Three‐Year‐Olds’ Reactions to a Partner's Failure to Perform Her Role in a Joint Commitment

When children make a joint commitment to collaborate, obligations are created. Pairs of 3‐year‐old children (N = 144) made a joint commitment to play a game. In three different conditions the game was interrupted in the middle either because: (a) the partner child intentionally defected, (b) the partner child was ignorant about how to play, or (c) the apparatus broke. The subject child reacted differently in the three cases, protesting normatively against defection (with emotional arousal and later tattling), teaching when the partner seemed to be ignorant, or simply blaming the apparatus when it broke. These results suggest that 3‐year‐old children are competent in making appropriate normative evaluations of intentions and obligations of collaborative partners.     

Mathe mit der Matte – Verkörperlichtes Training basisnumerischer Kompetenzen

Basic numerical representations are seen as the building block for the successful development of more complex numerical and arithmetic competencies. Extending previous studies focusing on improving basic numerical representations by means of embodied training schemes, the current study focused on an embodied training of children’s place-value understanding. In this vein, 49 secondgraders were trained on solving a number line estimation task by stepping on different fields of a dance mat allowing for separate estimations of tens and units with more effort needed to step on the tens. In a partially randomized cross-over design, two control conditions were used to controll for training effects caused exclusively by the numerical content trained or the use of the dance mat. Interestingly, results revealed specific training effects after both the embodied and the control conditions. However, training effects were significantly more pronounced after the embodied training, thereby providing further evidence for the benefit of an embodied training of the place-value structure of the Arabic number system.     

Resistance in action learning: struggling with self-efficacy and the social Self – and what about the set advisor?

This account of practice explores the concept of resistance in action learning. Resistance is conceptualized as an attempt of self-protection that is manifested in action learners' struggles with their sense of self-efficacy and their social Self. These struggles are an inherent part of the action learning process and may elicit defensive undercurrents that constrain learning. I contribute to debates on criticality in action learning by recognizing the centrality of resistance as a source of learning for participants and set advisors. The intended contribution of this paper is to illuminate the importance of engaging with these limiting processes which can spark a powerful learning experience that reverberates long after the action learning programme has finished. Furthermore, I reflect on the opportunities this alternative view on resistance may provide for us as action learning facilitators and discuss how we may incorporate these reflections in our practice.     

Learning in the mother tongue: Examining the learning outcomes of the South African Kha Ri Gude literacy campaign

International Review of Education - The aim of this article is to examine literacy and numeracy scores of learners who participated in the South African Kha Ri Gude Literacy Campaign. Analysing the...     

Pictures are necessary but not sufficient: Using a range of visual methods to engage users about school design

It has been argued by both educationalists and social researchers that visual methods are particularly appropriate for the investigation of people’s experiences of the school environment. The current and expected building work taking place in British schools provides an opportunity for exploration of methods, as well as a need to establish ways to achieve this involvement of a range of school users, including students. This article describes a consultation that was undertaken in a UK secondary school as part of a participatory design process centred on the rebuilding of the school. A range of visual methods, based on photographs and maps, was used to investigate the views of a diverse sample of school users, including students, teachers, technical and support staff and the wider community. Reported here is the experience of using these tools, considering the success of different visually-based methods in engaging a broad cross section of the school community and revealing useful information. Using a range of visual methods allows a complex, but coherent, understanding of the particular school environment to be constructed and developed. It is further argued that such a range of visual and spatial methods is needed to develop appropriate understanding. The study, therefore, contributes to knowledge about specific visual research methods, appreciation of the relationship between tools, and a general methodological understanding of visual methods’ utility for developing understanding of the learning environment.