Exploring Estimation in Young Primary School Children

There is an increasing emphasis in mathematics education on the importance of estimation abilities in children. This study investigates the role of context upon primary‐aged children's estimation skills. Children in three age groups (from aged 5 to 8 years) were asked to carry out a range of estimation tasks involving distance, area and volume measurements. The tasks varied in type and complexity and were either of a ‘real‐world’ or ‘mathematics task’ form. In addition to performance measures the children's answers to questions on how they carried out the estimates were recorded and analysed. Quantitative and qualitative analyses found significant effects for context and child strategy. Estimates in contexts perceived as mathematical were different, both in that they changed with age and in their error patterns, from contexts involving perceptual‐motor skills. The children's answers highlight the importance of imagery and classroom experience. The results are discussed within a model of estimating.     

A quoi servent les reunions d'enseignants?

Résumé Le C.P.E.D.S. de Barcelone est une institution chargée de l'intégration des déficients sensoriels à l'école dite normale. Sur la base d'une étude longitudinale effectuée entre 1978 et 1986 dans 12 écoles, on a analysé le matériel recueilli concernant les réunions d'enseignants. Avec une méthode à orientation ethnographique, on a distingué trois types de réunions: Les réunions d'évaluation de toutes les classes d'un même cycle, où participent enseignants, personnel spécialisé et le directeur; des réunions programmées entre un enseignant et le spécialiste du C.P.E.D.S.; et des réunions informelles (dites de couloir) entre ces derniers. Dans un premier niveau on a analysé les actions, pour chercher à dégager, dans une deuxième étape, la structure sous-jacente à la réunion en dévoilant les rôles, les rites et les stratégies de défense et d'évitement. En guise de synthèse, enfin, l'analyse a été replacée dans son contexte (institutionnel et historique), le but étant de saisir l'écart entre les objectifs explicites et le mode de fonctionnement des réunions d'enseignants.

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TheCentro Psico-Pedagógico para la Educación del Deficiente Sensorial (C.P.E.D.S.) in Barcelona was established for the purpose of integrating children with sensory handicaps into so-called normal schools. On the basis of a longitudinal study carried out in 12 schools between 1978 and 1986, the authors have analysed the data collected on teachers' meetings. Using an ethnographically based approach, they have identified three types of meeting: evaluatory meetings for all classes in one year-group in which teachers, specialist staff and the director participate; scheduled meetings between one teacher and the C.P.E.D.S. specialist; and informal, so-called corridor meetings between the latter. At the first level the actions of participants have been analysed, in order to try and bring into the open the latter's roles, rituals, defence strategies and methods of evasion. By way of synthesis, the analysis is finally placed once more into its institutional and historical context, the aim being to indicate the disparity between the explicit objectives of the teachers' meetings and the manner in which these function.

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Zusammenfassung DasCentro Psico-pedagógico para la Educación del Deficiente Sensorial (C.P.E.D.S.) in Barcelona ist eine Einrichting zur Integration sinnesgestörter Kinder in sogenannte Normal schulen. Die aufgrund einer in der Zeit von 1978 bis 1986 an 12 Schulen durchgeführten Langzeitstudie gesammelten Daten über Lehrerzusammenkünfte wurden von den Verfassern analysiert. Anhand einer ethnographisch-orientierten Methode wird zwischen drei verschiedenen Arten von Lehrerzusammenkünften unterschieden: Zusammenkünfte für die Auswertung aller Klassen einer Stufe unter Beteiligung der Lehrer, der Fachkräfte und des Direktors; Zusammenkünfte, die zwischen einem Lehrer und der C.P.E.D.S. Fachkraft geplant sind; und informelle, sogenannte Korridorgespräche zwischen den beiden letztgenannten. In einem ersten Schritt werden die Handlungen der Teilnehmer untersucht, um anschließend deren Rollen und Rituale sowie Verhaltensweisen des Abwehrens und Ausweichens ans Licht zu bringen. Abschließend wird in Form einer Synthese die Analyse wiederum in ihren institutionellen und historischen Kontext gestellt, mit der Absicht, die Ungleicheit zwischen den expliziten Zielsetzungen der Lehrerzusammenkünfte und der Art und Weise, in der diese ablaufen, zu verdeutlichen.

