Friendship and ‘talk’ as a facilitator of children’s learning in a ‘natural’ classroom setting: exploring ‘talk’ and ‘task progress’ to inform classroom practice.

Children were observed ‘talking’ whilst working in small groups together on a problem analogy task in a familiar educational setting, a side room to their classroom where similar tasks were regularly undertaken. This study aimed to explore analogy, peer support, and friendship, all previously shown to have an impact on children’s problem solving. Children in small groups of four were asked to talk to one another around a task that was used to simulate ordinary classroom requirements, that is, whilst solving a problem analogy. Social exchanges were observed amongst groups consisting of either (i) four friends, (ii) four acquaintances, or (iii) a mixture of two friends and two acquaintances, separately for boys and girls. Conversation was analyzed in terms of types of ‘talk’ (e.g. disputational, cumulative and exploratory) in conjunction with sophistication of problem analogy outcomes across the different friendship groups. Varying patterns of communication, as evidenced in the ‘types of talk’, in relation to progress with the ‘task’ were evident for the different friendship groups, which also appeared to differ in respect of gender. Complexities in communication related to friendship and gender and the implications for classroom practice, especially that concerning collaborative learning or that involving conflict and/or co-operation are discussed in connection with what constitutes ‘progress’ for the learner. It is concluded that the research findings may have implications in respect of the ‘outcomes’ focused orientation of current educational policy in the UK

Friendship and ‘talk’ as a facilitator of children’s learning in a ‘natural’ classroom setting: exploring ‘talk’ and ‘task progress’ to inform classroom practice

Uses of analogy, peer support, friendship and types of talk used have all been shown to have an impact on children’s problem solving and reasoning (e.g., Azmitia & Montgomery, 1993; Mercer, 1995; Mercer et al, 2004; Schacter, 1999), and to impact differently on boys and girls (Keogh et al, 2000). This study investigated the relationship between sophistication of talk (from disputational through to cumulative and finally exploratory) and sophistication of analogy problem solving

Construction Of Childhood: The Building Blocks

What do we mean by Childhood? In a close examination of the history of Western Childhood, Cunningham (1995) reveals that contemporary (Western) Childhood has been viewed to be distinct from Adulthood since the eighteenth century. However, Cunningham also states that this distinction has been bordering on change since the latter half of the twentieth century. Therefore, conceptualisations of Western Childhood may be said to be in a state of tension, or are undergoing transition. In this respect, Cunningham still provides a very useful framework for a discussion of our contemporary constructions of Childhood

Verbal analogy test performance benefits following relational focus instruction

The notion that the analogical process is ‘higher order driven’, or is reliant on the development of ‘abstract’ reasoning, is challenged. The research used a transfer and generalisation of training paradigm, in keeping with a ‘lower-order’ driven, or ‘equivalence’ matching model, of analogical reasoning. Relational focus between pairs of words, later embedded within tests of verbal analogies, was trained. This study also considered a variety of relation types, and level of abstractness within relation type. The benefits of training were in keeping with an ‘equivalence’, or lower order driven model of analogy, since partial knowledge outcomes were best explained by this model. The findings were also in keeping with a metacognitive framework, reflected in awareness of relational focus and optimal level of relational difficulty influences. Overall, the work is in keeping with knowledge based accounts of analogy, contradicting the Piagetian notion of age-related step – wise qualitative increases in ‘abstract’ abilities

Children’s memory performance in relation to age, verbal competence and metamemory; The effects of instruction to use imaginal elaboration during paired associate learning

This study reports the effects of instruction to use interactive imagery on the memory performance of 8-9 year-old and 10-11 year-old children. Within each age group children were experimentally assessed for metamemory ability and teacher assessed for verbal competence. Comparisons of imagery use under conditions of no instruction, minimal instruction (hint), explicit instruction and transfer of instruction are reported, Statistical analyses revealed an overall benefit of instruction for both age groups of children. This was regardless of verbal competence and matameory ability, except for younger low metamemory ability and medium verbal competence children. Explicit instruction benefited all children except the younger children with low metamemory ability. Transfer of instruction was exhibited by the older group of children irrespective of metamemory ability and verbal competence. Transfer of instruction was only exhibited by younger children with high metamemory ability. It is concluded that metamemory, as assessed in the present study, is a viable predictor of memory performance

The psychology of transition into social institutions: Exploring the relationship between young people’s experience and well-being in higher education. Alienated, Disaffected and Depoliticised Youth

The work presented here is part of a longitudinal study exploring transition in to Higher Education against a background of Widening Participation. 219 first year students from Edge Hill completed measures including coping style, background and well-being, as well as completing narratives. The focus of this presentation examines coping style relationships. It was found that there are two contrasting tendencies. One is that seemingly unhealthy coping styles associate with disengagement (e.g. drug use and denial). Healthy coping styles also tend to cluster together (e.g. active coping and planning ahead). It is suggested that there is a need to take account of the individual in terms of strategy developmen

Knowledge restructuring during problem solving by analogy amongst 10-11 year old children

The primary objective of the work presented was to investigate whether or not 10 – 11 year old children would show solution and causal reasoning transfer from a base to target analogy problem. It was predicted that more sophisticated solutions and/or causal reasoning explanations would be given to a target (difficult) problem when preceded by an analogous base (easy) counterpart than when responded to alone. Overall, a mixed design was used whereby two-hundred and two 10-11 year old children either participated in the initial or main stage of the study, but one of the main stage groups involved a repeated measures design. The initial stage of the study established that ‘easy’ (n=29) and ‘difficult’ (n=29) problems, named “Battleship” and “Growth” problem respectively, were disparate in terms of solutions and causal reasoning responses. During the main stage of the study one group of children (n=120; consisting of sub-groups n=57; n=30; n=33) responded to the ‘difficult’ problem preceded by the analogous ‘easy’ counterpart with solution and another group of children (n=24) to the ‘difficult’ problem preceded by the analogous ‘easy’ counterpart without solution. All responses to problems were written in ready prepared booklets and coded in keeping with the existing literature. Analyses revealed that causal reasoning explanations but not solutions were transferred from ‘easy’ to ‘difficult’ problem, regardless of whether or not a solution was provided to ‘easy’ problem preceding ‘difficult’ problem. It was concluded that evidence of re-structuring occurred, supporting knowledge based accounts of analogy development, with implications for similarity reasoning during the course of knowledge acquisition