Abstracts - Earli

Epistemological beliefs in child care:Jo Brownlee, QUT, AustraliaGillian Boulton-Lewis, QUT, AustraliaDonna Berthelsen, QUT, AustraliaThe quality of child care is of social and economic significance worldwide. A large body ofresearch now demonstrates that the formal pre-service education of child care workers is onesignificant way in which quality child care, and outcomes for children, can be improved. Inparticular, the beliefs that child care workers hold about relationships with children are related tobeliefs about children’s learning and epistemology but such characteristics are not often the focusof professional preparation programs. This study investigated the nature of beliefs about knowingand knowledge (epistemological beliefs) for 77 child care students participating in a 2 yearcompetency based training program which prepared them to be group leaders in Australian childcare centres. The findings revealed new ways of thinking about evaluativistic beliefs, which havenot been reported in the literature to date. "Practical evaluativism" is focused on a view ofknowledge as the construction of evidenced-based practice rather than knowledge as is the case forevaluativistic beliefs. Implications for child care practice and training programs are discussed.The use of discussion as a means of learning primary science: Problems and issues of innovativepedagogyFarhana Zaman, Nottingham Trent University, United KingdomThis paper reports on the findings of a research project which was designed to help children to usediscussion as a means of developing their joint understanding within a primary science context. Acase study located within a Key Stage Two class is discussed below. The impact of small peergroup discussion on children’s collaborative learning is presented. By examining the interactionbetween children talking about lifecycles in human beings, it is possible to indicate how thesechildren may have helped to develop each others understanding of this area and further how theymight use discussion as a strategy to develop their ability to learn across the curriculum. Optimumgroup size for discussion and the personal learning styles (as indicated by the children and theirteacher) are examined and the relevance of this on the dynamics of the discussions which ensued isconsidered here. The development of a method for enabling children to engage in and sustaindiscussions with a science focus is elucidated upon. How well individuals within the groupsunderstood that the method provided could help them to sustain their discussions seemed to berelated to how well they understood the value of the method as a way of increasing theirindependence and possibly to how well individuals adapted to new situations as displayed throughthe social semiotics they exhibited on the video recordings taken of the groups in discussion.Planning work - student activity in the primary classroomKerstin Bergqvist, Linköping University, SwedenIn the Swedish comprehensive school, teachers’ lecturing is to a great extent being replaced by apedagogy involving students’ individual and self-directed studies. Students are supposed to haveinfluence over and take responsibility for their own work and learning. This paper aims atscrutinizing conversations between teacher and student concerning students’ planning of theirweekly work. The research is carried out as a field study in a Swedish primary school. Threegroups with 18 students in each are being followed. Each group has its own teacher (female). Datais collected by means of observations and field notes, audio tape-recorded teacher instructions andconversations between teacher and student. There is a clear focus on meta-cognitive aspects– 237 –