Kindergarten and primary school children’s implicit theories of learning to write

SCHEUER, N.; DE LA CRUZ, M.; POZO, J. I.; ECHENIQUE, M.; MÁRQUEZ, M. S.

Research papers in education

Routledge

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2009 vol. 24 p. 265 - 285

0267-1522

This paper studies the process of learning to write from an insider perspective, byadopting the framework of implicit theories of learning. We interviewed 160children attending kindergarten or primary education in public schools inArgentina (20 children from each of the eight grades from kindergarten to seventhgrade). Main questions explored children’s accounts of their learning activity,learning difficulties and awareness of learning in the field of writing. The textualtranscriptions of their oral responses were analysed with the lexicometric method.Results indicate an early shift from a direct theory of learning to write to aninterpretative one revealing increasing complexity, dynamisation andinternalisation of learning agency