Showing papers on "Primary education published in 1988"

Rousing Minds to Life: Teaching, Learning, and Schooling in Social Context

Abstract: Acknowledgments Introduction Part I. Teaching, Schooling, and Literacy: A Unified Theory of Education: 1. The redefinition of teaching and schooling 2. A theory of teaching as assisted performance 3. The means of assisting performance 4. The social organization of assisted performance 5. Language, literacy, and thought Part II. Practice: 6. A school organized for teaching: the Kamehameha Elementary Education Program 7. The activity setting of the instructional conversation: developing word and discourse meaning 8. The orchestration of activity settings: learning and social interaction in the whole group and independent centers 9. The interpsychological plane of teacher training 10. Assisting teacher performance through the ZPD: a case study 11. The intrapsychological plane of teacher training: the internalization of higher-order teaching skills 12. The schools in mind and society References Author index Subject index.

Multiple sources of data on social behavior and social status in the school: a cross-age comparison.

Abstract: Behavioral data relating to peer social status were collected from peers, teachers, and observers on both first- and third-grade boys (ages 6-7 and 8-9 years, respectively). Peer and teacher ratings had greater intermethod agreement than observer data, although all 3 sources provided evidence that rejected and controversial boys were more aggressive than other boys. However, relatively little aggression was observed among the older boys, indicating that peers and teachers may be better sources of information about aggression in this group. Observational data differentiated among status groups on measures of activity (on task vs. off-task, and prosocial play vs. solitary activity) for both age groups. Rejected boys displayed little prosocial behavior according to peers and teachers, but were not less often engaged in prosocial play, according to observers. Neglected boys were the most solitary group during play; however, teachers rated rejected boys as the most solitary, contrary to observations. Controversial boys were seen as highly aggressive by all sources but as highly prosocial only by peers and observers.

The Expansion of Primary Education, 1870-1940: Trends and Issues.

Abstract: Research on the expansion of mass education has been limited to the post-World War II period and mainly to Western Europe and North America. The few studies of other regions and periods have tended to rely on the case-study approach. Thus, an accurate assessment of competing theoretical explanations is partially constrained by the limited scope of empirical evidence. This article seeks to overcome this weakness by analyzing new estimates of primary enrollment rates for 126 nations and colonies from 1870 to 1940. Overall, the authors found that the expansion of primary education was more uneven, tentative, and varied during this period than in the post-World War II period. The analyses suggest that social, economic, political, and religious conditions were more important in determining the extension of mass schooling in the 1870-1940 period than in later periods.

Lasting effects of elementary school.

Abstract: The causes of long-term continuity in the level of children's school performance are not completely understood. Some of the continuity undoubtedly stems from the persistence of cognitive status. But this article, which reports on a follow-up study of schoolchildren in Baltimore, shows that it can also be related to the child's early social environment. That is, the influences of parents and teachers on children in Grades 1-3 were linked to the children's reading and mathematics performance four to nine years later. The reasons for this persistence are explored, including the maintenance of higher achievement levels originally fostered by teachers and parents, the continuance of a pattern of social dependence, and the reliance of parents and teachers on the child's cumulative record.

Barriers to Environmental Education

Abstract: Personal interviews with elementary teachers were conducted to identify and determine the relative importance of barriers to environmental education (EE) in Palouse-region public schools. Results indicated that lack of time (both in the school day and for preparation) was the most important barrier. Other important logistical barriers were lack of instructional materials and lack of funding. Conceptual barriers included a nearly exclusive focus on science and an emphasis on the cognitive aspects of EE. Another barrier stemmed from teachers' misgivings about their own competence to teach EE. Although teachers generally had positive attitudes toward EE, most lacked the commitment to actually teach EE. Recommendations for reducing these barriers are presented, as are specific recommendations for future research.

Ed School: A Brief for Professional Education

Abstract: Although schools of law, medicine, and business are now highly respected, schools of education and the professionals they produce continue to be held in low regard. In "Ed School," Geraldine Joncich Clifford and James W. Guthrie attribute this phenomenon to issues of academic politics and gender bias as they trace the origins and development of the school of education in the United States. Drawing on case studies of leading schools of education, the authors offer a bold, controversial agenda for reform: ed schools must reorient themselves toward teachers and away from the quest for prestige in academe; they must also adhere to national professional standards, abandon the undergraduate education major, and reject the Ph.D. in education in favor of the Ed.D."

