Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

This research study, grounded in experiential learning theory, utilized a draw-and-explain assessment to measure change in secondary students’ knowledge before and after an experiential field trip....

Experiential learning theory: the importance of outdoor classrooms in environmental education

In this study, a problem-posing strategy is proposed for supporting collaborative mobile learning activities. Accordingly, a mobile learning environment has been developed, and an experiment on a local culture course has been conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Three classes of an elementary school in southern Taiwan participated in the experiment. One class was the experimental group who learned with the problem-posing-based mobile learning approach, while the other two classes were the control groups who learned with the conventional mobile learning approach and the traditional problem-posing approach, respectively. The experimental results show that the new approach not only improved the students' learning achievement, but also promoted their local culture identity and group learning self-efficacy.

Development of a mobile learning system based on a collaborative problem-posing strategy

This paper examines the learning experiences of 291 Year 5 and 6 Indonesian primary school students, across four schools in North Jakarta, who participated in an integrated STEM project that used a 3-phase Makerspace approach: exposure, engagement and experimentation, and evaluation and extension. The Wiggle Bots project involved these students employing their skills and knowledge of technology and science to create a 'bot', and then completing a survey that examined their confidence, engagement, identification and application of science knowledge. The results indicated that a Makerspace approach was very effective in engaging students in the STEM space, and students were also challenged to work collaboratively in groups mentored by pre-service teachers. With the application of STEM knowledge and skills, we also posit that the Makerspace approach is effective in the acquisition and demonstration of 21st century skills: problem-solving, critical and creative thinking, collaboration, and communication.

Using a makerspace approach to engage Indonesian primary students with STEM

Vygotsky (1987) stated that the restructured form of everyday concepts learned at home and in the community interact with scientific concepts introduced in formal school settings, leading to a higher level of scientific thinking for school-aged children. But, what does this mean for the scientific learning of infants and toddlers? What kinds of science learning are afforded at home during this early period of life? The study reported in this paper sought to investigate the scientific development of infants–toddlers (10 to 36 months) growing up in Bangladeshi families living in Australia and Singapore. Four families were studied over 2 years. Digital video observations were made of everyday family life and analysed using Vygotsky’s theoretical framework of everyday concepts and scientific concepts (51 h of digital observations). While there are many possibilities for developing scientific concepts in infants–toddlers’ everyday life, our study found four categories of what we have called small science: multiple possibilities for science; discrete science; embedded science and counter intuitive science. The findings of this study contribute to the almost non-existent literature into infants and toddlers’ scientific development and advance new understandings of early childhood science education.

Small science: infants and toddlers experiencing science in everyday family life

It has been observed that many young children like making marks on paper and that they enjoy the activity. It is also known that children’s drawings are vehicles for expression and communication. Therefore, it would be logical and reasonable for teachers to incorporate children’s drawings into building science concepts. To demonstrate how drawings are utilized to help a child to acquire a science concept, the article first presents a vignette of an interaction between an adult and a 5-year-old boy, focusing on the science concept of the physical characteristics of a spider. It is then followed by several analytical explanations of how drawings build children’s understandings. Not only are the introduced strategies useful for one-on-one interactive communication, but also applicable to a small group of young children. The article ends with the specifics of how these strategies were applied to a group of four children in their acquisition of the science concept of the water cycle.

The Role of Drawing in Young Children's Construction of Science Concepts

Early math experiences can be challenging for young children. Although it seems that planning a lesson on solving and posing a problem for a young child is a daunting task, it is actually simple if a harmonic cycle is exercised. This harmonic cycle, in fact, embeds within in it a variety of teacher’s responsibilities that can expand our understanding of what a teacher needs to attend to when it comes to planning, teaching, and evaluating a child’s progress. This article will present responsibilities that a teacher has in a harmonic cycle, which is reflected through an interaction between a teacher and a child on problem posing and problem solving.

http://ici-bostonready-pd-2008-2009.wikispaces.umb.edu/file/view/10+F+Responsisbilities+of+Teacher+ProblemSolving+Posing.pdf

Responsibilities of a Teacher in a Harmonic Cycle of Problem Solving and Problem Posing

Visual arts, such as drawings, are attractive to most young children. Marks left on paper by young children contain meaning. Although it is known that children’s oral language could be enhanced through communication with adults, rarely is there a series of dialogues between adults and young children about their drawings. Often heard instead are simple comments given by adults like “It is a neat picture!” “You did a great job painting!” Yet, dialogic communication between adults and young children could not only help facilitate children’s oral language, but also bring about many other merits. Regrettably, little literature addresses oral language facilitation about visual arts. This article describes the significance of facilitating children’s oral language via adults’ talking with young children about their visual arts based on Otto’s (Literacy development in early childhood: reflective teaching for birth to age eight, 3edn. Pearson Education Inc, Upper Saddle River, 2008) linguistic scaffolding strategies and Halliday’s (Language in a social perspective: explorations in the functions of language. Edward Arnold Model of Language Functions, London, 1973). Implications and suggestions for future research are given at the end of this paper.

Ni Chang

Papers

The Role of Drawing in Young Children's Construction of Science Concepts

Responsibilities of a Teacher in a Harmonic Cycle of Problem Solving and Problem Posing

Conversations about Visual Arts: Facilitating Oral Language