Whilst research underlines the importance of early mathematics in kindergarten, practitioners need effective and innovative approaches to pedagogy. Currently, very different approaches are deployed ...from an instructional, educator-led approach based on training programmes to a play-based approach. This intervention study examines the effects on the mathematical competency of these two pedagogies. Thirty-five kindergarten educators and 324 six-year-old children were randomly assigned to either a training programme, a play-based approach with card and board games or to the control group. Educators' views on the interventions were gathered in semi-structured interviews. The results indicate higher learning gains overall for the play-based approach. Differentiated effects were found as tendencies: children with low competencies tend to gain more from training programmes compared to no intervention; children with high competencies gain more from the play-based approach than the training. Educators evaluated the play-based intervention with card and board games as better suited to children's diverse needs.
One of the crucial 21st-century digital skills, in the context of digital transformation, is problem solving—equally so in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). In ...the context of kindergarten, learning through play is central; therefore, pretend play, and particularly guided pretend play, is suggested as an innovative way to foster skills for digital problem solving. As yet, the potential of pretend play for children’s learning about digital transformation and digital problem-solving processes has hardly been researched. The paper examines how children solve digital problems in guided pretend play. In an explorative intervention study “We play the future”, an information technology center (IT center) is introduced as one of the play corners for pretend play in kindergartens, together with other inputs such as a smart home corner (Internet of Things) or autonomous vehicles. Children’s play was video recorded. From the 15 participating kindergartens, 13 h of sequences involving the IT center were analyzed using content analysis. The findings indicate that children identify problems in a play situation and solve them using problem-solving strategies, such as devising new applications and installing software. Furthermore, the findings show that the kindergarten teacher’s participation in the pretend play is important for enabling longer and more complex problem-solving processes. Consequences for further teacher training to foster problem-solving skills during guided pretend play are discussed.
Computation competence (CC) with non-counting (NC) strategies is an important aim of Grade 1 mathematics education, but studies have shown that many students struggle to acquire these skills and ...continue to rely on counting strategies in later years. Therefore, even though counting is an important first strategy for young children, it is vital to support the development of CC with NC strategies from the earliest stages of mathematics education. This study examined the success of an intervention to promote the use of CC and NC strategies and conceptual subitizing (CS). The study was conducted with a sample of
N
= 1017 Grade 1 students, and investigated whether the achievement gain was affected by the intervention setting: cooperative learning, individual support for low achievers, a combination of the two settings, and a control group. Students in the combined setting had greater achievement gains in CC with NC strategy use and CS than the control group and outperformed those in the other intervention groups in CS. The combined setting also benefitted low achievers in mathematics for CS, but not for CC and strategy use. A combination of cooperative learning and individual support seems to be the best option for improving the CS and CC and NC strategy use of first graders, especially low achievers in mathematics.
The importance of play for children and its potential for learning are widely recognized. However, it is contested whether teachers should guide play, particularly pretend play, and how guided ...pretend play supports children's agency and learning. In this study, pretend play is employed in (unplugged) digital education and the teacher's guidance and children's involvement are examined to answer the following questions: what roles do teachers take on during guided pretend play and how do they enable children's learning about digitalization and digital transformation?
This qualitative study examines how teachers guide pretend play in ways that support learning, focusing on the topic of digitalization and digital transformation.
Fifteen teachers took part in the study and implemented the pretend play suggestions in their kindergartens with children aged from four to six years.
The pretend play was filmed. The video data were structured and sequences of teachers joining in the pretend play and guiding from within were selected. These sequences were analysed in-depth using multimodal interaction analysis.
The results indicate that teachers guide pretend play from within by taking on different roles (play leader or co-player). Teachers model within pretend play, for example, by assigning tasks or thinking aloud, and provide scaffolding, encouraging children's learning about digitalization and digital transformation.
Through co-playing and leading, teachers support a prolonged and in-depth joint focus, as well as the agency of the children. Such guided play is termed “sustained shared playing” and has great potential for learning.
•Guided pretend play has great potential for digital education.•Teachers joining in pretend play, in the role of co-player, support children's agency.•Multimodal interaction analysis of video data reveals how teachers guide play.•Teachers switch between leading (modelling) and co-playing (scaffolding).•Sustained shared thinking in guided pretend play means “sustained shared playing”.
