Developing Children's Understanding of Fractions: An Intervention Study

Fractions constitute a stumbling block in mathematics education. To improve children's understanding of fractions, we designed an intervention based on learning‐by‐doing activities, which focused on the representation of the magnitude of fractions. Participants were 292 Grade 4 and 5 children. Half of the classes received experimental instruction, while the other half pursued their usual lessons. For 10 weeks, they played five different games using cards representing fractions (e.g., Memory and Blackjack). Wooden disks helped them represent and manipulate fractions while playing games. Our results showed an improvement in the conceptual understanding of fractions. The findings confirmed that the usual practice in teaching fractions is largely based on procedural knowledge and provides only minimal opportunities for children to conceptualize the meaning and magnitude of fractional notations. Furthermore, our results demonstrate that a short intervention inducing children to manipulate, compare, and evaluate fractions improves their ability to associate fractional notations with numerical magnitude.     

Investigation of the hydro-mechanical behaviour of fouled ballast

In this study, a fouled ballast taken from the site of Sénissiat, France, was investigated. For the hydraulic behaviour, a large-scale cell was developed allowing drainage and evaporation tests to be carried out with monitoring of both suction and volumetric water content at various positions of the sample. It was observed that the hydraulic conductivity of fouled ballast is decreasing with suction increase, as for common unsaturated soils. The effect of fines content was found to be negligible. For the mechanical behaviour, both monotonic and cyclic triaxial tests were carried out using a large-scale triaxial cell. Various water contents were considered. The results were interpreted in terms of shear strength and permanent axial strain. It appeared that the water content is an important factor to be accounted for since any increase of water content or degree of saturation significantly decreases the shear strength and increases the permanent strain. Constitutive modelling has been attempted based on the experimental results. The model in its current state is capable of describing the effects of stress level, cycle number and water content.     

Aesthetic experience and creativity in arts education: Ehrenzweig and the primal syncretistic perception of the child

The pertinence and worth of arts in Quebec primary schools vary considerably from one institution and school administration to another. In this paper it is argued that well-integrated arts education would bring a large array of pedagogical benefits to students, not the least of which is the preservation and the development of aesthetic perception and creativity. Actually, teachers can rely on the syncretistic and amodal perception of the young child, a learning mode that is analogous to the aesthetic experience and fostered by art practices. The paper draws notably on Ehrenzweig and Winnicott to advocate that the school, through arts education, should preserve and make use of this precious perceptive faculty, and temper the educational bias that largely favours the logical or analytical mode of the child. It advocates for an essential developmental balance between the child’s intuitive and analytical faculties, a healthy equilibrium that arts education has the potential to instil. Children and society both have much to gain from the school’s fostering of arts education and aesthetic perception: children from their balanced development and society from future creative citizens’ contributions.     

Les limites de l’atomisme enfantin; expérimentation d’une démarche d’elaboration d’un modèle particulaire par des elèves de collège

We present a teaching sequence aimed at helping pupils (13–14 years) to put into practice the activities of building and using models. Objects (particles) characterised by invariant properties (shape, dimensions, mass) are proposed as the basic elements for building models. We hypothesised that the invariance of the properties of particles would lead pupils to introduce a variability in relations between particles in order to take into account the tranformations observed. The designed learning sequence includes activities for the production of iconic representations, discussion of the relevance of these representations in relation to the phenomena observed and the use of such representations as a predictive tool. The results show the various stages in establishing the meaning of the initial axiom; they enable us to discuss the hypotheses underlying this teaching-learning sequence.     

Public and private schooling in France: an investigation into family choice

Since the end of the 1970s, more than a third of all French pupils have attended private schools either continuously or temporarily. The private sector appeared as a second chance, but one that was not seized in equal proportions by all social classes and was thus a source of new inequalities. Moreover, it appeared that although pupil recruitment in the public sector was more democratic, the private sector had more success in equalizing results and scholastic careers. Today school switching continues to increase: more than 40% of pupils attend or have attended the private sector at one point in time and almost one family in two makes use of it for at least one child. In this respect, we have observed important similarities in the school careers of parents and children: some families remain loyal to one of the two sectors while others switch between sectors. Ideologically-based choices seem to be on the decline: the main reason families use the private sector is to improve their childrens' education. There remain, however, important regional differences in provision and use of the private sector.     

