[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.On the other hand, she may simply be using the word biggerin a loose manner to describe the increased length of the clay.Joyce steacher picks up this ambiguity (turn 5) and asks if the clay is gettingfatter, but again it is hard to interpret Joyce s reply.Does she reallythink the clay is increasing in width as she rolls it out, or does shesimply assume that the teacher is using the term fatter to refer tolength? In turn 9 the teacher introduces a somewhat bizarre note intothe conversation by asking Joyce, Are my hands bigger than yourhands? Presumably she is trying to check on Joyce s understanding of 160 How the children fared at nursery school bigger , but the child s reply is not very informative.True, she says herhands are little , but it is not clear if she really understood that herteacher s hands are bigger.The problem of interpreting children s replies as a means of assessingtheir cognitive or linguistic development is one with which develop-mental psychologists have been struggling for years.Much ingenuity hasbeen put into devising tasks which will establish what children under-stand by words like bigger or more , yet the results are still inconclu-sive.This is not of course to discourage any teacher who wants toestablish what her own pupils are capable of, but simply to point outthe enormity of the task.In this particular case it is hard to see howanyone can be much the wiser after studying Joyce s replies to herteacher.The other argument for questioning young children in this manner isthat it will help to promote their cognitive or linguistic development.Isthere any evidence that Joyce s development has been promoted here?Again it is hard to be sure, partly because we lack criteria of how tojudge what Joyce might have learnt, and partly because we do not knowwhat Joyce s teacher was trying to teach her.The teacher might havebeen trying to point out that clay gets longer and thinner as it is rolledout.If so, then it is not clear why she did not say so directly.Moreover,she had no reason to think that Joyce did not know this in the firstplace.But maybe the teacher was trying to establish that the word bigger is inappropriate here, and to encourage the child to use the term longer.If so, then she seems to have partly succeeded, for in turn 12the child does spontaneously say the clay has got long.This mastery isshort-lived, however, for in turn 14 the child is back where she started:the clay has got bigger.On the face of it, it would seem that neither teacher nor child haslearnt much from this conversation.Yet there is more than one kind oflearning.What Joyce may well have learnt is experience in the kind ofconversation she is expected to have with a teacher.As a preparationfor what she will encounter later on in school, this may well be a usefullesson.For the teacher, this conversation may simply have confirmedwhat she and her colleagues told us before the recordings were made:namely, that Joyce was a girl whose language was poor.Joyce sapparent confusion with size words, together with her general uncom-municativeness and minimal replies are all likely to perpetuate thepicture which the teacher had already formed.In fact, Joyce s conversations with her mother at home (see, for How the children fared at nursery school 161example, page 61) show that she had a much greater familiarity withlanguage than one would expect from listening to her conversations atschool.As an educational technique, then, a series of cognitive demands maybe unsuccessful in that neither teacher nor child appear either to enjoyor to gain from the conversation.One variant of the cognitive demand session which we often observedat school was when the teacher tried to extract the correct answer froma child.The following conversation illustrates this technique.June, thechild whom we saw playing Knockout Whist with her mother in Chapter3, has approached her teacher with a piece of paper:1.child: Can you cut that in half? Cut it in half?2.teacher: What would you like me to do it with?3.child: Scissors.4.teacher: With the scissors? [Child nods] Well, you go and getthem, will you?5.child: Where are they?6.teacher: Have a look round.[Child goes over to the cupboard,gets some scissors] Where do you want me to cut it?7.child: There.8.teacher: Show me again, cause I don t quite know where thecut s got to go.[Child shows teacher where she wants paper cut]Down there? [Child nods; teacher cuts child s piece of paper inhalf] How many have you got now?child: [No reply]teacher: How many have you got?child: [No reply]teacher: How many pieces of paper have you got?9.child: Two.10.teacher: Two.What have I done if I ve cut it down the middle?11.teacher: Two pieces.12.teacher: I ve cut it in.? [Wants child to say half ]child: [No reply]teacher: What have I done?child: [No reply]teacher: Do you know? [Child shakes head]other child: Two.teacher: Yes, I ve cut it in two.But.I wonder, can youthink? 162 How the children fared at nursery school13.child: In the middle.14.teacher: I ve cut it in the middle.I ve cut it in half! There youare, now you ve got two
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Tematy
IndexSharon J. Smith The Young Activist's Guide to Building a Green Movement and Changing the World (2011)
Young Julian Nietzsche's Philosophy Of Religion
Elizabeth Young A Promising Man
Christine Young My Angel (epub)
Suzanne Young Plaga samobojcow
Samantha Young Wbrew zasadom
Samantha Young Wbrew zasadom (2)
Kirkland Martha Reputacja panny Wilson
Harold Bloom Stephen King (2006)(2)
Buck Carole Upadły anioł