Language: English

ISSN: 1071-6246

Abstract/Notes: book review

Language: English

Abstract/Notes: The study of play in both animals and humans is flourishing. The purpose of human pretend play is not known. By analogy to play fighting in animals, evidence is presented suggesting that pretend play might improve sensitivity to social signals and emotion regulation in humans. Pretend play appears to be an evolved behavior because it is universal and appears on a set schedule. However, no specific functions have been determined for pretend play and empirical tests for its functions in humans are elusive. Yet animal play fighting can serve as an analog, as both activities involve as-if, metacommunicative signaling and symbolism. In the rat and some other animals, adaptive functions of play fighting include assisting social behavior and emotion regulation. Research is presented suggesting that pretend play might serve similar functions for humans.

Language: English

DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2017.08.001

ISSN: 1364-6613, 1879-307X

Language: English

Published: Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Heinemann, 1992

ISBN: 0-435-08709-6 978-0-435-08709-8

Abstract/Notes: Through performance monitoring individuals detect and learn from unexpected outcomes, indexed by post-error slowing and post-error improvement in accuracy. Although performance monitoring is essential for academic learning and improves across childhood, its susceptibility to educational influences has not been studied. Here we compared performance monitoring on a flanker task in 234 children aged 4 through 15, from traditional or Montessori classrooms. While traditional classrooms emphasize that students learn from teachers' feedback, Montessori classrooms encourage students to work independently with materials specially designed to support learners discovering errors for themselves. We found that Montessori students paused longer post-error in early childhood and, by adolescence, were more likely to self-correct. We also found that a developmental shift from longer to shorter pauses post-error being associated with self-correction happened younger in the Montessori group. Our findings provide preliminary evidence that educational experience influences performance monitoring, with implications for neural development, learning, and pedagogy.

Language: English

DOI: 10.1111/mbe.12233

ISSN: 1751-228X

Language: English

DOI: 10.1177/002205742309700805

ISSN: 0022-0574, 2515-5741

Abstract/Notes: In sociological investigation, Weber (1968) believes that concrete historical events can be interpreted in terms of social action. These patterns of action differ from historical accounts, which explore the importance of causal explanation of individual events. Entwistle and Alexander (1993) contend that sociologists of education have paid little attention to patterns of class interaction and inequality in preschools. Adding to Hartley's (1993) work on nursery schools in Scotland, and using an organizational model with a sociohistorical standpoint, this ethnographic case study helps to bridge that gap by concentrating on the historical and ecological contexts of (1) a Laboratory school; (2) a Montessori school; and, (3) a Head Start center. The central problem of the study seeks an answer to the question "If inequalities in preschools exist, what do they look like?" This study assumes that historically educational systems have exerted a form of social control over children in order to transmit cultural values. Part I of the study examines ancient and modern societies, their cultures and their philosophical grounding to reveal the values and trends that contribute to social change in the early education of children. Part II adds a triangulation strategy to explore the ecology (environment and culture) of the three schools in the study. These strategies include archival content analysis of the preschool organizations, nonparticipant observation of the classrooms (Bell, 1993), intensive interviewing of the staff and administration members and a brief survey of the preschool parents. This study draws from the sociology of Weber's "ideal bureaucracy," Berger's "bureaucratic cognitive style," Elias' "civilizing process," Bernstein's "visible and invisible" pedagogy, Bourdieu's "cultural capital" and Anyon's "biased ideological messages." In this exploratory study, the data analysis uses a descriptive methodology, not to draw conclusions, but similar to Glaser and Strauss' "grounded theory" to introduce questions to be explored further by researchers. A final section on policy recommendations is included.

Language: English

Published: Boston, Massachusetts, 2000

Language: English

Archive: Seattle University, Lemieux Library and McGoldrick Learning Commons, Special Collections

Language: English

Language: English

ISSN: 0959-4108