Using the example of the 1937 Ontario elementary school reforms, this article will make the case for considering pedagogical knowledge as a distinct object in the history of education. In this context, pedagogical knowledge refers to the conceptual and normative aspects of teaching and learning that seek to inform the decision-making of the…

In his inspirational article titled 'Bringing politics into the nursery', Peter Moss argues for early childhood institutions to "become" places of 'democratic political practice'. In this article, the authors add to Moss's call and argue that these institutions are sites of 'mundane political practice', containing various attitudinal…

One of the critical challenges that faces societies today is how to educate children and young people to cope with the ever demanding contexts in which they live. This education must include the relationships and support that facilitate socio-emotional development. This writing explores the work of Pestalozzi, a pioneering pedagogue, who, over two…

My paper situates literacy in the pre-symbolic implications of the maternal relation. Turning to child psychoanalysis, particularly Melanie Klein's theories of infancy and symbolization, my paper discusses the role the child's inner life plays in her engagements with literacy. Citing cases of second language learning, I pose literacy as…

"How can you help students most effectively in the classroom?" As a Teaching Assistant, you play a vital role in today's schools. This fully updated new edition will help you get to grips with the main issues to do with psychology and its role in the processes of teaching and learning. This accessible text, building on the success of a…

This article begins by revisiting an old dispute between the children's writer Chukovsky and the child psychologist Vygotsky on whether and how child literature should mediate development. It then considers child language language lessons in South Korea for clues about how such mediation might happen, and finds the development of rote language,…

This follow-up to a previous article (Orbit 14, pp. 8-11), describes and analyses some present educational applications from Piaget's theories (revised curricula, new assessment procedures, the readiness and self-discovery approach) and some possible future influence in teaching methodology. (JA)

Over the last century, investigation of pretend companions has developed as an emerging field. Although pretend companions are a commonplace childhood phenomenon and perhaps an epitome of children's imagination, that topic received little attention before the end of the 19th century. Only since the last decade has attention to it truly begun to…

An interview on peace education with Petra Hesse, of the Center for Psychological Studies in the Nuclear Age (Cambridge, Massachusetts), is presented. The Center for Psychological Studies in the Nuclear Age was founded out of a concern about children's fears of the future and the risks of nuclear war. Petra Hesse coordinates a research project on…

Presents most effective teaching techniques used by Elk Grove High School, California, in interdisciplinary courses on family-life education and child development. (ND)

The advice of Jean Piaget on the role of the educator as promoter of human development in students is reviewed. Included in this study are his observations and admonitions about characteristic duties and functions of a teacher as seen from the perspective of his research findings about the development of human learning and the learner. (JD)

Discussed are Piaget's methods, his relation to other theories, and an overview of his theory. Described are the six stages of his sensorimotor period with a summary of imitation and play, and the concrete operations period with the subperiods of changes from sensorimotor in preoperation, differences from the adult in preoperation, and the…

Discusses the developmental process that takes a child from Montessori's "absorbent mind" period to the period when the child creates interior cognitive structures. Suggests practical ways for teachers and parents to support the six- and seven-year old's need to design projects and accomplish goals. (HTH)

Looking for relevant material for the Adolescent Psychology course she teaches, the author's attention was drawn to a book by Thomas Cottle, "Mind Fields: Adolescent Consciousness in a Culture of Distraction" (2001). Robert Frost's quotation, "Grant me intention, purpose, and design--That's near enough for me to the Divine," in the frontispiece…

This document is an English-language abstract (approximately 1,500 words) of some 50 papers read at the first scientific session of a Soviet teacher training group. In the section on educational history and theory, papers were read reviewing the history and progress of public education and teacher education in the past 50 years in the Soviet…