6.2 Shaping knowledge It seems inevitable that any understandings we have will have been shaped and influenced by other (past and present) members of the same culture(s) we belong to. Most of these influences ‘just happen’: they arise out of our experiences as part of a culture whose members have had their experiences and shared them over many centuries. However, knowledge can also be deliberately influenced by powerful elements within a society: as we saw in Section 5.3, the church suppressed Galileo's r
5.4 A brief history of scientific revolutions We now go on to look at the history and traditions of scientific discovery. As an early years practitioner, you will find this survey useful in helping you to challenge the prevailing perception of science as ‘absolute truth’. What we call science was once regarded as ‘magic’, ‘alchemy’ or ‘conjuring’. Such knowledge was viewed as ‘black magic’ and feared as a satanic art (Woolley, 2002). In part this may have been because, in the Middle Ages
4.2 Knowing mathematics How much mathematics do you think you know? You may feel that you know quite a lot, or that you are ‘out of practice’ and have forgotten much of it; or perhaps you were never very secure in your mathematical knowledge and feel that you did not achieve complete understanding. Primary teachers are expected to have a confident knowledge of mathematics. You are not expected to reach such a level for this unit, but you do need to know a fair amount. All the mathematics that children go on
2.5 Communicating with language It has been suggested that our ‘linguistic competence’ (Chomsky, 1965) consists simply of the ability to construct ‘well-formed sentences’. The sociolinguist Del Hymes (1979) considered this notion to be far too narrow, and proposed the term ‘communicative competence’ to account for speakers’ ability to use language appropriately. Communicative competence lets us know when to speak and when not to speak, how to take turns in conversations and how to start and end
2.4 What do we know about language? One aspect of language that illustrates the division between school and non-school language is grammar. Many people lack confidence in this subject, so we would like you now to reflect on what this term means to you. 2.1 Language in everyday life Language is an ever-present feature of human life. In the developed world in particular, we are surrounded by language. Radio and television provide a soundtrack to the lives of many people. Written language is part of everything from cereal packets and street signs, to relatively new technologies such as email and text messaging. If you were completely alone, far away from any other people or any kind of human contact, how long would it be before words came into your head, perhaps because of 1.5 Talking, thinking and learning One of the main points which the unit will be making is that information and knowledge are not the same thing and that, in order to learn, learners have to engage actively with new information. We hope that you will learn to apply your growing knowledge by relating it to your professional context, and that, by questioning and analysing both theory and practice, you will be able to reach your own conclusions. One way of engaging with knowledge is to ask questions. Earlier we suggested th 1.2 What the unit is about This unit is about the ways in which we come to know and make sense of the world, in particular how we do this using the media of language, mathematics and science. There are many possible theoretical positions which can be taken towards early years curricula. Some people, for example, think of children as ‘empty vessels’ which can be ‘filled’ with knowledge that is transmitted to them by adults. This view has been associated with a behaviourist approach to teac 1.1 An overview of the unit The relationship between observation of children and educational theory is central to the teaching of this unit: the theory should help you make sense of what you observe, while your observations should help you make sense of the theory. This perspective is reflected in the activities you will find in the blocks of study material. We recommend that you keep a notebook as you work through the unit. You can use this both for the activities that you do at home and for those that involve observat Introduction The unit focuses on the knowledge, learning and thinking of children aged between 3 and 8 years old. It has been written for an audience of practitioners working in the full range of early years care and education settings: you may be a teaching assistant in an early years class, a nursery nurse, a playgroup worker or leader, or a childminder; you may work voluntarily in an early years setting. But whatever the context in which you are working, we expect you to be working there regularly, for References Next steps 4.3 Further exercises 4.1 What is a relation? 3.5 Further exercises 3.4 Modular multiplication Introduction In this unit you will be building on your previous study and experience of ‘working with others’. Using the notion of ‘teamwork’, you will be asked to think specifically about the values and beliefs underpinning the following three aspects of practice: developing working relationships with other professionals; sharing information and skills with other professionals; working in cooperation with other profe References 4.5 Vulnerability and rights One of the assumptions that is made in order to justify social workers making such life-changing judgements is that some people are vulnerable and therefore need decisions made on their behalf. This assumption is not held by everyone and is often challenged by groups and individuals representing service users and by service users themselves. 4.4 An international definition of social work The function of social work is not only defined by the philosophies and beliefs of individual nations' governments or assemblies. The following definition of social work was issued jointly by the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) and by the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW) in 2001: The social work profession promotes social change, problem solving in human relationships and th
Activity 5: Grammar
Number systems and the rules for combining numbers can be daunting. This unit will help you to understand the detail of rational and real numbers, complex numbers and integers. You will also be introduced to modular arithmetic and the concept of a relation between elements of a set.
Number systems and the rules for combining numbers can be daunting. This unit will help you to understand the detail of rational and real numbers, complex numbers and integers. You will also be introduced to modular arithmetic and the concept of a relation between elements of a set.
Number systems and the rules for combining numbers can be daunting. This unit will help you to understand the detail of rational and real numbers, complex numbers and integers. You will also be introduced to modular arithmetic and the concept of a relation between elements of a set.
Number systems and the rules for combining numbers can be daunting. This unit will help you to understand the detail of rational and real numbers, complex numbers and integers. You will also be introduced to modular arithmetic and the concept of a relation between elements of a set.
Number systems and the rules for combining numbers can be daunting. This unit will help you to understand the detail of rational and real numbers, complex numbers and integers. You will also be introduced to modular arithmetic and the concept of a relation between elements of a set.
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