Proportions in elementary school

Proportion problems were given to pupils in grades 3, 4, and 5. The number structure of the problems was kept at an elementary level and the contexts were varied. The success rates were high, which shows that young children have some understanding of the concept of proportion. Elementary strategies based on addition were often used. Familiarity with the use of ratios in the context, the presence of a mixture, and the use of manipulatives were context variables that influenced performance. The abilities required to solve proportion problems in various contexts were essentially independent from each other. The cognitive characteristics that predict success were found to be different from those that predict use of multiplicative strategies.     

Paradise elementary school

This paper is a fictionalized account of the development, within an elementary school, of four distinctive schools-within-schools. Questions and issues arising in developing such programs are discussed, the theme of each of these four is described, and advantages that staff find in the arrangement are presented.     

参观日本小学随感

在仙台东北大学国际交流会馆住的许多中国人看来,日本的小学简直可以说是孩子们的游乐场:上课时老师不批评学生,孩子们和老师的关系就是朋友关系,没有家庭作业,班里不设班干部,等等.     

Teaching the concepts of physical and chemical change to elementary school children

Replication of this study on instructional sequence and grade placement is in order. Do all children behave similarly in acquiring a concept of physical and chemical change?     

Math-gender stereotypes in elementary school children

A total of 247 American children between 6 and 10 years of age (126 girls and 121 boys) completed Implicit Association Tests and explicit self-report measures assessing the association of (a) me with male (gender identity), (b) male with math (math-gender stereotype), and (c) me with math (math self-concept). Two findings emerged. First, as early as second grade, the children demonstrated the American cultural stereotype that math is for boys on both implicit and explicit measures. Second, elementary school boys identified with math more strongly than did girls on both implicit and self-report measures. The findings suggest that the math-gender stereotype is acquired early and influences emerging math self-concepts prior to ages at which there are actual differences in math achievement.     

Off-task behavior in elementary school children

This paper reports results from a large-scale observational study investigating attention allocation during instructional activities in elementary school students (kindergarten through fourth-grade). In Study 1, 22 classrooms participated while a more diverse sample of 30 classrooms participated in Study 2. This work investigated temporal patterns in children's attention allocation by collecting observational data on children's on- and off-task behaviors at three different time points (i.e., beginning, middle, and end of the school year) [Study 1]. We also investigated whether patterns of attention allocation changed as a function of student characteristics (gender, grade-level, SES), teachers' instructional design choices (instructional format and duration of an instructional activity), and school type (private, parochial, public charter schools) [Studies 1 & 2]. Children's patterns of attention allocation fluctuated over the course of the school year. Female students were found to be more on-task compared to male students. On-task behavior tended to decline as the instructional duration increased. The lowest rates of on-task behavior were observed while children were engaged in whole-group instructional formats. An effect of school type was found with higher proportions of on-task behavior observed in parochial schools. However, the effect of grade-level was equivocal across studies. These findings can begin to form a foundation for the development of research-based guidelines for instructional design aimed to support engagement among students in elementary classrooms.     

Teaching in elementary school: Perceptions of foreign-trained teacher candidates on their teaching practicum

The Alternative Teacher Accreditation Program for Teachers with International Experience (ATAPTIE) is a special Bachelor of Education program funded by the Ontario government in Canada to provide new immigrants with the skills and knowledge needed to re-certify and find jobs in Ontario elementary schools. This paper presents interview data that explores the opportunities and challenges ATAPTIE teacher candidates experienced in their teaching practicum. Lave and Wenger's notion of situated learning [(1991). Situated learning. New York: Cambridge University Press] was used to understand the candidates’ learning and acculturation into the teaching profession. Findings contribute to how professional immigrants from various linguistic and cultural backgrounds adapt to Canadian elementary classrooms.     

小学科学课程实验研究

本文介绍了小学科学课程实验研究的概况,小学自然课的改革首先是个观念问题,其次才是技巧问题.目前的自然课教学,仍然是重视知识结论而不是提高学生认识事物的能力,应体现科学教育基本理念和整体目标,引导学生获取丰富的事实材料,加以整理综合得出结论,并解释其结果有何意义,从整体上把握科学、技术、社会、个人等因素之间的联系.提高学生的科学素质.     

Effects of affective education interventions in the elementary school

Affective education programs have had an uneven impact upon children, teachers, and school systems, as have also affective interventions. By integrating environmental press research with Aptitude × Treatment Interaction (ATI) inquiry, affective education appears to be able to merge individual differences with assessment, intervention, and evaluation. This paper describes an experimental intervention and two active control programs and uses an ATI analysis for reporting their impact in the affective domain.