Drawing in Preschools: A Didactic Experience

To be understood, visually, often depends on how skilled one is in catching form and translating it into a two‐dimensional surface. This is a challenge we are confronted with early in life. Children's learning strategies in drawing are not always understood or encouraged. This article presents a socio‐cultural analysis from Norway of a pedagogical practice that attempts to shed light on the question, How does the preschool teacher support 3–5 year old children when they are drawing something they see, and how do children in this age group respond to this support?     

The Stories They’d Tell: Pre-Service Elementary Teachers Writing Stories to Demonstrate Physical Science Concepts

Preservice teachers enrolled in a science content-based course wrote stories that could help their future students understand a science concept. First, participants chose their topic and wrote the story with few guidelines to establish a baseline. In the next part, a different set of students were given a choice of three topics (based on force, electricity, and heat misconceptions), and collaborated to write stories with guidance from the instructor. Stories were analyzed for narrative and science units, and test scores examined. Without guidance, many students struggled to find ways to integrate science within a story. With guidance, participants wrote stories that included more narrative elements overall, and participants felt the stories helped them understand the concepts.     

Sex stereotypes in adult-infant play

24 14-month-old infants played with adult strangers in a laboratory playroom. To examine the effects of sex-role labeling on adult behavior, each infant was introduced as a boy and as a girl in 2 different sessions. After controlling for the adult's scores on the Spence-Helmreich Attitudes toward Women Scale, the adults were found to engage in more Encouragement for Activity and more Male Role Toy Choice when playing with children designated as boys. They showed more Interpersonal Stimulation and more Nurturance Play when playing with children designated as girls. No significant differences were observed between the behavior of the real girls and boys. Men and women showed some differences in their style of play.