sociocultural theories of learning and elements of discourse analysis, it explores not only details of what the students read, but also how the process of the conversation itself shapes their perception of themselves as readers. Analysis of the data suggests that close attention to conversations such as these can affect our understanding of young readers and the reading practices in which they engage, in ways which may be valuable for classroom teachers of English.     

What student teachers learn about multicultural education from their cooperating teachers

Teacher education has struggled to better prepare beginning teachers for an increasingly diverse student population. This research examines the role that cooperating teachers play in developing multicultural/equity pedagogy knowledge and skills among student teachers. Five cooperating teachers working in California, USA, each of whom had extensive and successful experiences teaching multicultural/equity pedagogy curricula, were asked to describe how they encourage their student teachers to engage in the materials and strategies they promote. Generally, the cooperating teachers reported that their most successful student teachers were those who came to understand the difference between expecting high-quality work from their students and sympathizing and identifying with their students’ plight as low-income Latino children. More specifically, they noted that student teachers had difficulty leading instructional conversations in small groups of students.     

学一点英语语音学 --论学习语音的重要意义和学习方法

语音学是研究语言语音方面的科学,它是语言学的一门学科.本文论述了学习语音的重要意义,介绍了运用分析、比较、综合、实践学习语音的四种方法.     

Children seek help based on how others learn

Do children consider how others learned when seeking help? Across three experiments, German children (N = 536 3-to-8 year olds, 49% female, majority White, tested 2017–2019) preferred to learn from successful active learners selectively by context: They sought help solving a problem from a learner who had independently discovered the solution to a previous problem over those who had learned through instruction or observation, but only when the current problem was novel, yet related, to the learners' problem (Experiment 1). Older, but not younger, children preferred the active learner even when she was offered help (Experiment 2), though only when her discovery was deliberate (Experiment 3). Although a preference to learn from successful active learners emerges early, a genuine appreciation for process beyond outcome increases across childhood.     

论教学语言艺术中的“三感”

语言在教学中是不可须臾离开的媒介,教学在多数情况下,都是直接通过语言向学生传授知识、讲述科学道理和打开学生心灵的天窗的。因此,教学语言艺术的高低标志着教学艺术水平的高低。教学语言艺术中的幽默感、含蓄感和声调节奏感不仅集中反映教师的教学能力和水平,而且在一定程度上决定了教学的效果。应当从语言艺术的角度阐述教学语言的幽默感、含蓄感和声调节奏感的含义及其在教学中的意义、作用与效果,强调教学语言的神韵和匠心,寓艺术于科学之中。     

Rivers of reading: Using critical incident collages to learn about adolescent readers and their readership

This article arises from a study of 12–13 year-old habitual and committed readers. The research foregrounds the sociocultural and spatial dimensions of their reading, exploring how encounters with other readers and different reading practices contribute to their readership. Many reading researchers favour survey-style methodology, whilst acknowledging the need to explore young people’s reading in greater depth. The design of this research therefore involves different research methods. The article focuses on one of these methods which requires readers to create critical incident collages of their reading histories. I argue that it generates valuable data for both researchers and teachers and encourages a more intricate view of the complexity of reading.     

How children learn about morphological spelling rules

A 2-year longitudinal study was carried out to test the hypothesis that children's word-specific learning of inflectional spellings is an essential first step in their acquiring an understanding of morphological rules for spelling inflections. Ninety children, who were 6-years-old at the start of the project, were asked to spell pseudowords and real words on three separate occasions. Inflections in pseudowords can be spelled only on the basis of morphological spelling rules, whereas the same inflections in real words can be spelled either through familiarity with the specific words (word-specific knowledge) or through morphological rules. Cross-lagged correlations suggested that the children's initial word-specific learning may be the basis for their later adoption and use of morphological spelling rules.     

Helping children learn about disabilities: Part II

Cary A. Buzzelli is an assistant professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Nancy File is a doctoral student in the Department of Child Development and Family Studies at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.     

Using principles to help undergraduates learn about leadership

The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of action research by ten preservice teachers earning their associate's degree in early childhood education from a small university in the West. Their goal was to assess the impact of their teaching on student learning with children birth to 8 years of age. This study represents the use of undergraduate action research in early childhood at the associate degree level, and also contributes to the early childhood teacher education knowledge base in the use of the action research method in early learning centers as a means of professional development as well as a tool to guide daily instruction, problem solving, and decision making.

Using a variety of informal assessment procedures, the preservice teachers studied the effects of specific learning strategies or activities, first upon the development and learning of the young children they taught, and then upon the results from the assessments in order to guide further instruction.     

Connected and culturally embedded beliefs: Chinese and US teachers talk about how their students best learn mathematics

This study compares US and Chinese elementary mathematics teachers' beliefs about how students learn mathematics. Interviews with teachers in each country revealed that Chinese and US teachers have distinct ways of thinking about how mathematics should be taught and how students learn. Many Chinese teachers talked about developing students’ interest in mathematics and relating the content of mathematics lessons to real-life situations. The US teachers talked about students' learning styles and using hands-on approaches to learning mathematics. Furthermore, these beliefs may be widespread and persistent within each country because the set of ideas among teachers appear to be internally consistent. Implications for teacher change and the study of teachers' beliefs are discussed.     

Infants can learn decontextualized words before their first birthday

Can infants below age 1 year learn words in one context and understand them in another? To investigate this question, two groups of parents trained infants from age 9 months on 8 categories of common objects. A control group received no training. At 12 months, infants in the experimental groups, but not in the control group, showed comprehension of the words in a new context. It appears that infants under 1 year old can learn words in a decontextualized, as distinct from a context-bound, fashion. Perceptual variability within the to-be-learned categories, and the perceptual similarity between training sets and the novel test items, did not appear to affect this learning.     

浮躁与理性

中国远程教育为世界教育所做出的贡献毋庸怀疑!至少在规模上为教育机会的公平，即穷国办大教育提供了丰富的经验。但也不可否认，远程教育在中国的问题还是多多，无论在理论上还是在实践上，与教育发达国家相比差距绝非只是一点点。     

How and what do academics learn through their personal networks

This paper investigates the role of personal networks in academics’ learning in relation to teaching. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 11 academics, this study examines, first, how and what academics learn through their personal networks; second, the perceived value of networks in relation to academics’ professional development; and, third, whether and how network participation affects professional learning and extant teaching practice. Findings suggest that personal networks equip academics with a diverse pool of knowledge and skills about teaching, offering both professional and emotional support. What academics learn through personal networks subsequently becomes embedded in their teaching practice. In this sample, change in teaching practice is focused on application of new learning technologies and new teaching and assessment strategies.     

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.