Motor Development: Recognizing Our Roots,Charting Our Future

In this paper I explore the common history of developmental psychology and motor development, concluding that the field of motor development should be defined in a manner analogous to the way its parent field, developmental psychology, is defined. Therefore, I view the study of motor development as the study of change in motor behavior across the lifespan. This was the implicit definition used by the first textbook in the field, Espenschade and Eckert's (1967) Motor Development. Two implications of this definition are (a) with change in motor behavior as the focus of study, age becomes a “marker variable” in developmental research, and (b) the lifespan perspective frees (and forces) motor development researchers to reexamine causation. These implications further suggest that the organismic paradigm is no longer sufficient for the field of motor development. I propose that general systems theory, exemplified in the study of motor development by dynamical systems theory, is a possible, new paradigm for lifespan motor development research.     

潘懋元与中国高等教育学分支学科的发展

中国高等教育学科的开创者潘懋元教授十分关注高等教育学分支学科的建设与发展。他辩证地看待学科和研究领域的关系,确立了高等教育学分支学科的地位;积极倡导多学科研究方法,推动高等教育学分支学科的发展;热情为分支学科的专著作序,鼓励学者进行分支学科理论研究;招收不同学科背景的研究生,培养高等教育学分支学科的骨干力量。分析潘懋元教授的相关论述,可以为中国高等教育学分支学科未来的发展提供以下启示:正确认识分支学科与主干学科的关系,走学科建设与问题研究并重的道路,在发展中既要重视知识增长也要注重组织发展。     

A developmental perspective on day care

Issues surrounding early day care become clarified when brought within a developmental perspective. Day care is examined in the context of normal developmental issues. A series of questions emerges. How does development commonly unfold in the context of nondisrupted parental care? How is development organized; what are major sequences of development and, especially, how does one phase build upon and set the stage for others? What is required of social partners to promote optimal development? How does this change with age? In brief, what do infants need from the social environment, and how do they typically get it in the context of the family? One then asks questions concerning day care. For example, what kinds of arrangements are and are not generally compatible with infant needs and under what circumstances? A developmental perspective also provides a framework for organizing findings from day care research and even suggests strategies for intervention research. While not fully explicit, Belsky's review (in this issue) provides a valuable service by introducing developmental concepts to the day care discussion. In the present paper this viewpoint is elaborated.     

Integrating basic and applied developmental research: a new model for the twenty-first century

Until recently, basic and applied research agendas in the field of child development have followed separate paths. One reason the two have not merged is that the objectives of basic and applied research are often seen as incompatible. In this paper, we argue that researchers can simultaneously achieve the objectives of advancing basic knowledge and addressing applied problems within a single research program. We provide a framework for this perspective by first looking back at historical trends of basic and applied developmental research and then looking forward at potential new approaches for integrating basic and applied research. We use our own research on perception of affordances and unintentional childhood injuries to illustrate how researchers might implement these strategies for integrating basic and applied research. We conclude by discussing how we might extend this integration further to include nontraditional classes of application.     

道德人格：道德心理学研究的新主题

道德人格研究是西方道德心理学的新主题。研究者深入分析了道德人格的含义、发展和神经生物基础,取得了许多有价值的研究成果。今后应加强中国的道德人格研究,厘清道德人格的含义并注重道德人格的发展研究。     

The effect of culture on the learning of science in non‐western countries: the results of an integrated research review

Abstract

An increasing number of researchers are investigating the effect of students’ prior knowledge and beliefs on their development of scientific concepts. Much of this research is taking place within the framework of constructivism, and is attracting the attention of science educators in non‐western countries. This integrative research review has been undertaken to help researchers and practitioners to identify issues for further investigation and reflection. The results suggest that ‘cosmetic’ attempts to nationalize western science curricula in non‐western countries are likely to prove ineffective because the problem, from the students’ perspective, is one of poor ‘fit’ between their world‐views, language meanings and prior beliefs and those inherent in the subject. A constructivist paradigm seems to offer good prospects for both understanding the problem and formulating learning strategies in science education which are better suited to non‐western cultures. Nevertheless, constructivist pedagogies imported from the West should be examined for their cultural appropriateness.     

