Maternal teaching of the symbolic function of a scale model / La enseñanza materna de la función simbólica de una maqueta

This study explores how mothers naturally guide their children in the use of a symbolic object, a scale model. Nineteen mothers, along with their two-and-a-half-year-old children, participated. The children had to find a toy hidden in a small room by using a scale model that represented it. It was found that mothers used three kinds of strategies: model-room correspondence, life experience and the names of the objects; with correspondence being the preferred strategy. The mothers were very responsive to their children, offering feedback in order to evaluate both their correct and incorrect searches. The corrective feedback affected the children’s performance when mothers had previously used strategies like correspondence and experience, but not in the case of name. In general terms, the results illustrate how mothers naturally guide the cultural knowledge of their children, structuring the interaction in a particular way and providing teaching and correction strategies in line with the responses of their children and the characteristics of the task.     

Teachers negotiating discourses of gender (in) equality: the case of equal opportunities reform in Andalusia

This article is focused on the analysis of the narratives produced by a group of teachers, experts in coeducation, while they were discussing their everyday activities. They are responsible for the implementation of a Plan for Gender Equality in public secondary schools in Andalusia (Spain). This study is based on contributions about doing gender view, according to which gender is not an attribute of individuals, but a way of making sense of interactions and practising a complex system as functioning on three levels: sociocultural, interactional, and individual. We use these levels to understand gender culture in schools through teachers’ discourse. Our interest lies particularly in the meanings, contradictions, difficulties, and conflicts experienced by expert teachers in co-education. Our study was based on group discussions with teachers in charge of the plan for equal opportunities between women and men in school settings. Results show teachers’ conflicts about meanings and how they are supposed to apply the Equality Plan. We observed interactional levels during these conflicts and analysed how teachers construct and validate their discourse.     

Effect of bike-fit in the perception of comfort,fatigue and pain

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to assess the influence of different bike positions on the perception of fatigue, pain and comfort. Twenty cyclists underwent three tests that involved cycling for 45 min at their individual 50% peak aerobic power output while adopting different positions on the bike. Participants performed the cycling tests adopting three positions defined by two parameters (knee flexion angle [20°, 30°, 40°] and trunk flexion angle [35°, 45°, 55°]) in random order. Angles were measured using a 2D motion analysis system during cycling and applying Fonda’s correction factor. Perceptions of comfort, fatigue and pain were reported before the end of each test. The combination of 40° knee flexion and 35° trunk flexion was perceived as the most uncomfortable position. Moreover, greater knee flexion had a negative effect on trunk comfort, accompanied by greater levels of fatigue and pain perception in the anterior part of the thigh and knee. In conclusion, cyclists perceived the most comfortable position to be when the saddle height was within the recommended knee angle (30° calculated from the offset position or 40 ± 4.0° of absolute value). Upright trunk was found to be the most comfortable position for recreational cyclists, where aerodynamics is not so important. Cyclists’ bike perceptions should be taken into account when it comes to choosing the most beneficial position, since this can play a role in injury prevention and enhance cycling performance.     

Tears for girls and teeth for boys: the influence of gender on children’s depiction of sadness and anger in their drawings

Up to now, very few studies investigated the influence of gender on the depiction of emotions in children’s drawings. However, the literature on emotions reveals differences between boys and girls in various kinds of tasks (e.g. recognising emotional facial expressions, understanding an emotional situation, etc.). Therefore, we examined the impact of gender on the depiction of sadness and anger. We took into account children’s gender but also the gender of the character expressing the target emotion. Forty-four boys and forty-seven girls aged 7–8 and thirty-six boys and fifty-three girls aged 9–10 were asked to listen to stories where the main character (either a male or a female) was feeling sad or angry and then to draw the facial cues corresponding to the target emotion. Two methods were used to rate the drawings: judges assessed the correct vs. incorrect depiction of the two target emotions and a content analysis was then conducted on the correct drawings so as to reveal the type of facial cues used by children. By showing the major influence of children’s gender on their depiction of sadness and anger, our findings offer promising lines of research in educational and clinical settings.     

En Confianza: Co-constructing Professional Strength and Voice With Latina Early Childhood Educators

It is well documented in the literature that early pre-K reading experiences prepare children for the benefits of formal literacy instruction in the later grades. This is particularly true for young children from nonmainstream backgrounds. The objective of this article is to share the findings of a 4-year qualitative study investigating the relationships forged and teaching ideologies constructed by Latino pre-K teachers via critical “storying” within a culturally responsive professional learning community. Findings suggest that as teachers learned to recognize, listen to, and learn from the personal/professional individual and collective life histories of each other, their teaching efficacy was enhanced increasing their ability to develop effective literacy instruction that was culturally and linguistically responsive to the needs of young children.     

Models and processes for solving arithmetic word problems proposed by Spanish mathematics textbooks / Modelos y procesos de resolución de problemas aritméticos verbales propuestos por los libros de texto de matemáticas españoles

Abstract

Textbooks are frequently used as a resource to teach children how to solve word problems in mathematics classes. The solving models explicitly proposed by textbooks, and the kind of problems they propose, can therefore have a decisive influence on the way in which students learn to solve them. This paper analyses the extent to which the problem solving models proposed by the books include reasoning as one of the steps needed to solve a problem. To do this, the processes and steps articulated in the models proposed in the books by Anaya, SM and Santillana are categorized according to data, reasoning, choice of operation, strategies, execution of operations, expression of results, checking and inventing. The results indicate that reasoning processes are hardly ever found in the models, especially in lower year courses. It is concluded that mathematical textbooks provide incomplete solving models that fail to promote reasoning.     

Neurocognitive and Temperamental Systems of Self‐Regulation and Early Adolescents’ Social and Academic Outcomes

ABSTRACT— The aim of the current study was to examine the role of individual differences in neurocognitive and temperamental systems of self‐regulation in early adolescents’ social and academic competence. Measures used in the study included the Attention Network Test, the Early Adolescence Temperament Questionnaire, a peer‐reported Social Status Questionnaire, a self‐reported measure of Schooling Skills, and information on grades obtained by the students in a variety of school subjects (n= 69 12‐year olds). Results showed that efficiency of the neurocognitive network of executive attention is related to academic outcomes, particularly in mathematics, as well as to aspects of social adjustment. Temperamental effortful control appears to be a significant predictor of all dimensions of school competence assessed in this study and mediates the relationship between social adjustment and poor schooling outcomes. These data suggest that individual differences in systems of self‐regulation are central to understanding processes of learning and social adjustment in the school.