Associations of Early Developmental Milestones With Adult Intelligence

The study investigated whether age at attainment of 20 developmental milestones within the areas of language, walking, eating, dressing, social interaction, and toilet training was associated with adult intelligence. Mothers of 821 children of the Copenhagen Perinatal Cohort recorded 20 developmental milestones at a 3‐year examination, and all children were administered the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale when they were 20–34 years old. Later attainment of a number of milestones was associated with lower adult IQ with the strongest associations found for those related to language and social interaction. The adjusted full‐scale IQ means were 107.0, 101.8, and 100.6 for being able to form a sentence at less than 24 months, at 24 months, and later than 24 months.     

Bridging the Gap from Teacher to Teacher Educator: The Role of a Teaching Portfolio

This article explores the role of a teaching portfolio in supporting the transition from teacher to teacher educator. It uses aspects of self-study to catalogue the challenges and successes during this transition. Despite well-documented acknowledgement of the differing demands of teaching when compared to teaching how to teach, little is written about potential supports during transition to teacher education. This article cites benefits associated with developing a teaching portfolio during this period of transition. The process of reflecting on a teaching philosophy, interrogating pedagogy and developing a personal and professional development plan facilitate the formation of an adapted teacher identity. In addition, the scholarly, evidence-based process of portfolio writing acts as a bridge into the research and writing world of an academic. The portfolio writing process this researcher engaged in was based on iterative feedback from more experienced colleagues internal to the institution and from external panels. This led to a supportive and collaborative induction to the role of teacher educator from a number of perspectives. The researching of my self enabled deep reflection on my teaching philosophy, supported early academic writing and facilitated relationships with staff who acted as critical friends and mentors. This promoted the implementation of an effective teacher education pedagogy through structured, reflective, and evidence-led modifications to practice. This article creates awareness of the broader role of a teaching portfolio for teachers and teacher educators, in creating rich learning experiences for the pre-service teachers we teach.     

Experienced Early Childhood Teachers as Graduate Students: A Process of Change

This paper explores perceptions of professional identity among experienced early childhood educators (ECEs) who are novice students in a new master’s degree program in ECE. We sought to examine the changes experienced by these educators. The study used qualitative content analysis, which included an open-ended questionnaire that was administered twice to the participants: at the beginning of their first year of study and at the end of the second year. The findings indicate a change in the participants’ perceptions of their multi-dimensional professional identity. They began to examine the early childhood educational system with a critical point of view based on their academic and pedagogical conceptual vision, and became aware of the contingent political consequences. We believe this study will enable us to advance the ECE system and promote academic research conducted by professionals.     

Tensions and paradoxes in teaching: implications for teacher education

This paper focuses on the tensions and paradoxes in teaching. At present time, teacher education has the obligation to prepare teachers for diverse student populations, living in a highly varied context. This situation creates several competing expectations of the meaning of teacher education. For instance, preparing for professional autonomy in a world of externally imposed educational policy. The tension between achieving immediate results and success in external exams versus the need to prepare students in an era of migration and growing multiculturalism in school contexts is addressed. It is argued that a common knowledge base is a necessary response to growing multiculturalism while simultaneously leaving space in the curriculum for multicultural aspects of the student population. These double requirements have implications for teacher education which are discussed in the last section of the paper.     

The part-whole schema and artithmetical problems

This article consists of a review of work done by Dutch and Belgian researchers on arithmetical problems, especially word-problems, involving addition and substraction. The purpose of this review is to synthesise the research on the relationship between instruction in the part-whole line diagram and the solution of arithmetical problems. In the discussion part of this paper, these findings are interpreted from a logical (mathematical) as well as from a psychological point of view.     

The role of observational learning in the development of personal spaceEl rol del aprendizaje por medio de observación en el desarrollo del espacio personal.Le rôle de l'apprentissage observationel dans le développement de l'espace personnel.

Considerable research has been done on personal space, its determinants, methods of measurement, and traits of personality related to it. It is quite certain that personal space aspects are learned, and this accounts for the cultural differences found. This study was an attempt to consider the role of vicarious learning in establishing and changing children's personal space. A second purpose of the experiment was to gather some data on Brazilian boys and girls' personal space dimensions. Subjects: Forty-eight boys and 48 girls attending fifth grade with a mean age of 11 years and five months. Method: Personal space of subjects was measured twice using the Pedersen Personal Space Measure (a simulated pencil and paper measure of personal space). Between the two measurements subjects were submitted to one of the four experimental conditions: Group I saw a model being punished for invasion of personal space; Group II saw the model being rewarded; Group III saw no consequences happen to the model; and Group IV had no exposure to models. Results: The differences between the first and second measurements of personal space revealed that the four groups differed significantly: Group I increased personal space; Group II and group III decreased it; While group IV did not change. The hypothesis that vicarious learning influences the formation and modification of personal space was thus confirmed. As for the exploration on Brazilian children's personal space, it was found that although there were no differences due to sex of the subject, both boys and girls kept significantly smaller distances from girls than from boys, probably revealing social influences.     

Preparing Instructional Designers for Different Career Environments: A Case Study

The competency requirements, content, culture, and value systems of business and industry career environments can differ significantly from that of the higher education context where instructional design and technology (IDT) students receive their formal training. Therefore, faculty should consider how they might provide flexibility in their programs to allow IDT students to experience the contexts in which they choose to work following graduation. The article reports on the results of a case study of an exemplary IDT program identified through a national survey. The emphases and preparation practices of faculty in the case study program were noted to provide an example of how one program successfully prepares its graduates for a variety of career environments, and specifically for a business and industry environment. By studying the successes and challenges of specific programs, new or existing programs may gain ideas for building or re-working existing programs to better meet the needs of students desiring contextualized preparation for different career environments.     

RELATIONS BETWEEN TEACHING AND RESEARCH IN PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND MATHEMATICS AT RESEARCH-INTENSIVE UNIVERSITIES

We examine the relationship between research and teaching practices as they are enacted by university professors in a research-intensive university. First we propose a theoretical model for the study of this relationship based on Chevallard’s anthropological theory. This model is used to design and analyze an interview study with physical geographers and mathematicians at the University of Copenhagen. We found significant differences in how the respondents from the two disciplines assessed the relationship between research and teaching. Above all, while geography research practices are often and smoothly integrated into geography teaching even at the undergraduate level, teaching in mathematics may at best be ‘similar’ to mathematical research practice, at least at the undergraduate level. Finally, we discuss the educational implications of these findings.