Understanding the written number system: 6 Year-olds in Argentina and Switzerland

Thirty children in Geneva, Switzerland, 15 middle-class children in Bariloche and 15 lower-class children from a semi-literate or illiterate milieu in Bariloche, Argentina, were tested. All children were aged 6 and attending public schools. Tasks were: (1) judging which of two bi- or tri-digit written numerals was the biggest, and explaining why; and (2) explaining the role played by the different digits in numerals such as 11, 12, 16, 17. Results show that children at these ages use various strategies in task 1: they compare number of digits; read aloud the numerals and refer to number-string knowledge; treat bi- and tri-digits as the sum of their face value parts; and lastly, quite often take both face value and position of digits into account in a correct way. They, however, were not able to explain place-value. Most subjects gave face value interpretations, while a few children account for the whole collection of chips and make part of the chips correspond to one digit, and the other part to the other digit. Differences in performance between the three types of children emerge.     

Beyond Exposure to Collaboration: Preparing General-Education Teacher Candidates for Inclusive Practice

Preparation of new teachers to work effectively in inclusion settings has not kept pace with demands created by recent reforms. General-education candidates typically receive limited exposure to inclusion strategies at the preservice level, and often their only meaningful preparation comes in the practicum setting. The purpose of this article was to examine the manner in which characteristics of cooperating teachers and the practicum settings affected efficacy for teaching students with disabilities. General-education student teachers responded to questionnaires about their collaboration with cooperating teachers, the focus on inclusion instruction in their practicum setting, and their efficacy for providing inclusion instruction. Results from a structural equation model indicated that efficacy is predicted both by focus and by collaboration with the cooperating teacher. Discussion focuses on implications for teacher preparation and directions for future research.     

Six Myths About Spatial Thinking

Visualizations are an increasingly important part of scientific education and discovery. However, users often do not gain knowledge from them in a complete or efficient way. This article aims to direct research on visualizations in science education in productive directions by reviewing the evidence for widespread assumptions that learning styles, sex differences, developmental stages, and spatial language determine the impact of visualizations on science learning. First, we examine the assumption that people differ in their verbal versus visual learning style. Due to the lack of rigorous evaluation, there is no current support for this distinction. Future research should distinguish between two different kinds of visual learning style. Second, we consider the belief that there are large and intractable sex differences in spatial ability resultant from immutable biological reasons. Although there are some spatial sex differences (in some types of spatial tests although not all), there is actually only very mixed support for biological causation. Most important, there is conclusive evidence that spatial skills can be improved through training and education. Third, we explore educators' use of Piaget's ideas about spatial development to draw conclusions about ‘developmental appropriateness’. However, recent research on spatial development has focused on identifying sequences that begin with early starting points of skill, and spatial education is possible in some form at all ages. Fourth, although spatial language does not determine spatial thought, it does frame attention in a way that can have impact on learning and understanding. We examine the empirical support for each assumption and its relevance to future research on visualizations in science education.     

Formal music education not only enhances musical skills, but also conceptions of teaching and learning: a study with woodwind students

This paper studies conceptions of woodwind students regarding learning and teaching music, within the framework of implicit theories. It analyzes whether there are differences related to participants’ instruction level, and whether it is possible to identify profiles according to their conceptions. Sixty-eight students from three different levels at 14 Spanish conservatories took part voluntarily in this study. A multiple-choice questionnaire was used, which comprised 16 dilemmas on different situations typical of learning and teaching music. Three answers were presented for each dilemma, corresponding to the three implicit theories identified in recent years: direct, interpretative, and constructive. For each dilemma, participants were requested to choose the option they most agreed with and the one they least agreed with. Data were analyzed using chi-square tests of independence, multiple correspondence analysis, and ascending hierarchical classification. From the results obtained we can state that as students’ age and level of instruction increase, so does the level of sophistication of their conceptions. Three conceptual profiles were identified: direct, direct-interpretative, and constructive, which are consistent with prior results on conceptions of teaching and learning in other domains. Implications for education are discussed.     

Transformative environmental education: a collective rehearsal for reality

This paper puts forward an alternative view on sustainable development, arguing that the separation between the economy, the environment and the social in the Brundtland model obscures the societal character of the economy, the economic bases of the social, and the fact that the environment is a societal product. We differentiate between strong and weak sustainability, arguing that the threat of environmental degradation can only be addressed at the level of the relations of production, consumption and political relations. Building on this perspective, we advocate a form of transformative environmental education which engages learners and teachers in a process of self‐reflective transformation. We illustrate this through two examples: action competence and Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed.     

Intersections of race and sexuality in a teacher education course

This paper examines the ways that one group of US pre‐service teachers, enrolled in an alternate route teacher education class, expressed and challenged each other’s contradictory discourses about teaching for social justice. Particularly significant are the many ways that this group of students enacted subject positions around race and sexuality as various combinations of African American, White, gay, straight, lesbian, Christian, and as members of this class. Epiphanic moments about race and sexual orientation are examined to illuminate the ways that subject positions were contested, reified, or renegotiated in order to preserve a sense of community within the class. This research demonstrates the ways that social justice teacher education differentially positions people who have been historically marginalized and how it can at times reify a hierarchy of marginality.     

Use of Computers as a Tool in Fine Art

A treatment group of three sections of a college art design class was given instruction that included the use of computers to complete design projects. The art design course covers the basic concepts of design and two-dimensional materials and the use of line, colour, illusion of space or mass, texture, value, shape, and size in composition. A control group of three sections completed the same assignments as the treatment group without computers. Both groups of students were then surveyed about their attitudes toward using computers in the course. Both the treatment group and the control group perceived the use of computers in a basic art design class as worthwhile. Both groups perceived the use of computers in a basic art design class as enhancing instruction. The treatment group had a more positive response to the computer as a design tool than did the control group. Survey responses by the treatment group documented that design projects used in the study needed improvement. Further studies should focus on best practices in the use of computers in art education.