The contribution of PISA to the convergence of education policies in Europe

The international comparative studies on students’ outcomes have initiated analyses that have had a growing influence on national and sub‐national education policies in industrialised and developing countries. It is particularly the case of the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) which started in 2000 and has organised surveys every 3 years, so that the 2015 survey was the 6^th. Its influence has been particularly important for several reasons: 1) it assesses the basic competences in reading literacy, maths and science of 15 year‐olds students, i.e. around the end of compulsory education in many countries; 2) the assessment is based on a reliable methodology and the tests are completed by qualitative surveys and studies; 3) and the results lead to recommendations and are amplified by the media in most countries. However, it is not easy to evaluate the real impact of PISA because of the existence of other international studies such as IEA's TIMSS and, particularly in Europe, the influence of the recommendations and benchmarks of the EU that has been growing steadily in the last 25 years. Our analysis of the impact of PISA and EU policy focuses on the evolution of the education policy in France, but also studies its evolution in a few other European countries. Finally, we underline the limits of the influence of PISA and international standards in education towards a convergence of education systems because of the importance of their specific historic and cultural contexts.     

What Is Happening with Portable Computers in Schools?

This study was an exploratory of the Landes initiative to supply all pupils and teachers with portable computers and Internet at school. These surveys involved 817 pupils and parents and produced a response rate of 98% for pupils from the first survey at the beginning of the year and 798 pupils at the end of the year. The approach, which consists of identifying any variances in individual perceptions of technology, was tested in an initial In-Tele research programme in which we were involved. The questionnaire-based survey reveals low usage of information technology in terms of teaching, with no difference between the portable and test groups. Moving on from the first level study, characterizing the sites and studying their viewing frequency produces the surprising outcome that the very high number of sites viewed actually conceals a much more pessimistic reality about pedagogical uses.     

Information seeking in a multimedia environment by primary school students

Three multimedia CD-ROMs were placed in two grade-six classrooms for the duration of a class project. The 53 students, working in small groups, were free to search them during designated class periods. Sample sessions at the workstations were captured along with a recording of the searchers' voices. The retrieved information was incorporated by each group into a written assignment, an oral class presentation, and a three-dimensional model. The search strategies were analyzed using a case study methodology. The content of the CD-ROMs and the students' work were analyzed to identify from which sources the students had drawn their information. The students were able to cope effectively with the physical manipulation of the three different CD-ROM interfaces, although they found certain features easier than others. Constructing effective search strategies was more difficult, and relatively little use was made of the searching in contrast to the browsing facilities. Students demonstrated an ability to extract selectively information and to evaluate sources in terms of usefulness as well as enjoyment and ease of use. Class assignments may have to be redesigned if the full capabilities offered by multimedia instructional products are to be fully exploited.     

Native Mexican Parents’ Beliefs About Children’s Literacy and Language Development: A Mixed-Methods Study

Research Findings. This study examined Mexican caretaker roles, beliefs, and practices around their child’s language and literacy development. Twenty-six parents in three preschools representing three socioeconomic strata located in Querétaro City, México completed questionnaires and participated in focus groups. We used convergent parallel mixed methods to analyze and compare parent questionnaire quantitative data and qualitative focus group data with a grounded theory approach to identify focus group discussion themes. Four themes were emerged: (a) Goals and expectations regarding reading and socioemotional development, (b) Perceptions and beliefs about children’s oral and written language, (c) Caretaker’s perceived role in children’s language and literacy development, and (d) Home and community learning-related resources and practices. Findings highlighted that Mexican parents highly value supporting their children’s education both socioemotionally and through engagement in literacy routines—evidence of duality in the educacíón value among native Mexican families. These literacy routines were complementary and responsive to teacher classroom instruction. Practice or Policy. Understanding how Latino families instantiate literacy practices to respond to American schooling expectations may be a way to address home-school discontinuities that often reflect lack of familiarity with the U.S. educational system.