对外显和内隐记忆发展的反思

在对外显和内隐记忆发展的研究中存在的问题进行反思的基础上．提出：(1)知识基础和年龄都有可能是影响外显和内隐记忆发展的因素．有必要区分记忆发展中的功能发展和知识基础发展;(2)在以往的研究中忽视了对测验的知识及被试的知识基础变量的控制,这可能是导致目前记忆发展研究,尤其是内隐记忆发展研究出现矛盾的一个重要原因;(3)对外显记忆也应该进行意识的“纯净”提取,这样它与内隐记忆发展才有可比性。     

什么是“发展教育学”？——关于发展教育学及其研究的若干设想

“发展”是人类社会特别是现当代社会活动的最重要的主题。发展教育学是研究、反思由于社会发展所引发的社会问题、教育问题及其解决的策略,以及如何自觉和主动地通过教育自身的变革去推进社会健康、和谐发展的一个教育学专门研究领域。目前关于发展及其问题的研究已经引起了一些中国学者和研究机构的重视。但是相关研究未能注意“发展教育”与“发展性教育”的区别,在对发展教育学应当研究何种意义上的“发展”上缺乏深入反思,因而不能很好区分发展教育学对于“发展”的研究与以前教育学对于“发展”的传统关注在研究视角与重心上的差异。我们还没有关于建设“发展教育学”学科的广泛自觉。从现在开始对这一学科(或者领域)的研究十分必要。     

Developmental theory in the classroom

Two questions are discussed with reference to the role of developmental psychology in the understanding of classroom learning and teaching. One question is whether a developmental perspective provides an adequate basis for a theory of the classroom. The second question concerns the utility to teachers of the adoption of such a perspective. Both questions are discussed in response to a series of critical reviews of current applications of psychology to educatonal practices. Firstly, the adoption of a developmental perspective in classroom investigation is valid since: it is not clear which theoretical principles underpin teachers' practices; developmental theorising already constitutes a corpus of knowledge; the common culture in which teachers work includes developmentally-based applications; existing classroom research on children's learning sometimes lacks a developmental dimension. Secondly, it is argued that the application of a developmental perspective to the classroom is both distinctive and fertile. Instructional psychologists explicitly accept the need for classroom variables to be systematically investigated. Five examples of the application of a developmental perspective are discussed: task-analysis; the diagnosis of children's prior knowledge and the matching problem; learning strategies; assessment and criterion-referencing; methods of investigating children's thinking. Two conclusions are drawn. Firstly, further research is needed to explicate the theoretical principles underpinning teachers' practices. Secondly, further research is needed in the investigation of a developmental perspective in classroom settings. It is an empirical, and open, question as to which type of research will provide a preferential understanding of classroom learning and teaching.     

Interaction Between Research and Education: Can industry cooperation improve the link?

This study attempts to provide a new perspective on current shifts in knowledge production through analysing the relationship between research and education. The study, based on interviews and questionnaires, focuses on the interaction within applied research centres with a close industry cooperation. The results suggest that the interaction between research and education benefits from a collaborative environment, since researchers hold positive attitudes towards integrating research, education and collaboration, and students are given the opportunity to work within applied research projects. The findings are discussed in terms of researchers’ ability to handle their scholarly tasks of research, teaching, and collaboration, and the importance for acknowledging research collaborations from both research and teaching perspectives.

     

Close interrelation of motor development and cognitive development and of the cerebellum and prefrontal cortex

Motor development and cognitive development may be fundamentally interrelated. Contrary to popular notions that motor development begins and ends early, whereas cognitive development begins and ends later, both motor and cognitive development display equally protracted developmental timetables. When cognitive development is perturbed, as in a neurodevelopmental disorder, motor development is often adversely affected. While it has long been known that the striatum functions as part of a circuit with dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, it is suggested here that the same is true for the cerebellum and that the cerebellum may be important for cognitive as well as motor functions. Like prefrontal cortex, the cerebellum reaches maturity late. Many cognitive tasks that require prefrontal cortex also require the cerebellum. To make these points, evidence is summarized of the close co-activation of the neocerebellum and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in functional neuroimaging, of similarities in the cognitive sequelae of damage to dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the neocerebellum, of motor deficits in "cognitive" developmental disorders, and of abnormalities in the cerebellum and in prefrontal cortex in the same developmental disorders.     

