The Teaching of the Visual Arts in the Lay Teacher Programme in Mid Araguaia,Brazil

This paper reports on a teaching experience which took place in a course for the qualification of primary school lay teachers in the mid-Araguaia region in mid-western Brazil. The greatest challenge was to work with the heterogeneity of the group of adult teacher/students from varied ethnic, social and cultural backgrounds (homesteaders, immigrants from other areas of the country, and Indians of the Tapirapé and Carajá tribes), taking into account their multiple understandings and experiences in an attempt to maintain their individual identities while constructing new knowledge.     

Toddlers' prosocial behavior: from instrumental to empathic to altruistic helping

The study explored how the meaning of prosocial behavior changes over toddlerhood. Sixty-five 18- and 30-month-olds could help an adult in 3 contexts: instrumental (action based), empathic (emotion based), and altruistic (costly). Children at both ages helped readily in instrumental tasks. For 18-month-olds, empathic helping was significantly more difficult than instrumental helping and required greater communication from the adult about her needs. Altruistic helping, which involved giving up an object of the child's own, was the most difficult for children at both ages. Findings suggest that over the 2nd year of life, prosocial behavior develops from relying on action understanding and explicit communications to understanding others' emotions from subtle cues. Developmental trajectories of social-cognitive and motivational components of early helping are discussed.     

Examining stress reactivity in neonates: relations between cortisol and behavior

The association between cortisol and behavioral reactivity to a medical heel stick and a neurobehavioral exam was examined in 100 healthy African American neonates, who have been underrepresented in this area of research. Using continuous measures, behavioral distress was associated with cortisol reactivity to both stressors. High levels of behavioral distress, however, were associated with cortisol reactivity only in response to the neurobehavioral exam. In contrast, low levels of behavioral distress were associated with cortisol reactivity only in response to the heel stick. The results highlight potentially important parameters for exploring the relation between biological and behavioral reactivity to stress such as the operationalization of behavioral distress and the context in which a stress response is elicited.     

What is the point of group discussion in mathematics?

This paper sets out the implications of using pupil-pupil discussion within mathematics classrooms and describes the different ways that such discussion might promote mathematical understanding. It distinguishes the following aspects of a discussion: the organisation and articulation of one's own ideas for oneself; the elaboration of one's own ideas for communication to another; the dynamic feedback inherent in dialogue; and the creation of cognitive conflict and an awareness of the need for decentration. The paper then presents a framework within which discussion could most usefully take place, and the learning of the computing language, Logo, is presented as an example of a context which could satisfy the criteria suggested.     

Carnival in the Curriculum

This article focuses on a carnival in the curriculum project designed to revitalise the arts in the experience of students in Higher Education preparing to become primary school teachers. It argues the relevance of a combined arts or trans‐disciplinary artform in the remit of a visual arts education journal and explores carnival as a complex, inclusive, multifaceted and multidimensional cultural practice with deep historical and social roots. It locates carnival within theory and the debate about the arts in schools in the UK from the early 1980s. Drawing on the analysis of interviews with students and teachers in carnival project schools, issues and themes such as student involvement, creativity, artists in schools, and cross‐curricular learning are explored, concluding that carnival in the curriculum provides an opportunity for agency within the regulated official curriculum.