scholarly journals Working theories: Current understandings and future directions

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-37
Author(s):  
Helen Hedges
Keyword(s):  
Learning Outcome ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Children’S Learning ◽  
Knowledge And Practice ◽  
Te Whāriki ◽  
Learning Dispositions ◽  
Children's Learning

Working theories form an overarching learning outcome interdependent with learning dispositions in Te Whāriki. Working theories encompass children’s embodied, communicative, and social efforts to learn, think, and develop knowledge that enables children to participate effectively in their families, communities, and cultures. To support children’s learning and participation, kaiako are expected to engage with children’s working theories in respectful, reciprocal, and responsive interactions. This article brings together current understandings about working theories to support kaiako knowledge and practice.

Cultural variation in children's observation during a demonstration

2005 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 282-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebeca Mejía-Arauz ◽  
Barbara Rogoff ◽  
Ruth Paradise
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Analysis ◽  
Cultural Variation ◽  
Formal Schooling ◽  
Primary Analysis ◽  
Extensive Experience ◽  
Children’S Learning ◽  
Mexican Heritage ◽  
European Heritage ◽  
Us Children ◽  
Children's Learning

Ethnographic research indicates that in a number of cultural communities, children's learning is organised around observation of ongoing activities, contrasting with heavy use of explanation in formal schooling. The present research examined the extent to which first- to third-grade children observed an adult's demonstration of how to fold origami figures or observed the folding of two slightly older children who also were trying to make the figures, without requesting further information. In the primary analysis, 10 Mexican heritage US children observed without requesting additional information to a greater extent than 10 European heritage US children. Consistent with the ethnographic literature, these two groups differed in the extent of their family's involvement in schooling; hence, we explored the relationship with maternal schooling in a secondary analysis. An additional 11 children of Mexican heritage whose mothers had extensive experience in formal school (at least a high school education) showed a pattern more like that of the European heritage children, whose mothers likewise had extensive experience in school, compared with the Mexican heritage children whose mothers had only basic schooling (an average of 7.7 grades). The results suggest that a constellation of cultural traditions that organise children's learning experiences—including Western schooling—may play an important role in children's learning through observation and explanation.

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