Designing Science Learning in the First Years of Schooling. An intervention study with sequenced learning material on the topic of ‘floating and sinking'

Research on learning and instruction of science has shown that learning environments applied in preschool and primary school rarely makes use of structured learning materials in problem-based environments although these are decisive quality features for promoting conceptual change and scientific reasoning within early science learning. We thus developed and implemented a science learning environment for children in the first years of schooling which contains structured learning materials with the goal of supporting conceptual change concerning the understanding of the floating and sinking of objects and fostering students' scientific reasoning skills. In the present implementation study, we aim to provide a best-practice example of early science learning. The study was conducted with a sample of 15 classes of the first years of schooling and a total of 244 children. Tests were constructed to measure children's conceptual understanding before and after the implementation. Our results reveal a decrease in children's misconceptions from pretest to posttest. After the curriculum, the children were able to produce significantly more correct predictions about the sinking or floating of objects than before the curriculum and also relative to a control group. Moreover, due to the intervention, the explanations given for their predictions implied a more elaborated concept of material kinds. All in all, a well-structured curriculum promoting comparison and scientific reasoning by means of inquiry learning was shown to support children's conceptual change.     

Curriculum continuity in the social studies

Class size continues to rise in primary schools with many more children now being taught in large classes. Even so, the relationship between class size and children's access to the range of appropriate curriculum activities has been given sparse consideration. Given this neglect, this study was designed to assess teachers' perceptions of the effects of larger classes on children's opportunities to experience the full breadth of the national curriculum.     

Students' understanding of energy flow and matter cycling in the context of the food chain,photosynthesis, and respiration

The research focus on children's science has recently shifted from separate concepts to more comprehensive and complex topics. This study addressed pupils' understanding of the complex topic of energy flow and matter cycling. A scoring system with three categories and six concepts was developed and used by four biology teachers to analyze 106 pupils' concept maps. The results indicate that most of the pupils failed to recognize the interrelationships among the various concepts concerned with units of energy flow and matter cycling. It was the relationship between the living world and the non‐living world that presented the greatest difficult to understanding. This paper concludes with suggestions for curriculum development and biology teaching.     

CHILDREN'S SPIRITUALITY AND “THE GOOD SHEPHERD EXPERIENCE”

This article aims to explore the connections between a religious education curriculum's methodology in the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne, Australia and some contemporary theories about children's spirituality. “The Good Shepherd Experience” curriculum is intended for use with 5- and 6-year-old children in the first years of formal schooling. It forms a part of the To Know, Worship and Love religious education text based curriculum, directed for use by schools in the Archdiocese of Melbourne as a key text in the religious education curricula. In exploring connections with children's spirituality, this article analyzes “The Good Shepherd Experience” in terms of wonder (mystery-sensing, contingency, and dependability), play and imagination, and the ability to use religious language and concepts.     

Listening to learn: children playing and talking about the reception year of early years education in the UK

Recently in the UK there have been dramatic changes in the state provision of early years education and care, most notably the introduction of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority's ‘early learning goals’ in 1999 and ‘curriculum guidance for the foundation stage’ in 2000. Outlining the context in which these changes came to take place, this research begins to consider how we might understand children's experiences of this policy in practice in their reception year. Valuing children's potential as participants in research, a play‐based activity was designed to ensure that the process of generating data would be meaningful to the children as well as to the researcher. Analysis of the discourse highlights themes of early education that were of importance to the children. Further discussion of these themes offers insight into how concepts of work and play might be linked to the role of the adult‐in‐charge, potentially undermining opportunities for learning; and how concepts of the individual, normalisation and the individualised academic curriculum promoted by national policy stand opposed to a notion of community on which the children place great emphasis.     

Are the Notion of Mean and Related Concepts too Difficult for 6th and 7th Grade Biology Students?

