The World of the Gifted Child©

Programs for the gifted need to be continually documented for an evaluation process that enhances maintenance and growth.     

What Counts? Sources of Knowledge in Children’s Acquisition of the Successor Function

Although many U.S. children can count sets by 4 years, it is not until 5½–6 years that they understand how counting relates to number—that is, that adding 1 to a set necessitates counting up one number. This study examined two knowledge sources that 3½- to 6-year-olds (N = 136) may leverage to acquire this “successor function”: (a) mastery of productive rules governing count list generation; and (b) training with “+1” math facts. Both productive counting and “+1” math facts were related to understanding that adding 1 to sets entails counting up one number in the count list; however, even children with robust successor knowledge struggled with its arithmetic expression, suggesting they do not generalize the successor function from “+1” math facts.     

Will Marketing Go to the Head of the Class?

No abstract available for this article.     

Why is the Use of Films in the ESL Literature Class a Good Idea?

In the 15th century,Johannes Gutenberg introduced mechanical movable type printing to Europe,causing an explo sion of knowledge that changed the world.This new way of printing enabled the masses to be exposed to works of literature that would have been inaccessible to them previously.The rapid development of technology in the 21st century presents educators with similar opportunities to expose an ever-widening circle of students to previously inaccessible works of literature.Although controversial with some,the use of films in the ESL literature classroom is one such opportunity.This paper aims to show that the use of films in the ESL literature classroom is a good idea because it is inexpensive,effective in developing listening,speaking,reading and writing skills,exposes students to authentic cultural information,helps students to absorb English,and develops the habit of reading for pleasure.Finally,some tips on the effective use of film in the ESL literature classroom are given.     

Pupils as partners in education decision‐making: responding to the legislation in England and Ireland

Enabling pupils with special educational needs to participate more fully in the assessment, planning and evaluation of their own learning has become a principle enshrined within the legislation of many countries in recent years. Educational policy in both England and the Republic of Ireland has recognised the desirability of increased pupil involvement, and this is reflected in policy documents and in legislation which highlights the requirement of schools to take greater account of the views of pupils. This paper documents the approaches to increased pupil involvement in decision‐making adopted in England and Ireland and provides an overview of the key challenges that face policy‐makers and educators in ensuring meaningful participation for children and young people with special educational needs.     

Idea，Interes ＆ Inspiration:“Clustering” in English Writing Class

Ｉｄｅａ，Ｉｎｔｅｒｅｓｔ＆Ｉｎｓｐｉｒａｔｉｏｎ：“Ｃｌｕｓｔｅｒｉｎｇ”ｉｎＥｎｇｌｉｓｈＷｒｉｔｉｎｇＣｌａｓＷａｎｇＦａｎｇＷｒｉｔｉｎｇｉｓａｃｒｅａｔｉｖｅａｃｔｉｖｉｔｙ．Ｔｏｌｅａｒｎｈｏｗｔｏｗｒｉｔｅｒｅｑｕｉｒｅｓｎｏｔｏｎｌｙ...     

The Improvement of the Teaching Method in Intensive Reading Class

ＴｈｅＩｍｐｒｏｖｅｍｅｎｔｏｆｔｈｅＴｅａｃｈｉｎｇＭｅｔｈｏｄｉｎＩｎｔｅｎｓｉｖｅＲｅａｄｉｎｇＣｌａｓｓＺｈｕＬｉｙｕⅠ．ＩｎｔｒｏｄｕｃｔｉｏｎＩｎｔｅｎｓｉｖｅｒｅａｄｉｎｇｃｏｕｒｓｅｉｓｔｈｅｍａｉｎｃｏｕｒｓｅｉｎＥｎｇｌｉｓｈｔｅ...     

The same in German as in English? Investigating the subject-specificity of teaching quality

Teaching quality often is assumed to be a personal and stable characteristic of teachers. Whether this is true has scarcely been investigated empirically. In this study the extent to which value-added scores of teachers teaching German and English as a foreign language (EFL) to the same class remain consistent across subjects was investigated. Then, the consistency of two teaching quality dimensions—classroom management and motivational support—across subjects was explored. A sample consisting of 25 classes with 548 students to whom German and EFL were taught by the same teacher was analyzed using multivariate multilevel models and generalizability theory. The results showed that the value-added scores were highly correlated across subjects. While there was hardly any subject-dependent variance in classroom management, there was substantial subject-dependent variance in motivational support. The results indicate that it is important to conduct further studies on the situational and contextual factors that might influence teaching quality to gain a more comprehensive picture regarding the consistency of teaching quality across various conditions.     

How Big is the Handicap for Disadvantaged Pupils in Segregated Schooling Systems?

The effect of composition may be strong in systems where students are systematically sorted based on their socio-economic background. This paper aims to model the differential effect of class composition on pupils’ achievement in Belgium (French-speaking Community), France, Spain and Portugal. Multilevel models are consequently tested on the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study 2011 data (20,830 pupils in 1139 classes). Our results suggest that socio-economic composition does not have an equivalent effect on pupil achievement in the four countries included in our analysis: its effect is strong in the French-speaking Community of Belgium and France but smaller in Spain and Portugal.     

