The Politics and Practicalities of Curriculum Change 1991-2000: Issues Arising from a Study of School Geography in England

A case study of the changing geography curriculum illuminates the continuing struggles over subject knowledge at national level, and highlights more general issues about ideology and the politics of curriculum change 1991-2000. The investigation focuses on the processes and impacts of two National Curriculum Reviews and the changing policy trends and structures becoming apparent under New Labour. Three phrases of curriculum policy-making are tentatively recognised, raising questions for further research.     

The Development of Children's Knowledge about Inner Speech

Two studies demonstrated that preschool children have little knowledge and awareness of inner speech. Study 1 showed that, in contrast to 6-to7-year-olds and adults, 4-year-olds usually did not infer that a person silently engaged in such intrinsically verbal mental activities as reading, counting, or recalling items from a shopping list was saying things to herself. They also tended to deny that covert speech is a possible human activity. Study 2 demonstrated that 4-and 5 year-olds are much poorer than adults at detecting their own inner speech. Children seem to acquire this sort of knowledge and awareness during the early school years, perhaps through experiencing their own inner speech while reading, writing, adding, and subtracting.     

Crawling versus Walking Infants' Perception of Affordances for Locomotion over Sloping Surfaces

14-month-old toddlers vs. 8.5-month-old crawling infants were encouraged to ascend and descend a sloping walkway (10°, 20°, 30°, and 40°). Infants in both locomotor groups overestimated their ability to ascend slopes. However, on descending trials where falling was more aversive, most toddlers switched from walking to sliding positions for safe descent, but crawlers plunged down headfirst and many fell at each increment. Toddlers touched and hesitated most before descending 10° and 20° slopes, and they explored alternative means for descent by testing out different sliding positions before leaving the starting platform. In contrast, crawlers touched and hesitated most before descending 30° and 40° slopes, and they never explored alternative sliding positions. In addition, we analyzed measures of locomotor skill and experience in relation to children's ability to perceive affordances. Findings indicate that children must learn to perceive affordances for locomotion over slopes and that learning may begin by fine-tuning of exploratory activity.     

Continuity and change in levels of externalizing behavior in school of children from economically disadvantaged families

This study used a person-centered approach to understand continuity and change in the externalizing behavior of children from economically disadvantaged families (N = 134). Groups of children differed in showing high levels of externalizing behavior in first grade (7 years old) that persisted (persistent problem) or decreased (improver) in third grade (9 years old) and low levels in first grade that were stable (unproblematic) or increased (new problem) in third grade. The results showed that verbal ability, behavioral impulsivity, parent maladjustment, and harsh parenting distinguished the persistent problem and unproblematic groups. Family instability was associated with change for the improver and new problem groups. The results suggest the importance of examining changes in the early adjustment to school for children from economically disadvantaged families.     

Young Children''s Understanding of Fact Beliefs versus Value Beliefs

Recent research on the development of children's knowledge about the mind has shown that young 3-year-olds have difficulty inferring that another person holds a false belief about a matter of verifiable fact, even when provided with considerable help. 4 studies tested the hypothesis that they would have less difficulty inferring that another person holds an odd, nonnormative belief about a matter of taste or value--one which, like the false fact belief, they themselves do not hold. On fact-belief tasks, an experimenter acted as if, or even explicitly stated that, she believed that the contents of a container were other than what the children knew to be the case. On value-belief tasks, she behaved as if she believed that a stimulus had a good or bad taste, smell, or appearance, whereas they thought it had the opposite. The results of all 4 studies confirmed the hypothesis.     

What is Open Access Button? An interview with Joe McArthur

Articles published behind a paywall in commercial journals are often inaccessible to potential readers who are not affiliated with a subscribing institution. Open Access Button is an application that assists readers in finding Open Access versions of such articles. This service works in a completely legal fashion. This interview is with one of the co-founders of the service, Joe McArthur. Open Access Button is supported by the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition.     

Academic Writing and Publishing: A NASIG Preconference Workshop

ABSTRACT

The goal of this preconference was to guide aspiring academic librarians in understanding how to navigate scholarly publication requirements and be successful academic writers. The presenters provided tips for beginners as well as for those already engaged in a research agenda. One of the presenters is a published book and journal author and the other is the editor-in-chief of a major peer-reviewed library journal.     

Textbook treatments and students' understanding of acceleration

This paper has been accepted for publication in theJournal of Research in Science Teaching. Copies are available from Gloria Dall'Alba, ERADU, RMIT, GPO Box 2476V, Melbourne. Vic. 3001.