Children’s awareness of learning and knowledge: a study of
Year 3 pupils’ perceptions of the knowledge they need and
how it is acquired
Amy Dawe
(PGCE Primary) 2010-2011
Abstract
Teachers in today’s primary schools need to develop their pupils’ abilities in preparation for life in a rapidly changing society. Throughout educational research there are frequent reminders of the need to facilitate the development of pupils’ autonomy in order to equip them for successful independent, lifelong learning. In a society where increasing sources of knowledge are readily available to children, it is arguably increasingly important to enhance children’s processing and evaluating of knowledge claims. In order to do this, it is essential to understand what children already believe about knowledge. Through a small-scale research project,this paper examines existing approaches to personal epistemology and begins to explore the personal epistemological beliefs of children. In a combined approach using survey and focus group discussions, the children explained how they believe they can acquire knowledge and what knowledge will be relevant in their futures.
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The full paper is available for download as a pdf file: 031-062-dawea.pdf
Citation: Dawe, A. (2011) .'Children’s awareness of learning and knowledge: a study of
Year 3 pupils’ perceptions of the knowledge they need and how it is acquired' Journal of Trainee Teacher Educational Research, Volume 3, pp.31-62. (Downloaded from http://jotter.educ.cam.ac.uk/, [date of access])