Causal Learning Across Culture and Socioeconomic Status

Extensive research has explored the ability of young children to learn about the causal structure of the world from patterns of evidence. These studies, however, have been conducted with middle-class samples from North America and Europe. In the present study, low-income Peruvian 4- and 5-year-olds and adults, low-income U.S. 4- and 5-year-olds in Head Start programs, and middle-class children from the United States participated in a causal learning task (N = 435). Consistent with previous studies, children learned both specific causal relations and more abstract causal principles across culture and socioeconomic status (SES). The Peruvian children and adults generally performed like middle-class U.S. children and adults, but the low-SES U.S. children showed some differences.     

Counterstories of college persistence by undocumented Mexicana students: navigating race,class, gender,and legal status

This paper draws from four sets of four in‐depth interviews and one subsequent focus group to examine how undocumented Mexicana students navigate identities and the meanings of race, gender, class, and legal status. We mobilize a critical race theory framework to center and explore the content of students’ counterstories. While majoritarian stories perpetuate stereotypical narratives that portray communities of color as culturally deficient, counterstorytelling creates a space for exposing and resisting hegemonic narratives in the home, community, and college settings. We argue that, through counterstories, Mexicana students are able to develop a positive self‐image that allows them to hang on to their academic aspirations, to persist in college, and to envision and pursue the possibility of success. We look at how undocumented Mexicana students’ narratives also reproduce and/or reinscribe elements of oppressive discourses of race, class, and gender in the contemporary USA. We consider some implications of our discussion of counterstories for educational theory and policy.     

Feedback on feedback: eliciting learners’ responses to written feedback through student-generated screencasts

Despite the potential benefits of assignment feedback, learners often fail to use it effectively. This study examines the ways in which adult distance learners engage with written feedback on one of their assignments. Participants were 10 undergraduates studying Spanish at the Open University, UK. Their responses to feedback were elicited by means of student-generated screencast (Jing®) recordings in which students talked through the feedback written by their tutors. The recordings were analysed in terms of the students’ cognitive, affective and metacognitive responses to the tutors’ feedback. Results show that, while students do engage with tutor feedback and make active efforts to integrate it, they sometimes use ineffective strategies, especially when tutor and student make different assumptions about the role of feedback. The richness of the data obtained from the Feedback on feedback (F on F) method suggests that it has the potential to promote much needed feedback dialogue between students and tutors.     

Can schools become an inclusive space shared by all families? Learnings and debates from an action research project in Catalonia

ABSTRACT

This article discusses a 2-year action research project carried out in Catalonia using a sample of seven schools with varying degrees of social and ethnic diversity, focusing on the debate and critical perspectives surrounding the question of family–school relationships. It underlines four considerations, which are seen as symbolic, practical and probable barriers to this partnership: unequal power relationships, diversity and inequality of families, the grammar of schooling and how teachers view their professional identity. We present an action research project that involved the critical participation of the teaching staff in these seven schools and designed to answer the following question: under what conditions could family–school relationships be improved with and for all families, pupils and teachers? The conclusion discusses both the limitations of the critical action research and the lessons learnt from it: (a) the true transformation of the grammar of schooling is a slow and complex process; (b) this process is positive for teachers and makes their work better and easier; (c) the evaluation of constructive critical support is relevant and highly valued; and (d) the assessment of improved daily actions is key to making them visible and sustaining the change process.     

Research as a vital action in the DIPEC territory

The authors present the Didáctica de las Prácticas Escolares Cotidianas – The Didactics of Everyday School Practice (DIPEC). From their point of view, it owes its specificity to certain special characteristics, one of which is the inevitable presence of concrete, immediate teaching action, which presents particular problems and therefore particular ways of dealing with them. This article includes an example of a problematic situation, the way it was handled using Paulo Freire's methodology and the action subsequently developed.     

Habilidad de análisis fonético y adquisición de la lectura en los sistemas alfabéticos

Resumen

En este artículo se apuntan algunas líneas de reflexión sobre qué habilidades son puestas en juego al adquirir la capacidad de leer en los sistemas alfabéticos. Previamente se resume la evolución de los sistemas de escritura a fin de señalar las particularidades del sistema alfabeto frente al silábico y alfabético. Se revisan finalmente algunos trabajos que dan cuenta del papel que tiene el análisis de la palabra y más específicamente el análisis fonético en el aprendizaje de la lectura, cuándo y cómó se adquiere esta habilidad.     

Memoria y competencia inferencial en niños: un estudio preliminar

Resumen

Se contrasta la hipótesis de un posible efecto de facilitación mediante la representación previa de unas premisas sobre la competencia lógica de niños de nueve años. Los resultados no permiten confirmar la incidencia de ese efecto cuando la tarea exigida está por encima de la competencia lógica actual de los sujetos.     

Ideas,interacción,ambiente educativo y desarrollo: informe preliminar

Resumen

Se presenta en este trabajo un informe preliminar de una investigación longitudinal en la que las ideas evolutivo-educativas son evaluadas a lo largo del tiempo y se ponen en relación con las interacciones que 70 parejas (maridos y esposas) desarrollan con sus hijos de alrededor de 22 meses en situaciones diversas; se analiza también la relación con la estructuración del entorno físico y social del hogar, así como con el desarrollo del niño. Se han encontrado relaciones positivas entre las diferentes clases de padres definidos por sus ideas y las variables dependientes examinadas (contenidos de las interacciones, estimulación del hogar, desarrollo del niño).     

El desarrollo de la comprensión del contexto de la expresión emocional

Resumen

Uno de los problemas más interesantes en la investigación actual sobre reconocimiento de emociones se centra en el trabajo con niños. En concreto, los investigadores obtienen resultados contradictorios a la hora de establecer un patrón de desarrollo en la utilización de indicios expresivos e indicios contextuales para reconocer una emoción. La solución se halla, probablemente, en una mejor caracterización de los contextos que acompañan a la expresión. El propósito de este trabajo es logar un primer acercamiento a dicha caracterización.     

Cognitive apprehension in visual pattern generalization problems / Aprehensión cognitiva en problemas de generalización de patrones visuales

Abstract

The objective of this study was to identify cognitive apprehensions used by fifth- and sixth-grade students (10–12-year-olds) when answering far generalization questions in two problems of visual pattern generalization. A total of 81 students solved two linear generalizing problems, presented in two different configurations, in a succession of figures (square tables or trapezoid tables). The results showed that students used different types of cognitive apprehensions to solve problems and that these apprehensions sometimes changed according to the configuration of the sequence of figures. This finding indicates that configurations could determine apprehensions used by students, which in some cases led to the emergence of algebraic thinking. In addition, difficulties in modifying apprehension and a lack of coordination between spatial and numerical structures could explain some students’ difficulties in far generalization.