The Role of Parents and Community in the Education of the Japanese Child

In Japan, there has been an increased concern about family and community participation in the childs education. Traditionally, the role of parents and community in Japan has been one of support and less one of active involvement in school learning. Since the government commenced education reforms in the last quarter of the 20th century, a more active role for parents and the community in education has been encouraged. These reforms have been inspired by the need to tackle various problems that had arisen, such as the perceived harmful elements of societys preoccupation with academic achievement and the problematic behavior of young people. In this paper, the following issues are examined: (1) education policy and reform measures with regard to parent and community involvement in the childs education; (2) the state of parent and community involvement at the eve of the 20th century.     

Do all roads really lead to Rome? The case of spelling acquisition

The French orthographic code is complex, and its acquisition is laborious (Catach, 2008; Fayol & Jaffré, 2008). Three hypotheses attempt to explain orthographic knowledge acquisition (OKA). For some, exposure to the code leads to OKA through a self-learning process (Share, 2004). For others, OKA benefits from graphophonological processes (Coltheart, Rastle, Perry, Langdon, & Ziegler, 2001). Finally, some authors suggest that OKA is possible thanks to visual specific processes (Ans, Carbonnel, & Valdois, 1998). The main goal of this study was to test these hypotheses in a classroom context with comparable samples. In total, 143 2nd-grade children participated in this quasi-experimental study with a pretest, immediate posttest, and delayed posttest design. We assigned participants to one of four conditions. For three conditions, we created three teaching procedures based on each of the hypotheses: frequency of contacts with target words; explicit teaching of graphophonological properties of words; explicit teaching of visual properties of words. The fourth served as a control group. ANOVA analyses indicated that all three experimental conditions favored OKA, showing that the different teaching procedures led to spelling development. However, the visual condition was the most favorable. Three main conclusions can be drawn from this study: (a) models of OKA should account for the different paths that can lead to spelling acquisition; (b) visual properties of words and their acquisition need additional research, and (c) applied research in real classroom contexts is not only relevant for informing teaching practices but also for better understanding how learning takes place.

     

Student,home, and school socio-demographic factors: links to school,home, and community arts participation

This study explored the role of student (e.g., age, language background, gender), home (e.g., parent/caregiver education), and school (e.g., school type, size) socio-demographic factors in students’ school (e.g., in-school arts tuition, arts engagement), home (e.g., parent/caregiver–child arts interaction), and community (e.g., arts attendance, arts tuition) arts participation. The sample comprised 1172 elementary and secondary school students from 15 schools. Findings revealed that student and home socio-demographic factors were the most salient in predicting arts participation across school, home, and community contexts. Age, gender, and prior achievement were the key student socio-demographic factors, while parent/caregiver education and occupation were also associated with students’ arts participation. Implications for practice and intervention pertinent to young people’s arts participation are discussed.     

Three dimensional couette flow and heat transfer through a porous medium with variable permeability

This paper reports research on the effects of variations in injection velocity and permeability on the heat transfer and flow through a highly porous medium between two horizontal parallel plates situated at constant distance with constant suction by the upper plate. Due to this type of variation in injection velocity and in permeability the flow becomes three dimensional. The governing equations are solved by adopting complex variable notations to obtain the expressions for the velocity and temperature field. The skin-friction along the main flow direction and rate of heat transfer are discussed with the help of graphs.     

Various ways to determine rational number size: an exploration across primary and secondary education

European Journal of Psychology of Education - Understanding rational numbers is a complex task for primary and secondary school students. Previous research has shown that a possible reason is...     

Developing Environmentally Responsible Behaviours Through the Implementation of Argumentation- and Problem-Based Learning Models

Research in Science Education - The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of using argumentation and problem-based learning approaches on the development of environmentally...