Children’s autobiographies of learning to write

SCHEUER, N., DE LA CRUZ, M., POZO, J. I. AND NEIRA, S.

British Journal of Educational Psychology

The British Psychological Society

Lugar: Leicester; Año: 2006 p. 709 - 725

1476-9808

Background. Learning conceptions may be studied as specific implicit theoriesbased on theory of mind. Previous studies suggest that a developmental shift from adirect implicit theory of learning to an interpretative one occurs during childhood. Herewe explore the development of children’s autobiographies of learning to write byadopting this framework.Aims. We aim to study children’s autobiographical accounts of learning to write andwhether these accounts change according to the mentioned developmental shift andsociocultural environment.Sample. Sixty children attending public schools in Argentina that were equallydistributed according to school level (kindergarten, first grade, fourth grade) andsociocultural environment (middle and marginal).Methods. Children were interviewed individually at school and requested to write‘as you used to when you were just beginning to write’. This question was repeated for oneyear-intervals until child’s current age was reached; anticipation of writing next year wasalso requested. Children’s responses were coded into descriptive categories. A multiplecorrespondence factorial analysis studied the relations among response categories,school grade and sociocultural environment. On the basis of these results, categorieswere ordered into a Guttman scale.Results. A developmental shift from a focus on isolated products to the integrationof procedural and representational changes was evident. School grade and socioculturalenvironment were statistically significant.Conclusions. Children’s writing autobiographies show developmental differencesthat suit the shift from a direct to an interpretative theory of learning on the basis ofhierarchical integration rather than conceptual replacement.