A Life Span Concept of Motor Development

A concept of life span motor development is presented. Evolution of the author's concept of motor development is traced from its beginnings in classic developmental theory rooted in the biological sciences. Influenced by contemporary motor control theory and the writings of Milani-Comparetti, mechanistic models of nervous system function were abandoned in favor of active organism concepts. Application of classic developmental theory to the practice of physical therapy led to a specific focus on righting behaviors and eventual discovery of the limitation of classical neurodevelopmental theory for the explanation of adult motor behaviors. The author's current research focus is summarized; it was formulated from a perspective of lifelong development and is directed toward describing age related movement patterns in a series of righting tasks.     

Factors Related to the Expression of Typical and Atypical Repetitive Movements of Young Children with Intellectual Disability

One striking aspect of the behaviour of some young children with developmental disabilities is their engagement in stereotyped, repetitive movements which appear to lack adaptive significance and are perceived as aberrant. These behaviours have received a significant amount of attention by researchers, particularly in relation to their remediation. Repetitive movements are not always aberrant and occur during typical child development. This article reviews research describing developmentally typical and atypical repetitive motor movements of children with and without a disability. Additionally, findings from a regression analysis describing factors associated with the expression of developmentally typical and atypical motor behaviours of young children with developmental disabilities are reported. Findings are discussed in light of previous research.     

Vulnerability in Research: A Developmental Perspective on Research Risk

Assessing potential risks to children who participate in developmental research is a challenging task because children are a heterogeneous population, varying in developmental competencies and in background characteristics. This essay offers a developmental perspective on research risk, emphasizing that children's vulnerability to research risk changes in complex ways: some risks decrease with increasing age, some increase as the child matures, others change in a curvilinear fashion, while some remain essentially stable with development. Because vulnerability in research does not simply decline linearly with age, assessments of research risk must entail multidimensional considerations that vary over developmental time. In a similar manner, individual characteristics of children at any age (e.g., maltreatment, at-risk status, etc.) may also heighten their vulnerability to certain risks which require special consideration by researchers. Finally, this discussion of developmental vulnerability and the principles underlying research ethics suggests that in addition to the conventional risk/benefit analysis, researchers are in an optimal position to establish and maintain standards of decent treatment of children in research that safeguard their rights as research participants. Suggestions for fostering this process in the research community are outlined.     

A Developmental Neuropsychological Perspective for Reading and Writing Acquisition

The principle of developmental dissociations is illustrated as a technique for studying functional brain organization in developing children with and without frank brain damage. Specific developmental dissociations described include disparities between (a) the cognitive and motor systems; (b) declarative and procedural knowledge; (c) fine motor, orthographic, oral language, reading, and writing function; (d) corresponding orthographic-phonological code connections; and (e) lexical analysis and lexical selection in reading. The educational implications of these dissociations are discussed. First, the developmental dissociations observed between the cognitive and motor systems and between declarative and procedural knowledge in motorically impaired individuals suggest that sensorimotor experience may not be a prerequisite for all intellectual development, as Piaget claimed, and that an abnormal sensorimotor period may impair the acquisition of procedural knowledge relatively more than the acquisition of declarative knowledge. Second, the dissociations observed among fine motor, orthographic, oral language, reading, and writing function support a model of noncontingent, normal variation or developmental independence in acquiring neurodevelopmental skills and academic skills, which fall along a continuum in a range typically found in normally developing readers and writers and which vary considerably within and across individuals in their relative level of development. Third, the dissociations between corresponding orthographic-phonological codes can contribute to problems in acquiring word recognition skills. Finally, the dissociation between lexical analysis and lexical selection accounts for children who can extract meaning from silent reading of text but whose oral reading is dysfluent. We argue, in keeping with the spirit of the Piagetian tradition, that developmental dissociations offer a technique for dissecting the components of biofunctional brain systems and thus for studying the constructive processes of the learner whose nervous system continually interacts with the environment.     

