Volume XV, 1988 Speech Association of Minnesota Journal

Complete digitized volume (volume 15, 1988) of Speech Association of Minnesota Journal

Perceptions of gender in young consumers of animated films.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the gender stereotyping of two animated films by boys and girls (N=25). Based on Bern\u27s (1983) gender schema theory, it was hypothesized that children would stereotype Aladdin as being for males and Pocahontas as being for females, based on the gender of the lead character. Interviews with participants (five to six years old) revealed that they did not gender stereotype the two films. A majority of both boys and girls liked the two films and felt they were for boys and girls. However, they did not think a girl could rescue another girl when asked to imagine different plot scenarios. They were more likely to believe a boy could save another boy. This study demonstrated that boys and girls relied on gender schemas in their interpretation of animated film

Mobile Game for Teaching Bilingual

Nowadays, English has b~com~ important languag~ worldwide. On this globalization era, people over the world communicate with each other using English as primary language. English has become a compulsory subject for schools in Malaysia. Most of Malaysiar. children fae difficulties in learning foreign lar.guage especially English. In addition, current method of teaching English provide less mobility and boring. Thus, the involvement of games in teaching bilingual believes can gives positive impacts on children learning. To design and develop suitable mobile-based education game for preschool and primary school children in their bilingual learning, studies on learning theories and investigate the suitable learning theories for children that can support their learning process is made. To make the teaching of bilingual more attractive and easy to learn, the game is used. In addition, to equip the demand of children's today, this game is created in Android platform. To enhance children's bilingual learning through this technology, it is important to understand how to design the mobile game to teach bilingual. This study explores the exposure of mobile application by five to seven year olds children with the observation of teachers or parents. Through a close examination of the young children's learning process and their attitudes toward mobile games as well as their teachers' comments, this study showed that mobile tech.nology could engage children at a longer period of time in learning environment. Besides it attractiveness of using current technology, the impacts also seen through the improvement of marks obtained from the game. The findings show that most of the teachers and pwents believe that the usage of Mobile Game for Teaching Bilingual is attractive and helpful in teaching foreign language. Most of the respondents agree to the implementation of SPELL IT! Game as a learning tool. The method used throughout the development of the application are throwaway prototyping which will produced more reliable and interactive application as it requires deeper analysis and design process. The creation of this courseware is by using Eclipse Indigo as a programming tool

A study of the availability of readable and interesting books in areas of greatest interest to eighth grade pupils in a selected school

Since both good and poor readers often select similar book titles and reading topics, there is a need to provide books based on the pupils\u27 interests which vary significantly to accommodate pupils\u27 differing abilities. Because of this existing need, the writer was motivated to examine more closely the reading interests and abilities of adolescents in order to provide criteria for aiding teachers in guiding pupil-selection of free reading materials. The purpose of this study is to determine the availability and attractiveness of books of varied difficulty in the most prominent areas of interest to eighth-grade pupils. The specific objectives forming the basis of the study are: 1) What are the areas of interest to eighth-grade pupils? 2) Which five areas are the most common? 3) Is there a difference between the interests of boys and girls? 4) Are there books in the most common interest areas in a range of difficulty from third to tenth grade? 5) Are these books readable according to formula; are they attractive according to pupil-rating? 6) Does pupil-evaluation reflect a similarity between the reading level of pupils and the difficulty of the book

Design decision-making by children aged 12-15 within design and technology education

The thesis presents research regarding decision-making by children aged 12-15 within design and technology education. An in depth discussion of the factors that are affecting children‘s decision-making capabilities in design decision-making as found in the previous literature is presented. The literature provides information on children‘s and adults‘ decision-making processes, research from the area of cognitive development, the implementation of decision-making in educational contexts, the role of teachers and curriculum materials, and the role of knowledge, skills and values within design decision-making. These were reviewed as part of the theoretical background of the study. An action research methodology was designed in order to gather data relevant to children‘s decision-making behaviour. A pilot study was conducted to explore the spontaneous strategies that children follow in order to take their design decisions. Based on the results of the pilot study, the research methodology was redesigned and a main study was conducted. Three age groups from 12 to 15 were included in the sample of the study and 15 children were interviewed before and after a design task was given to them. Additionally 110 children were observed while designing, their log-books were analysed and they completed pre-tests and post-tests with activities relevant to decision-making. The results of the study were analysed using grounded theory guidelines and the key findings are discussed. Based on the findings of the research study a model was designed that describes the factors that are involved in children‘s decision-making in design and technology education. From the results of the study children‘s strategies, difficulties they faced, their age, the requirements of curriculum materials and teachers‘ pedagogical activities seemed to affect children‘s decision-making behaviour. Finally the thesis discusses these results in relation to the original research questions and also presents some suggestions for further work

Preparing Books for Children from Birth to Age Six: The Approach of Appropriateness for the Child

Children’s books must primarily be appropriate for children so that they could be a significant stimulus in children’s lives. In other words, it is essential that the concepts child reality, literary criteria and artist sensitivity be reflected in books in order to create children’s books. From birth to age 6, the fact that children’s books are written in such a standpoint can help children in this age range have love and habit of reading. In this respect, this article proposes that children’s books from birth to age 6 be written primarily according to the principle of appropriateness for children.  With this respect, firstly, the conceptual framework of the principle of appropriateness was established through scientific evidence, and then this principle was reflected in the design, contextual and didactic attributes of children’s books from birth to age 6. While forming this conception, birth-24 months, 24-48 months and 48-64 months age groups which Piaget adopted in Cognitive Theory were prioritized. Thus, an approach to write and publish books appropriate for children of these age groups and in different development levels has been developed. Keywords: Appropriateness for children, Child Reality, Literary Criteria, Artist Sensitivity, Children’s books