Invented Versus Traditional Spelling in First Graders' Writings: Effects on Learning to Spell and Read.

Abstract: The objective of this study was to test the claims of proponents of invented spelling by comparing the progress of children encouraged to use invented spelling with those encouraged to use traditional spelling in their creative writing. Data were collected on children's behaviors as they wrote, on their written productions, and on their spelling and reading achievement as a posttest in the second half of grade one. Findings indicated that, using invented spelling, more children were able to write on their own in the early months. Their productions were significantly longer overall and contained significantly more spelling errors than those by children using traditional spelling. In posttests, children using invented spelling had significantly greater skill in spelling and in word analysis in reading, but not in flash word recognition, than did children using traditional spelling. Initially low achieving children accounted for most of the gain in spelling and reading that resulted from using invented spelling. The interest in invented spelling begun by C. Chomsky (1971a, 1971b) and Read (1971) has produced a growing body of literature on spelling development and the interrelatedness of writing and reading. Descriptive accounts of children's success in learning to write by inventing their own spelling either before or simultaneously with learning to read have been reported by Bissex (1980), Chomsky (1971a, 1971b, 1979), Clay (1972, 1975), De Ford (1980), Giacobbe (1982), Graves (1975, 1983), Hauser (1982), Johnson and Lehnert ( 1984), and Paul ( 1976), among others. Children who are encouraged to use invented spelling as a beginning have been shown to gradually adopt appropriate symbols for sounds and to progress to traditional spelling as they are exposed to and become aware of conventional written language (Beers, 1980; Gentry, 1977; Henderson, 1981; Read, 1971; Zutell, 1980). Reports of children's success, as well as the larger movement toward increased emphasis on writing in language arts instruction, have led a number of educators to encourage children to use invented spelling. The intent of the present study was to test the claims of proponents by comparing the progress of children encouraged to use invented spelling with those encouraged to use traditional spelling in their creative writing. Research in the Teaching of English, Vol. 22, No. 3, October 1988

The effectiveness of special education a time series analysis of reading performance in regular and special education settings

Abstract: Much of the current research on special education effectiveness challenges the notion that delivery of these services to handicapped children significantly improves their academic performance in schools. It is argued here that such conclusions are premature since many of these studies are based upon tests with poor technical adequacy or flawed experimental designs. It is reasoned that a more efficacious approach to investigating issues of special education effectiveness might rely on time series analysis where researchers examine the response of handicapped children to varying educational interventions. This study presents such an approach where the impact of regular and special education on 11 mildly handicapped children is studied by analyzing their slope of improvement on weekly curriculum-based measures (CBM) reading scores. The data for these pupils suggest that special education is in fact a significant educational intervention, and that time series analysis of CBM data is a useful evaluation tool. ...

Enhancing Children’s Prosocial Behavior in the Classroom

Abstract: A program designed to enhance children’s prosocial development was conducted in three suburban elementary schools for 5 consecutive years, focusing primarily on a single cohort of children as it moved from kindergarten through fourth grade. Repeated observations were conducted each year to assess program implementation and student interpersonal behavior in classrooms in the three “program” schools and in three “comparison” schools. Analyses of these observational data revealed significantly higher scores in the program than the comparison classrooms on each of five indices of program-relevant activities and practices: Cooperative Activities, Developmental Discipline, Activities Promoting Social Understanding, Highlighting Prosocial Values, and Helping Activities. Further analyses indicated that students in program classrooms scored significantly higher on two indices of interpersonal behavior: Supportive and Friendly Behavior and Spontaneous Prosocial Behavior. Corroborative data from a second, 2-year coh...

Classroom Composition and the Design of Instruction.

Abstract: Studies of structural effects in education have usually attributed normative or comparative reference-group meaning to school composition. The results of such studies show that variation among students in schools accounts for only modest amounts of aspiration and achievement. This study of elementary school classrooms and instructional groups departs from the familiar formulations and shows how school systems successively transform the composition of schools, grades, and classes as part of a process of allocating and using resources. It shows how the difficulty of classes, an indication of composition, constrains the composition of instructional groups, the instruction applied to them, and the learning of individuals.

