Primary school children's conceptions about learning and teaching to write. WINNER 2016 PUTFALL AWARD FROM JEAN PIAGET SOCIETY

VENTURA, ANA CLARA; SCHEUER, NORA

Chicago, Illinois

Congreso; 46 Annual Meeting of the Jean Piaget Society; 2016

Jean Piaget Society

(Summary for Review) We study learning and teaching to write from an insider perspective (Olson & Bruner, 1996). That is, the ways in which children conceive these activities and their interrelations. As children participate in situations where learning and/or teaching to write take place, they generate conceptions about how learner and teacher intervene in such processes. Relationships among childrens conceptions of learning and teaching have been studied in terms of implicit theories in domains such as music (Marin et al., 2013; López-Iñiguez & Pozo, 2014) and drawing (Scheuer et al., 2001). In the domain of writing, conceptions of learning and teaching were studied separately one from another. Overall, conceptions of learning to write were found to progress during primary school, from a copy theory to an interpretative one (around second grade, or age 7), with subsequent re-elaborations in the direction of internalization of learning agency. Around fourth grade (age 9), children underscored learning agency, and in the last years of primary school (ages 11 to 13) they took learners attitudes, foci and preferences into account (Scheuer et al., 2009). In contrast, analyses of these same childrens conceptions of teaching to write did not reveal a similar progress as regards attributing an interpretative mind to the teacher (de la Cruz et al., 2011). In the reported studies, childrens responses were analyzed on the basis of general measures for each school grade, either for learning or for teaching. Hence, it is not clear what the relationships among their conceptions of learning and teaching might be like at an intra-individual level. For this reason, we have carried out new analyses ofthe same dataset, from a fine-grained approach that considers each participant as the major unit of analysis and takes his/her views on learning and teaching simultaneously into account. The aims of this new study are to further explore how primary school children conceive learning and teaching to write, in terms of conceptual profiles. Specifically, if and how children consider the observable actions, mental states and mental processes displayed by learner and teacher, considering continuities and discontinuities among them and exploring developmental trends. We re-analyzed the full transcriptions of the semi-structured interviews of 60 children in public schools in Argentina (20 in each of the following grades: first, fourth and seventh; with as many girls as boys in each grade). The interview followed a structured script (Scheuer et al., 2001) including a set of 11 open questions referring to learning (regarding origins, processes, difficulties, awareness of progress and difficulties, stability) and teaching (regarding teaching interventions and social help). We elaborated a unified system of categories to analyses childrens responses to these questions, based on studies on theory of mind, learning and previous results of the same data (cited above). According to Grounded Theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1991), the coding of data occurred in conjunction with the development or adjustment of our categories. The system of analysis is formed by three dimensions that are applied to childrens references to learner and/or to teacher throughout his/her responses: observable actions (categories are: go to school, prepare learning material artifacts, sit down, provide visual or oral information, ask for information, request for another person´s actions, respond to requests and instructions, graphic production, correct graphic production), mental states (affective, attentional and epistemic) and cognitive processes (visual/auditory, acquiring, memorizing and retrieving knowledge, understanding, anticipating and planning, on-line monitoring, assessing graphic productions and skills, generating new mental representations). In a first step, the system was applied in such a way that for any category (for learner or teacher), each child could be marked from 0 to 11 occurrences. All the interviews were coded by two researchers. Disagreements were solved through discussion. In a second step, for each child, the amount of questions in which he/she referred to each category (either for learner or teacher) was marked: no reference whatsoever, scarce reference (1 or 2 questions), or relatively frequent reference (3 or more). For categories with higher frequencies, a further range was distinguished (5 or more). Non-parametric statistics (Fishers exact test, Mann Whitney U test and Kruskal Wallis test) and techniques from multidimensional analysis (Multiple Correspondence Factorial Analysis and Ascending Hierarchical Classification) were applied. Four main conceptual profiles were identified. All of them were formed by children from the three school grades. Only Profile 1, or P1 (n=19, 31%), was associated to a specific school grade, first grade. These children referred to the learners and teachers participation in observable terms (actions of graphic production, managing learning conditions and responding to teachers requests) without providing any precisions about the actions, mental states or processes involved. P2 (n=15, 25%) and P3 (n=13, 22%) showed a tension between considering the learner´s mind and thinking of the teachers interventions directed only at the learners observable actions, graphic production and environmental material conditions. Differences among P2 and P3 concern the ways in which learners mind is taken into account. Learners processes of acquiring, memorizing and retrieving knowledge, assessing graphic production and skills as well as the observable actions of correcting graphic products were considered in P2. Children in P3 took learners epistemic states and a range of metacognitive and innovative processes (on-line monitoring, generating new mental representations) into account, as well as a wider range of observable actions. Children in P4 (n=13, 22%) spoke about affect and anticipation on the part of the learner, and referred to teachers interventions oriented to operate on the learners mind (explanations and requests to the learner to exert metacognitive control on learning). We conclude that these findings indicate that first grade tended to view learning and teaching on behavioral terms (P1), while elder children (either from fourth and seventh grade), as well as a few first graders, expressed different kinds of more mind-focused views of learning (P2, P3 and P4), with only some of them viewing teaching as a mind-oriented activity (P4). These results question the notion of linear age-related development of childrens ways of thinking about learning and teaching in the domain of writing. Developmental and educational reflections will be put forth/provided.(Summary included conference program) The aims of this study are to further explore how primary school children conceive learning and teaching to write, in terms of conceptual profiles, and identify developmental trends. We re analyzed semi-structured interviews of 60 children in public Argentinean schools (equally distributed according to school level -first, fourth and seventh grades- and gender). We elaborated a unified system of categories formed by three dimensions that are applied to childrens references to learner and/or to teacher throughout his/her responses: observable actions (categories are: go to school, prepare learning material artifacts, provide visual-or-oral information, ask for information, request for another persons actions, respond to requests and instructions, graphic production, correct graphic production), mental states (affective, attentional and epistemic) and cognitive processes (visual/auditory, acquiring, memorizing and retrieving knowledge, understanding, anticipating and planning, on-line monitoring, assessing graphic productions and skills, generating new mental representations). Were identified four main conceptual profiles formed by children from the three school grades. These results question the notion of linear age-related development of childrens ways of thinking about learning and teaching in the domain of writing. Developmental and educational reflections will be provided. This research was conducted with support from Universidad Nacional del Comahue (C-107) and ANPCYT (PICT2014-1016) from Argentina.