ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Young Children's Engagement and Learning Opportunities in a Cooking Activity with Parents and Older Siblings
Author: Finn, Lauren
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Young Children,Siblings,Sibling Relationship,Parents,Informed Consent,Cooking Instruction,Interrater Reliability,Interpersonal Relationship,Parent Child Relationship,Attention,Attention Control,Observation,Interviews

Parents teach their children through informal social interactions in a process known as guided participation (Rogoff, 1990). Although most research focuses on parent-child dyads, young children also learn from older siblings and parents through shared participation in daily activities. Utilizing a structured observational design, the authors compared 15 triads (parent, preschooler, and older sibling) with 12 dyads (parent and preschooler) engaged in a cooking activity at home. The findings indicate that parents used the cooking activity as an occasion for teaching children about literacy, and basic mathematical concepts and skills. Analyses of parent-child interactions across groups indicated that parents did more teaching of numeracy and general skills in the dyadic condition, and that younger children gave more correct responses to parent guidance when the older sibling was not present. Parents in the triadic condition engaged in more complex literacy-related teaching of older siblings. More role negotiation, frustration and conflict occurred in triads than in dyads. The findings suggest that the presence of an older sibling has implications for adults' support of children's emergent literacy, numeracy, and social interactions in everyday activities performed at home.
Early Intervention Experiences of Families of Children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Qualitative Pilot Study
Author: Grygas Coogle, Christan
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Early Intervention,Pervasive Developmental Disorders,Autism,Family Environment,Young Children,At Risk Persons,Access to Education,Federal Legislation,Educational Legislation,Delivery Systems,Surveys,Child Development,Skill Development,Family Involvement,Parent Attitudes

The purpose of this study was to obtain an understanding of the unique experiences of families who have a young child at risk for or identified with an autism spectrum disorder and their experiences with early intervention. Thirty-nine parents of children with or at risk for an autism spectrum disorder receiving Part C services in a state in the southeastern United States participated in the study. Responses to four open-ended questions regarding experiences with early intervention were analyzed using qualitative research methodology. Results suggested that families have different experiences related to their participation in services and interactions with service providers, as well as varying feelings about services. Implications for service providers are discussed in relation to recognizing the importance of family participation, matching services to the needs of the family, and incorporating interpersonal skills into early intervention practice with families of young children with autism spectrum disorder.
Parent Perspectives on How a Child-Centered Preschool Experience Shapes Children's Navigation of Kindergarten
Author: Recchia, Susan
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Preschool Education,Kindergarten,School Readiness,Parent Attitudes,Case Studies,Interviews,Transitional Programs,Child Development,Cognitive Development,Skill Development,Competence,Social Development

The authors used qualitative case study methodology to explore parents' perceptions of their children's readiness for kindergarten. The authors interviewed parents, focusing on their children's experiences during their transition from a child-centered, play-based preschool setting guided by an emergent curriculum into a range of diverse kindergarten environments. Using data from parent interviews at the end of the children's kindergarten year and from the children's formative preschool assessments (&quot;developmental stories&quot;), the authors focused on six children's experiences of transition to kindergarten. Findings suggest that habits of mind developed during the preschool experience figured prominently in the children's transition processes into a variety of kindergarten settings, enabling them to successfully navigate their new, more structured environments.
Critical Thinking: More than Test Scores
Author: Smith, Vernon G.
Date: 2013-10-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Critical Thinking,Scores,Standardized Tests,Educational Objectives,Teacher Role,Thinking Skills,Teaching Methods,Instructional Leadership,Principals,Questioning Techniques,Classification,Models,Administrators

This article is for practicing or aspiring school administrators. The demand for excellence in public education has lead to an emphasis on standardized test scores. This article explores the development of a professional enhancement program designed to prepare teachers to teach higher order thinking skills. Higher order thinking is the primary focus of many state and national tests that are mandated. Teachers play a crucial role in preparing students to be thinkers. Institutions of higher learning must evaluate their instructional practices to ensure that teachers are prepared to meet the  new challenges of standardized testing. Additionally, principals, as instructional leaders, need to understand higher order thinking skills and how to assist teachers in their development of this teaching practice. The Gallagher Aschner model of questioning students is explored as a preliminary means to begin the development of higher order thinking skills. Suggestions for professional development around the use of this method  are presented.
01010000 01001100 01000001 01011001: Play Elements in Computer Programming
Author: Breslin, Samantha
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Play,Programming,Aesthetics,Creativity,Imagination,Competition,Interaction,Programming Languages

