This study reports the results of an innovative assignment in which preservice teachers' mental representations were examined through drawing floor plans of an "ideal middle-level mathematics classroom." The 41 middle-level mathematics preservice teachers created two floor plans, one at the beginning of the semester and the other for the…

According to child psychologists, vital links exist between children's drawings and their emotional, social, and cognitive development. Previous research has explored the important relations between drawings and play in educational settings. Given the vast research that explores the ambiguous topic of children's play, according to Richer (1990),…

The purpose of this study is two-fold. First, it investigates the self-images of science teaching held by early childhood pre-service teachers who took constructivism early childhood science education courses. Second, it analyzes what aspects of those courses influenced these images. The participants were eight pre-service teachers who took these…

According to Bourdieu, habitus is an important, and class-specific, foundation for behaviour. However, he hardly explained how the habitus is acquired. Based on Bernstein's elaboration on the various contexts in which group-specific behavioural principles are acquired, this article demonstrates how young children of two divergent social classes…

This article considers various approaches to consulting primary pupils about mathematics. This is done first through a literature review and second by drawing on our experience of designing and piloting pupil consultation in collaboration with staff in one primary school. Our concern is with the utility and drawbacks of the methods used rather…

Young children frequently tell visual stories, drawing pictures to record and share their thoughts, feelings and understanding. How and what young children describe through art, especially when written language is not an option, is the focus of this interpretive analysis. A series of pictures by John, a 6-year-old boy, were drawn across the…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore a support system for beginners in drawing in a networked environment. Learners can receive advice and assessments from art experts without time and/or place constraints by using the proposed system. The authors investigate the possibilities of online supporting drawing learning. Two key factors are…

With the United States obesity rate at 34% in adults and 17% in children, and increased inactivity among young people, the authors decided to create an interdisciplinary (art and health) lesson that they hoped would raise student awareness on the subject. In this article, the authors describe how their middle-school students created an artwork of…

In this article, the author describes an art project intended for high-school students to create a three-dimensional design using a Styrofoam. The students were asked to find and take photos of architectural details, such as decorative columns, and use the photograph as inspiration in their drawings. The drawings served as a "blueprint" to help…

The figure has "figured" prominently in the choice of subject matter for many artists throughout history. Whether they may choose to depict it in an abstract or expressive form, most artists are quite capable of realistic portrayals of the human form. And all people know that one of the very first drawings made by young children is a symbol for…

Problem Statement: The constructivist reorganization of the elementary education programs in Turkey has revealed the importance of training skilled teachers who are familiar with both constructivist theory and the educational programs. In this way, teachers can adapt to their new roles, learn how to guide students, and prepare the best learning…

Whilst there are studies exploring students' perspectives of assessment, relatively little is known about how Chinese high school students' respond to assessment. Students' perspectives are particularly important because the power of assessment directly impacts on their motivation and attitudes towards schooling. This article explores students'…

In this article, the author discusses the different two- and three-dimensional art forms. She also describes the different media that can be used in these art forms.

Depending on task combination, dual-tasking can either be performed successfully or can lead to performance decrements in one or both tasks. Interference is believed to be caused by limitations in central processing, i.e. structural interference between the neural activation patterns associated with each task. In the present study, single- and…

Using a sociohistoric developmental lens, this paper traces the construction of texts composed by fifth graders in an urban classroom in order to answer the following questions: How do children develop as writers in school? How do writing and drawing function in children's texts? How do teaching practices shape children's writing development?…