scholarly journals The role of social signals in segmenting observed actions in eighteen-month-old children

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Kliesch ◽  
Eugenio Parise ◽  
Vincent. M. Reid ◽  
Stefanie Hoehl

Learning about actions requires children to identify the boundaries of an action and its units. Whereas some action units are easily identified, parents can support children’s action learning by adjusting the presentation and using social signals. However, currently little is understood regarding how children use these signals to learn actions.In the current study we investigate the possibility that communicative signals are a particularly suitable cue for segmenting events. We investigated this hypothesis by presenting 18-month-old children (N=60) with short action sequences consisting of toy animals either hopping or sliding across a board into a house, but interrupting this two-step sequence either(a) using an ostensive signals as a segmentation cue, (b) using a non-ostensive segmentation cue, and (c) without additional segmentation information between the actions.Marking the boundary using communicative signals increased children’s imitation of the less salient sliding action. Imitation of the hopping action remained unaffected. Crucially, marking the boundary of both actions using a non-communicative control condition did not increase imitation of either action. Communicative signals might be particularly suitable in segmenting non-salient actions that would otherwise be perceived as part of another action or as non-intentional. These results provide evidence of the importance of ostensive signals at event boundaries in scaffolding children’s learning.

Soundings ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 76 (76) ◽  
pp. 128-157
Author(s):  
Celia Burgess-Macey ◽  
Clare Kelly ◽  
Marjorie Ouvry

Early years education in England is in crisis. This article looks at what is needed to better provide the kind of education and care that young children need outside the home, from birth to school-starting age. It explores: the current arrangements and varieties of provision and approaches in England; educational and developmental research about young children's development and early learning; the current national early years curriculum and how it contrasts to other international models and pedagogical approaches; the importance of play-based learning; the role of adults in observing, recording, assessing and supporting young children's learning; and the holistic nature of children's learning - which makes education and care inseparable in young children's lives. Neoliberal governments have had little interest in these questions: they have been focused instead on marketising the sector, which has led to great inequality of provision; and they have been unwilling to provide the necessary funding to train staff and maintain appropriate learning environments; most fundamentally, they have engaged in an ideological drive to impose on very small children a narrow and formal curriculum that ignores all the evidence about good practice in the sector, and is focused on making them 'school ready' - that is, ready to fit into the rigid frameworks they have already imposed on primary school education.


2002 ◽  
Vol 112 (5) ◽  
pp. 2412-2413 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Lubman ◽  
Louis C. Sutherland

Author(s):  
Keith Sullivan

This article examines the bulk funding debate and concludes, first, that it is the injection of extra money, rather than the mechanism of bulk funding itself, which has allowed some schools to enhance their offerings. Secondly, it argues that in having taken on the responsibilities of governorship (including becoming employers of their children’s teachers), parents have been diverted from the more important role of engagement with their children’s learning, in partnership with teachers. An historical overview of the vigorous debate over bulk funding is also provided, from its inception with Tomorrow’s Schools up until the present, in view of its promised demise under current government policy. The article also presents a case study of a series of events at Colenso High School, Napier, where teachers, with support from the community, caused the Board of Trustees to reverse their decision to opt into bulk funding (the Fully Funded Option).


EGALITA ◽  
2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad Abtokhi

This research describing the role of the mother that very central in assisting children’s learning activities through the concept of mentoring that focuses on the uniqueness of each individual. This concept is termed a Learning- Centered Individuals who see uniquely child has potential, interests and dy- namics of each problem, so that the practical assistance should be focused on managing the potential and uniqueness of each individual dynamics prob- lems to deliver the right learning attitude, without forgetting the reaching academic achievement.<br /><br />Keywords: Ibu, pendampingan, belajar, Individual Learning-Centered


2020 ◽  
Vol 90 (4) ◽  
pp. 997-1014
Author(s):  
Abbey M. Loehr ◽  
Lisa K. Fazio ◽  
Bethany Rittle‐Johnson

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