Early approach to theoretical thinking: gears in primary school

Gears are part of everyday experience from very early childhood. This paper analyses a teaching experiment conducted with 4th graders in the field of experience of gears. The aim is to identify the characteristics which, given a suitable sequence of tasks and proper teacher guidance, have enabled the pupils to approach theoretical thinking, and in particular mathematical theorems. We have focused on the relationships between the epistemological analysis of some pieces of mathematical knowledge brought into play in tasks concerning gears, cognitive analysis of pupil construction of those pieces of mathematical knowledge, and didactic analysis of the teacher's role in designing tasks and in offering cultural mediation. This paper presents the early findings of the teaching experiments, both at the external level of interpersonal classroom processes and at the inner level of individual mental processes. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Design‐based research on the use of a tangible user interface for geometry teaching in an inclusive classroom

This design‐based research study was conducted to identify what importance of a tangible user interface (TUI) can add to teaching and learning. Over a 2‐year period, teachers (n = 39) and students (n = 145) participated in the study. The identified problem for investigation was how students, including those with low fine motor skills and those with learning difficulties, develop geometry concepts combining cognitive and physical activity. A didactical application was designed during the first iteration and implemented in inclusive classrooms during the second and third iterations. Qualitative research methods were applied. A relationship between diverse students’ needs and geometry concept learning in relation to computer‐supported learning by TUI was discovered. Two dimensions were identified: (1) TUIs support concept development, with physical and virtual representations based on dynamic geometry assisted by TUI; (2) TUI manipulative properties support students who have low motor skills and difficulties in their geometry learning as well as in their inclusion in classroom activities. The study outcomes contributed to the design process of the TUI didactical application and its implementation in inclusive classrooms, and to the body of knowledge in teaching and learning geometry concepts applied for computer‐assisted learning environments supported by TUI.     

The Roots of Stereotype Threat: When Automatic Associations Disrupt Girls' Math Performance

Although stereotype awareness is a prerequisite for stereotype threat effects (Steele & Aronson, 1995), research showed girls' deficit under stereotype threat before the emergence of math–gender stereotype awareness, and in the absence of stereotype endorsement. In a study including 240 six‐year‐old children, this paradox was addressed by testing whether automatic associations trigger stereotype threat in young girls. Whereas no indicators were found that children endorsed the math–gender stereotype, girls, but not boys, showed automatic associations consistent with the stereotype. Moreover, results showed that girls' automatic associations varied as a function of a manipulation regarding the stereotype content. Importantly, girls' math performance decreased in a stereotype‐consistent, relative to a stereotype‐inconsistent, condition and automatic associations mediated the relation between stereotype threat and performance.     

Peer victimization, poor academic achievement, and the link between childhood externalizing and internalizing problems

This study explored whether early elementary school aged children’s externalizing problems impede academic functioning and foster negative social experiences such as peer victimization, thereby making these children vulnerable for developing internalizing problems and possibly increasing their externalizing problems. It also explored whether early internalizing problems contributed to an increase in externalizing problems. The study examined 1,558 Canadian children from ages 6 to 8 years. Externalizing and internalizing problems, peer victimization, and school achievement were assessed annually. Externalizing problems lead to academic underachievement and experiences of peer victimization. Academic underachievement and peer victimization, in turn, predicted increases in internalizing problems and in externalizing problems. These pathways applied equally to boys and girls. No links from internalizing to externalizing problems were found.     

Student trajectories in physics: the need for analysis through a socio-cultural lens

An analysis of student connections through time and space relative to the core discipline of physics is attempted, as viewed through the lens of actor-network-theory, by Antonia Candela. Using lenses of cultural realities, networks, and perceived power in the discourse of one specific university in the capital city of Mexico and one undergraduate physics classroom, the trajectories and itineraries of students are analyzed, relative to a physics professor’s pedagogical practices. This ethnographic study then yields comparisons between Mexican undergraduate students and students from the United States. Actor network theory recognizes that the symbiotic relationship existing between an actor and a continuum of space and time is defined by the symbiotic yet interdependent relationships and networks of practice (Lemke in Downward causation: Minds, bodies, and matter 2000). As part of this study and in line with actor-network-theory, human actors and non-human participants were viewed in relation to how subjects acted and were acted upon within networks of practice. Through this forum I reflect on this work with particular focus on the issues of situatedness of actors from a sociocultural perspective and how established networks viewed within this perspective frame and subsequently impact student trajectories and itineraries. In essence I argue for a need to look at a myriad of further complexities driving the symbiotic relationships being analyzed.     

