Student use of narrative and paradigmatic forms of talk in elementary science conversations

The purpose of this work was to examine and characterize student use of narrative and paradigmatic expression in elementary science discourse. This interpretive study occurred over a 2‐year period in a professional development school with a largely international population. This analysis focused on the narrative and paradigmatic modes of expression used by combined first–second‐ and second‐grade students in a semistructured, fairly autonomous, whole‐class conversational format. Students demonstrated competence with both modes of talk at the beginning of the year. Over time, students moved toward more paradigmatic talk, but narrative examples continued to be key components of the science conversations. Topically, students used narrative more often for life sciences and paradigmatic talk for physical sciences. For gender there were no qualitative differences in narrative or paradigmatic expression. However, boys obtained more opportunities to practice their use of both discourse forms by either receiving more speaking turns or expressing more language features per turn. These conversations show that narrative and paradigmatic modes in science need not be in opposition but can, in fact, be used together in complementary ways that are mutually enhancing. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 39: 793–818, 2002     

‘Cuidar Muito em Educar as Crianças Segundo a Natureza’! Portuguese Contributions to Eighteenth- and Early Nineteenth-Century Health,Exercise and Educational Reform

The importance of exercise and physical education in relation to the health and development of children and youth has been of recurring interest. During the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries a remarkable number of educators, physicians, philosophers, and even an occasional political leader addressed the topic and/or proposed means by which these would be incorporated into educational programs and reforms. Although the work of Rousseau, Guts Muths, and several other European authors is well known, developments on the Iberian peninsula have received little attention in the English-language press. This contribution examines events and ideas that occurred in and/or had strong connections with Portugal during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.     

E-Mentoring in Physical Education

Mentoring can be a critical component of teachers' professional development and retention, yet logistical and fiscal challenges often limit the amount of contact a protégé can have with a mentor teacher. This investigation explored a school district initiative to address this need for more mentor interaction by supplementing traditional face-to-face mentoring with electronic mentoring. Thirty elementary physical education teachers participated in a year-long program that involved workshops, school visits, videotaped lessons, and electronic mentoring via chat rooms. Data were collected from chat room postings and analyzed for frequency of response and quality. In addition, a series of interviews were analyzed via constant comparison process to further understand teachers' perceptions of electronic mentoring. In general, teacher postings were minimal in frequency and quality. The limited use of the chat rooms was likely linked to the teachers' perceptions of electronic mentoring, which included several concerns with the technical and human dimensions of the process.     

Physical Performance Scores as a Function of Experimenter Sex and Experimenter Bias

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the main effects of the sex of the experimenter, the interaction effects of the sex of the experimenter and the sex of the S, and the experimenter bias effect upon 50-yd dash, shuttle run, and sit-up scores. The subjects were 48 male and 48 female junior high students. The experimenters were six male and six female upper-division college students. The subjects were randomly assigned for testing to sex of experimenter and experimenter bias effect. The experimenter bias condition resulted from the fact that the experimenters were led to believe that half of the Ss had particular characteristics that would cause them to score well on the tests while the other half had characteristics that should cause poor performance scores. The significant findings in the study were that male experimenters received much better scores from their Ss than did female experimenters on the sit-up test, that Ss scored better when tested by experimenters of the opposite sex on both the 50-yd dash and shuttle run test, and that experimenters obtained results in the direction of their expectations on the shuttle run test.     

Pour Bien Faire du Sport (1912): An Important Precursor to Recent Books that Support and Acclaim the Achievements of Women in Sports

A short time before the 2012 London Olympics, the President of the International Olympic Committee declared: ‘Women have the right to practice sport … [W]e must make sure that barriers are broken down.’ Although such words would have greatly troubled Pierre de Coubertin, they would be lauded by his contemporary la Duchesse d’Uzès, who had written in the preface to Pour Bien Fair du Sport (1912): ‘Oh my sisters … have hands that are capable of grasping a rifle or leading a horse … Courage! And above all perseverance.’ Pour Bien Faire du Sport was in many ways a precursor to recent popular books such as Coming on Strong (1994) and Heroines of Sport (2000); however, it has been grossly overlooked. This paper sheds much-needed light upon the book and its messages – and also upon la Duchesse d’Uzès and Pierre Lafitte, whose interests had made its publication possible.     

Guided Play: Where Curricular Goals Meet a Playful Pedagogy

Decades of research demonstrate that a strong curricular approach to preschool education is important for later developmental outcomes. Although these findings have often been used to support the implementation of educational programs based on direct instruction, we argue that guided play approaches can be equally effective at delivering content and are more developmentally appropriate in their focus on child‐centered exploration. Guided play lies midway between direct instruction and free play, presenting a learning goal, and scaffolding the environment while allowing children to maintain a large degree of control over their learning. The evidence suggests that such approaches often outperform direct‐instruction approaches in encouraging a variety of positive academic outcomes. We argue that guided play approaches are effective because they create learning situations that encourage children to become active and engaged partners in the learning process.     

Taking Shape: Supporting Preschoolers' Acquisition of Geometric Knowledge Through Guided Play

Shape knowledge, a key aspect of school readiness, is part of early mathematical learning. Variations in how children are exposed to shapes may affect the pace of their learning and the nature of their shape knowledge. Building on evidence suggesting that child‐centered, playful learning programs facilitate learning more than other methods, 4‐ to 5‐year‐old children (N = 70) were taught the properties of four geometric shapes using guided play, free play, or didactic instruction. Results revealed that children taught shapes in the guided play condition showed improved shape knowledge compared to the other groups, an effect that was still evident after 1 week. Findings suggest that scaffolding techniques that heighten engagement, direct exploration, and facilitate “sense‐making,” such as guided play, undergird shape learning.