Children's concepts of gears and their promotion through play     

Timo Reuter  Miriam Leuchter 《科学教学研究杂志》2021,58(1):69-94

The mechanical transmission of motion, which is observable in gears’ turning direction (TD) and turning speed (TS) can be understood as part of the core concept “force and motion”. Previous studies have suggested that most children before the age of nine have naïve concepts of gears’ TD and TS. However, these studies relied on children's explanation data and might have therefore underestimated young children's potential. Moreover, these studies did not examine whether preschoolers can overcome their naïve concepts through teaching. Recently, educators have proposed guided play as an educational approach that combines children's play with teacher guidance in a purposefully designed environment. We conducted two subsequent studies. In Study 1, we investigated the children's (naïve) concepts of gears’ TD and TS with a cross‐sectional approach using a nonverbal test procedure. This study comprised 248 children aged 5–10 years and 73 adults. The results showed that the proportion of children with adequate concepts increased with age. More specifically, 7‐ to 8‐year‐olds differed significantly from 5‐ to 6‐year‐olds, indicating a developmental shift around this age. However, naïve concepts of TS were more persistent with age than naïve concepts of TD. Altogether, the results indicated the potential to foster 5‐ to 6‐year‐olds’ concepts of both TD and TS in an intervention. Thus, in Study 2, we developed and tested a guided play intervention to foster 5‐ to 6‐year‐old children's concepts of TD and TS. We conducted a prepost‐intervention design with a guided play group (n = 19) and a free play group (n = 21). The results suggested stronger learning gains in the guided play group (d_TD = 0.337, d_TS = 0.758) than in the free play group (d_TD = 0.224, d_TS = 0.158).  相似文献   

Communicating the Value of an Institutional Repository: Experiences at Ghana's University for Development Studies     

Edwin S. Thompson  Miriam Linda Akeriwe  Angela Achia Aikins 《New Review of Academic Librarianship》2016,22(2-3):325-336

ABSTRACT

The quality of research depends greatly on access to existing information. Institutional repositories (IRs) have the potential to enhance and promote the dissemination of knowledge and research. This may lead to discoveries and innovation alongside maximizing return on investment in research and development. Following some background information, this article briefly discusses the processes involved in the establishment of Ghana's University for Development Studies (UDS) IR (UDSspace). Marketing and advocacy strategies employed to engage Faculty to enable them to contribute meaningfully and effectively in the populating of the IR are outlined and benefits described. The study uses a quantitative method. A questionnaire was used to elicit data from faculty. This article describes the various communication methods used to promote the IR and evaluates their effectiveness in getting users to participate in populating the IR. The survey found that although as high as 80.3% of respondents were aware of the benefits of an IR and 66.2% were aware of the existence of the UDS IR, 86.8% of respondents had not submitted to the IR.  相似文献   

The Professional Development of High School Chemistry Coordinators     

Hofstein  Avi  Carmeli  Miriam  Shore  Relly 《Journal of Science Teacher Education》2004,15(1):3-24

The implementation of new content and pedagogical standards in science education necessitates intensive, long-term professional development of science teachers. In this paper, we describe the rationale and structure of a comprehensive and intensive professional development program of school-based leaders, namely school chemistry coordinators. The year-long program was designed so that the chemistry teachers who enrolled in the program were able to develop in three interrelated aspects: content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and leadership ability. Several strategies for the development of these aspects were adopted from Loucks-Horsley, Hewson, Love, & Stiles (1998). The evaluation of the program focused on the changes that participating teachers underwent regarding their personal beliefs and their functioning as school chemistry coordinators in their schools.  相似文献   

An Application of Score Equity Assessment: Invariance of Linkage of New SAT^® to Old SAT Across Gender Groups     

Jinghua Liu  Miriam F. Cahn  Neil J. Dorans 《Journal of Educational Measurement》2006,43(2):113-129

The College Board's SAT^® data are used to illustrate how the score equity assessment (SEA) can help inform the program about equatability. SEA is used to examine whether the content change(s) to the revised new SAT result in differential linking functions across gender groups. Results of population sensitivity analyses are reported on the linkage of the new SAT critical reading (CR) prototype to an old SAT verbal (OV). Based on the criteria used in this study, population invariance was achieved with respect to gender groups.  相似文献   

Linguistic analysis and reading skills of first graders in partial French and Hebrew immersion programs     

Hyla Rubin  Sonia Reichman  Sarah H. Crabtree  Miriam Kantor 《Reading and writing》1991,3(2):101-114

This study compared the performance of 45 first graders in partial French immersion, partial Hebrew immersion, and traditional English programs on measures of linguistic analysis ability and early reading skills in English. A modified version of the Auditory Analysis Test (Rosner and Simon, 1971) established that both French and Hebrew immersion children were more proficient than their English program peers at explicity analyzing the internal structure of spoken words. Subjects in the Hebrew program read non-words more successfully than either of the other two groups, and read orthographically regular real words better than the control subjects. These results suggest that second language learning, even in a partial immersion setting, enhances linguistic awareness. The potential implications for reading skill acquisition are discussed.This research was funded by Grant A2008 from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.  相似文献   

