The Playing Learning Child: Towards a pedagogy of early childhood

From children's own perspective, play and learning are not always separate in practices during early years. The purpose of this article is, first, to scrutinise the background and character of early years education in terms of play and learning. Second, to elaborate the findings of several years of research about children's learning in preschool related to the curriculum of early years education and, finally, to propose a sustainable pedagogy for the future, which does not separate play from learning but draws upon the similarities in character in order to promote creativity in future generations. Introducing the notions of act and object of learning and play (by act we mean how children play and learn and with the object we mean what children play and learn) we will chisel out an alternative early childhood education approach, here called developmental pedagogy, based on recent research in the field of play and learning, but also related to earlier approaches to early education.     

Directional Factors in Group Work. A Study of Two School Groups 1

Stymne, I. 1982. Directional Factors in Group Work. A Study of Two School Groups. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 26, 77‐94. A conceptual scheme of directional factors was sought in two work groups of teenage school children. The occurrence of exploratory sequences related to the different directional factors was also analysed. The two groups were videotaped, one while making a poster for a youth organization and the other while discussing the outline for a play. The utterances of each group were analysed and categorised into directional factors according to a simple model. Stimuli which initiated exploratory sequences were found for all directional factors when there was a problem to be solved or a decision to be made in relation to that factor. However, a good deal of behaviour could be seen as rule‐governed or routinised in relation to various directional factors rather than to exploratory sequences. The consequences of a lack of exploratory sequences in group work are briefly discussed.

     

Group size and organisational conditions for children’s learning in preschool: a teacher perspective

Background:?There is a limited amount of research about group size in preschool, and how it impacts on teachers’ working conditions and their ability to support children’s learning and knowledge development in line with curriculum intentions.

Purpose:?From a perspective on quality, this article examines the organisational conditions for children’s learning in preschool in relation to group size. The questions at issue are: how do teachers explain how they organise the child group and the learning environment in preschool, and why?

Sample:?The sample consists of 12 preschools from different parts of Sweden. The preschools selected for the study are stratified in order to represent small and large group sizes in Swedish preschools as defined by the Swedish National Agency for Education. The sample contains both urban and rural regions and represents districts that differ geographically, demographically, ethnically, and which include varied socioeconomic structures. The 12 preschools had children in three age groupings: 1–3, 3–5 or 1–5. The number of children in the participating preschools ranged from 12 children to 45 children, with seven of the preschools having more than 30 children in their groups.

Design and method:?The article is based on interactionist perspectives, Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, a critical ecology of the early childhood profession, theories of children’s learning, and four dimensions of pedagogical quality. Together, these theoretical perspectives contribute to an understanding of the relationships between policy issues, educational goals, group size and teachers’ competence in organising and creating conditions for children’s learning. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with two teachers from each of the 12 preschools. The interviews lasted between 40–60 minutes and were recorded and transcribed verbatim. The analytical process was conducted in three steps and can be described as an analytical process of abduction. The four dimensions of pedagogical quality were used as analytical lenses to discern and understand critical aspects related to the teachers’ understanding of group size.

Result: Irrespective of group size, most of the children participate in different group constellations throughout the day, some organised by the teachers and some by the children themselves. Teachers’ competence to organise the children in such ways that good conditions for learning were created, differed between preschools, and depended on the teachers’ approach, which can be described as either intentional or unintentional learning.

Conclusion: Teachers’ organisational approaches influence the quality of the preschool and conditions for children’s learning in distinct ways.     

“What Say these Young Ones”: Students’ Responses to Shakespeare—An Icon of Englishness

Challenging the taken-for-granted status of canonical authors, especially Shakespeare, is difficult, but not impossible. This research offers a glimpse into the inferential processes of a group of grade ten students from diverse backgrounds who read unfamiliar passages from Shakespeare. The findings reveal a complex picture of meaning-making, involving a variety of factors that play role in the students’ reading comprehension. The most crucial insight is the finding that subjective interpretations seem to hinder independent understanding and appreciation of Shakespeare’s texts beyond the literal level. Our research, conducted in a large, urban, culturally-diverse high school in Western Canada, shows that students tend to rely on uncritically absorbed bits and pieces of background information or popular culture references, as well as overgeneralized understanding of previously read Shakespearean texts, to form opinions about the author, which often carve an interpretive lens, colouring the reconstruction of the characters’ experiences in subsequent encounters with his works. The study juxtaposes actual experiences of students reading Shakespeare to culturally endorsed attitudes informing curriculum decisions and policies, as well as prevalent teaching practices in the high school classroom. Finally, it asks if teachers need to look at personal connections not as a strategy that leads to an analytic engagement, but as a form of analytic engagement, affirming that critical reflection is a competence that requires careful nurturing and guidance.     

