Emergent literacy and learning to write: A predictive model for italian language

The aim of the present study is twofold: (1) contribute to identifying a model for the variables that compose the emergent literacy construct and their relationships; (2) assess the predictive power of the emergent literacy model on early writing abilities in a transparent orthography language. We examined emergent literacy skills in 464 children (mean age 5.5, range: 48–6.1) who were followed longitudinally until entering the 1st grade in primary school. Exploratory and Confirmatory factor analyses were used to address questions on the nature of emergent literacy skills and their possible relationships. Regression analyses were implemented to evaluate the predictive capability of an emergent literacy model on word writing competences. The factor analyses showed three factorial dimensions (phonological, conceptual knowledge on writing system and textual) and their relationship. The regressions showed a significant prediction of conceptual knowledge on writing system and of phonological abilities on early writing abilities.     

What do students consider useful about student ratings?

Although measures of student ratings of instruction have been developed and examined empirically, students' attitudes about the utility of these ratings have yet to be meaningfully quantified. Using survey responses from 1229 students at a major Canadian university, we developed a psychometrically sound measure of the usefulness of student ratings. A principal components analysis with oblique rotation was conducted and three factors (Instructor characteristics, Course characteristics and Instructor's relative ranking) were obtained that explained 64% of the variance in six iterations. The usefulness of these three types of ratings information differs according to several student and course characteristics. The present results provide evidence for both reliability and validity of the instrument as an indicator of the utility of teaching evaluation for students.     

The Problematic Nature of the Practicum: A Key Determinant of Pre-service Teachers’ Emerging Inquiry-Based Science Practices

This article disseminates findings from a multi-year study regarding secondary preservice science teachers’ perceptions toward inquiry-based science teaching, and the extent these perceptions are augmented by their practicum. While findings indicated that preservice teachers did improve their understanding and capability of using scientific inquiry due to their methods course, the role of practicum in supporting their newly developed perceptions was problematic. Issues ranging from associate teacher subjugation, availability of resources, time constraints, and the need to address curriculum standards were the most commonly cited reasons for preservice teachers’ difficulty in creating an inquiry-based environment during their practicum. Implications are presented highlighting the importance of practicum experiences as a key determinant of pre-service science teachers’ emerging inquiry-based science views and practices.     

Is Overimitation a Uniquely Human Phenomenon? Insights From Human Children as Compared to Bonobos

Imitation is a key mechanism of human culture and underlies many of the intricacies of human social life, including rituals and social norms. Compared to other animals, humans appear to be special in their readiness to copy novel actions as well as those that are visibly causally irrelevant. This study directly compared the imitative behavior of human children to that of bonobos, our understudied great ape relatives. During an action‐copying task involving visibly causally irrelevant actions, only 3‐ to 5‐year‐old children (N = 77) readily copied, whereas no bonobo from a large sample did (N = 46). These results highlight the distinctive nature of the human cultural capacity and contribute important insights into the development and evolution of human cultural behaviors.     

Changing students' attitudes towards risky motor tasks: An application of the IZOF model

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention programme in the physical education setting designed to change attitudes and emotions triggered by potentially risky motor tasks. The individual zones of optimal functioning (IZOF) model was used as a theoretical framework for the study. Italian male and female high school students (N = 84) took part in a 12 lesson intervention and in test?–?retest sessions. The assessment was conducted using the Motor Activity Anxiety Test to measure the students' approach-avoidance attitudes in the face of physical education tasks purported to engender strong emotional reactions. An idiosyncratic emotional profile was also implemented using a list of pleasant/unpleasant emotional adjectives. Two experimental groups were involved in the learning and performing of several potentially risky, highly emotion-arousing tasks, while two control groups were engaged in low-risk team sports. According to the hypothesis of the study, the programme was effective in decreasing the students' avoidance tendencies towards thrilling tasks and in increasing optimal?–?pleasant emotions. Our findings also demonstrated the feasibility and utility of applying the IZOF model to the context of physical education.     

Teachers’, school staff’s and parents’ efficacy beliefs as determinants of attitudes toward school

Self- and collective efficacy beliefs were examined as correlates of attitudes toward school of teachers, school staff, and parents. 726 teachers, 387 staff members, and 1994 parents from 18 junior high schools in Milan and Rome, Italy, were administered questionnaires assessing self-efficacy beliefs, perceptions about colleagues’ bahavior, collective efficacy beliefs, affective commitment and job satisfaction of teachers and school staff and parents satisfaction with school. Path analyses corroborated a conceptual model in which self- and collective efficacy beliefs represent, respectively, the distal and proximal determinants of affective commitment and job satisfaction for teachers and staff and of satisfaction with school for parents. Perceptions that teachers, staff and parents hold about the behavior of their colleagues largely mediated the links between self- and collective efficacy beliefs. collective efficacy beliefs, in turn, largely mediated the influence that self-efficacy beliefs and perceptions of school constituencies’ behaviors exert on attitudes toward school of teachers, staff and parents.     

La géométrie projective à l'école

Sans résuméTravail effectué dans le cadre du groupe de recherche en didactique de la mathématique du Conseil National des Recherches.     

Where is my attention? Children’s metaknowledge expressed through drawings

The aim of the present research is to assess the developmental pattern of the metacognitive knowledge of attention in Italian primary school students. Data were collected from 95 pupils divided into two age groups: the first (6–8 years) and second primary school cycles (8–10 years). The children were asked to perform two specific thematic drawings on attention vs inattention in the school context. The drawings were coded on the basis of the Children’s Awareness of Attention through Drawing, consisting of five scales which explore the behavioural, pragmatic, cognitive, emotional and social awareness of attention. The analysis of the thematic drawings reveals that from the early years of primary school, children are aware of some components of attention: behavioural awareness, pragmatic awareness and social awareness. Other components are instead acquired as of the age of eight.     

The Role of Historical-Philosophical Controversies in Teaching Sciences: The Debate Between Biot and Ampère

This paper evaluates the viability of using controversies in teaching. An educational project has been elaborated in which some historical-philosophical clashes were introduced into the classical syllabus of physics. The historical-philosophical controversy dealt with here, took place between the French physicists Biot and Ampère in the 19th century and referred to distinct interpretations of the Oersted experiment. This controversy was inserted into the syllabus of the 12th grade of a Brazilian secondary school.