Basic statistical concepts are considered to be part and parcel of any modern biological education. Micro‐computer assisted activities may offer new opportunities for the early development of relatively young children's skills and understandings, thus preparing them efficiently for a meaningful secondary school science education. However, the relevant skills and concepts may well be beyond the ken of such children. In this study, we attempted to check the level which could be reached with 6th and 7th grades primary school students (11‐12 years of age), concerning the connected concepts of “mean” and “deviation” from the mean, and some major implications of these concepts. Special learning activities were developed, and an electronic spreadsheet was used as the main tool for the quantitative tasks. A one year period of intensive teacher training preceded the actual experiment. The main results will be delineated, as well as the main responses of the students and of the teachers. Although the schools selected for the experiment (experimental as well as control groups) were located in areas of a relatively high socio‐economic level, there was some heterogeneity in the classes. The results will show that educators are confronted with problems of heterogeneity even in “good” classes, and that finding the appropriate level of intellectual stimulation of different pupils is not an easy task. Some concepts appeared to be at the limit of, or beyond, the abilities of many students, but by no means of all of them.     

Big Math for Little Kids: The Effectiveness of a Preschool and Kindergarten Mathematics Curriculum

Research Findings: Big Math for Little Kids (BMLK) is a mathematics curriculum developed for use with 4- and 5-year-old children. To investigate the BMLK curriculum's effect on children's mathematics knowledge, this cluster-randomized controlled trial randomly assigned child care centers to provide mathematics instruction to children, using either the BMLK mathematics curriculum or the centers’ business-as-usual curriculum, over a 2-year period when children were in prekindergarten and kindergarten. Participants in the study were 762 children and their teachers at 16 publicly subsidized child care centers. The study assessed children's mathematics knowledge using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (ECLS-B), Direct Mathematics Assessment, a measure of young children's mathematics knowledge that is not aligned with the curriculum. The ECLS-B scores of children in the BMLK group increased significantly more than did those of children in the comparison group. The study also included exploratory analyses to examine whether children in the BMLK group demonstrated evidence of improved mathematical language. Practice or Policy: These results indicate that the BMLK curriculum, which is designed to help teachers use play-based, developmentally appropriate mathematics instruction, has a positive impact on young children's mathematics knowledge as measured by a general mathematics assessment that is not aligned with the curriculum.     

A Dynamic Approach to Giftedness: theory and practice

The aims of this research were to investigate the possibilities of developing the cognitive and creative abilities of recognised gifted children, and also of raising the development of “ordinary” children up to a level of giftedness. This experimental work, based on Vygot‐sky's Dynamic Theory of Giftedness, involved special procedures and an experimental curriculum designed to overcome children's psychological barriers to learning. Five school classes were involved: three experimental classes, two of these gifted and one of average‐ability children. Two further control classes were taught by conventional methods. Comparative assessments were made for 6 years between all the children, regarding cognitive development, creativity and social giftedness, revealing considerable undeveloped potential of “ordinary” children. Major factor influencing IQ changes included the differences in psychological mechanisms to overcome barriers to learning. Due to the experimental psychological curriculum, not only did all the children's cognitive abilities increase, but also their creativity. Hence, these new diagnostic and developmental procedures were found to be effective, demonstrating the high practical value of the Dynamic Theory of Giftedness.     

Crossing boundaries: Exploring the theory,practice and possibility of a ‘Future 3’ curriculum

In this article, we examine a case of innovation in curriculum and pedagogy at a new school in the UK. We begin by outlining the 3 Futures model, which we use as a methodological heuristic in the case study of the school that appears to be both knowledge-led and learner-engaged; characteristics of the Future 3 scenario. In considering the school's curriculum, we also draw on a number of concepts from the work of Basil Bernstein: classification, framing and the idea of open schools, and a curriculum integration model developed by us to consider the degree of epistemic emphasis in the school's predominantly interdisciplinary curriculum. Together, these concepts provide the means to examine the organising principles of practice operating in the school, as links are drawn between the 3 Futures model, Bernstein's concepts and the data. We theorise this as a form of ‘opening up’, suggesting that even within the context of an interdisciplinary curriculum, access to powerful knowledge may be maintained in a whole-school approach where the demands of both knowledge and knowers are brought into balance. The school's approach and the theorisation we offer may provide insights for other schools embarking on a futures model for education and for twenty-first-century educational discourses more generally.     

