How Children Learn to Write

SCHEUER, NORA

Cambridge, MA

Seminario; Conversations about literacy with international researchers; 2011

Harvard Graduate School of Education

Getting to know learners´ conceptions of learning to write is extremely relevant for educational research, planning and intervention, since these conceptions operate implicitly on learning, as well as on the tacit assessment of own achievements and difficulties. With these issues in mind, we designed an in-depth individual interview that we applied to 160 children attending public schools in Argentina. Participants were equally distributed among kindergarten and the 7 grades in primary education (20 children per grade); between schools with either middle-class or low-income population; and gender.The textual transcriptions of their oral responses were analyzed. Results showed relevant differences in children´s responses according to their school grade and sociocultural environment. A developmental/ educational progression was found, consisting in a shift from speaking about observable actions and products towards integrating procedures, cognitive processes, attitudes and feelings. Children in underprivileged social environments expressed insecurity regarding their possibilities to learn, while those from middle-class environments expressed confidence in their own capacity.