Children's autobiographies of learning to write

Abstract

Esta es la versión de autor del artículo publicado en: This is an author produced version of a paper published in: El acceso a la versión del editor puede requerir la suscripción del recurso Access to the published version may require subscription Children's Autobiographies As Learners of Writing 1Nora Scheuer (1, 2), Montserrat de la Cruz (1), Silvina Neira (1) and Juan Ignacio Pozo (3) (1) Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Argentina AbstractIn this work we study the history of the process of learning to write from the learners' insider perspective. Sixty children participated in an individual interview about the learning of writing. The main task was the request to write "as you used to when you were just beginning to write". This basic question was repeated for 1-year-intervals until the child's current age was reached. The anticipation of writing next year was also requested. Participants attended public schools in Bariloche, Argentina, and were equally distributed according to school level (Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 4th Grade), sociocultural environment (middle and marginate) and gender.Response categories identified the products and changes children included to illustrate on paper and refer orally their history and future as learners of writing. A Multiple Correspondence Factorial Analysis was applied to study relations among response categories and inter-subject variables. On the basis of the results thus obtained, we grouped and ordered categories into a Guttman Scale. Finally, a two-factor independent measures ANOVA was performed to examine the effect of school level, sociocultural environment and the interaction between factors on the scores obtained in the Guttman Scale. Results show a developmental shift from a focus on easily identifiable, isolated products (characteristic of a direct theory of learning), to the integration of procedural and representational changes (indicating an interpretative theory of learning). Proposed intervening dimensions of change are growing internalization and complexization. Everyday sociocultural environments presented particularly noticeable influences at initial stages.

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“…With regard to the above, and following Scheuer et al (2006b), who structured the analyses in their study of children on four key moments of writing (anticipating, writing, revising and rereading), we thought it would be interesting to structure the classes on different pedagogical stages, namely the three essential stages of individual music lessons proposed by Torrado and Pozo (2008) based on the classical models of metacognition (Mateos, 2001): planning (when the student selects and organizes the points to work on, in class or at home), supervision (when points to be improved are worked on during the lesson or after the student has studied at home) and evaluation (usually, when the degree to which the student has learned and achieved the teaching objectives is analyzed, at any point during the class).…”

“…Similarly, a series of studies on the conceptions of learning held by children in different settings, such as the acquisition of writing or drawing (Scheuer, De la Cruz & Pozo, 2002, Scheuer et al, 2006a, 2006b found that in younger children, as from four years of age, prevailing conceptions consisted of a kind of naïve behaviorism, a direct conception of learning centered only on outcomes, without taking into account the psychological process that enable this learning. Older children, as from five or six years of age, identified the mediation of some psychological processes needed for learning (such as attention or motivation) but always under adult supervision, while the eldest, aged nine or ten years, seemed to hold more complex conceptions with increasingly cognitive learner autonomy.…”

“…Thus, children's conceptions of learning seem to change with age, and perhaps instruction, in three dimensions (Scheuer et al, 2006b): they become increasingly complex (by considering a larger number of factors and conditions), more dynamic (by increasing the associations among those factors) and more internalized (endowing the learner with greater autonomy). 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 But what are the characteristics of these conceptions?…”

“…Thus, children's conceptions of learning seem to change with age, and perhaps instruction, in three dimensions (Scheuer et al, 2006b): they become increasingly complex (by considering a larger number of factors and conditions), more dynamic (by increasing the associations among those factors) and more internalized (endowing the learner with greater autonomy).…”

“…These differences were maintained upon explaining how they had taught: for younger children, the core of teaching was demonstration, while for the older children it was explanation, indicating developmental change from focusing on behavioral aspects to attention to the mental states involved, specifically knowledge and understanding. Together, the results of this study support the idea that both the understanding of teaching and effective teaching strategies change during pre-school years, and that these changes correspond to changes in the theory of the mind.Similarly, a series of studies on the conceptions of learning held by children in different settings, such as the acquisition of writing or drawing (Scheuer, De la Cruz & Pozo, 2002, Scheuer et al, 2006a, 2006b found that in younger children, as from four years of age, prevailing conceptions consisted of a kind of naïve behaviorism, a direct conception of learning centered only on outcomes, without taking into account the psychological process that enable this learning. Older children, as from five or six years of age, identified the mediation of some psychological processes needed for learning (such as attention or motivation) but always under adult supervision, while the eldest, aged nine or ten years, seemed to hold more complex conceptions with increasingly cognitive learner autonomy.…”