Playful reflection: an investigation into the kindergarten project ‘Play in physiotherapy with children’

This article investigates adult learning in an action research (AR) project called ‘Play in physiotherapy with children’, conducted in Tromsoe Municipality, Norway, in 2010–2011. The project's objective was to explore how a play-based intervention approach would affect professional collaboration and child development. It was designed as a small-scale project, organized around two children with motor delay and their professional teams of teachers, physiotherapists and special pedagogue in two different kindergartens. It was situated in the kindergartens, and lasted for 16 weeks. The professional participants were invited into a process of action–reflection cycles as co-researchers. Video was a core tool in the design. Treatment sessions with the children were filmed during the action phases, and were the focus of attention in the reflection meetings. The two professional teams evaluated the video-reflection meetings as crucial to their learning and change. The focus in the article is on the learning in the reflection meetings during the AR process. We discuss two aspects of the space of reflection that was created during the project. First, we look into the role of video in reflection, and discuss how this can be understood with the help of concepts from Bourdieu's ‘theory of practice’. Second, we reflect on the role of play and playfulness in reflection and change among grown-ups. To do this, we use perspectives from phenomenological theory on play and playfulness from Buytendijk and Gadamer. We conclude that the use of video-reflection is a potent tool in AR processes. Concepts from Bourdieu's ‘theory of practice’ illuminate why, and also contribute to the understanding of the experienced change. Further, we argue that theory on play can help AR practitioners to understand the mechanisms of engagement and involvement that are crucial in AR processes.     

Broadcasting and Cable

Sydney W. Head's Broadcasts in America: A Survey of Television and Radio (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1976--- price not given but about $16.00)

Barcus, two studies of children's television program content

Stuart Hood's The Professions: Radio and Television (North Pomfret, Vt.: David and Charles, 1975---$9.95)

Televisions (Washington Community Video Center, P.O. Box 21068, Washington D.C. 20009---bimonthly/510 for individuals, $15 for institutions)

Cable Television: Promise versus Regulatory Performance (Washington: House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, Submommittee on Communications, Committee Print, January 1976---free on request to the Committee Clerk)

“Developing Legal Issues in Cable Communications,” The Catholic University of America Law Review 24:675-898 (Summer 1975)     

The specific relationship between disgust and interest: Relevance during biology class dissections and gender differences

This investigation examined trajectories of interest and disgust related to a biology dissection class. Three hundred and two secondary students completed ratings of disgust sensitivity and individual interest in the topic of the heart approximately one week before a dissection class. States of disgust and interest were recorded before, during, and after the dissection, and again four weeks later. Overall, girls expressed higher disgust sensitivity than boys, but showed similar levels of individual interest in the heart topic. Individual interest was negatively related to feelings of disgust prior to and during the dissection while feelings of disgust at the beginning of the class negatively predicted students’ interest during the dissection. These findings extend knowledge of the interactive influences of students’ affective experiences during a specific curriculum task and provide a complementary perspective to research findings on emotions relating to achievement outcomes.     

Mothers’ and fathers’ parenting styles and associations with toddlers’ externalizing,internalizing, and adaptive behaviors

The two primary objectives of the present study were to (a) investigate mothers’ and fathers’ reports of their own as well as their partner's parenting styles, and (b) assess how mothers’ and fathers’ parenting styles uniquely and jointly predicted toddlers’ externalizing, internalizing, and adaptive behaviors. Fifty-nine mothers and fathers independently completed the Parenting Styles and Dimension Questionnaire (PDSQ; Robinson, Mandleco, Olsen, & Hart, 2001) and the Behavior Assessment Scale for Children-2 (BASC-2; Reynolds & Kamphaus, 2004). Parents’ self-reports of their parenting styles were positively correlated with each other for all three parenting styles (authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive). Comparisons between parents’ reports of their partner's styles with that of the partner's self-reports were positively and moderately correlated for all three parenting styles. Findings revealed mothers’ and fathers’ self-reported parenting styles explained 44% of the variance in youngsters’ externalizing behaviors. In particular, permissive parenting by mothers and authoritarian parenting by fathers uniquely and significantly predicted toddlers’ externalizing behaviors, while authoritative paternal parenting was predictive of adaptive behaviors.     

A longitudinal study of two groups of children with early reading problems

The word lists of the Standard Reading Inventory were administered to five successive classes of beginning third graders in a single school. Those students scoring at the two lowest levels, preprimer and primer, all of whom had received consistent individualized reading instruction, were interviewed and tested individually when they were in junior or senior high school. The preprimer group continued to show serious disability at follow-up, with a mean retardation of 4.5 years in reading and 5.9 years in spelling, and continued to require help from learning-disabilities teachers. The primer group, only 1–2 years retarded in reading and spelling, were coping academically with little special help.     

浅谈微型化学实验

本文简要介绍了微型化学实验的概念,微型化学实验在我国的研究进展以及它的实际意义.     

Building learning communities with distance learning intruction

The results presented in this study represent only one of four assigned discussion board activities from only one course. However, these results are not atypical of the amount or nature of student engagement in successive discussion board assignments to these same 23 graduate students. By the final of the four on-line discussions, student engagement did decrease slightly, but still remained well above the assigned requirements. Also, similar patterns of high frequency of student involvement were found in other courses using the same type of on-line discussion board assignments. An additional anecdotal observation was completed by the course instructor; after the first on-line activity had been completed and the students re-convened on campus for class, class members appeared more comfortable and more engaged during in class discussions. In summary, the results of this study indicate that specific types of on-line instruction are capable of developing learning communities among on-line learners and creating a satisfying learning experience.     

Teachers’ work and innovation in alternative schools

Toronto boasts a large and diverse system of public alternative schools: schools where democratic practices, student access and a commitment to public education are fundamental. There are academic schools; schools with thematically focused curricula; schools driven by social movement principles such as antiracism and global education; schools for students who do not thrive in mainstream schools; and schools with alternative scheduling and delivery practices for students who must work. The schools are small, supporting personalized relationships among teachers and students, with teacher-driven curricular programs that are responsive to student interests. Curricular innovation is made possible because alternative schools are only loosely coupled with the rest of the public education system, but they still must comply with school system regulations. This paper describes how teachers’ work and the structural elements of alternative schools support school-based innovation.     

Conceptualising online knowledge sharing: what teachers’ perceptions can tell us

This study questions the current dependence on theories of social learning and communities of practice in research on teachers’ online learning and online knowledge-sharing behaviour. It employs the interpretative approach to examine how teachers conceptualise their engagement with two USA-based online knowledge-sharing platforms within the context of their broader teaching practice. The findings suggest that the platforms, together with teachers’ engagement with them, are intimately connected with, and must be understood in reference to, both the online and offline contexts in which they operate, with each setting providing unique affordances that shape engagement and outcomes. Teachers’ engagement was largely motivated by their individual knowledge requirements and practice-based needs, resulting in learning primarily being individually rather than socially mediated and constructed.