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Title of case
study: Acknowledging
student’s existing knowledge as a way
of approaching academic understandings
Author:: Sigrid Brogaard Clausen
University: Roehampton University
Key concepts: Student voices and collaborative
work, Student experience and understandings related to and used as a critical
approach to theory/academic literature, re-contextualisation
Background: Children’s Communication and Culture is a HE1 module
on the BA Early Childhood Studies, Roehampton University. The module is
an introduction to the study of children’s culture including children’s
storytelling, play, drawing activities, use of books, television and multimedia.
In the module we aim to create awareness of what it means to work with
a ‘child perspective’ and supporting ‘the whole child’.
The module assessment is a group presentation.
Issues
Some of our students seem to struggle when asked to explore and challenge
their own understanding and critically evaluate theory while reading/using
academic literature. They seem not to be ‘using’ theory, but
rather approaching quoted research as an unquestionable truth, or, alternatively,
they choose not to invoke theory but present their points of view unchallenged
and as ‘common sense’ ideas (and generalisations). This seems
to be a problem both in written and oral presentations
A part of academic study in Early Childhood is to develop an understanding
of analytical and critical approaches to the content and use of theory
and academic literature. Students need to read and familiarise themselves
with various supporting and opposing theories in the process of developing
an informed point of view and critical understanding of concepts, definitions
and perceptions of Early Childhood. It is a process that does take time
and needs time to develop. However this also opens some interesting opportunities
for lecturers to see how we can support and nurture this process via different
materials and ways of teaching.
2 characteristic features of the study of Early Childhood that are worth
mentioning are -
1. 1. Interdisciplinary – wide and general knowledge, as well as
specialised knowledge in subjects and linked to various disciplines such
as sociology, psychology, cultural studies, neuro-science, health, and
history.
2. 2. The development of values - working with and developing values e.g.
related to ‘view of human nature’ and ‘views of children’s
nature’ and in this including own view and experiences.
What I was trying to achieve
Running a new course for 1st year students in ‘Children’s
Communication and Culture’ my aim was to implement a Claxton and
Bernstein understanding of students’ learning:
a. o Leaning including a process of building upon the students’
existing knowledge, the new knowledge to be tested against the existing
or previously held knowledge and a shift from a main focus on information
input, to giving time to digesting knowledge. (Claxton 1997)
b. o Learning including to work with the process of identifying and recognising
knowledge, concept and theory, develop an understanding and then expressing
and critically reproducing and re-contextualising the theory. (Bernstein
1990/1996).
To engage in this leaning process,
I tried to work with the students, so that we created an ethos, where
they feel comfortable in expressing their point of view and critically
utilising theory and academic literature to challenge and support their
understanding of Children’s Communication and Culture. Since the
assessment for this module is a group presentation, an aim was also to
support and develop the group processes and the students’ confidence
in sharing ideas and differences, both within the groups and presenting
them within the classroom
In this way the students took part in re-contextualising parts of academic
texts in the context of early childhood study, the students’ and
my own experiences and understandings.
Strategy
In groups the students were set the task to express and discuss their
own diverse understanding of how children’s culture can be defined.
These understandings were then compared with examples of ‘researched’/academic
understandings.
1. 1. I asked the students in groups to try and define what child/children’s
culture meant and encapsulates. These definitions/suggestions were exchanged
and discussed in plenum with the aim of recognising the students’
existing knowledge.
2. 2. This was followed by another exercise, where the students were asked
to discuss and analyse Lofdahl’s (2005:8) understanding of children’s
peer culture
The text chosen for the ‘research’
definition/discussion is drawn from the international academic journal
Early Years. This is the example of the literature the students discussed
(It was stressed that this was only a paragraph of text and could not
be seen as a conclusive definition of children’s culture, but provided
some suggestions of how children’s culture could be understood.)
“In my study I regard children as part of a peer-culture (Cosaro.
1985) where
children’s interactions and experiences create the frameworks for
certain play
forms and actions to be allowed. But children are also acting subjects
in play.
This means that context and children are dependent on each other (Valsiner
&
Winegar.. 1992); children are both part of, and through actions and interactions,
co-creators of the social context. And this relation between the individual
and the
context is of great importance within a socio-cultural perspective (Wertsch,
1998)
As described by Bruner (1990), it is through engagement in a culture that
we
shape our meaning and that language and discourses are utilised as
interpretative systems. Bruner argues that our culture provide us with
tools to
engage in communicative situations of narratives and interpretations.
And that is
what children are doing in their play world when they negotiate about
roles,
content and meaning. The use of language is essential to our cognitive
development, as thought and language are related according to Vygotskij
(1986).” (Lofdahl 2005:8)
By exchanging their understandings of Lofdahl’s definition/description
of children’s culture with a focus on peer culture the students
were given an opportunity to challenge their own understanding of children’s
culture as well as familiarise themselves with an academic text and definition
Evaluation
Lecturer’s View
In defining ‘children’s culture’ there seemed to be
a sound basis for the students to share their points of view as well as
listening to each other. This seemed beneficial in both relating to their
engagement in the following lectures and their participation in group
work presentation. One issue that still remains open for discussion is
whether the idea behind this ‘structure’ should it be shared
with the students before they evaluate it or if students should be left
to evaluate without a pre-description of the idea of exploring own opinions,
understandings and experiences and then discuss it with theory. I have
repeated the structure this year and have again had mostly positive responses.