     

Learning from human cadaveric prosections: Examining anxiety in speech therapy students

Human anatomy education often utilizes the essential practices of cadaver dissection and examination of prosected specimens. However, these exposures to human cadavers and confronting death can be stressful and anxiety‐inducing for students. This study aims to understand the attitudes, reactions, fears, and states of anxiety that speech therapy students experience in the dissection room. To that end, a before‐and‐after cross‐sectional analysis was conducted with speech therapy students undertaking a dissection course for the first time. An anonymous questionnaire was administered before and after the exercise to understand students' feelings and emotions. State‐Trait Anxiety Inventory questionnaires (STAI‐S and STAI‐T) were used to evaluate anxiety levels. The results of the study revealed that baseline anxiety levels measured using the STAI‐T remained stable and unchanged during the dissection room experience (P > 0.05). Levels of emotional anxiety measured using the STAI‐S decreased, from 15.3 to 11.1 points (P < 0.05). In the initial phase of the study, before any contact with the dissection room environment, 17% of students experienced anxiety, and this rate remained unchanged by end of the session (P > 0.05). A total of 63.4% of students described having thoughts about life and death. After the session, 100% of students recommended the dissection exercise, giving it a mean score of 9.1/10 points. Anatomy is an important subject for students in the health sciences, and dissection and prosection exercises frequently involve a series of uncomfortable and stressful experiences. Experiences in the dissection room may challenge some students' emotional equilibria. However, students consider the exercise to be very useful in their education and recommend it. Anat Sci Educ 10: 487–494. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists.     

Solidarity with the People: Organizing to Disrupt Teacher Alienation

Although research on teacher alienation and isolation has demonstrated the importance of developing collegial relationships, mentoring, and induction programs, there is limited research examining the ways to support critical educators with combatting their feelings of alienation and isolation as it relates to the larger sociopolitical dynamics they must endure. Within teacher education and teacher in-service development we must engage in research and approaches to learning that acknowledge the possibilities and potential of teachers to lead their development toward becoming critical and culturally relevant practitioners. Using an internal colonial framework where schooling is articulated as an extension of the colonial project, this article explores the reflections of ten educators, from the elementary to high school level, as they worked to create spaces for learning within a teacher-led, community based organization. Drawing from participant observations and interviews with organization members, this article explores the ways participation in a community based organization supported teachers with enduring the social and psychological consequences of the alienation they experienced in their schools. The data explore the ways in which participants worked to develop teaching practices drawing from anti-colonial perspectives and through their process developed a sense of solidarity with other teachers, which is discussed as three subthemes: shared beliefs, community, and commitment.     

Myth and ceremony in financial decision making under stress: Case studies from Mexican universities

Based on case studies of a private and a public Mexican university, this research studied the economic strategies adopted by institutions of higher education to respond to financial stress. Rather than assuming that these strategies were selected primarily on the basis of their economic efficiency, the social processes that led to their adoption were explored.Economic development theory was employed to describe and conceptualize the universities' responses to financial difficulties. The concepts of institutional rules and rational myths in the environment and the processes that lead organizations to become similar to their environment were utilized to explore the role of the institutional environment on decision-making in times of fiscal uncertainty.Results indicate that financial stress was managed through economic measures, however the universities' institutional environment filtered and gave specific meaning to particular decision strategies. Institutional rules in the environment, acquiring the character of rationalized myths, pemeated and determined decision-making choices, and were evidenced in and sustained by mimetic, normative and coercive processes. In this light, the institutional environment pervaded and predicted rational decisions.     

A Comparison of Multiple-Choice and Constructed Figural Response Items

In contrast to multiple-choice test questions, figural response items call for constructed responses and rely upon figural material, such as illustrations and graphs, as the response medium. Figural response questions in various science domains were created and administered to a sample of 4th-, 8th-, and 12th-grade students. Item and test statistics from parallel sets of figural response and multiple-choice questions were compared. Figural response items were generally more difficult, especially for questions that were difficult (p < .5) in their constructed-response forms. Figural response questions were also slightly more discriminating and reliable than their multiple-choice counterparts, but they had higher omit rates. This article addresses the relevance of guessing to figural response items and the diagnostic value of the item type. Plans for future research on figural response items are discussed.     

Object permanence in child and chimpanzee

In a repeated-measures design, two infant chimpanzees and three human infants were tested in like manner using the Uzgiris and Hunt (1975) stepwise assessment instrument for the development of object permanence in human infants. Comparisons between chimpanzee and human subjects showed similarities in the number of steps achieved, in the order and rate of achieving the steps, and in the detailed characteristics of searching behavior. These results suggest that the course of development of the concept of object permanence, as described by Piaget, is a very general one.     

The need for educational reform and the role of teacher training: The case of Papua New Guinea

This paper examines the current problems of educational provision in Papua New Guinea which occupied the attention of the 1991 Education Sector Review. These problems include the failure both to achieve universal primary enrolment and to retain primary children entrants over the six year cycle, the limited uptake of upper secondary and higher education opportunities, especially by girls, and the inadequacy of present arrangements for vocational education. The proposals of the 1991 Review are then described concentrating on changes to the educational structure, reforms in the primary school curriculum and the changes, which have already been initiated, to the length and organization of teacher training.