Exploring Developmental Appropriateness of Multitouch Tables in Prekindergarten: A Video Analysis

This study explored how developmentally appropriate practices influenced the affordances of a multitouch surface in an early childhood classroom. Children, ages 4 to 5 years old, were videotaped while engaged in a storymaking application on a multitouch table. As a result of the study, we found that some challenges with the functionality undermined children's autonomous control. The researchers observed numerous instances of issues with control of the medium, including height of the table, sensitivity to multiple types of touch, and limited instructions and prompts. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.     

Children's responses to the interactivity of storybook apps in family shared reading events involving the iPad

This paper reports on some data on the effects of screen‐based interactivity on children's engagement with storybook apps during family shared book reading that were gathered in a 2‐year, small‐scale ethnographic case study in Spain. Data analysis focuses on the complex interplay between the storybook app's interactive features and the children's responses to them. Our findings show that interactive elements increase the child's autonomy, as they tend to promote the importance of the reader, positioning him or her as a collaborator, storyteller, an author or an internal character in the fiction; something that can materialise in exciting narrative strategies that can trigger powerful responses to digital literary texts in emergent readers, including playing, creating new fictions or engaging emotionally with the story. Finally, we argue that the Reader Response models that have been used over recent decades to understand children's reading experiences with storybooks need to be revised to better understand their current experiences with interactive texts.     

Is Reading Recovery sustainable two to four years after discontinuation?

The Reading Recovery programme has been a key early literacy intervention in many international contexts for over two decades. As a consequence, there have been numerous investigations into its efficacy for short-term gains, but only a few on long-term sustainability. This study examines the progress of 95 Year 4–6 students from seven schools in the rural hinterland of New Zealand. Standardised data were collected from students who had been successfully discontinued from Reading Recovery two to four years previously and compared them with mean performance from the same school populations. Results showed that only Year 6 students obtained the mean scores which placed them within the national average range. Our results also showed that whilst almost half of the ex-Reading Recovery students we studied, fell within the average band, 45% were classified as well below average.     

Assessment in special schools: national early assessment procedures and pupils attending special schools in England

An implicit assumption that fostering inclusion means having shared systems encompassing the needs of all children is evident in many aspects of policy development over the past decade. Reflecting this, the implementation of ‘baseline assessment’ schemes (i.e. testing at around age 5 years) is a statutory requirement on all state-maintained special and mainstream schools in England since 1998. Our argument is that the enthusiasm for commonality has obscured the need to question the value and validity of baseline assessment schemes for children with special educational needs (and possibly some others such as children having English as an additional language). We illustrate this position with reference to data from our recent study on baseline assessment in England. The study encompassed survey data from a national sample of 982 schools, of which 107 were special schools. Between them, these special schools used 42 different baseline assessment schemes. Comparisons between our mainstream and special school respondents indicated that there were similarities in the nature and perceived value of the schemes used. However, special schools were less satisfied with their schemes. We suggest that a reappraisal of the nature and purpose of baseline assessment for pupils with special educational needs warrants greater critical debate. Without this, there is a danger that a stress on commonality, veiling an inclusion orthodoxy, will ultimately be counterproductive.     

“和而不同”：古代和谐社会的深层理念

文章以阐释孔子“和而不同”思想之渊源为切入,剖析了儒家学说在促进实现人与人、人与社会、人与自然和谐发展以及社会政治共识与多元文化建构方面的人文理想,而古代社会系统对不同族群、不同文化、不同观念的相互吸收与融合,也正是建构相互宽容、相互依存、安定有序、共同发展的当代和谐社会的基本要求。     

"性善论"的教育学意蕴--一种新哲学范式的解读

区分认知理性与实践理性是解读儒家性善论教育思想基础的前提。"性善论"是一种实践理性哲学的概念,它具有十分重要的教育学意蕴,强调性善意味着人与物的区别,人的价值的凸显;强调性善即是对人的道德主体性的肯定;强调性善才可能确立"道之以德"的正确教育原则,才可能为道德教育定性。     

Early Literacy and the Public Library: An Opportunity of a Lifetime (of Reading)

In this article, author Bill Ptacek says that the future is now, and, at least from the 1970s through today, in the field of early childhood work, the future has come so fast that it is constantly upon us. That reality means that those concerned about young children in libraries have been about adaptation on a continuing basis. In this world of rapid change, innovation is constant: City firefighters come to the libraries in uniform to read stories to children, library outreach specialists take programs to daycare centers in their communities, and staff members create a space in a library devoted to early childhood reading. This tradition of rapid change means that the early childhood staff of most large public libraries in North America is changing for the future on a regular basis. The work unit should be considered seriously as one model for 21st century public library reform.     

法律儒家化新论

“法律儒家化”是中国法制史上的基本观点,但对此观点需要全面地认识和辩证地分析,不能绝对化和片面化。从魏晋至隋唐儒学发展的态势、法律发展变化的实际情形和法律儒家化的特殊机理三个方面对法律儒家化重新予以解释和剖析,可以看出,法律儒家化的观点虽然从总体上能够成立,但不宜以绝对化、片面化的态度视之,而要深入认识我国古代法律发展过程的复杂性。     

20世纪30年代粤港走私问题探析

20世纪30年代，基于政治、地理及经济等因素，加之世界经济危机风暴的冲击，粤港两地走私现象日趋猖獗。这不但严重影响了粤港间的正常贸易活动，也造成国货滞销，进而在一定程度上抑制了国内经济的发展。