Early Stages Of Education Research Articles

Teaching and Learning Basic Electronics with a Professional Circuit Analyzer Program

Summary Modem technology offers powerful professional programs that were originally designed for scientific and practical engineering purposes. These programs are now easily operated by simple graphic interfaces. Even if they offer much more than we may need for instructional purposes, these tools can still be very useful as a support for teaching and learning both the subject matter domain and additional general skills from relatively early stages of scientific and technological education. This article describes the instructional approaches developed for using a professional electronic circuit analyzer program as a learning environment for students in basic electronics courses and discusses the general implications of using such programs for instruction.

Towards a Theory of Vivid Description as Practiced in Cicero's Verrine Oration

Abstract: Ancient Roman rhetoricians do not offer a systematic theory of vivid description in their rhetorical treatises, perhaps because it was treated at the early stages of a student's education and because it may be produced in various ways to achieve various purposes. After examining the references to vivid description scattered throughout ancient rhetorical treatises in discussions of style, amplification, narration, and proof, as well as Cicero's use of the tectinique in the Verrine orations, I suggest precepts which may have guided the means by and ends for which vivid descriptions are produced.

Family and School Influences on the Vocational Choices of Students in a Rural Western Australian Community

ABSTRACT Little is known about the influence of isolation on the vocational choice processes of rural students except that such people often make very traditional career decisions. In remote areas of Australia vocational choice has to be considered at a comparatively early stage of a student's education because of the lack of full, locally available secondary education facilities. Students, in some cases accompanied by their families, migrate to urban centres to complete years 11 and 12 in order to matriculate. In the Western Australian community in which this study was located, the influence of family and school on the vocational decisions of 24 rural students was investigated. Family influence was found to be much stronger than that of the school, a matter that has implications for schools that are remote from vocational opportunities.

Could final year school grades suffice as a predictor for future performance?

The performance of three groups of medical students was evaluated at the end of one phase of their studies--after 2 years of premedicine. The aim of the study was to determine whether any of the assessment methods--secondary school grades, entrance examination or test for proficiency in the English language, used for selection of medical students, could reliably predict student performance in the early stages of their education. A significant correlation was found between secondary school grades and the entrance exam on the one hand and grade point average (GPA) on the other. However the results of the test for English proficiency did not correlate with the GPA. It is concluded that the secondary school grade on its own is a good predictor of academic performance in the early stages of medical undergraduate education.

Good Practice in the Early Stages of Primary Education

Good Practice in the Early Stages of Primary Education

Parental involvement in curriculum matters: parents, teachers and children working together

Summary This is a first report of a research project concerning the involvement of parents in the curriculum of the reception classes in four infant schools in Outer London. Parents from a wide variety of ethnic and social backgrounds met to talk with teachers each week and practical suggestions were made about simple activities which children and parents could enjoy at home. A programme of extra adult inputs involving sharing skills by parents or adult friends was arranged for the children (e.g. ‘Stages of making a garment’, ‘Cooking a well‐known dish demonstrated’, ‘Woodwork and tools discussed’, ‘How to wear a sari’ and ‘Typing and printing explained'), and it was suggested that the children should have a book or folder entitled ‘All about Me’ which could go between home and school and contain relevant information ‐ e.g. family photographs; pictures of food and clothes family members like, the child's important times (e.g. bedtime, breakfast‐time, school‐time); games and local outings s/he enjoys; observations of birds which come to the garden; traffic on the street nearby; etc. A random sample of children drawn from those experiencing the programme was given a series of tests and assessments before the programme began and again after it was completed. A matched control group, without parental involvement, in the same schools, was also given the same series of tests and assessments at the beginning and end of the same time period. Of course, no two groups of children can be exactly ‘matched’, but both groups were the same age, had the same sex distribution, came from a similar variety of cultural backgrounds, had similar distributions of family circumstances, pre‐school education, housing conditions and, of course, both groups attended the same schools. The results showed that the groups experiencing the parental involvement programme showed significantly increased gains on 22 of the 44 areas tested and assessed, while the control group gained on just three areas, the others showing no difference. The investigation had to take place in a short period of three months, including some holiday period, so the results highlight the important influence of parental involvement in the early stages of education. They also give evidence of the effects on children of the increasingly warm, friendly and knowledgeable relationships developed between children, teachers and parents during the programme.

