Assessment of preschool classroom practices: Application of Q-sort methodology

This paper reports on the application of Q-sort methodology to the development of the Preschool Classroom Practices (PCP) Q-sort. The PCP Q-sort was tested in a sample of 66 preschool teachers and assistants. Results demonstrated the existence of a 2-cluster structure within the Q-sort, comprised of Cognitive Development Activities and Socioemotional Development Activities. Specific properties of the PCP Q-sort, including cluster means, demonstrated consistency across both samples and time. Preschool teachers reported engaging in significantly more Socioemotional Development Activities than Cognitive Development Activities. Relationships to classroom observational measures are presented. Application of the PCP Q-sort as a measure of classroom practices and implications for preschool curriculum are discussed.     

Predictors of quality and child outcomes in family child care settings

Few studies have examined correlates of quality ratings in family child care arrangements. This study analyzes data from a multi-state sample of family child care providers actively seeking professional development for two purposes. First, we examine predictors of observed quality ratings focusing on characteristics of child care providers, the most proximal influences of quality in family child care. Second, we explore associations between three targets of professional development (providers’ attitudes, beliefs, and practices) and the pre-academic and social–emotional skills of preschool-aged children. Provider characteristics indicative of personal and professional resources and stress, as well as providers’ professional attitudes and beliefs, are predictive of observed quality measures. Observed quality and providers’ child-centered beliefs and perceptions of job demands are related to children's developmental outcomes. Implications for future research, policies, and practices are discussed.     

高职院校辅导员职业倦怠的现状调查与分析

采用教师职业倦怠问卷量表对10所高职高专院校的78名辅导员进行调查,以揭示该类院校辅导员职业倦怠现状。调查结果显示:被测辅导员在情绪衰竭、去人格化、低成就感三个维度上的职业倦怠检出率分别为16.67%、6.41%、47.44%。三个维度在婚姻和学历方面不存在显著性差异;女性在低成就感上的均值显著高于男性(P0.05),而在情绪衰竭、去人格化维度上男、女无显著性差异。不同转岗态度与职业倦怠程度呈正相关。文章还探讨了职业倦怠的致因,提出了针对性的干预对策。     

School experience influences on pre-service teachers' evolving beliefs about effective teaching

This study systematically tracked a group of 37 pre-service teachers' evolving beliefs about and perceptions of themselves and their experiences from the initial data collection prior to any experiential base in schools through the varied phases of their professional placements involving steadily increasing levels of professional responsibility. The results indicated that the pre-service teachers' beliefs about good teaching evolved from a belief in being in control through expertise to a belief in being in control through charisma and building relationship with their students. The first teaching practicum experience dramatically challenged the beliefs of these students where the beliefs indicated immediately after the experience to be more focussed on ‘self’ rather than students. Subsequent belief structures differed in character from both those after the first teaching experience and from those held prior to the first teaching responsibility. The study also reports on the pre-service students' self-efficacy beliefs in good teaching. Gender differences are also discussed.     

Promoting Science Outdoor Activities for Elementary School Children: Contributions from a research laboratory

The purposes of the study were to analyse the promotion of scientific literacy through practical research activities and to identify children's conceptions about scientists and how they do science. Elementary school children were engaged in two scientific experiments in a marine biology research laboratory. A total of 136 students answered a questionnaire about their previous habits towards science and carried out the following actions: (1) a guided visit to the laboratory, (2) a brief presentation of the research theme, (3) the development of two experiments, and (4) a questionnaire about the experiments and science conceptions. The research methods included observation, document analysis, and content analysis of the answers to the questionnaires. Additionally, each visit was video recorded in order to design learning materials. The results revealed that most of the pupils were able to follow every stage of experimentation. However, some of them misinterpreted results and conclusions. One implication of the study is that this type of outdoor activity is extremely important to promote meaningful science learning in children, but more care should be taken in practical science activities so that children can overcome some common difficulties when performing scientific inquiry.     

