Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Foreword
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Acknowledgements
- Part 1 Learning and development in play
- 1 A political–pedagogical landscape
- 2 Parallel conceptual worlds
- 3 Teacher beliefs about teaching concepts
- 4 Valued curriculum concepts in early childhood education
- 5 Teacher knowledge of subject matter concepts
- 6 Empirical and narrative knowledge development in play
- 7 Children building theoretical knowledge in play
- Part 2 Cultural–historical theories of play and learning
- Part 3 Learning and development as cultural practice
- Glossary
- References
- Index
3 - Teacher beliefs about teaching concepts
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2013
- Frontmatter
- Foreword
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Acknowledgements
- Part 1 Learning and development in play
- 1 A political–pedagogical landscape
- 2 Parallel conceptual worlds
- 3 Teacher beliefs about teaching concepts
- 4 Valued curriculum concepts in early childhood education
- 5 Teacher knowledge of subject matter concepts
- 6 Empirical and narrative knowledge development in play
- 7 Children building theoretical knowledge in play
- Part 2 Cultural–historical theories of play and learning
- Part 3 Learning and development as cultural practice
- Glossary
- References
- Index
Summary
This [cultural–historical view] calls for greater involvement of early childhood teachers in children's play than most teachers are used to.
(Bodrova, 2008: 366)INTRODUCTION
Through theoretical analysis and experimental research, Vygotsky argued that conscious awareness of concepts is only realised within a system that is ‘based on specific relations of generality among concepts’ (Vygotsky, 1987a: 197, vol. 1). In refuting Piaget's work on spontaneous concept formation, he suggested that the child's lack of awareness of concepts was not as a result of egocentrism, but rather of experimentation framed to remove the systems in which everyday concepts are embedded. He suggested that only within a system can concepts acquire conscious awareness. In the previous chapters, it was shown how important children's everyday conceptual system was as they pretended to cook and administer medicine. The conceptual system is kept intact and promoted through a play-based program.
In the first two chapters the research lens was predominantly on the children's thinking as they played. The children's thinking was analysed in relation to how the play had been pedagogically framed (or not) by the teacher. Through this relational analysis it was possible to show the significance of the teacher's philosophy in affording (or not) sustained shared thinking within the everyday conceptual system that was at the children's disposal (cooking, administering medicine). However, it is not just the children's conceptual system that is of importance here. In a cultural–historical view of learning, we cannot ignore the teacher's pedagogical system: they are dialectically related to each other.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Early Learning and DevelopmentCultural-historical Concepts in Play, pp. 33 - 50Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010