Sh-h-h-h: representations of perpetrators of sexual child abuse in picturebooks

Children's picturebooks dealing with the topic of child sexual abuse first appeared in the early 1980s with the aim of addressing the need for age-appropriate texts to teach sexual abuse prevention concepts and to provide support for young children who may be at risk of or have already experienced sexual abuse. Despite the apparent potential of children's picturebooks to convey child sexual abuse prevention concepts, very few studies have addressed the topic of child sexual abuse in children's literature. Based on a larger study of 60 picturebooks about sexual child abuse published over the past 25 years, this paper critically examines eight picturebook representations of the perpetrators of sexual child abuse as a way to understand how potentially dangerous adults are explained to the young readers of these texts.     

Attitudes and experiences of parents regarding inclusive and special school education for children with learning and intellectual disabilities

In a survey, 840 parents of children with cognitive deficits who were educated either in special schools or in inclusive classes were asked to assess their children's school experiences. The results showed an overall high degree of satisfaction with the schooling, but there were marked differences among the parents' assessments depending on the degree of learning disabilities and on the type of school. Satisfaction with their children's social experiences and satisfaction with the special education curriculum depend on these two factors. All in all, many parents of children in inclusive classes were satisfied with their children's schooling than those of children in special schools. The analysis of the causes for discontent showed that dissatisfied parents had chosen the type of school under less favourable conditions and a larger part of them are still not convinced of this necessity of additional help. This applied to parents of pupils in inclusive classes as well as to those of pupils in special schools. Furthermore, parents of children with German as a second language showed a higher degree of discontent than others.     

DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE PRACTICES IN TEACHER EDUCATION: LESSONS FROM ONE SEMESTER

Abstract

A major challenge for teacher preparation programs and future teachers is learning to work skillfully with the diversity of children in American classrooms. This paper describes a tool developed to address this challenge: the Learning and Teaching Assessment System (LTAS). The LTAS is a performance‐based, curriculum‐embedded assessment tool designed to uncover young children's strengths in different curricular areas as well as their approaches to learning. Developed for use with children 3–8 years of age, the LTAS helps teachers understand what children know in relation to key concepts in the different disciplines as well as how they learn in order to further their learning in subsequent days and weeks of teaching. The development of the LTAS is based primarily on two theoretical frameworks: Leont'ev's activity theory and Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences. To examine the efficacy of the LTAS in its proposed objectives, a pilot study was conducted; results point to the potential of the LTAS for helping student teachers uncover new information about children to guide future instruction.     

An Investigation of Effectiveness of Conceptual Change Text-oriented Instruction on Students' Understanding of Solution Concepts

This study investigated the effect of conceptual change text-oriented instruction over traditional instruction on students' understanding of solution concepts (e.g., dissolving, solubility, factors affecting solubility, concentrations of solutions, types of solutions, physical properties of solutions) and their attitudes towards chemistry. The sample of this study consisted of 87 undergraduate students from two classes enrolled in an introductory chemistry course. One of the classes was assigned randomly to the control group, and the other class were assigned randomly to the experimental group. During teaching the topic of solution concepts in the chemistry curriculum, a conceptual change text-oriented instruction was applied in the experimental group whereas traditional instruction was followed in the control group. The results showed that the students in the experimental group performed better with respect to solution concepts. In addition, it has been found that there was no significant difference between the attitudes of students in the experimental and control groups towards chemistry.     

The Wheels of the Bus: Children designing in an early years classroom

Many claims have been made for the value of design in the school curriculum. This case study, of young children's designs in an early years design, make and appraise (DMA) classroom, examined several issues related to these claims, including the connection between designing and making, the purpose of drawing for young children, children's understandings about the design process, types of images used by young children and children's attitudes to designing. The role of the teacher in the children's understanding of the design / drawing process was explored. The study revealed that design for young children is a complex topic requiring a range of sophisticated teaching and learning strategies.     

The negotiated project-based learning: understanding the views and practice of kindergarten teachers about the implementation of project learning in Hong Kong

A global trend towards formulation of curriculum has emerged over the past decade. The concepts of project approach have aroused growing attention, and many literatures have indicated its benefits to children. It is believed that to achieve these potential benefits of project learning, teachers needed to formulate a curriculum that follows the interests of children, to design appropriate activities, to build a good relationship with children and help them in the process of learning. The study revealed that teachers were positive towards the impact of project learning on children's experience but fell back to a traditional way of implementing curriculum.     