Mannosylerythritol lipids are glycolipid biosurfactants with many interesting properties. Despite the general interest in those molecules and the need for a robust process, studies on their ...production in bioreactors are still scarce. In the current study, the fermentative production of MEL in a bioreactor with
was performed using a defined mineral salt medium. Several kinetic process parameters like substrate consumption rates and product formation rates were evaluated and subsequently enhanced by increasing the biomass concentration through an exponential fed-batch strategy. The fed-batch approaches resulted in two to three fold increased dry biomass concentrations of 10.9-15.5 g/L at the end of the growth phase, compared with 4.2 g/L in the batch process. Consequently, MEL formation rates were increased from 0.1 g/Lh up to around 0.4 g/Lh during the MEL production phase. Thus, a maximum concentration of up to 50.5 g/L MEL was obtained when oil was added in excess, but high concentrations of residual fatty acids were also present in the broth. By adjusting the oil feeding to biomass-specific hydrolysis and MEL production rates, a slightly lower MEL concentration of 34.3 g/L was obtained after 170 h, but at the same time a very pure crude lipid extract with more than 90% MEL and a much lower concentration of remaining fatty acids. With rapeseed oil as substrate, the ideal oil-to-biomass ratio for full substrate conversion was found to be around 10 g
/g
. In addition, off-gas analysis and pH trends could be used to assess biomass growth and MEL production. Finally, kinetic models were developed and compared to the experimental data, allowing for a detailed prediction of the process behavior in future experiments.
In diesem Open-Access-Sammelband wird angehenden und fortgeschrittenen Forschenden aufgezeigt, wie &«doing» und &«undoing gender» in Institutionen der frühen Kindheit erforscht und analysiert werden ...können.Thematisiert werden:zentrale theoretische Konzeptionen von doing und undoing gender verschiedener sozialwissenschaftlicher Theorietraditionenein multimethodischer und multiperspektivischer Ansatz zur empirischen Untersuchung mit qualitativ-ethnographischen ForschungsmethodenVielfältige analytische Zugänge: Raumanalyse, Sequenzanalyse, Dokumentenanalyse, sozialwissenschaftlich hermeneutische Analyse, Diskursanalyse, Analyse organisationaler PraktikenErziehungswissenschaftliche und sozialpsychologische Perspektiven auf Kindertagesstätten als Arbeitsplatz und Organisation, Raum- und Spielangebote, Organisationsentwicklung und eine genderreflektierte Pädagogik
Digitalisation and the accompanying transformation processes, involving data, technology and people, are part of children's life and will shape their future. Competences, such as digital skills, as ...well as creativity, communication, collaboration, critical thinking and problem solving are crucial to these transformation processes. In early childhood, these competences are essentially acquired through play, especially pretend play. The project ‘we play the future’ draws on the potential of pretend play to enable young children to be actively engaged in imagining themselves shaping digital transformation in the roles of inventors, developers and users. Drawing on an analysis of fields currently undergoing digital transformation, eight inputs for pretend play were developed to areas of digital transformation (eg, robotics, autonomous vehicles and Internet of things). Fifteen kindergarten teachers implemented the pretend play on digital transformation in their kindergarten after taking a half‐day introductory professional development course. The children's play was filmed and analysed using qualitative multimodal interaction analysis in order to examine the ways in which the pretend play encourages the exploration of digital transformation amongst the children. The results reveal the potential of pretend play for children to explore digital transformation and to acquire the digital competences needed in the future.
Practitioner notes
What is already known about this topic?
Children integrate imaginative digital technology in their play.
Guided pretend play is important for children's learning in kindergarten.
What this paper adds
Ideas for pretend play in kindergarten to enable children developing an understanding of digital transformation in a playful way
The paper presents findings from video analysis which indicate that children are using competences needed for the digital future during pretend play
Implications for practice
Digital education should not just be focused on using and programming digital devices but include pretend play to explore digital transformation; through the inputs for pretend play suggested in the project, the kindergarten teachers support the children developing an understanding of digital technology.
The inputs for pretend play enable children to develop competences such as technical and digital skills, as well as creativity, communication, collaboration, critical thinking and problem solving.