I choose not to make the structure explicit the first time and the feedback
showed that some students found the first session confusing. Explaining
the structure and the ideas behind it seem to make the students more comfortable
with the structure. What I especially have gained a more informed point
of view upon, is the necessity of discussing didactics/pedagogy with the
students. In regards to the growing numbers of students from nonacademic
back ground (but certainly also the rest) I believe that we need to discuss
the diverse ways of learning and developing knowledge, and make our various
approaches and teaching styles explicit. The analysis and discussion of
the quote also supported my assumption of the significance of analysing
and engaging in academic literature in groups and with the tutor/lecturer
to support the analysis and engagement with academic literature.
Students’ views of the activity
The students were asked;
What do you think about the structure within:
. •Defining Children’s
Culture from your own experience and knowledge
. • Exploring ‘academic’ understandings in groups
. •How did (and did it) affect your understanding of Children’s
Culture and
this module? The students expressed
appreciation of being able to express their point of view in groups and
found it easier to read/explore academic literature within groups. They
recognised the importance of listening to others’ point of views
and exploring diverse understandings of concepts in literature.
Some students found it difficult to evaluate the task. This raised questions
to the way the questions were set, which I explored this year, and found
it necessary to go through the questions with this years students and
ensure that they had understood what I was asking about. But insecurity
and the issue of respect for authority will be an issue in evaluations
like this, where students have to both show comprehension of a teaching
form and evaluate it
Individual student reflections:
‘ It is easier to explore academic texts in groups as it can be
discussed and each persons understanding can be helpful and make more
sense’
‘I have learned more about what the different types of academic
understandings are and working with it in a group’
‘1. I thought this was useful as it allowed people to share their
opinion on what culture meant for children. Some people may have stronger
ideas about this than others and it was very helpful to hear what others
people thought and encouraged me to share what I believe
1. 2. Again I felt this was useful as working in groups encourage people
to talk and become more comfortable in one another’s company. Also
we all had different ideas about the academic writing we looked at, it
was nice to hear and share ideas.
2. 3. I felt that it enhanced my understanding of what the module was
going to look into. It also made me feel that the term ‘children’s
culture’ can have a number of meanings and I look forward to exploring
them and adapting on my knowledge of children’s culture throughout
this module’
‘1. I think it is a good idea
to write down or reflect upon you own knowledge/feelings as it gives everyone
a basic point and something to talk about
1. 2. Although I feel a little weary with expressing my opinions in public
(I got red) I do feel it is a valuable part of learning. In small groups,
you can debate, challenge you own knowledge etc. on a small scale and
then find a wider range of opinions and debate in a bigger group.
2. 3. Research is obviously a big part of learning; you find out facts
and evidence to change you mind or support you opinion. Also develop knowledge
from class. I do feel this method is effective. I came to university to
build on and
challenge my own knowledge and to
aid me to work effective with children in the future; and this is what
this method does’
‘1 Defining children’s culture from our own experience and
knowledge allows us to reflect on what we would consider culture to be,
using our own childhood and the children we have worked with as a base,
but also allows us to hear other students definitions and from their experiences,
thus understanding how broad the definition of culture is
1. 2. Being able to explore academicunderstandings in groups means different
peoples interpretations can be heard and our own understandings can become
wider
2. 3. It allowed me to see as much more complex view of the culture of
children and also means I have a better understanding of what the course
aims to teach and explore’
My advice to others who might think of using this approach
a. o Not to be dismissive of the students ideas, (careful with how you
respond to the students’ ‘first’ expression) it is in
the following discussions and sessions that you can identify and clarify
concepts and ideas. Engaging with academic writing, theory and concepts
and familiarise yourself with them is a process that do take time and
effort. Make this explicit and acknowledge that we all start from somewhere,
but also need to read and approach the reading analytically to be able
to develop a critically based informed point of view.
b. o It is important to create an inclusive, sensitive and constructive
critical ethos in the class room, where students feel safe and confident
in expression and discussing ideas, opinions and academic readings.
c. o Be sure to get responses from all students – allocate time
in class for these evaluations. Otherwise you might end up only including
the students that already have the confidence to express themselves and
engage in academic discussions.
d. o Introduce and follow up this method with explicit talk about the
method, so that the students gain an understanding of the academic process
of creating an informed point of view and critical reflection as well
as being involved in the pedagogical/didactic discussion of teaching and
learning.
Sigrid Brogaard Clausen
Early Childhood Studies, Roehampton University June 2007
Feedback: I would welcome feedback about the issue of looking at environments for children generally.
Brogaard Clausen, S Acknowledging
student’s existing knowledge as a way
of approaching academic understandings
in the MEDAL Casebook, MEDAL Consortium
(2007)
http://medal.unn.ac.uk/casestudies/acknowl.htm