Abstract/Notes: Bruner assumes a reconciliatory position between structure and creativity, suggesting that ordered sequences can lead to discovery

Language: English

ISSN: 2215-1249, 2772-7319

Language: English

Language: English

Language: English

ISSN: 1071-6246

Language: English

ISSN: 0010-700X

Abstract/Notes: A growing number of schools across the globe have implemented design thinking (DT) as an instructional approach to increase student engagement, motivate creative thinking, and teach students to problem solve. Although offering significant opportunity to students, implementing DT can involve pushing against the traditional “grammar of schooling.” Drawing on in-depth qualitative case study data, we present findings on a previously low-performing, underenrolled middle school that underwent a dramatic shift when becoming a magnet school focused on DT. We explain the intentional leadership actions that facilitated structural and cultural changes, including building a collaborative leadership structure. Interactions between the principal and the teachers led to the emergence of practices that supported innovation schoolwide. At the same time, internal and external challenges rooted in the grammar of schooling arose, requiring educators to respond to sustain the momentum for change. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

Language: English

DOI: 10.1086/709510

ISSN: 0195-6744, 1549-6511

Abstract/Notes: The idea that concrete materials benefit children’s learning has a long history in developmental psychology and education, dating back to M. Montessori (1917), J. Piaget (1970), and J. S. Bruner (1966). Too often, however, scholars use these traditional views to give concrete materials a blanket endorsement. The articles in this issue go beyond traditional views and advance our understanding of the conditions under which students do and do not benefit from using concrete materials. They suggest that some processes involved in using concrete objects are not restricted to children of a certain age but rather apply across ages. They also highlight the need for systematic investigations into the type and amount of direction students need when working with concrete materials in the classroom.

Language: English

DOI: 10.1111/j.1750-8606.2009.00093.x

ISSN: 1750-8606

Abstract/Notes: More than 100 years ago, an Italian physician began designing an education system with the expressed purpose of helping children thrive to their full potential, rather than pass tests. Psychology research is strongly supportive of the system’s underlying theoretical principles, and accumulating studies show that when the system is well implemented, children’s outcomes even on tests are superior to those obtained with business-as-usual school programs. Researchers are now examining whether these good outcomes are in part due to the educational method causing epigenetic effects (i.e., changes in gene expression).

Language: English

DOI: 10.1177/0963721418769878

ISSN: 0963-7214, 1467-8721

Abstract/Notes: Children’s media is replete with human-like portrayals of animals and objects that wear clothing, speak, drive cars, and experience human emotions. Recent research has shown that anthropomorphic portrayals of animals in books lead children to think anthropomorphically about real animals. Here we asked whether this is also the case for an inanimate object. Specifically, does exposure to an anthropomorphized train, as compared to a real train, increase children’s tendency to make anthropomorphic attributions to real trains? We also investigated whether this effect with books extends to another common medium of presentation: video. Chinese preschoolers (n = 258) ages 4–6 were randomly assigned to watch a video or listen to a book about either a real or an anthropomorphized train. Before and after this exposure, children completed a modified Anthropomorphism Questionnaire–Child Form (IDAQ-CF), which included questions about trains. Children who were exposed to the anthropomorphic book significantly increased in their tendency to view real trains as having human-like qualities, as compared to control children who had no exposure. Video exposure had no effect on the anthropomorphism of trains.

Language: English

DOI: 10.1080/17482798.2019.1570960

ISSN: 1748-2798

Abstract/Notes: Newton Montessori School, in Newton Centre, MA, took out ads on Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) trains as a way of marketing to commuters taking public transportation to and from work each day. Connecting and promoting real-life events on social media can increase awareness about your school and community. "[At our events], we make sure to include a drawing for a 'Montessori' prize aimed at parents-last year, we raffled off a copy of [the book] How to Raise an Amazing Child the Montessori Way and a gift certificate to [the materials company] Small Hands-it is a good way to collect email addresses from people who stop by the tent," said Kibler. [...]the most powerful marketing tool may be the simplest-word of mouth.

Language: English

ISSN: 1054-0040