Etude en temps réel de la production eEcrite chez des enfants de sept et huit ans

The aim of this research is to study on-line written production in children. Twelve seven year old children and twelve eight year old children were asked to compose two texts (a narrative and a report). They were filmed as they wrote in order to investigate the temporal caracteristics of their composition (pauses, rates…). The results show three main findings:

- the rates increases from seven to eight year old.

- pauses times varied according to the syntactic organisation of the next sentence.

- longer pause times are localized after punctuation marks and before connective.

     

Facebook group dynamics: an ethnographic study of the teaching and learning potential for secondary school teachers

ABSTRACT

This study examines the role of social networking sites on the learning processes, teaching practices and professional development of secondary school teachers. By conducting observations and in-depth interviews with active participants, we present an ethnographic study of the Facebook group Teaching ideas secondary education [author’s translation], which is hosted and primarily employed by Flemish teachers. By drawing parallels between the study findings and the theory of affinity spaces we aim to gain greater insight into emerging group dynamics and social informal learning processes. According to respondents, the Facebook group has the potential to address teachers’ needs with respect to the exchange of teaching ideas, experiences and materials. The findings point to a number of emerging developments in the educational landscape, highlighting that social media environments present a new source of inspiration, and combined with a collaborative atmosphere are able to stimulate cross-fertilization, social informal learning processes and self-management and -reflection. We hold these findings up to the light of current education discourses.     

The illusion of scholastic incompetence and peer acceptance in primary school

This paper reports results from two studies aimed at examining whether perception of social acceptance and actual social acceptance differ according to the presence of an illusion of scholastic incompetence. Results of both studies conducted in Belgium and in Quebec (respectively 179 and 543 participants) show that children’s illusion of scholastic incompetence is linked to a negative perception of social acceptance. However, according to the evaluation by peers, social acceptance of those children is similar to the others. This suggests a generalization of the negative bias of self-evaluation to both academic and social domains. The discussion proposes further variables that could improve the understanding of the origin of the illusion of incompetence.     

Physical health of today's school children

The health habits of today's children will largely determine their subsequent health as adults of the twenty-first century. Smoking, inactivity, poor dietary practices, drug and alcohol abuse, and other deleterious habits may develop early, yet exert lifelong influences. This paper contains a review of (a) statistics and research on major health status indicators in school-aged children, (b) behaviors that contribute to disease risk, and (c) school-based interventions designed to change risk behaviors and enhance wellness. Activities that can be initiated by classroom teachers are emphasized in the concluding section of the paper. Through early intervention, enhanced longevity and quality of life may be accomplished.     

Training in phonemic segmentation: The effects of visual support

Two experimental studies examined the effects of different types of phonemic segmentation training on phonemic segmentation, reading and spelling. Children with learning disabilities, who were weak in phonemic segmentation, were trained with the use of diagrams and alphabet letters, with alphabet letters only, or with no visual support at all (the control condition). For this purpose three computer-assisted training programs were developed. In the first experiment, 48 children were assigned to one of the three programs. The training period lasted five weeks. Although in each training program the children improved their phonemic segmentation skill, there were no significant differences among the three training programs. This result may have been influenced by the different types of feedback that were provided in the three training programs. In a second experiment, therefore, these differences in feedback were eliminated and 49 different children were trained with the same three programs. The results of this experiment, however, were the same as those of the first experiment. The finding that visual support had no beneficial effects could therefore not be attributed to differences in explicit feedback. It was concluded that with these children, in contrast to preschoolers, phonemic segmentation training using visual support does not have any advantage over auditory training alone. The results of this study indicate that preschoolers and children with reading and spelling problems cannot be treated in the same way. It underlines the importance of further examination of the problems that poor readers and poor spellers encounter in grasping the structure of spoken language.     

The construction of word meaning in a multicultural classroom. Mediational tools in peer collaboration during mathematics lessons

In this article, we examine the construction of word meaning by students during collaborative activities in a multicultural classroom at a Dutch primary school. The analysis is based on recordings of student talk in small groups of four or five students during mathematics lessons. Difficulties with specific terms and expressions frequently arose during group work. Students could easily ask each other about the meaning of difficult words as a part of the collaborative activities they were accustomed to. In the groups with both Dutch and minority children, the minority students addressed their Dutch classmates as language experts. Conversations about language difficulties also occurred in the groups with only minority students. The conversations about word meaning revealed four patterns: (1) ignoring a question about the meaning of a word, (2) showing the meaning using gestures, (3) explaining, or (4) discussing word meaning. In none of the cases were the language problems solved by referring to the everyday meaning of the word. Instead, the conversations focussed directly on the specialised meaning which the word had in the context of the mathematics lesson. This means that the children used the mathematical discourse as a mediational tool for constructing a mathematical meaning of the words.     

Instructional control of cognitive load in the training of complex cognitive tasks

Limited processing capacity constrains learning and performance in complex cognitive tasks. In traditional instruction, novices' failure to adequately learn cognitive tasks can often be attributed to the inappropriate direction of attention and the related high or excessive load that is imposed on a learner's cognitive system. An instructional design model for the training of complex cognitive tasks should provide instructional strategies that control cognitive load. We propose such a model and recommend research in which the cognitive load of instructional manipulations is systematically investigated and determined with mental-effort based measures.     

Towards a personalized task selection model with shared instructional control

Modern education emphasizes the need to flexibly personalize learning tasks to individual learners. This article discusses a personalized task-selection model with shared instructional control based on two current tendencies for the dynamic sequencing of learning tasks: (1) personalization by an instructional agent which makes sequencing decisions on the basis of learner’s expertise, and (2) personalization by the learner who is given control over – final – task selection. The model combines both trends in a model with shared instructional control. From all available learning tasks, an instructional agent selects a subset of tasks based on the learner’s performance scores and invested mental effort (i.e., system-control). Subsequently, this subset is presented to the learner who makes the final decision (i.e., learner control). A computer-assisted instructional program has been developed to put the model into practice and preliminary results are discussed. The model can be used to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of instruction and to make it more appealing by providing the learner an optimal level of control over task selection. This research project is funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO, The Hague, project No. 411-02-107-V).     

What Does Prone Skateboarding in the Newborn Tell Us About the Ontogeny of Human Locomotion?

The crawling behavior of sixty 2-day-old newborns was studied while they were supported prone on a mini skateboard and on a pediatric mattress without additional support. Analyses of the number and types of limb movements and their characteristics, the coactivation of limb pairs, and the displacement across the surface, revealed that newborns can crawl with locomotor patterns similar to those documented during quadrupedal locomotion in animals and human adults. This was particularly apparent on the skateboard. This discovery suggests that locomotor circuitry underlying quadrupedal locomotion develops during fetal life. Drawing upon other evidence for a quadrupedal organization underlying bipedal gait, we argue that early quadrupedal training may enhance interventions designed to hasten the onset of independent walking.