Nationally Normed Elementary Achievement Testing in America's Public Schools: How All 50 States Are Above the National Average

Abstract: Dr. Cannell asks how all 50 states can report being above average on nationally normed tests. Me reports that increased achievement is by no means the whole explanation for this finding. Whatever the full explanation of the phenomenon to which Dr. Cannell has brought widespread attention, he clearly presents a challenge to specialists in educational measurement both to better account for the phenomenon and to find better ways of explaining test results to the public.

Teachers, schools, and society

Abstract: Part 1 Teachers: becoming a teacher effective teaching a question and answer guide to the teaching profession student diversity. Part 2 Schools: what are schools for? life in schools what students are taught in schools controversy over who controls the curriculum. Part 3 Foundations: the history of American education school governance school law financing America's schools philosophy of education. Part 4 Issues and trends: the struggle for equal educational opportunity contemporary social problems and children at risk tomorrow's schools. Appendices: observing in schools and classrooms the praxis series of tests state certification offices a summary of selceted reports on educational reform.

Teaching Thinking Skills.

Abstract: Reasoning; *Cognitive Development; *Cognitive Processes; *Critical Thinking; Elementary Education; Heuristics; Instructional Innovation; *Learning Strategies; *Logical Thinking; Mathematics Instruction; Writing Instruction Mid Continent Regional Educational Laboratory CO

Mathematics learning in Japanese, Chinese, and American classrooms.

Abstract: It might at first glance seem misguided to study cultural differences in learning by focusing on schools. Indeed, the surface features of school mathematics are more similar than different when compared across cultures, and even classrooms in different cultures appear to resemble one another in many respects. Yet schooling is a cultural institution, and more detailed analysis reveals the subtle and pervasive effects of culture as it impinges on children's learning of school mathematics – in the curriculum, in the organization and functioning of the classroom, and in the beliefs and attitudes about learning mathematics that prevail among parents and teachers. In this chapter, we will present some of what we have learned about the classrooms in which children learn mathematics in Japan, Taiwan, and the United States. The decision to compare mathematics learning in Asian and American classrooms is, of course, not arbitrary. We have known for some time now that American secondary school students compare poorly on tests of mathematics achievement with students from many other countries, but especially with students from Japan (Husen, 1967; McKnight and others, 1987; Travers and others, 1985). More recently, Asian-American differences in achievement have been found to exist as early as kindergarten and to be dramatic by the time children reach fifth grade. Stevenson, Lee, and Stigler (1986), for example, studied children from representative samples of fifth-grade classrooms in Sendai, Japan; Taipei, Taiwan; and Minneapolis, USA.

Alternative conceptions in animal classification: A cross‐age study

Abstract: Employing a cross-age design, this study examined students' alternative conceptions in animal classification at the elementary, secondary, and college levels. Based on a previous study that made use of clinical interviews and a classification task, subjects (N = 468) were administered a multiple-choice/free-response instrument that probed understanding of the concept animal, the vertebrate/invertebrate distinction, and the principal vertebrate classes. Results suggest that students subscribe to a highly restricted view of animals; applying the label almost exclusively to vertebrates, especially to common mammals. When asked to distinguish between vertebrate and invertebrate animals and to classify several species into vertebrate groups, a wide range of alternative conceptions emerged. Cross-age comparisons indicate that many of these alternative views remain intact throughout the school years, while others yield more readily to formal instruction and/or nonschool experiences. Considered within the context of a neoconstructivist view of learning, several suggestions are offered for teaching concepts in animal classification.

Primary Understanding: Education in Early Childhood

Abstract: Acknowledgements. Introduction. 1 Some Educational Implications of Children's Fantasy. 2 The Domestication of the sauvage mind 3 The Story Form and the Organization of Meaning. 4 Some Further Characteristics of Mythic Understanding. 5 Cultural Recapitulation: Some Comments on Theory 6 A Curriculum for Primary Education 7 A Framework for Primary Teaching. Conclusion. Notes. Bibliography. Index.