Block Talk: Spatial Language During Block Play     

Katrina Ferrara  Kathy Hirsh‐Pasek  Nora S. Newcombe  Roberta Michnick Golinkoff  Wendy Shallcross Lam 《Mind, Brain, and Education》2011,5(3):143-151

Spatial skills are a central component of intellect and show marked individual differences. There is evidence that variations in the spatial language young children hear, which directs their attention to important aspects of the spatial environment, may be one of the mechanisms that contributes to these differences. To investigate how play affects variations in language, parents and children were assigned to 1 of 3 conditions: free play with blocks, guided play, or play with preassembled structures (Study 1). Parents in the guided play condition produced significantly higher proportions of spatial talk than parents in the other two conditions, and children in the guided play condition produced significantly more spatial talk than those in the free play condition. Study 2 established baselines of spatial language during activities not involving spatial materials. Proportions of spatial words were lower than those in any of the conditions of Experiment 1. In sum, interaction with blocks naturally elicits elevated levels of spatial language, especially in the context of guided play, suggesting simple‐to‐execute educational interventions.  相似文献   

Homophobia in medical students of the University of Hong Kong     

R. W. M. Kan  K. P. Au  W. K. Chan  L. W. M. Cheung  C. Y. Y. Lam  H. H. W. Liu 《Sex education》2013,13(1):65-80

Homosexuality is now accepted as a normal variant of human sexuality, but homophobia among healthcare professionals is well documented. Establishment of trustful doctor–patient relationships is impossible in the presence of homophobia. We were interested to examine the extent of homophobia among medical students, the future doctors. This article aims to study attitudes of medical students of the University of Hong Kong towards homosexuality and to identify significant factors affecting their attitudes. A cross‐sectional study was performed on students of the University of Hong Kong. Attitudes towards homosexuality were compared between medical and non‐medical students. More than 25% of the medical students agreed with the statement ‘homosexuality is a psychological disorder that requires therapy’. More than 15% would avoid any physical contact with homosexuals to minimise the chance of contracting diseases, especially AIDS. Comparison between the medical students and non‐medical students showed that the attitudes of the medical students were significantly more homophobic. Factors explaining the difference included the importance of religion in the formation of moral values, gender, experience of working closely with homosexual friends, sexual orientation, experience of the heterosexual sexual act, acquaintance of homosexual friends, and experience of homosexual love relationships. In conclusion, there appeared to be a certain level of homophobia among the medical students. This could possibly be explained by their lack of experience of working closely with homosexual friends. Relevant curriculum modification and development are urgently needed, to provide ongoing opportunities for students to realise their own values that could unconsciously affect their clinical judgements.  相似文献   

Special issue on Inerter-based systems: Design,modeling, optimization and control     

Michael Z. Q. Chen  David Wagg  James Lam  Mehdi Ahmadian  Malcolm C. Smith 《Journal of The Franklin Institute》2019,356(14):7609-7610

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Executive functioning and word reading in Hong Kong Chinese children: A 1-year longitudinal perspective     

Wing Kai Fung  Kevin Kien Hoa Chung  Chun Bun Lam 《Journal of Research in Reading》2020,43(3):382-393

This study examined the bidirectionality between kindergarten children's executive functioning (EF) and word reading across two time points. Participants were 523 Hong Kong Chinese-speaking children (mean age at Time 2 = 64.59 months; 52.9% male) and their parents. At Time 1, children were administered the measures of EF skills: inhibitory control, attention shifting, working memory and Chinese word reading. They were reassessed with these measures at Time 2 one year later. Results from the cross-lagged panel model revealed that, controlling for child age, gender and parental education levels, children's word reading at Time 1 was significantly predictive of their working memory at Time 2, but that the three EF skills at Time 1 were not predictive of word reading at Time 2. These findings underscored the role of early word reading in promoting children's working memory.  相似文献   

Building an evaluation culture and evidence base for e-learning in three Hong Kong universities     

Carmel McNaught  Paul Lam 《British journal of educational technology : journal of the Council for Educational Technology》2005,36(4):599-614

The paper presents a strategy for the systematic evaluation of course websites built under the project e3Learning that operates across three universities in Hong Kong. Tailor‐made evaluation plans were produced for each website; the evaluation was conducted by an evaluation officer, and a report was provided to each teacher, thus supporting continuous development. To date, 58 cases of evaluation data have been collected. In this paper, a meta‐analysis across these cases is presented in order to see which are the most useful web‐assisted functions currently in use in Hong Kong universities. This study indicates the following four functions as being most useful: learning tools such as glossaries, notes and PowerPoints, assessment tasks associated with grades, and creation and exhibition of multimedia projects. The reasons for these rankings are postulated.  相似文献   