Persuasion strategies and Naïve Representations

European Journal of Psychology of Education -     

Tora und Vernunft

Unter Verwendung neuen Quellenmaterials wird in ideen-und sozialgeschichtlicher Perspektive der Prozess bürgerlicher Modernisierung in der preu?ischen Judenschaft zur Zeit der Sp?taufkl?rung in Berlin beleuchtet. Im Zentrum der Darstellung stehen zun?chst die durch ?nderung des Rechtsstatus entstandene, neue ?konomische Elite als Tr?ger der jüdischen Aufkl?rung sowie Aspekte der um 1800 zu verzeichnenden S?kularisierungskrise. Sodann werden die zeitgen?ssischen ideologischen Auseinandersetzungen um die Interpretation der heiligen Schriften und die richtige Art der religi?sen Unterweisung umrissen, ferner die Akzentverschiebungen aufgezeigt, die jüdische Aufkl?rer hier im Sinne einer P?dagogisierung bewirkten. Dabei bezieht sich die Darstellung verschiedentlich auf den Schulkampf, der zwischen etwa 1780 und 1830 Schauplatz für und wider Modernisierung und S?kularisierung war.     

'I just sit there': shyness as an emotional and behavioural problem in school

Shyness is not unlike many psychological constructs in that it connotes a rich cluster of behaviours, cognitions, feelings and bodily reactions. But when adolescents' shyness creates keen sensitivity to cues of being rejected, preventing them from speaking up for their rights and expressing their own opinions, thereby encouraging self-consciousness and excessive preoccupation with their emotions, it becomes a problem for both these adolescents and their surroundings. This paper presents 10 adolescents' experiences of being shy in a school context to such a degree that it is regarded as being a behavioural and emotional problem. In light of elements from an existential-phenomenological understanding, challenges and remedial measures for these adolescents as well as their peers and teachers are discussed. Finally, focus will be placed on how teachers can promote good relationships and working environments and in this manner prevent shyness from becoming a behavioural and emotional problem in school.     

Languages,script and national identity: struggles over linguistic heterogeneity in Switzerland in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

For centuries, Switzerland has been a multilingual country (which currently has no less than four official languages.) Furthermore, one of those languages, German, is characterised by bigraphism (i.e. the coexistence of two different type styles). This article discusses the role played by language and writing systems in the great educational scheme that was designed to create a shared national identity among Swiss people – despite the friction caused by cantonal and local idiosyncrasies, different cultural backgrounds, and deep-rooted traditions. It focuses on the timespan from the mid-nineteenth century to the end of the First World War, a period during which nation-states were formed all over Europe. The findings show how language and writing systems were intertwined with local, cantonal and national identities in a state (Switzerland) that had no uniform national language. It was through the use of language and writing that ideas of ‘us’ (herein, the Swiss) and ‘others’ (herein, the non-Swiss) were constructed, disseminated and perpetuated.     

Caregiver perceptions of sexual abuse and its effect on management after a disclosure

Objective

The aim of the study was to examine caregiver management strategies for child sexual abuse (CSA) when presented with hypothetical scenarios that vary in physical invasiveness.

Methods

One hundred fifty three caregivers were given 3 scenarios of CSA with 7 management strategies presented in the 21-item Taking Action Strategies (TAS) scale. Caregivers were asked to rate strategies according to their willingness to carry out each action with rating of 5 = greater likelihood of carrying out the action specified while a rating of 1 = a lower likelihood of carrying out that action. CSA scenarios included exposure to pornography/masturbation, fondling, and penetration while management strategies including fighting the accused, blaming the child, and outreaching to the authorities. Repeated measures ANOVA was used to compare mean TAS scores for the management strategies across CSA scenarios.

Results

The difference between TAS scores across the abuse scenarios was statistically significant (p < .001). Mean TAS scores reflected greater preference for taking action if the abusive act was perceived as more physically intrusive (exposure to pornography/masturbation-TAS 3.5, fondling-TAS 3.7, penetration-TAS 3.8). Caregivers reported being less willing to handle a disclosure of CSA without outreach (TAS 2.5 and 2.0 for fighting and blaming the child, respectively) and more willing to manage a disclosure with outreach to authorities (TAS 3.8, 4.5, and 4.7 for outreaching to Child Protective Services [CPS], to the child's healthcare provider and police, respectively). A predictor of caregiver outreach to authorities identified was the caregiver having past interactions with CPS.

Conclusion

Perception of the physical invasiveness of CSA and demographic factors can impact caregiver management strategies after a disclosure.

Practice implications

Results suggest that several factors influence caregiver management of sexual abuse. These factors warrant further study, as they are potential contributors to declining trends in CSA cases observed. Other implications include the need for educational efforts targeting caregivers. These interventions should focus on dispelling myths about the perceived physical invasiveness of CSA. These perceptions should not mitigate a caregiver's decision to involve the authorities in their management after a disclosure. Lastly, despite criticisms of the child protective systems, caregivers with past encounters with CPS view these related agencies as valuable resources.