Spirit of the game: Empowering students as designers in schools?

The aim of this paper and the one which follows is to explore how the potential of computer games may be taken up in schools to support learning engagement among students. It is not the intention of the papers to dismiss existing classroom practices or overlook accounts of innovative practices in schools; the papers' aim is to provide educators who are interested in exploring the use of computer games in schools with information and ideas about how these games may be effectively used to engage students in their learning. This paper questions whether the empowerment of students to create games for one another based on the school curriculum may address the insignificance of computer games in the sociocultural setting of the school. Both papers have been commissioned by Microsoft (Asia‐Pacific) under the Partners‐In‐Learning Initiative. Under this initiative, Microsoft establishes partnerships with ministries of education, national and local government bodies, and other stakeholders to empower students and teachers to realize their full potential, mediated by information and communication technologies.     

Turkish Pupils’ Conceptions of the Particulate Nature of Matter

The purpose of this research study is to explore year 6, 8 & 11 (13, 15 and 17 years old respectively) Turkish pupils’ views about the particulate nature of matter within the context of phase changes. About 300 pupils participated in the study. Questionnaires distributed to year 6, 8 and 11 pupils included 6-item open-ended questions about (a) arrangement and movement of particles in a solid, liquid and gas and (b) application of particulate ideas to explain phase changes. In addition to questionnaires, semi-structured interviews were carried out with pupils. Results indicated that many pupils, even older ones, had difficulties in applying the particulate theory to explain phase changes despite science teaching. The study has several implications for both teachers and curriculum designers.

For the Honour of the School: Class in the Girls’ School Story

This article explores the constructions of class in British girls’ school stories. Feminist scholarship has, to some extent, reclaimed the school story, pointing to the widening of acceptable gender roles for female characters in girls’ school stories, compared to their counterparts in mixed-gender stories, and indeed real life. While the limitations of this middle/upper class milieu have been noted, they are less often explored. I use readings of Bourdieu as applied to femininities by scholars such as McRobbie and Skeggs to examine how the lived experience of class can trouble the status quo. School stories often limit encounters with working-class characters to servants, recipients of patronage or straightforward threats. However, in Brent-Dyer’s A Problem for the Chalet School (1956) a working-class character enters the school on her own terms. Her presence sparks the reaffirmation of the expectations for successful upper-class femininity.     

What Does Wiki Reveal About the Knowledge Processing Strategies of School Pupils?

On the basis of one teaching project carried out in a school, this article discusses collaborative writing in wiki platforms. It aims to find out what wiki reveals about pupils’ knowledge construction, creation, and division and their collaborative writing skills. In this project, wiki is treated as a useful tool for analyzing these processes because it gives us the possibility of studying those elements and stages of educative writing that are normally hidden from the teacher or researcher’s eye. Also, it shows us the interaction between pupils. The theoretical background of the project lies in collaborative writing and writing research.     

Curriculum Coverage and Classroom Grouping as Explanations of Between Teacher Differences in Pupils’ Mathematics Progress

Curriculum coverage has been shown to be an important variable for explaining young pupils’ academic progress. There is also widespread debate about the effects of different forms of classroom organization on progress. This paper looks at between teacher differences in pupils’ mathematics progress from two studies in London schools. We find that the more of the mathematics curriculum covered by teachers, the greater the progress made by pupils in those classrooms. However, there was no evidence that the measures of classroom grouping used in the two studies were reliably related to progress. The difficulties of measuring classroom grouping are discussed. Résumé La couverture des programmes s’est révélée constituer une variable importante pour expliquer les progrès des jeunes élèves dans les disciplines scolaires. Un large débat est également entretenu sur les effets produits sur les progrès par les différentes modalités d'organisation de la classe. Cet article examine, à partir de deux études réalisées dans des écoles londoniennes, les différences entre enseignants quant aux progrès d’élèves en mathématiques. Nous montrons que plus le programme de mathématique est couvert par les enseignants, plus les élèves de ces classes réalisent de progrès. Par contre, il n’y a pas de preuve décisive que les mesures réalisées dans ces deux études des modes de constitution de groupes dans les classes sont liées à des progrès. Nous discutons des difficultés à mesurer les modes de constitution des groupes dans les classes. (Traduction: Dominique G. Brassart, UFR des Sciences de l'éducation, Université Charles de Gaulle, Villeneuve d’Ascq, France.)     

Pupils’ conceptions of force in inanimates and animates

The objective of this work was to highlight the conceptions of force held by students aged 10–17 years old, in situations where animate and inanimate objects interact. In the proposed experimental situations, we varied parameters such as the motion and position of an object and the agent’s effort. We asked questions about both inanimate and animate objects. Results show that pupils are able to use a small number of conceptions coherently, but that these are influenced by the context. For inanimate objects, conceptions develop gradually. Initially, force is regarded as a property of objects related to their weight and/or motion/position. With age, however, pupils begin to regard it as a process of interaction. For animates, conceptions evolve much more slowly, insofar as all pupils consider force to be a human property related to the result that is obtained and/or the agent’s effort.