李健吾评价《九十九度中》“最富有现代性”的原因探析

以西方新叙事学的“横向窗口”“嵌入窗口”概念为方法,对《九十九度中》进行文本分析,发现在“横向窗口”和“嵌入窗口”的自由交叉转换中,叙述总是趋向两组“喜”与“悲”的四个故事,这种结构产生了特殊的美学效应:传达作家的人文情怀以及对于人生的理解;让互相关联的人物在各自的心理内容中形成差异和反差,以此刻画人物。文本在无限虚拟中,自然构成无边无际的网,寓意了生活的无限可能性,而作家裁剪下来的若干人物的故事和场景,正是作家对于生活发言的表征。     

Pain without gain?: Impact of school rationalisation in India

Alarmed by declining enrolment in government schools and potentially adverse academic, administrative and fiscal consequences associated with it, policy makers in India have initiated experimenting with closure of government schools with low enrolments (‘small’ schools), an exercise commonly referred to as ‘school rationalisation’. However, the impact of this policy on access to schooling and learning remains empirically unexplored. Utilising ASER 2014 data, this paper asks three key questions: (a) what are the characteristics of villages in which ‘small’ schools are located?, (b) what options would students have if ‘small schools’ were to be closed, and finally (c) what are the differences in characteristics of ‘small’ and non-‘small’ schools? Results indicate that the villages which have ‘small’ schools are more disadvantaged in terms of essential public services such as all-weather roads leading to village, availability of government health facilities or banks and post offices. Additionally, these villages are less likely to have an alternative to the ‘small’ school, either government or private. Results also show that ‘small schools’ are much more likely to have multi-grade teaching. They are less likely to have basic infrastructural facilities. Interestingly, learning levels are unlikely to be different in ‘small’ schools than non- ‘small’ schools even after controlling for child, household and village attributes. Thus, the analysis suggests that school rationalisation can potentially have severe consequences on children’s access to schools without any meaningful impact on learning levels in a ‘business as usual’ scenario.     

基于行动研究的农村学校教师教育技术培训

文章在对山西省农村中小学教师的教育技术能力和培训现状调查研究的基础上,探讨了将行动研究引入教师教育技术培训的意义,进而提出了行动研究法应用于农村学校教师教育技术培训的构想和设计,最后指出影响培训效果的几个因素。     

Playing with others: Head Start children's peer play and relations with kindergarten school competence

Time-sampled observations of Head Start preschoolers’ (N = 264; 51.5% boys; 76% Mexican American; M = 53.11 and SD = 6.15 months of age) peer play in the classroom were gathered during fall and spring semesters. One year later, kindergarten teachers rated these children's school competence. Latent growth models indicated that, on average, children's peer play was moderately frequent and increased over time during preschool. Children with higher initial levels or with higher slopes of peer play in Head Start had higher levels of kindergarten school competence. Results suggest that Head Start children's engagement with peers may foster development of skills that help their transition into formal schooling. These findings highlight the importance of peer play, and suggest that peer play in Head Start classrooms contributes to children's adaptation to the demands of formal schooling.     

Output feedback based simultaneous stabilization of two Port-controlled Hamiltonian systems with disturbances

In motor system control design, a single controller is usually employed to simultaneously control two or more motors for saving costs, which also achieves the computational simplification of control. In practical Hamiltonian systems control, more systems also need to be stabilized by a single controller under some working conditions. Thus, this paper studies simultaneous stabilization problem of two nonlinear Port-controlled Hamiltonian (PCH) systems with disturbances by a composite controller. Based on the Hamiltonian structure properties, two PCH systems are combined together to generate an augmented PCH system by utilizing output feedbacks firstly. Then, to estimate disturbances effectively, it is essential to design a nonlinear disturbance observer (NDOB) and the estimate is employed to feedforward compensate the effects of disturbances. Next, combining the output feedback part and the disturbance compensation part together, a simultaneous stabilization controller is developed. Subsequently, it is proved that the closed-loop system under the proposed controller is asymptotically stable. Finally, an example with simulations reveals that the proposed method is effective.