Community and School Contexts in Youth Gang Involvement: Combining Social Bonds and Social Organization Perspectives     

Yiu  Ho Lam 《The Urban Review》2021,53(2):295-317

The Urban Review - Social bonds and social organization theory are combined to examine schools’ roles in regulating youth gang involvement in the context of community changes—an...  相似文献   

The early assessment conundrum: Lessons from the past,implications for the future     

Catherine M. Bordignon  Tony C.M. Lam 《Psychology in the schools》2004,41(7):737-749

The early childhood educational field has garnered attention with initiatives to foster skill acquisition in young children prior to kindergarten entry. These initiatives, in conjunction with the rigorous demands of curricular reform and a burgeoning accountability movement, invoke questions regarding the adequacy of the instruments used to assess young children and the inherent difficulties in conducting such assessments. Because the effectiveness of education relies critically on the sound diagnoses of children's readiness for learning and the measurement of their subsequent progression throughout the schooling process, critical issues in early assessment must be addressed. An examination of past practices was synthesized with recent research to focus awareness on the insufficient content domain, restrictive context, adverse timing and questionable psychometric properties, specifically the inappropriate norms and low predictive validity, of many instruments. Both the implications of and compensatory strategies for each issue are considered. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 41: 737–749, 2004.  相似文献   

Immigrant Chinese Mothers’ Socialization of Achievement in Children: A Strategic Adaptation to the Host Society          下载免费PDF全文

Florrie Fei‐Yin Ng  Irene Nga‐Lam Sze  Catherine S. Tamis‐LeMonda  Diane N. Ruble 《Child development》2017,88(3):979-995

Academic socialization by low‐income immigrant mothers from Mainland China was investigated in two studies. Immigrant Chinese mothers of first graders (n = 52; M_age = 38.69) in the United States (Study 1) and kindergartners (n = 86; M_age = 36.81) in Hong Kong (Study 2) tell stories that emphasized achieving the best grade through effort more than did African American (n = 39; M_age = 31.44) and native Hong Kong (n = 76; M_age = 36.64) mothers, respectively. The emphasis on achievement was associated with mothers' heightened discussion on discrimination (Study 1) and beliefs that education promotes upward mobility (Study 2), as well as children's expectations that a story protagonist would receive maternal criticism for being nonpersistent in learning (Study 2).  相似文献   

Teachers’ cultural differences: case studies of geography teachers in Brisbane,Changchun and Hong Kong     

Lam  Chi Chung  Lidstone  John 《Asia Pacific Education Review》2007,8(2):178-193

The primary purpose of this exploratory study is to identify variations in the ways in which individual teachers in different educational contexts interpret their curriculum and plan their lessons and in particular to explore the possibility that cultural differences as identified by Hofstede (1991) may be a contributing factor to understanding how teachers understand their work. “Educational reform” has become a catchphrase in the Anglo-American world, including the United States, Canada, Australia, and England and Wales, as well as in the Confucian Heritage Areas such as Mainland China, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Across the world, the educational reform measures being implemented are surprisingly similar. This paper describes a study of how geography teachers in Queensland, Australia, Hong Kong, and Changchun, China, plan their lessons and curriculum. From classroom observations and interviews with the teachers involved, we confirmed marked differences in each location regarding their cultural traits of power distance, individualist and collectivist preference and uncertainty tolerance, and that these traits appear to be highly influential in their curriculum planning. Despite the small scale of this study, we contend that there are good reasons for caution before national education systems import policies and curriculum reform initiatives from other countries for unthinking adoption.  相似文献   

Rows versus Tables. II. The Effects of Two Classroom Seating Arrangements on Classroom Disruption Rate,On‐task Behaviour and Teacher Behaviour in Three Special School Classes     

Kevin Wheldall  Yin Yuk Lam 《教育心理学》1987,7(4):303-312

Summary Seating arrangements in which children sat in rows and around tables were compared experimentally in three classes in a special school for behaviourally troublesome children with moderate learning difficulties. Children were observed daily in four two week phases: seated around tables, then in rows, again around tables, and finally again in rows. Percentage on‐task behaviour was recorded along with rate of pupil disruption and rates of teacher approval and disapproval. In all three classes on‐task behaviour doubled from around 35% to 70% as the conditions changed from tables to rows. Moreover, rate of disruption was three times higher in tables conditions. Teacher behaviour was also affected; positive comments increasing during rows whilst negative comments decreased. It is argued that these studies support the results of previous studies regarding the importance of ecological variables, such as seating, on classroom behaviour.  相似文献