Zusammenfassung
Die Qualität der adaptiven Lernunterstützung ist wichtig für die Förderung des mathematischen Lernens von Kindergartenkindern. Entsprechend bedarf es geeigneter Instrumente zur ...Bewertung der Planung, Durchführung und Reflexion von mathematischen Lernangeboten im Kindergarten. Bestehende Instrumente berücksichtigen vor allem die mikro-adaptive (mathematische) Lernunterstützung, die den Fokus auf die Interaktion zwischen der Fachkraft und den Kindern legt. Die Qualität der makro-adaptiven (mathematischen) Lernunterstützung (Planung und Reflexion von Lernsituationen) wurde im Kindergarten bis jetzt noch nicht umfassend untersucht. Sie gewinnt jedoch im Hinblick auf die zunehmende Bedeutung von Bildungsplänen im Kindergarten und der damit verbundenen Förderung von fachbezogenen Kompetenzen an Bedeutung.
Im Artikel wird erstens die Qualität von (mathematischer) Lernunterstützung in Regelspielsituationen im Kindergarten konzeptualisiert. Dabei wird die Qualität der makro-adaptiven von der mikro-adaptiven Lernunterstützung unterschieden. Letztere wird getrennt in fachunabhängige Unterstützungsqualität (Gruppenmanagement, emotionale Wärme) und in instruktionale, mathematikbezogene Unterstützungsqualität (Lernanregung, Verwendung Fachsprache). Zweitens wird ein Messinstrument (Rating) zur Analyse der Qualität der Lernunterstützung in mathematischen Lernsituationen vorgestellt. Dieses wurde zur Analyse von videografierten Regelspielsituationen und anschließenden Leitfadeninterviews von 145 pädagogischen Fachkräften aus Deutschland und der Schweiz eingesetzt. Pro Fachkraft standen zwei Videosequenzen und zwei Interviews zur Verfügung. Auf der Basis dieser Daten wird das Messinstrument hinsichtlich verschiedener Gütekriterien sowie des Einflusses der Ausbildung der Fachkräfte (akademisch, nicht akademisch) und des Bildungskontextes (Deutschland, Schweiz) analysiert. Die theoretisch angenommene Unterscheidung von Gruppenmanagement, emotionaler Wärme und instruktionaler Unterstützungsqualität lässt sich durch eine konfirmatorische Faktorenanalyse stützen. Die Ergebnisse bestätigen die Bedeutung des Einbezugs von Planung und Reflexion als Dimensionen von adaptiver Lernunterstützungsqualität.
The research project Adaptive Teaching Competency seeks to conceptualise the processes of tuning teaching to individual students' learning needs and to empirically test, within the field of science ...teaching, to what extent Adaptive Teaching Competency can be fostered through teacher education. 32 primary and secondary teachers took part in an intervention to foster their Adaptive Teaching Competency based on content-focused coaching whilst 18 teachers formed the control group. Teachers receiving the coaching increased their Adaptive Teaching Competency with regard to planning and their students showed a higher learning outcome compared to the control group.
Normothermic machine perfusion (NMP) is nowadays frequently utilized in liver transplantation. Despite commonly accepted viability assessment criteria, such as perfusate lactate and perfusate pH, ...there is a lack of predictive organ evaluation strategies to ensure graft viability. Hyperspectral imaging (HSI)-as an optical imaging modality increasingly applied in the biomedical field-might provide additional useful data regarding allograft viability and performance of liver grafts during NMP. MethodsTwenty-five deceased donor liver allografts were included in the study. During NMP, graft viability was assessed conventionally and by means of HSI. Images of liver parenchyma were acquired at 1, 2, and 4 h of NMP, and subsequently analyzed using a specialized HSI acquisition software to compute oxygen saturation, tissue hemoglobin index, near-infrared perfusion index, and tissue water index. To analyze the association between HSI parameters and perfusate lactate as well as perfusate pH, we performed simple linear regression analysis. ResultsPerfusate lactate at 1, 2, and 4 h NMP was 1.5 0.3-8.1, 0.9 0.3-2.8, and 0.9 0.1-2.2 mmol/L. Perfusate pH at 1, 2, and 4 h NMP was 7.329 7.013-7.510, 7.318 7.081-7.472, and 7.265 6.967-7.462, respectively. Oxygen saturation predicted perfusate lactate at 1 and 2 h NMP (R2 = 0.1577, P = 0.0493; R2 = 0.1831, P = 0.0329; respectively). Tissue hemoglobin index predicted perfusate lactate at 1, 2, and 4 h NMP (R2 = 0.1916, P = 0.0286; R2 = 0.2900, P = 0.0055; R2 = 0.2453, P = 0.0139; respectively). ConclusionsHSI may serve as a noninvasive tool for viability assessment during NMP. Further evaluation and validation of HSI parameters are warranted in larger sample sizes.
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