CURRICULUM SEQUENCING AND THE ACQUISITION OF CLOCK-READING SKILLS AMONG CHINESE AND FLEMISH CHILDREN

The present study addresses the impact of the curriculum on primary school children’s acquisition of clock-reading knowledge from analog and digital clocks. Focusing on Chinese and Flemish children’s clock-reading knowledge, the study is about whether the differences in sequencing of learning and instruction opportunities—as defined by the curriculum—result in differences in accuracy and development of clock-reading knowledge. By means of (1) an in-depth qualitative analysis of the Chinese and Flemish mathematics curriculum standards and textbooks and (2) a quantitative analysis of 11,743 students’ accuracy in reading the time, the current study mirrors the differential impact of alternative curriculum designs for primary education. The results of the analyses reveal that Chinese children acquire clock-reading knowledge—for analog and digital clocks—2 years earlier than their Flemish peers, due to a 2-year earlier exposure. Discussing these results, it is argued that the Flemish curriculum tends to underestimate what children are capable of and that clock-reading within the Flemish primary mathematics curriculum builds on dated assumptions and research results. Building on these outcomes, it is argued that curriculum development should be the result of collaborative inquiry involving policy makers, researchers, and teachers.     

2. Jürgen Oelkers (Hrsg.): Zukunftsfragen der Bildung. 43. Beiheft der Zeitschrift für Pädagogik

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Learning subtraction in a special school: A self-in-structional training strategy for educable mentally retarded children with arithmetic deficits

The effect of self-instruction in solving subtraction problems was investigated in four children with arithmetic deficits in a special school for educable mentally retarded children. The children were trained individually to use self-instruction in solving subtraction problems with renaming. At the end of the training all four children had improved in solving subtraction problems. Follow-up probes, taken three months after the training had ended, showed that the effect was maintained.     

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