Medicine in prospect--the first-year student's view.

A sample of first-year medical students from the University of New South Wales was interviewed to determine the students' reasons for studying Medicine, their career aspirations and their views, in prospect, of the medical course and medical practice. There were some differences, in general responses, between men and women. In general the interviews revealed that at this stage of their careers the students were motivated to a high degree by humanitarian concerns. Recent criticisms of the outcomes of medical education have featured concerns that graduating doctors do not demonstrate sufficient ability to relate to patients on a personal level or to take a holistic approach to care. Some medical educators and community spokesmen have attributed this to the selection system which, based solely on academic merit, chooses students with high academic ability and according to some critics, low social abilities and awareness. The results of this study indicate that such assumptions are false and that undesirable attitudes said to be present in graduating doctors do not appear to be present in the early stages of medical education.

The development of professionalism in the early stages of education

and child-centred teaching is more commonly found at the nurseryinfant stage of schooling than at any other; and at the same time that such methods demand more of the teacher in terms of skill, organization, and adaptability. This circumstance provoked Nathan Isaacs to ask the question: 'What is required of the nursery-infant teacher in this country today?' and to answer it in these terms: On the kind of theory I have set out the demands on the nursery-infant teacher are particularly heavy. They are indeed far more so than for the later years. .... [She] would herself need to be a more or less complete microcosm of all human knowledge, wisdom and skill, in order to cope with these quasi-microcosma, our active, eager, full-living children of three to seven years of age-and steer them along towards the right finished form. Clearly she must fall very, very far short of this ideal.'

The Development of Professionalism in the Early Stages of Education

The Development of Professionalism in the Early Stages of Education

Progress in Education

IN his presidential address to the National Union of Teachers at Margate on April 16, Mr. I. Gwynne Rees, of Port Talbot, outlined the extent to which the 1944 Education Act has already been implemented. Two years ago, at a time of unprecedented difficulties, school life for every pupil in Britain was extended to the age of fifteen. The number of teachers in primary and secondary schools is now 10 per cent greater than before the War, while the average number of pupils per teacher in the primary and secondary schools has been reduced by about 6 per cent; in the primary school, however, the average class still remains nearly 50 per cent larger than in the secondary school. These reforms, said Mr. Rees, have been made possible by the rapid increase in the supply of well-qualified teachers, provision having already been made for the training of 66 per cent more students in the permanent colleges and 44 per cent more in the universities than before the War. The other major reform necessary for the reduction in the size of classes is, he said, the provision of sufficient classrooms. In 1948 work in progress involved an ultimate capital expenditure of £23,000,000, and in 1949 the figure would be £55,000,000. There has also been remarkable progress in the facilities for higher education. The toll-gate of school fees has been removed, and State scholarships and local education authority awards for further education have doubled in number since 1939. In the earlier stages of education, particular concern is being felt for the infant and junior schools, where the handicapping of the less gifted begins through lack of suitable equipment and through classes of forty, fifty and even sixty children. This seventy-fourth Conference of the National Union of Teachers was distinguished, for the first time, by the presence of the Prime Minister. In an inspiring address, Mr, Attlee declared that the prime duty of all teachers is to train their pupils to become good citizens of a democratic society.

Bilingualism in Indian Education

IN the Journal of Education and Psychology (Baroda, 1, No. 2; July 1943), A. I. Patel discusses bilingualism and Indian education. He surveys the results of the use of English as the medium of instruction in the earlier stages of education before the mother tongue has become an adequate mode of expression. He concludes that bilingualism hinders the process of education, renders its victims emotionally unstable, prevents moral development, dries up the sources of creative ability, and makes misfits of the students, adjusted to neither cultural group. The remedy is to realize that at present Indian education is neither Indian nor education. English should not be taught in the primary stage, but postponed to a late period in the secondary stage. It should rank as a second language, leaving the vernacular to be the medium of education. The present system, centred round the teaching of English, has had a fair trial and has failed. The writer admits that there will be difficulties but that for the sake of India they ought to be faced and overcome. He recommends the use of Basic English, when the time comes to learn English. He does not want to exclude English because it is the one language which can provide vital contact with European culture and civilization, but Indian language and literature should be the basis of education.