Mathematics in Early Childhood: Research-Based Rationale and Practical Strategies

Mathematics education is a critical part of the curriculum for students worldwide. The foundation for understanding mathematical concepts related to number sense begins early in life, and early childhood classrooms can provide the seeds for mathematical skills that will be needed later in life. In this article, the authors make a case for meaningful and developmentally appropriate mathematics experiences for young children in diverse early learning settings. Instructional and curricular methods inspired by the Reggio Emilia Approach are described as effective ways to teach number concepts to young children from preschool through primary age. Strategies for teachers of young learners are presented in order to strengthen the mathematics curriculum in contemporary early learning settings. The authors’ analysis and recommendations are informed by their extensive experiences including studies in Reggio Emilia early childhood settings (infant toddler, preschool, and primary schools) and their work in early childhood teacher education at their respective universities.     

The Czech Republic Between Studentocracy,Academic Oligarchy and Managerialism: Are students powerful or powerless?

Tertiary Education and Management - In this article, we will argue that students played an important role at several crucial junctures of modern Czech history, which secured them a central position...     

终身学习能力构成及能力项关系的研究

终身教育体系构建是新颁布的<国家中长期教育改革和发展规划纲要(2010-2020年)>中的重要内容,搭建终身学习"立交桥"已成为实现个人发展的重要途径.终身学习能力由来自不同方面的能力项组成,它们之间存在一定关系,共同影响着终身学习活动的开展.基于对终身学习能力组成的国际研究分析,本研究利用调查研究、相关分析和最邻近元素分析等方法探索终身学习能力核心能力项之间的关系,并形成核心能力项的关系图.研究结果表明,自主学习能力、信息素养、问题解决能力、批判性思维能力、持之以恒的能力以及自我评价能力相互影响、相互支持,共同成为终身学习能力的核心能力项研究.研究将有助于清楚地认识终身学习能力的构成,并为开展终身学习和教育活动提供重要基础.     

继续教育发展与数字化学习的若干思考

本文在简析数字化学习和继续教育发展的历史、现状和趋势基础上,阐释了数字化学习特点和优势及其对继续教育发展的可能影响,从数字化学习与继续教育发展的契合点中,提出若干问题与对策。     

对提升高校教师科学素质的思考

2020年建成创新型国家是我国本世纪的宏伟目标,要实现这个目标,需要大批素质高能力强的创新型人才．高校教师既是创新型国家建设的主力军,又是培养建设创新型国家高素质人才的教育者,因此提升高校教师科学素质是我国建设创新型国家的迫切需要．目前我国高校教师的科学素质现状难以胜任创新型国家建设主力军和创新型人才培养的双重任务,必须采取有效措施和途径,提升高校教师的科学素质,为创新型国家建设做贡献．     

普通教育机构内低幼儿童语言障碍情况的调查报告

本研究采用分层抽样法，在江苏省南京地区调查了年龄为4～9岁的112O名儿童。结果分析中我们看到，在这些普教机构中，儿童语言障碍的平均发生率是4．02％；学龄前儿童语言障碍发生率略高于学龄儿童；其中男童的比率明显高于女童，前者4．93％，后者2．93％。同时发现，尽管学科教师普遍赞同对语言障碍儿童进行各种特殊治疗，但这些儿童仅有17．8％接受过语言矫治。因此我们呼吁，全社会都来关注语言障碍儿童的研究，并期待一完整的特殊教育体系，满足语言障碍儿童需要。     

Learning Is Moving in New Ways: The Ecological Dynamics of Mathematics Education

Whereas emerging technologies, such as touchscreen tablets, are bringing sensorimotor interaction back into mathematics learning activities, existing educational theory is not geared to inform or analyze passages from action to concept. We present case studies of tutor–student behaviors in an embodied-interaction learning environment, the Mathematical Imagery Trainer. Drawing on ecological dynamics—a blend of dynamical-systems theory and ecological psychology—we explain and demonstrate that: (a) students develop sensorimotor schemes as solutions to interaction problems; (b) each scheme is oriented on an attentional anchor—a real or imagined object, area, or other aspect or behavior of the perceptual manifold that emerges to facilitate motor-action coordination; and (c) when symbolic artifacts are introduced into the arena, they may both mediate new affordances for students’ motor-action control and shift their discourse into explicit mathematical re-visualization of the environment. Symbolic artifacts are ontological hybrids evolving from things with which you act to things with which you think. Students engaged in embodied-interaction learning activities are first attracted to symbolic artifacts as prehensible environmental features optimizing their grip on the world, yet in the course of enacting the improved control routines, the artifacts become frames of reference for establishing and articulating quantitative systems known as mathematical reasoning.     

Metaphors we’re colonised by? The case of data-driven educational technologies in Brazil

ABSTRACT

This article discusses issues concerning the spread of data-driven educational technologies in Brazil. Here, as elsewhere, educational technology continues to be promoted optimistically as the bearer of a panacea for historically-rooted social problems. Whilst some of these technologies have indeed contributed to important widening-participation programmes in the last two decades, widespread advocacy of technological ‘solutionism’, reflected in gradually stronger policy demands for efficiencies to be improved through ‘innovation’, has supported a relentless marketisation of the country’s educational systems. As transnational corporations position themselves to take control of key areas of these systems, threatening to restructure the whole sector, data-driven educational technologies provide the latest example in a series of ‘new’ ideas offered in an ever-expanding market. Based on the notion of ‘conceptual metaphors’, which encapsulate specific ways of perceiving, thinking and relating with the world, this article examines key metaphors underpinning discourses surrounding data-driven educational technologies in Brazil. In particular, the article analyses ways in which these specific metaphors may be promoting perspectives that ignore difference and obscure broader questions concerning education, thus contributing to the reproduction of previously existing problems and supporting new forms of colonisation.     

Validation of a self-perceived media competence instrument for pre-service teachers / Validación de un instrumento de autopercepción de competencia mediática para docentes en formación

Abstract

Key to guaranteeing the fundamental human rights of freedom of expression and information is the development of media competence, particularly in schools. Training teachers in the area of media competence is particularly important for developing these skills in the broader citizenry. In order to provide educators and educational policymakers with a useful diagnostic tool, we have designed a self-perception questionnaire. The questionnaire was applied to a sample of Peruvian education students (N = 501). On the one hand, the results confirm the construct’s coherence, validity and instrumental reliability. On the other hand, they allow us to propose a theoretically based update to the way in which this construct is interpreted and applied, confirming the multidimensionality of media competence. Finally, we use this empirical evidence to discuss the integral, transversal and ecological status of media competence.