This article explores the role of play in human interaction with computers in the context of computer programming. The author considers many facets of programming including the literary practice of coding, the abstract design of programs, and more mundane activities such as testing, debugging, and hacking. She discusses how these incorporate the aesthetics, creative imagination, and game play of programmers. She suggests that the seemingly intractable and unplayful elements of computers, in fact, invite playful responses and actions by programmers and that programmers use play to understand, engage with, and creatively imagine and reconfigure the complexity of computer systems. She concludes that human machine relationships and computer programming constitute fruitful areas for further play research. (Contains 6 figures.)
Considering Counterfactuals: The Relationship between Causal Learning and Pretend Play
Author: Gopnik, Alison
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Play,Child Development,Imagination,Logical Thinking,Causal Models,Probability,Inferences,Intervention,Preschool Children,Cognitive Ability

Many researchers have long assumed imaginative play critical to the healthy cognitive, social, and emotional development of children, which has important implications for early-education policy and practice. But, the authors find, a careful review of the existing literature highlights a need for a better theory to clarify the nature of the relationship between pretend play and childhood development. In particular, they ask why children spend so much time engaging in unreal scenarios at a time when they know relatively little about the real world? The authors review the idea that children pretend because it exercises their developing ability to reason counterfactually--an ability essential for causal reasoning and learning. The authors present a look at their study in progress aimed at assessing their theory. According to the model of play they outline, imaginative play serves as an engine of learning. Such play arises out of the human capacity for causal cognition and feeds back to help develop causal-reasoning skills. (Contains 1 figure.)
Gaining Ground in Understanding the Play-Literacy Relationship
Author: Roskos, Kathleen A.
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Play,Emergent Literacy,Child Development,Learning Theories,Research,Evidence,Literature Reviews

Many in the field of early literacy development and learning believe strongly that play and literacy share common ground, but they have found the idea difficult to prove. While some primary research indicates a positive relationship, the impact of play seems to occur at different levels of development, which complicates how researchers view its influence on early literacy policy and practice. The authors use a critical-appraisal process, more common in the medical field, to describe the best available evidence from a corpus of play-literacy studies. Appraising some seventeen studies and their levels of evidence, strength of design, and &quot;worth to practice&quot; findings, they arrive at a description of three major domains in the play-literacy relationship. They assert that the better evidence in each domain shows the effects of play on literacy skills while revealing the research yet needed to demonstrate the relevance of each domain for early literacy. They recommend the further use of the critical-appraisal process in the play-literacy field to build a body of high level evidence that will have a major impact on early literacy practice. (Contains 2 figures.)
Play and Self-Regulation: Lessons from Vygotsky
Author: Bodrova, Elena
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Play,Metacognition,Sociocultural Patterns,Attribution Theory,Child Development,Creativity,Executive Function,Self Control,Cognitive Development,Classroom Observation Techniques,Learning Theories

The authors consider the analysis of the literature on play research by Lillard and others in the January 2013 &quot;Psychological Bulletin,&quot; an analysis that questioned the prevailing assumption of a causal relationship between play and child development, especially in the areas of creativity, reasoning, executive function, and regulation of emotions. The authors regard these connections as critical for teachers in early-childhood classrooms and for other advocates of child play. They claim that the conclusions of Lillard and her coauthors place these professionals in a difficult position because they already face sharp pressure to replace play with academic activities. The authors suggest that the difficulty researchers have in linking play to development partly results from a failure to account for both cognitive and noncognitive developments across a complex trajectory. To help see the problem more clearly, they argue for a return to the Vygotskian and post-Vygotskian theories that differentiate between immature and mature play. The authors then describe their creation, an observational tool based on such theories, that helps researchers and practitioners judge the quality of pretend play.
Gender Segregation in Early-Childhood Social Play among the Bofi Foragers and Bofi Farmers in Central Africa
Author: Fouts, Hillary N.
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Gender Differences,Play,Young Children,Foreign Countries,Age Differences,Rural Areas,Interpersonal Relationship,Social Development,Cultural Differences,Agricultural Occupations,Ethnography,Observation,Infants,Toddlers,Mixed Methods Research,Semi Structured Interviews,Structured Interviews,Multivariate Analysis

