Continuities in Emotion Understanding from Three to Six Years

As part of a longitudinal study, 47 children who were tested on their understanding of basic emotions when they were 3 years old were tested again at 6 on their understanding of conflicting emotions. Significant stability in individual differences was found over this 3-year period. Antecedents to emotion understanding at 3 continued to be significantly related to children's understanding at 6, including participation in discourse about causality, positive interaction with older siblings, and language ability. Girls outperformed boys, and there was a suggestion that the girls' understanding of emotions was more closely associated than the boys' with the quality of their sibling relationships. Children's concurrent reports of negative experiences at home and at school were related to their sensitivity to the experience of ambivalent emotions. The results are discussed with respect to the social origins and implications of this core aspect of children's social-cognitive development.     

Display Rules for Anger, Sadness, and Pain: It Depends on Who Is Watching

This study examined factors that may influence children's decisions to control or express their emotions including type of emotion (anger, sadness, physical pain), type of audience (mother, father, peer, alone), age, and sex. Children's reported use of display rules, reasons for their decisions, and reported method of expression were examined. Subjects were 32 boys and 32 girls in each of the first ( M = 7.25 years old), third ( M = 9.33 years old), and fifth grades ( M = 11.75 years old). Regardless of the type of emotion experienced, children reported controlling their expression of emotion significantly more in the presence of peers than when they were with either their mother or father or when they were alone. Younger children reported expressing sadness and anger significantly more often than did older children, and girls were more likely than boys to report expressing sadness and pain. Children's primary reason for controlling their emotional expressions was the expectation of a negative interpersonal interaction following disclosure.     

Sex differences in mental strategies for single-digit addition in the first years of school

Abstract

Strategy use in single-digit addition is an indicator of young children’s numeracy comprehension. We investigated Danish primary students’ use of strategies in single-digit addition with interview-based assessment of how they solved 36 specific single-digit addition problems, categorised as either ‘error’, ‘counting’, ‘direct retrieval’ or ‘derived facts’. The proportional use of each strategy was analysed as multi-level functions of school age and sex. In a first study (260 interviews, 147 students) we found decreasing use of counting and increasing use of direct retrieval and derived facts through years 1–4, girls using counting substantially more and the other two strategies substantially less than boys, equal to more than 2 years’ development. Similar results appeared in a subsequent study (155 interviews, 83 students), suggesting that the pattern is pervasive in Danish primary schools. Finally, we ask whether sex differences in strategy use is generally under-reported since many studies do not explicitly address them.     

Supervising cohorts of higher degree research students: design catalysts for industry and innovation

Higher degree research students and their contributions to society and the economy are well known. However, the recognition of the increasing numbers of such students and the decreasing availability of supervisors implies that traditional individual modes of research supervision are no longer sufficient, while models of cohort supervision have led to successful outcomes. This paper uses the notion of threshold crossing to reflect upon a case study of higher degree research (HDR) supervision in an action research program, where students are immersed in industry projects to investigate company issues, innovate and transform the organisation. The action research model balances structure and flexibility, with set tasks and embedded reflexivity; the responsiveness of the model ensures timely project completion and the development of critical thinking skills. Balancing the proximity and distance between the supervisors, student, cohort and industry partner ensures that students are socialised into both academic and industry settings, developing self-efficacy to succeed in both worlds. Analysis of interviews with students and firm partners reveals that the cohort model valorises the higher research degree, developing research students. Three trends in HDR supervision are reconciled in the pedagogical approach outlined: bridging industry and academia, enculturation and emancipation and communities of learning and practice.

     

Children’s narrative development through computer game authoring

Conclusions The strong motivational influence of computer games on children can be used positively within education. This paper looks beyond the educational benefits which children can gain asconsumers of computer games to explore the additional benefits which could be gleaned from enabling children toproduce their own computer games. In the domain of literacy and narrative development, creating an interactive audio-visual computer game to tell a story has many potential benefits. The Game Maker workshop described in the paper confirms that creating stories within computer games is a task which young people find highly enjoyable, engaging and rewarding. Additionally, the workshop experience suggests that sophisticated game design is well within reach of 12–15 year olds. These motivational advantages indicate that it is well worth exploring how computer game authoring can be used in the classroom to raise both literacy standards and children’s enjoyment of story making activities     

Author Correction: Digital Citizenship: you Can’t Go Home Again

The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake. Figure 3 on the published version of the article was wrong. The correct Fig. 3 is now presented below.     

International Developments in Inclusive Schooling: mapping the issues

This introductory overview attempts to map out the rationale and scope of this edition of the journal, focusing on international developments in inclusive schooling. We describe some of the debate surrounding the search for an appropriate definition of inclusion and clarify the way in which we are using this term. Consideration is given to some of the main issues emerging from the literature on developing inclusive schooling which indicates the recency of this particular field of work and the need to bring together areas such as ‘special needs’, school improvement and teacher development in order to begin to identify the territory that research on inclusion might explore.