The innovation of Ontario full-day kindergarten educator teams: have they reproduced the split systems of care and education?

This study investigated the implementation of a full-day kindergarten programme in Ontario, Canada. Key to the implementation of this programme has been a new kind of educator team consisting of a certified teacher and a registered early childhood educator and a complementary partnership in which each team member contributes equally. Our research examined team members’ perceptions and practices related to their roles and responsibilities. Findings suggest that the care work for which early childhood educators are disproportionally responsible is accorded less value and status than the work of educating children. Implications of these findings are discussed in relation to the care/education split, the social reproduction of care work and social inequities.     

Attitudes of Parents Toward War Play in Young Children

A questionnaire on attitudes toward war play was given to 316 Italian parents and 84 English parents of children aged 2 to 6 years. In both cultures, boys were significantly more likely to engage in war play, either social or solitary—most commonly weapon play, but also play with combat figures and acting out a combat role. Parental attitudes, television, and peers (including older siblings), appeared as common sources of influence. Parents expressed a range of views about how to respond to war play, varying from discouraging it (more common if their children did not engage in war play), to allowing it with limits, to allowing it unconditionally. There was more of a consensus that war toys should not be allowed in school and that playgroup supervisors and teachers should try to turn war play toward more constructive ends. Analysis of a range of attitudinal scales confirmed a general dimension of restrictiveness-permissiveness with regard to war play activities, linked to attitudes about rough-and-tumble play (R & T) and pretend play in the Italian sample but not in the English sample.     

Cultivation of science identity through authentic science in an urban high school classroom

This study examined how a contextually based authentic science experience affected the science identities of urban high school students who have been marginalized during their K-12 science education. We examined students’ perceptions of the intervention as an authentic science experience, how the experience influenced their science identity, as well as their perceptions about who can do science. We found that the students believed the experience to be one of authentic science, that their science identity was positively influenced by participation in the experience, and that they demonstrated a shift in perceptions from stereotypical to more diverse views of scientists. Implications for science education are discussed.     

Framing equity through a closer examination of critical science agency

Cultural Studies of Science Education - Science for all has been touted as the primary path to equity in science education in the USA. We argue that without attention to the power imbalances that...     

Traditional and Online Learning in Executive Education: How Both Will Survive and Thrive

An important component of corporate training is executive education. A sample of 90 open enrollment executive education programs in the areas of management development and leadership was reviewed to better understand the structure of the offerings. In today's marketplace, the majority of executive education offerings are of the traditional face‐to‐face classroom‐style format. More recently, the impact of rapid technological advancements is becoming more apparent in the executive education market as online learning becomes more prevalent. There is no lack of participants for either traditional or online executive education programs, which has expanded the market. While both types of program offerings are viable, the future of executive education may be a merger of the two whereby traditional programs incorporate online components to reduce students’ time away from the job and capitalize on technology to enhance their interpersonal interactions. There is no doubt that executive education will survive and thrive as its future will be the nexus of traditional and online delivery that combines the key advantages of both approaches using a hybrid model that is beginning to be more widely deployed.     

游戏与学习研究新进展

随着计算机游戏在图形、复杂性、交互和描述等方面越来越复杂,多种类型的游戏已经在市场上占有重要地位,计算机游戏正成为文化的一部分。游戏与学习的关系成为越来越多的研究者关注的重点。本研究综述的目的是提供关于计算机游戏产业、市场和文化等现状的一个概述;对游戏与教育相关性研究的主要进展提供概览,并对该领域的相关文献进行概述;为教育研究共同体和游戏开发商等就如何在学习资源设计中使用游戏技术进行交流提供基础;为教育共同体在教育环境中使用数字游戏的讨论提供基础。同时本研究还以恰如其分的语气承认,在现有的教育体制和学习模式下,应用游戏的一些障碍和挑战。不仅如此,在这篇研究综述中,作者还为设计者、研究者和政策制定者提出了如何将游戏的一些本质特点融入学习资源和学习环境设计中的一些方法,而不仅仅是像今天教育游戏给学生提供的似乎像糖衣的"趣味性",只是使学生完全沉浸其中。     

Developing and testing a scale of moral thinking and communication (MTC) functioning: a preliminary study and its implications for moral development and education

The purpose of this study was to develop and test a scale assessing students’ moral thinking and communication (MTC) functioning as well as to explore the implications for moral development and education. The rationale of MTC functioning, including interaction of four independent competencies: moral awareness, moral judgement, moral discourse, and moral decision-making, is primarily adapted from L. Kohlberg’s theory, Neo-Kohlbergian theory, J. Habermas’s and K.-O. Apel’s discourse ethics, and L. Hinman’s ethical pluralism. There were two studies in the development of the measure. The resulting instrument contained four moral dilemmas differing by a focus on micro-moral and macro-moral levels. Findings from the studies indicated the MTC scale has acceptable psychometric properties and describe Taiwanese students as attending to the difficult problems of integrating local and international cultural norms. Additionally, the measure provides a detailed picture of students’ moral thinking and communication functioning. These results are discussed in terms of implications for moral theory and assessment of moral education.     

Primary Teachers' and Students' Understanding of School Situated Design in Canada and England

Research in Science Education - How do teachers in primary schools translate curriculum requirements for teaching design, within technology frameworks, in their primary classrooms? We call...     

Exploring English and Spanish rhyme awareness and beginning sound segmentation skills in prekindergarten Spanish-speaking English Learners

Twenty-five 4- and 5-year-old Spanish-speaking English Learners (ELs) were tested in order to compare their English and Spanish performance in two phonological awareness skills: Rhyme awareness (RA) and beginning sound segmentation (BSS). The children had received formal instruction of phonological awareness, with an emphasis on RA and BSS for 1 year and in English only, using the Opening the World of Learning curriculum (Schickedanz & Dickinson, 2005). The results showed that the children scored higher on the English BSS than on the English RA tests (p < .001), even though RA is generally considered to be an earlier developing skill than BSS among English-monolingual children. No significant difference was found between the English BSS and Spanish BSS tests despite the fact that the children had received English-only instruction in these phonological awareness skills for 1 year. The results are discussed in terms of the possible impact of the similarities and differences between the Spanish and English linguistic structures on the learning and cross-linguistic transfer of phonological awareness skills in young Spanish-speaking ELs.