How Drawing is Taught in Chinese Infant Schools

The benefits of drawing for children are wide‐ranging but are likely to be mediated by the art curriculum and other governmental guidance to teachers relevant to drawing/art. Furthermore, such statutory regulations vary between cultures, and therefore curricula represent an important influence on the cultural differences found in children's drawings. Previous articles on the teaching of drawing in Chinese schools have commented upon the emphasis placed on children copying from adult drawing models. However, a new art curriculum was implemented in Chinese infant schools (3–6‐year‐olds) in 2002, still in operation today, which instead places an emphasis on the children's enjoyment of drawing through making creative and expressive pictures from their imagination. This article describes the key objectives stated in the Chinese art curricula for infant schools. We also present an interview with a Chinese infant school teacher in which she provided in detail how the curriculum is typically applied to the teaching of drawing. The interview also provided some background context to why the curriculum was changed and to its delivery. The article comments on the pedagogical practices adopted, and comparisons are made with Western art education and, in particular, to the teaching of drawing/art in England for the same age group. Finally, we consider what implications the Chinese approach has for the ‘non‐interventionist’ approach to young children's drawing/art that is frequently found in Western art education.     

Validity extension of the Course-Faculty Instrument (CFI)

The Course-Faculty Instrument (CFI) demonstrates similar measurement properties with student populations at four diverse institutions. These students agree about the nature and extent to which course and instructor attributes relate to their learning. The results suggest that: (1) a perceived learning criterion may have general relevance to students, and (2) validity extension research is an economically feasible alternative to full-scale instrument development and validation efforts. Since validity extension is practical and facilitates cross-institutional comparisons, it appears to be a more viable strategy for researching and instituting student evaluation systems than is suggested by its current usage.     

The effects of isolation and handling on reactivity to footshock and tactile dorsal stimulation

The effects of isolation and handling on the reactivity of rats to two tactile stimuli were assessed in two experiments. In the first experiment, reactivity to more intense footshock was increased in rats raised in isolation but was not affected by handling by an experimenter. In the second experiment, increased reactivity to airpuff stimuli presented to the dorsal surface of isolation-reared rats was reduced by handling. The data suggest that the effects of handling on shock-motivated behaviors are not due to altered reactivity to shock and that the effect of housing or handling must be considered in behavioral tests in which reactivity to tactile stimulation might play a role as dependent or independent variables.