Methods of performance analysis in team invasion sports: A systematic review

ABSTRACT

The objective of this review was to systematically describe the traditional and contemporary data capture and analytic methods employed in performance analysis research in team invasion sports, evaluate the practicality of these methods, and formulate practical recommendations on methods for analysing tactics and strategies in team invasion sports. A systematic search of the databases SPORTDiscus, Web of Science, Scopus, MEDLINE and PubMed was performed. Keywords addressed performance analysis methods and team invasion sports, with all other disciplines of sports science excluded. A total of 537 articles were included in the review and six main themes of research identified. Themes included game actions, dynamic game actions, movement patterns, collective team behaviours, social network analysis and game styles. Performance analysis research has predominantly focused on identifying key performance indicators related to success by analysing differences in game actions between successful and less successful teams. However, these measures are outcome-focused and only provide limited insight into winning team’s strategy. Team invasion sports are now viewed as dynamic, complex systems with opposing teams as interacting parts. Strategies and tactics should be analysed using a holistic process-orientated approach by recording dynamic actions, collective team behaviours and passing networks, and viewing them in game styles.     

Group identification in early adolescence: its relation with peer adjustment and its moderator effect on peer influence

This study was conducted to test whether group identification (importance of the group to the individual) covaried with individual-group similarity on problem behavior; and whether group identification moderated peer group influence on the individual's development of delinquent behavior across a 1-year period. The level of reciprocated nominations within the individual's self-nominated group was controlled for in all analyses. Participants were 190 sixth and seventh graders (during the first year of the study) from the north of Italy. Level of reciprocated nominations within the group, but not identification, was found to covary with individual-group behavioral similarity (group behavior interacted with reciprocity of group nominations in predicting individual behavior). Group identification, but not reciprocated nominations, was found to moderate peer group influence on the individual's change in delinquent behavior, across 1 year. The individual's peer status within the classroom, level of reciprocated nominations, and gender all were related to the individual's level of group identification. Results are discussed in terms of understanding peer group influence on the individual.     

Terrible Knowledge and Tertiary Trauma,Part I: Japanese Nuclear Trauma and Resistance to the Atomic Bomb in the Classroom

This article discusses twelve reasons that we must teach about the 1945 American atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As with Holocaust studies, we must teach this material even though it is both emotionally and intellectually difficult—in spite of our feelings of repugnance and/or grief, and our concerns regarding students' potential distress (“tertiary trauma”). To handle such material effectively, we should keep in mind ten objectives: (1) to expand students' knowledge about the subject along with the victims' experience of it; (2) to develop teachers' awareness of and comfort with it; (3) to help students cope with this knowledge so they are not traumatized themselves; (4) to make sure students don't take refuge in callousness, inappropriate humor, blaming the victim, or despair; (5) to enable students to teach others about the event(s); (6) to enable students to use their increased knowledge and self-reflection individually and as part of the national dialogue; (7) to deepen and “complexify” the conversation on the bombings; (8) to develop supports for teachers and students throughout this process;” (9) to reintegrate the objective with the subjective, recognizing that emotion may be appropriate to some learning; (10) to instigate a dialogue allowing teachers and students to continue to investigate this and related topics.     

The genetic-environmental etiology of cognitive school readiness and later academic achievement in early childhood

Using a genetic design of 840 60-month-old twins, this study investigated the genetic and environmental contributions to (a) individual differences in four components of cognitive school readiness, (b) the general ability underlying these four components, and (c) the predictive association between school readiness and school achievement. Results revealed that the contribution of the shared environment for cognitive school readiness was substantial. Genetic effects were more important for the core abilities underlying school readiness than for each specific skill, although shared environment remained the largest factor overall. Genetic, shared, and nonshared environmental factors all accounted for the predictive association between school readiness and early school achievement. These results contribute to a better understanding of the early determinants of school readiness.     

Engaging City Hall: Children as Citizens

In this article, the authors suggest that current notions of advocacy in early childhood education should be expanded to include a view of young children as citizens. The authors ground their discussion in a how-to book project in Providence, Rhode Island, consider different concepts of children and citizenship, share commentary from City Hall and propose four key features of their perspective: (a) highlighting the civic nature of schools as central to the teaching and learning process; (b) focusing on young children's distinctive perspectives and competencies, not just their needs; (c) providing professional development around shared projects that promote literacy and higher order thinking skills; and (d) documenting children's learning in order to challenge assumptions about their capabilities and put forth an alternative image of teaching and learning.