As Time Goes By: Children''s Early Understanding of Growth in Animals

Beliefs about naturally occurring transformations were examined in children aged 3 to 6 years in 4 experiments. Experiment 1 tested children's understanding that animals (but not artifacts) predictably get larger over time. Experiment 1a examined whether the results obtained in the first experiment could be attributed to an added memory component on the artifact task. Experiment 2 further examined beliefs about the aging of artifacts. In Experiment 3, color and shape (metamorphosis) changes of animals were investigated. At all ages, children appeared to understand that animals get larger and not smaller with age. While older children and adults allowed for rather dramatic changes in the size and shape of animals over the life span if the alternative involved decreasing in size with age, preschool children were less willing to accept these changes. Taken together, the results of these studies suggest that even young preschool children have 2 conceptual insights about natural transformations: that they are lawful and nonrandom, and that they are domain and mechanism specific. Further, children as young as age 3 are able to go beyond the perceptual appearance of animals in making judgments about transformations caused by growth. Implications for children's understanding of personal and species identity are discussed.     

Learning via mnemonic pictures: Analysis of the presidential process

In three experiments, junior high school students learned the numerical order of 14 U.S. presidents according to either a complex mnemonic strategy or their own techniques. Reliable performancepattern differences between the two groups were detected, both in the presence and absence of overall level-of-recall differences. Chief among the pattern differences were the classic serial-position profiles produced by control subjects, but not by those using mnemonic strategies, and the slower response times (suggesting a more complex retrieval process) of subjects using mnemonic strategies.     

Students'Views on Study at the Radio and Television Universities in China: an investigation in one local centre

This article reports the views of students in a local centre of the Radio and Television University in China (RTVU). As part of a trial of new distance-learning material students in the local centre were interviewed in groups and some answered a questionnaire. They gave their views on studying, including the role of media, how each medium should be designed, and self-study. The investigation was carried out by the RTVU staff with the author mainly acting as an observer. Although there are problems with bias the views represent a unique opportunity to compare them with the ideas on the use of media and student learning familiar in the West.
The author would like to acknowledge the assistance of the staff and students of the RTVUs and in particular Professor Wang Zunhua and Yen Xiaoyen who were largely responsible for conducting the investigation.     

Teachers’ Attributions of Responsibility for Occupational Stress and Satisfaction: an organisational perspective

Teachers’ attributions of responsibility for their occupational stress provide a conceptual framework for investigation of this phenomenon. Teachers attribute responsibility for their occupational stress to entities increasingly ‘distant’ from themselves. The association of occupational stress with job satisfaction is investigated in terms of this framework and some significant differences for biographical variables are reported.     

Is Skill Type the Key to the PreK Fadeout Puzzle? Differential Associations Between Enrollment in PreK and Constrained and Unconstrained Skills Across Kindergarten

This study examines whether associations between enrollment in public and non-public PreK and children’s (N = 508; M_age = 5.60 years in fall of kindergarten) math and language and literacy outcomes were more likely to be sustained through the spring of kindergarten for unconstrained versus constrained skills. Associations between public PreK and language, literacy, and math outcomes were more strongly sustained through the spring of kindergarten for unconstrained skills, relative to constrained skills. Only associations between non-public PreK and unconstrained language skills were sustained through the spring of kindergarten. Associations in the fall of kindergarten differed by family income and dual language learner (DLL) status but there was no subgroup variation by the spring of kindergarten. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.     

ICT and pupil assessment

The role of pupil assessment in ICT is often seen by teachers as problematic. This article will explore the relationship of the two and will argue that research in assessment has not kept up with the opportunities offered by ICT. Conversely, some of the new developments in ‘assessment for learning’ have not yet found their way into ICT. The article will explore the various roles and relationships that ICT has in assessment, for example, the assessment of ICT skills, the assessment of curriculum learning when work is done with the aid of ICT, assessment within computer-assisted learning, and ICT as a tool in supporting the assessment process in general. It will also look at ways forward, including ‘assessment for learning’ (with its concern for questioning, feedback, sharing assessment criteria and self-assessment/peer assessment), and new outcomes that could be in­corporated into ICT.     

Enhancing self-regulation and approaches to learning in first-year college students: a narrative-based programme assessed in the Iberian Peninsula

A programme to enhance first-year college students’ self-regulated learning strategies is proposed and assessed in two samples, one from the University of Oviedo (Spain) and the other from the University of Minho (Portugal). Each sample was divided into two groups (experimental and control). The Spanish sample comprised 44 students in the experimental group and 40 in the control group, whereas in the Portuguese sample, the number of students was 48 and 44, respectively. The narrative-based intervention programme is organised around a set of fictional letters from a first-year college student in which he reports his own academic experiences. Each letter focuses on a learning strategy as an opportunity to teach and enhance the students’ deep approaches to learning and their self-regulated learning processes. In both samples, findings confirm the programme efficacy to teach efficient learning strategies and to promote self-regulation. Implications for college students and for teaching are discussed.     

Practices that support the transition to public preschool programs: Results from a National Survey

The number of children participating in public school preschool programs has steadily increased over the last two decades. While the use of specific practices to support the transition to kindergarten has received a great deal of attention, there are little data on the use of transition practices by public school preschool teachers to support children's entry into the public school preschool setting. This article presents findings from a national sample of 2434 public school preschool teachers on the use of 25 transition practices to support the transition of young children into public school preschool programs. The study represents a collaborative extension of the National Center for Early Development and Learning (NCEDL) Kindergarten Transition Survey [Pianta, R. C., Cox, M. J., Taylor, L., & Early, D. (1999). Kindergarten teachers’ practices related to the transition to school: Results of a national survey. Elementary School Journal, 100(1), 71–86]. Public school preschool teachers reported using an average of 12.81 of the 25 transition practices included in the survey, with a total of 12 of the 25 transition practices reportedly in use by 70% or more of teachers responding to the survey. Findings from this study indicate that three variables – training on the use of specific transition practices, classroom composition, and school context – were related to the use of transition practices by public school preschool teachers.