Gender segregation in early-childhood social play is a pervasive pattern in North America, and child-development scholars have suggested it is a human universal. But very few researchers have looked at gender segregation in small-scale societies, particularly those of hunter-gatherers, whom the authors here call foragers. The authors present their observations of fifty-six, one- to four-year-old children living in two small-scale cultures--Bofi farmers and Bofi foragers--in Central Africa. They examined gender and age variation in the social play of these two groups and found that three- to four-year-olds became more segregated by gender than one- to two-year-olds and that boys in particular showed a tendency to play with other boys. The authors also found that cultural differences became more manifest as gender segregation grew more prominent among the children of Bofi farmers than Bofi foragers. (Contains 1 figure.)
Pretending to Play or Playing to Pretend: The Case of Autism
Author: Kasari, Connie
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Play,Autism,Children,Intervention,Child Development,Correlation

An article by Angeline S. Lillard and others published in the January 2013 issue of &quot;Psychological Bulletin&quot; about the impact of pretend play on child development raised a number of issues about play studies and child psychology. The article claimed that, contrary to current theories on the subject, the evidence of many studies does not support causal explanations of play&apos;s relationship to most childhood development. Here authors Kasari, Chang, and Patterson review these arguments about play and development in relation to children with autism--children who show specific deficits in pretend play. The authors argue that the study of these children provides a unique opportunity to consider which elements in play are important and how play skills are associated with different periods of child development. They conclude that, because pretend play requires intervention for the majority of children with autism, improving pretense in these children may shed more light on the causal impact of pretense on later developing skills in children.
The Role of Make-Believe Play in the Development of Executive Function: Status of Research and Future Directions
Author: Berk, Laura E.
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Play,Executive Function,Young Children,Child Development,Cognitive Development,Inhibition,Self Control,Fantasy,Research,Inner Speech (Subvocal),Adults,Influences,Evidence

The authors discuss the association between make-believe play and the development of executive-function (EF) skills in young children. Some forty years ago, Lev S. Vygotsky first proposed that make-believe fosters the development of symbolic thought and self-regulation. Since then, a small body of research has produced evidence of an association between pretend play and such EF skills as inhibitory control, but its results have been inconclusive and more studies are needed. Still, some research points to the potential mediating role of private speech in the association between pretense and EF, and other evidence suggests that adults can support children&apos;s EF development by facilitating and encouraging (but not controlling) young children&apos;s make-believe play. Yet other research indicates that the influence of make-believe on EF may be moderated by child characteristics and by the content and themes of play. The authors specifically call for more research on the potential causal link between pretense and EF development in early childhood.
Running on Empty? Observing Causal Relationships of Play and Development
Author: Harris, Paul L.
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Play,Child Development,Cultural Differences,Influences,Autism,Pervasive Developmental Disorders,Theory of Mind,Research Problems,Literature Reviews,Psychology

In an article in the January 2013 &quot;Psychological Review,&quot; Lillard, Lemer, Hopkins, Dore, Smith, and Palmquist set out to critique the customary claim that pretend play contributes to healthy child development. Following Peter Smith, they distinguished three possibilities for the impact of pretend play. Pretend play, they proposed, might serve a crucial causal role in healthy development, function as one of many equifinal routes to healthy development, or represent an epiphenomenon of other factors that promote healthy development. They reviewed a variety of correlational and experimental studies to choose among these three possibilities and, in the absence of consistently strong positive correlations, they cast doubt on the notion that pretend play serves a crucial, causal role. In this article, Harris and Jalloul review the arguments of the Lillard article to reassess this negative conclusion. The authors suggest that studies emphasizing the frequency of pretend play may not be able to tell us whether it serves a crucial role in healthy development.
What Do We Know about Pretend Play and Narrative Development? A Response to Lillard, Lerner, Hopkins, Dore, Smith, and Palmquist on &quot;The Impact of Pretend Play on Children&apos;s Development: A Review of the Evidence&quot;
Author: Nicolopoulou, Ageliki
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Play,Child Development,Story Telling,Research Problems,Literature Reviews,Research,Intervention,Dramatic Play

An article by Angeline S. Lillard and others in the January 2013 issue of &quot;Psychological Bulletin&quot; comprehensively reviewed and criticized the existing body of research on pretend play and children&apos;s development. Nicolopoulou and Ilgaz respond specifically to the article&apos;s critical review of research on play and narrative development, focusing especially on its assessment of research--mostly conducted during the 1970s and 1980s--on play-based narrative interventions. The authors consider that assessment overly negative and dismissive. On the contrary, they find this research strong and valuable, offering some solid evidence of beneficial effects of pretend play for narrative development. They argue that the account of this research by Lillard and her colleagues was incomplete and misleading; that their treatment of relevant studies failed to situate them in the context of a developing research program; and that a number of their criticisms were misplaced, overstated, conceptually problematic, or all of the above. They conclude that this research--while not without flaws, gaps, limitations, unanswered questions, and room for improvement--offers more useful resources and guidance for future research than Lillard and her colleagues acknowledged. (Contains 1 figure and 1 footnote.)
An Alternative Approach to Identifying Students with Learning Disabilities in Australian Schools
Author: Skues, Jason L.
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Learning Disabilities,Disability Identification,Screening Tests,Intelligence Tests,Preservice Teachers,Test Validity,Reading Achievement,Spelling,Achievement Tests,Dropouts,Scores,Cutting Scores,Adolescents

