Early Childhood Services in Ireland

This paper gives background information on early childhood services in Ireland and presents the results of a survey of the preschool experiences of 1065 children. The results of the survey suggest that the majority of children experienced some form of early childhood service before starting school. The most common service was a playgroup although a significant proportion of the children had experienced home‐based care with a relative or family day care provider. The implications of the findings for the development of a policy on early childhood services are discussed.     

Forming, Losing, Renewing, and Replacing Friendships: Applying Temporal Parameters to the Assessment of Children's Friendship Experiences

Friendship formation and dissolution were tracked over time in a summer camp to examine whether such events are valid indicators of individual differences in children's friendship adjustment. Subjects were 216 children ages 8–15 years. Sociometric nominations were used to determine the identities of reciprocal friends. Loneliness at camp was also tracked over time. In addition, data on group acceptance, behavioral reputations, social competence, and behavioral problems were gathered from peers and counselors. Analyses suggested that friendship formation and duration were coherent, independent dimensions of individual differences and distinct from the overall extensivity of involvement in friendships. Regression analyses indicated that the temporal parameters of participation in friendship enhanced the prediction of changes in loneliness at camp. Age and sex differences in temporal parameters were explored, and 4 discrete trajectories for friendship involvement were identified. Children with different trajectories differed in their behavioral profiles from one another and from children who were chronically friendless.     

Developing an overseas counsellor education program: Problems, issues, and educational implications

This article describes an example of an overseas counsellor education program. The problems, issues, and educational implications of the program are detailed.     

ANALYSIS OF FOURTH GRADE TESTING

Three hundred and ninety‐nine Grade 4 Brisbane children were given a battery o1 general ability and achievement tests. Means and standard deviations allowed construction of 15‐point scales for a Queensland Grade 4. A correlation matrix included indices concerning sub‐tests of general ability and achievement tests. Comparisons with original A.C.E.R. co‐efficients were made. The matrix was factor sub‐tests of general ability and achievement tests. Comparisons with analysed and rotated, three factors emerging ‐‐ verbal, performance and computational. A canonical correlation was performed and three significant elements emerged ‐‐ a verbal, a computational (or integrative or automatic sequential) and a problem‐solving element.     

Mathematics in Physics Education: Scanning Historical Evolution of the Differential to Find a More Appropriate Model for Teaching Differential Calculus in Physics

Despite its frequent use, there is little understanding of the concept of differential among upper high school and undergraduate students of physics. As a first step to identify the origin of this situation and to revert it, we have done a historic and epistemological study aimed at clarifying the role and the meaning of the differential in physics and at improving curricular and teaching models in the sense of Gilbert et al. (Gilbert J.K., Boulter C., & Rutherford, M.: 1998a, International Journal of Science Education 20(1), 83–97, Gilbert J.K., Boulter C., & Rutherford, M.: 1998b, International Journal of Science Education 20(2), 187–203). We describe the contributions of Leibniz and Cauchy and stress their shortcomings, which are overcome by the alternative definition proposed by the French mathematician Fréchet, dating from early 20th century. As a result of this study, we answer to some fundamental questions related to a proper understanding of the differential in physics education (for 17–19 years old students).     

Adoption losses: naturally occurring or socially constructed?

The American definition of kinship based on biological ties, the practice of closed adoption, and stigmas associated with adoption may decisively influence adoption-related losses. Cross-cultural and historical accounts of adoption that do not apply to these contemporary American constructs of parenthood and practices of adoption suggest outcomes that are not as integrally based on loss. Adoption in infancy is defined as parenting a child with one set of (adoptive) parents and two (adoptive and birth) families. Implications for adoption research, policy, and practice are discussed.     

Educational Inequity from the Perspectives of Those Who Live It: Urban Middle School Students’ Perspectives on the Quality of their Education

In interviews with over 250 urban young adolescents, many students make it clear that they are acutely aware of the educational inequities that exist in their schools and that these inequities are having a negative impact on their education. Student voice is used to highlight urban middle school students’ perspectives on the quality of their education particularly in terms of curricular issues, teacher quality, and lack of resources.

The role of relevant active questions in learning based upon successive presentations

Both active questions i.e. questions asked by subjects, and provided (or passive) questions i.e. offered to subjects as problems for solution, had been found to facilitate learning and retention of prose material when subjects were faced with a task of sufficient difficulty to challenge their competence. With difficult prose, boys and low ability subjects had gained most from active questions. These effects were more pronounced in the long term. In this study, the effects of relevant active questions i.e. questions which subjects can put alongside answers, are investigated and compared with those of active and provided questions, over a series of six presentations for both the short and the long term (i.e. after ten months). In the short term, although active questions give greater help than provided questions on the first presentation, and relevant active questions give the greatest improvement between the first and second presentations, provided questions are the most helpful overall. In the long term, however, both the active questions treatments prove to be as effective as provided questions. For low ability boys, the difference between treatments is negligble even in the short term; under the relevant active questions treatment the number of questions asked is greater; and the decline in inspection time over presentations is negligible.This study formed part of a Schools' Council Research project (Director: Dr. W. P. Robinson) in the Department of Psychology, University of Southampton.     

Gender effects in children's beliefs about school performance: a cross-cultural study

Do young boys and girls understand what leads to academic success (e.g., talent, effort, good teaching, luck) in the same way? Do young girls and boys have equivalent perceptions of their academic competence? Are these beliefs engendered in the same way across sociocultural contexts? In a cross-cultural study of over 3,000 children in grades 2 to 6, ages 7.2 to 13.6, we discovered that boys and girls around the world have very similar ideas about what generally leads to academic success. Moreover, in the few contexts where boys' and girls' academic performances were equal, their beliefs were also equal. However, when girls outperformed boys, their beliefs in their own talent were no greater than boys' beliefs, even though they did have stronger beliefs than boys in other facets of their achievement potential (e.g., putting forth effort, being lucky, getting their teacher's help). Our findings support the generally close correspondence between children's achievement and their competence-related beliefs, with the exception that young girls appear to specifically discount their talent. The effects held regardless of the children's achievement, intelligence, or age (approximately 8 to 13 years). Girls were more biased in some contexts than in others, however, suggesting that competence-related biases are rooted in culture-specific aspects of school settings.