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This paper reports on an investigation into the quality of the learning experiences for 4-5-year-old children in Northern Ireland schools in the context of the debate about play-based and formal approaches to learning and teaching. Detailed observations were carried out in 70 Year 1 classes: 38 in traditional Year 1 classes where the Northern Ireland National Curriculum is being delivered, and 32 in Enriched Curriculum classes, where a more developmentally appropriate, play-based and child-centred curriculum is being piloted. The quality of the learning experience in each class was assessed using a structured observation schedule, i.e. Walsh and Gardner's "Quality learning instrument". Overall the Enriched Curriculum appears to be providing 4-5-year-old children in Northern Ireland with a higher-quality learning experience. The children are given more opportunities to act independently, are engaged in more challenging activities and are more learning disposed, and they show higher levels of emotional, social and physical well-being. The findings are discussed in terms of what constitutes an appropriate curriculum for this age group. (Contains 2 notes, 5 tables, and 4 figures.)

Cognitive style is a well-established theoretical construct but there is considerable ambiguity in the way it has been used and uncertainty regarding the nature of its role in suicide. This article suggests that enriching cognitive styles through the development of thinking skills is possible when the therapy session is construed as a learning collaboration. (Contains 44 references.) (GCP)

Uses a methodology for probing systems-thinking developed and used to investigate the way children (N=35) think about the natural environment. Findings suggest that eight-year-old children are capable of this type of thinking. (DDR)

This paper examines the efficacy of some established theories of decision-making in relation to commonplace interactions that involve children. In particular, it is concerned with children's perceptions of danger in traffic. The authors analyze concepts such as ‘risk,’ ‘danger,’ and ‘hazard’ and discriminate between ‘danger perception’ and ‘risk-taking.’ Relationships among probability, blame and intention also are discussed. Various studies are reviewed, particularly those that bear on children's perceptions of danger, and some new empirical data on evaluations of children and adults as pedestrians and witnesses are reported. It is argued that when children are involved in accidents with adults, they are socially and legally disadvantaged because differences between adults and children are taken to reflect fault on the part of the child. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a social simulation in which we add an additional layer of mass media communication to the social network 'bounded confidence' model of Deffuant et al (2000). A population of agents on a lattice with continuous opinions and bounded confidence adjust their opinions on the basis of binary social network interactions between neighbours or communication with a fixed opinion. There are two mechanisms for interaction. 'Social interaction' occurs between neighbours on a lattice and 'mass communication' adjusts opinions based on an agent interacting with a fixed opinion. Two new variables are added, polarisation: the degree to which two mass media opinions differ, and broadcast ratio: the number of social interactions for each mass media communication. Four dynamical regimes are observed, fragmented, double extreme convergence, a state of persistent opinion exchange leading to single extreme convergence and a disordered state. Double extreme convergence is found where agents are less willing to change opinion and mass media communications are common or where there is moderate willingness to change opinion and a high frequency of mass media communications. Single extreme convergence is found where there is moderate willingness to change opinion and a lower frequency of mass media communication. A period of persistent opinion exchange precedes single extreme convergence, it is characterized by the formation of two opposing groups of opinion separated by a gradient of opinion exchange. With even very low frequencies of mass media communications this results in a move to central opinions followed by a global drift to one extreme as one of the opposing groups of opinion dominates. A similar pattern of findings is observed for Neumann and Moore neighbourhoods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]