This study examined the validity of using teacher-administered educational and intelligence tests  to screen students for learning disabilities (LDs). Twenty-seven Technical and Further Education (TAFE) students from regional Victoria who were enrolled in a program that was designed to reconnect school dropouts with education via TAFE participated in the study. The findings from  this study provide preliminary evidence for the validity of using the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test-Second Edition (KBIT-2) and limited evidence for using the Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) as measures of intelligence for the screening of students with LDs. (Contains 3 tables.)
The Unofficial Federal School Curriculum in Canada: Issues and Implications for Quebec Education
Author: Di Mascio, Anthony
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,National Curriculum,Comparative Analysis,Government Role,State Government,Federal Government,Governance,History,Cultural Pluralism,Patriotism,Elementary Secondary Education

This study seeks to address the ways in which the federal government has influenced elementary and secondary education throughout Canada. By producing teaching and learning material that is neither provincially sanctioned nor provincially focused, are federal agencies crossing constitutional jurisdictions in ways that compete with provincially prescribed curricula? While scholars have considered federal involvement in education from an administrative and legal standpoint, they have done less to examine the actual teaching and learning material produced by federal departments and agencies. Such teaching and learning material represents an unofficial federal curriculum in Canada aimed at promoting a pan-Canadian shared sense of identity. Using the Quebec Education Program as a case study for comparison, this study suggests that the material in many instances conflicts with the aims and intentions of provincial curricula.
Was Columbus a Hero? A Study of Students Who Have Been Confronted with Multiple Historical Narratives
Author: Pollock, Scott A.
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: History Instruction,Grade 12,Secondary School Teachers,Teaching Methods,Thinking Skills,Comparative Analysis,World History,Epistemology,Teacher Attitudes,Educational Research,Assignments,Essays,Reflection,Student Attitudes,High School Students,Historical Interpretation

This paper compares two attempts by the author to teach two different grade 12 world history classes to think historically. Both classes were presented with a similar assignment that revolved around the conflicting historical accounts of Christopher Columbus. However, the second group of students was also provided with direct instruction about the nature and construction of historical accounts. In the end, this second group of students demonstrated, on average, a more sophisticated understanding of the study of history. These results correspond with a growing body of research, which suggests that historical understanding can be taught by carefully crafted lessons.
The Canadian Heritage Committee Kerfuffle: A History Educator's Take
Author: Gibson, Lindsay
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Controversial Issues (Course Content),Educational Policy,Politics of Education,Foreign Countries,Heritage Education,Curriculum Development,Social Studies,Local History,Cultural Maintenance,Educational Change,History Instruction,Historical Interpretation,Academic Standards,Committees,Federal Government,State Government,Local Government

The latest round in Canada's History Wars was set off by reports on May 2, 2013, that the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage was going to &quot;undertake a thorough and comprehensive review of significant aspects in Canadian history.&quot; As details of the Heritage Committee's review emerged, controversy erupted as politicians, historians, political scientists, and members of the chattering classes rushed to either defend or oppose the committee's proposed mandate through public statements, articles, news reports, and editorials. The controversy centred on three main issues: (1) why the committee is reviewing federal, provincial, and municipal programs designed to preserve Canadian history and heritage when they have already made key decisions in this area; (2) whether the heritage committee's review of Canadian history was infringing on provincial rights; and (3) whether the Conservative government was trying to rebrand history to suit their vision of Canada. While all of these controversial issues focus on important discussions that Canadians need to have, the overblown partisan rhetoric that fuelled the debates served as a red herring that distracted the public from having a thoughtful discussion about what Canadian history educators have been focusing on for years--why Canadians should learn history, and the methods and practices that best enhance Canadians' understanding of their past. In other words, the importance of &quot;how&quot; Canadians best learn, access, preserve, and engage with their history was pushed to the sidelines. This article describes the heart of the controversy in the public debate surrounding the Committee's review of Canadian history focusing on preservation of Canadian heritage and history, provincial rights, whose history is right, and the missing part of the debate.