Maternal Representations of Attachment during Pregnancy Predict the Organization of Infant-Mother Attachment at One Year of Age   总被引：4，自引：0，他引：4  

Peter Fonagy  Howard Steele  Miriam Steele 《Child development》1991,62(5):891-905

While strong retrospective and concurrent associations between maternal and infant patterns of attachment have been noted, this is one of the first reports of a prospective investigation of such associations. The Adult Attachment Interview was administered to 100 mothers expecting their first child, and, at 1-year follow-up, 96 of these were seen with their infants at 12 months in the Strange Situation. Maternal representations of attachment (autonomous vs. dismissing or preoccupied) predicted subsequent infant-mother attachment patterns (secure vs. insecure) 75% of the time. These observed concordances, as well as the discordances, are discussed in terms of the uniquely powerful contribution the Adult Attachment Interview makes to the study of representational and intergenerational influences on the development of the infant-mother attachment.  相似文献   

A dialectical approach to the study of war in children's books     

Miriam Bat-Ami 《Children‘s Literature in Education》1993,24(2):137-145

She has published several articles and has written two children's books, a preadolescent novel (forthcoming) and a picture book,Salt, Sea and Air (Macmillan, 1993).  相似文献   

German children's comprehension of word order and case marking in causative sentences   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Dittmar M  Abbot-Smith K  Lieven E  Tomasello M 《Child development》2008,79(4):1152-1167

Two comprehension experiments were conducted to investigate whether German children are able to use the grammatical cues of word order and word endings (case markers) to identify agents and patients in a causative sentence and whether they weigh these two cues differently across development. Two-year-olds correctly understood only sentences with both cues supporting each other—the prototypical form. Five-year-olds were able to use word order by itself but not case markers. Only 7-year-olds behaved like adults by relying on case markers over word order when the two cues conflicted. These findings suggest that prototypical instances of linguistic constructions with redundant grammatical marking play a special role in early acquisition, and only later do children isolate and weigh individual grammatical cues appropriately.  相似文献   

From Keighley to Keele: Personal reflections on a circuitous journey through education,family, feminism and policy sociology     

Miriam E. David 《British Journal of Sociology of Education》2002,23(2):249-269

This paper uses the methods of personal reflection and auto/biography to consider the ways in which global social and political transformations have influenced a key generation of feminist sociologists entering the academy and attempting to introduce feminist knowledge and pedagogy into academic curricula. Three critical events on or around 22 November are used to highlight key political moments, the associated development of changing themes in forms of analysis of social transformations, and the part played by feminism and sociology within higher education. They are the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy in 1963, the Israeli-Arab war in 1973 and the resignation of Margaret Thatcher in 1990. The argument is that there has been a clear relation between changing social and political contexts and methodological understandings, which have drawn on developing feminist perspectives and reflexive sociological analysis, especially as embraced within the sociology of education. In particular, the shift from a political and professional perspective on social change and family life towards one that engages with personal issues is noteworthy. It is one of the hallmarks of both feminist notions associated with reflexivity and developing sociological methodologies and policy sociology. Thus, the personal and the political are now central methodological forms of feminist and sociological analysis within education and, especially, the sociology of education, influencing pedagogy within higher education, especially associated with developments in professional postgraduate education. I weave my personal reflections on my professional developments through an analysis of the key moments related to specific policy regimes and changing forms of understandings within the fields of policy sociology and sociology of education. I conclude with current concerns about the balances between the personal and professional within educational research and policy sociology.  相似文献   

Disposition and health outcomes among infants born to mothers with no prenatal care     

Susan Hatters Friedman  Amy Heneghan  Miriam Rosenthal 《Child abuse & neglect》2009,33(2):116-122

ObjectiveThis study assessed infant disposition and health outcomes among offspring born to mothers without prenatal care, based on maternal characteristics and the reason for lack of prenatal care (i.e., denial of pregnancy, concealment of pregnancy, primary substance use, financial barriers and multiparity).MethodsA retrospective record review was completed at an urban academic medical center. Subjects were women who presented at delivery or immediately postpartum with no history of prenatal care (N = 211), and their infants.ResultsInfants of mothers with substance use problems had the highest rates of referral to child protective services and out-of-home placement at discharge, though mothers with other reasons for no prenatal care also experienced both referral and placement. Infants born to mothers using substances experienced the highest rates of neonatal intensive care unit admission, and the lowest mean birth weight.ConclusionsThough those without prenatal care experienced a variety of adverse outcomes, substance use problems were most frequently correlated with adverse infant outcomes. Mothers who either had lost custody of other children or with substance use problems were at highest risk of losing custody of their infants. Those who denied or concealed their pregnancy still frequently retained custody.Practice implicationsAmong mothers without prenatal care, those with substance use problems were least likely to retain custody of their infant at hospital discharge. Custody status of the mother's other children was also independently associated with infant custody. Mothers who denied or concealed their pregnancy still often retained custody. Referrals of mothers with no prenatal care for psychiatric evaluation were rare, though referrals to social work were frequent. Child protective services occasionally did not investigate referrals in the denial and concealment groups. Healthcare providers should be aware of the medical and psychological needs of this vulnerable population of infants and mothers.  相似文献