Introduction of an emergent curriculum and an inclusive pedagogy in a traditional setting in Israel: a case study

This study seeks to determine how and to what extent the core principles of the early childhood education programme at Levinsky College of Education in Israel were applied by a third-year student teacher in a traditional fieldwork placement. At the beginning of the school year, the student planned to engage two small groups of children in her field placement in a learning project focused on children's literature related to witches, believing the children would be enthusiastic about the topic. Despite employing a meticulous traditional teaching plan, her attempts to engage the children failed. This led her to seek advice and form an authentic emergent teaching plan that was influenced by the children's preferences and social conflicts in the group. Furthermore, the student gained the teaching staff's approval and encouragement to develop a kindergarten curriculum very different from the traditional one. In this paper, we show an evidence of the learning processes undergone by both the children and the student.     

Empowering Classroom Teachers for the 21st Century: meeting the challenge of advancing children's mathematical development1

In this paper, the specific concerns for literacy and numeracy as we enter a new era are addressed through a discussion of an innovative mathematics early intervention programme, which the author and classroom teachers have developed and applied. ‘Mathematics Intervention ‘ is an innovative programme developed by three classroom teachers to identify, then assist, children in year 1 ‘at risk’ of not coping with the current mathematics curriculum. The programme incorporates assessment tools and learning activities based on recent research about children's early numerical learning. It develops the basic concepts of number upon which children build their understanding of mathematics. All three teachers participated in a professional development course, which developed skills that allow teachers to recognise which children have a problem, to identify the underlying problem and to provide appropriate activities to advance their mathematical development. The course highlights the benefits of clinical interviewing as an assessment tool and promotes various strategies that classroom teachers can use to assist the development of numerical concepts. ‘Mathematics Intervention’ is an example of a programme developed and implemented by classroom teachers using new learning processes designed to empower classroom teachers to meet the challenge of advancing all children's mathematical development.     

Analogy,Metaconceptual Awareness and Conceptual Change: a classroom study

This qualitative study aimed at exploring whether students’ successful use of analogy in learning curriculum complex science concepts was related: (a) to the level of their understanding of a specific analogy and (b) to their metacognitive awareness of how the analogy was to be used and of the changes produced in their own conceptual structures. In implementing a biological curriculum unit, students’ prior knowledge has been taken into account in order to examine its conceptual growth and change via a not completely introduced analogy to 15 fifth graders as they were engaged in understanding the ways in which the new concepts (on photosynthesis) were similar to a familiar source (making a cake). Qualitative data present the children's mapping processes in elaborating the analogy and their metacognitive awareness of the meaning and purpose of the analogy itself, and their personal use of the analogy in changing initial conceptions. As hypothesised, the results showed a high positive correlation among the level of conceptual understanding of the new science topic, the level of understanding of the analogy, and the level of effective use of the analogy in integrating the new information into the pre‐existing conceptual structures. Key implications on the use of analogy for conceptual change in the classroom are outlined.     

Language,Mathematics and Educational Television in Infants' Schools

Educational Television language series are used extensively by infants' schools teachers, but there is insufficient evidence to suggest that they are incorporated into the curriculum or that their use abides by a school's language policy. A survey of over 400 teachers indicates that the teachers' criterion for usefulness seems to be the scope which a programme offers for follow‐up, particularly for discussion and phonic training in the teaching of reading. Similarly, there is little evidence of effective use of mathematics series; follow‐up and children's enjoyment of broadcasts seem to be the emphasis. Many teachers feel that it is difficult to present aspects of mathematics on television when children vary widely in their levels of mathematical development. Others teachers follow a mathematics scheme, in which television is irrelevant. The habit of whole classes of infants' school children watching language and mathematics broadcasts is not in keeping with primary school principles. Most infants' schoolteachers appear to use the programmes as a means of direct teaching to the class at the expense of children's real life experiences. Neither do the series in their present forms appear to be flexible enough to cater for the individuality of young children. Although these factors relate to educational television, they reveal a lack of flexibility in much infants' school practice, a charge which is not often levelled at infants' schools in this country.