Scaffolding young children’s understanding of symbolic objects

Symbolic objects are cognitive tools children must learn to master very early in life. A crucial factor in cognitive development is the instruction or informational support children receive in social contexts. While numerous studies have investigated the relation between instruction and development in various domains, like language or symbolic play, still little is known concerning the role of this factor in the comprehension of symbolic objects. The purpose of this article is to illustrate with an overview of the results of the authors’ research how instruction scaffolds the comprehension and use of symbolic objects. In this framework instruction is conceived as a process that mediates the skills that children develop and meanings they build. Some educational implications are discussed.     

Teacher professional development through collaborative action research: impact on foreign English-language teaching and learning

In 2011 we, a group of English-as-a-foreign-language teachers at a secondary school in Argentina, decided to investigate our teaching practices through collaborative action research so as to improve our students’ learning opportunities and thus revitalise English-language teaching in our context. We implemented and evaluated the integration of content and language learning in our classrooms through the development of our own materials. The experience revealed a growth in professional development and how our motivation and autonomy influenced our students’ motivation and language development. In our attempt to disseminate our experience as a group, this report particularly focuses on the evaluation facets of our collaborative action research project so as to encourage other teachers and teacher-researchers to adopt collaborative action research to improve their own practices.     

浅谈体育院校英语教学对策研究

体育院校的英语教学已经成为大家十分关注的热点话题,由于一直以来体育院校对英语教学的重视程度比较低,所以在2008年奥运会上,很多体育健将的英语口语问题浮出水面,这时大家才发觉体育院校的英语教学的重要性,开始认识到英语教学对于体育院校的重要意义.于是各院校都先后对英语教学进行具体化的课程安排和师资力量的调遣,而且安排了学生日常的各种双语活动以激发学习英语的兴趣,提高外语口语水平.     

杜威“艺术即经验”思想及其对我国儿童艺术教育的启示

在杜威“艺术即经验”的思想中,“经验”的圆满被视为艺术的特征,即当人们的日常经验达到了一定的完满程度,就可以被称为艺术了.当前我国儿童艺术教育的实践还存在着分裂化、技能化和功利化等问题.根据杜威“艺术即经验”的思想,我国的儿童艺术教育首先应树立起“大美育”儿童艺术教育观,继续开展综合艺术教育改革,同时关注儿童日常生活中的审美与艺术教育.     

Science Curricula and the Organization of Secondary Schooling

This paper explores the substance of competence-driven changes in teacher education curricula by testing the possibility of using a framework distinguishing between the German pedagogical culture of Didaktik and the Anglo-Saxon Curriculum culture to describe the substance of these changes. Data about the perceptions of competence-driven changes in teacher education curricula has been collected in 30 in-depth interviews with teacher educators, student teachers, and their school mentors in Serbia, and analysed with the help of qualitative data processing software. The coding procedures involved classification of utterances into five groups relating to the perceptions of (1) teacher evaluation, (2) teacher competence in subject matter, pedagogy, and curriculum, (3) understanding of the education system and contribution to its development, (4) teacher competences in dealing with values and child-rearing, and (5) changes in teacher education curricula related to these groups of competence. The perceptions in each group of utterances were interpreted in terms of their alliance with Didaktik or Curriculum cultures. The findings indicate that the framework cannot be used as a continuum since the utterances aligned with the two cultures co-exist in the individual responses, but could be useful as a reflection tool in teacher education curricula.     

Videotaping as a Means of Self-Monitoring to Improve Theater Students' Performance

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of retroactive and focused self-monitoring, actualized by videotaping, on children's theater performance. In Experiment 1, 20 students in a theater performance program were randomly assigned to either a control or a self-monitoring condition, and their weekly rehearsals were videotaped. Only students in the self-monitoring condition viewed their videotaped rehearsals. The authors found that retroactive self-monitoring enhanced theater performance. In Experiment 2, 36 children preparing for a Christmas play were randomly assigned to either a focused or to a general self-monitoring condition. They viewed their videotaped rehearsals; the focused self-monitoring group received a list of important aspects of the performance to watch. The focused self-monitoring enhanced the children's performance in the play.     

Development of the Efficacy Beliefs for Conceptual Change Learning Questionnaire

The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument to assess college students’ efficacy beliefs for conceptual change and to examine the psychometric properties of the instrument. Participants were 692 students. Results of the confirmatory factor analysis supported the hypothesized single factor structure of Efficacy Beliefs for Conceptual Change Learning Questionnaire providing evidence for the construct validity. Evidence for concurrent validity also is provided. On the basis of the evidence provided in this study, the questionnaire appears to produce valid and reliable scores for college students. With the use of the questionnaire, conceptual change researchers might be able to better assess the relationship between students’ efficacy beliefs and the change in their conceptual understandings of various science concepts.