Learning how teachers learn in underdeveloped countries

This paper argues that practitioners and researchers in underdeveloped countries should organize themselves into teams to find and share research and experience-based information about factors that influence the quality of teaching. The teams would compile locally-developed knowledge about three topics: What teaching practices are most effective in classrooms? How do teachers who use those practices learn them? How and what should teacher training institutions teach teachers so that they will use effective practices? The paper briefly reviews published research to argue that the answers to the latter two questions are not yet fully developed, and especially not for underdeveloped countries.     

Supporting change and scholarship through review of online resources in professional development settings

How can we accelerate innovation and ensure effective dissemination of knowledge about online learning resources? This paper advocates strategies that systematically link online professional development with the research, development and diffusion cycle. The systemic approach we describe can accelerate knowledge advancement and help manage change by improving communication among teachers, trainers, developers and researchers. The examples that are provided are set within two funded projects in the United States that led to the development of two distinct but related strategies—the Online Site Evaluation Form for educators (a web‐based review form used in workshops) and a six‐week online course on technology‐supported assessments. Both strategies make it easier to give feedback to developers and offer incentives to do so in ways that help teachers to learn about online resources individually and with colleagues. The examples are discussed with analysis of their strengths and weaknesses in supporting different modes of interaction. We highlight implications for instructional development, professional development, research and knowledge management in online communities.     

Participatory action research and the struggle for legitimation

There is little reason why educational research in Australia should be progressive and highly developed given that its history and direction are subject to the economic and political determinants of an increasingly conservative and uncertain world. Whether or not educational research is an entirely derivative field or a semi-distinctive social science, is essentially qualitative or quantitative in character, desires knowledge that is vaguely accurate or accurately vague, seeks epistemological or ontological explanation, remains to be seen as history works itself out. It cannot be considered a neutral endeavour and demands that researchers identify a political perspective or worldview from which new knowledge is described and interpreted. In developing an approach to participatory action research, in particular from working with Indigenous communities, a number of challenges and knowledges have emerged that are described in this paper and which embrace community partnership, two-way enquiry learning and the educational public sphere. Participatory action research as outlined here may be the only framework appropriate for democratic community research although it is not as yet legitimated within the pantheon of available methodologies and philosophies.     

Adolescent Decision-Making Processes Regarding University Entry: A model incorporating cultural orientation,motivation and occupational variables

This study attempts to provide a new perspective on current shifts in knowledge production through analysing the relationship between research and education. The study, based on interviews and questionnaires, focuses on the interaction within applied research centres with a close industry cooperation. The results suggest that the interaction between research and education benefits from a collaborative environment, since researchers hold positive attitudes towards integrating research, education and collaboration, and students are given the opportunity to work within applied research projects. The findings are discussed in terms of researchers’ ability to handle their scholarly tasks of research, teaching, and collaboration, and the importance for acknowledging research collaborations from both research and teaching perspectives.     

技术促进教育变革前沿研究:EDUsummIT国际峰会述评

数字时代技术如何推动教育变革是教育信息化的重要主题,也是六届EDUsummIT国际峰会的主线。该峰会是一个由全球相关研究者、教育从业者和政策制定者共同参与的国际化的知识建构社区。“TWGs知识建构社区模式”是该峰会的独特模式。中心议题呈现出连续性、应景性、发展性等特征。教育系统重组、正式学习与非正式学习、教师专业发展是三个重要核心议题。获得的启示是:借鉴峰会专题工作组模式和成果,重视理论与实践的有机结合,助力我国教育信息化推进实施,深入探究技术促进教育变革的路径,以全球视野拓展我国教育技术学研究。