pupils of Barbadian primary schools (The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, 2010). Furthermore, it is significant that although the respondents from both schools confirmed that they believed children should be active, independent learners, only one from each school specifically communicated that the pupils should be involved in outdoor activities, interact with real life objects and engage in real-life experiences. This is somewhat surprising since these are critical components of ECE classrooms and based on my personal experience as a teacher of ECE these activities are usually prevalent in the early years classrooms. The question therefore arises as to whether most of the interviewees provide these learning activities for the pupils and if not, why not. Another expressed view of the participants is that one of the roles of the pupils is to be This belief, expressed are supposed to work with ‘socially interactive’. as: “they each other and discuss what they have been doing with the teacher and with the (Lamonte), was similar to that of Perkins (1999) who proffers that students’ knowledge and understanding are very social and are co-constructed through conversations with others. It also reflects the view of Speaker (2001, p.613) that classrooms should . . . of ideas, questions and “encourage interaction” “sharing The implication for this is that every opportunity should be afforded for solutions.” pupils to interact with their peers. In responding to how pupils of the 4-6 age groups construct knowledge, the teachers held varying views which were congruent with the literature. One response ‘mainly (Jean) alludes to the views of Kumar (2011); Doolittle and Hicks through play’ (2003) and Terwel (1999) who maintain that knowledge is constructed individually and socially. While stressing the importance of interaction Terwel (1999) however offers the caveat that the emphasis should be on the quality rather than the amount of interactions. Another response construct knowledge by applying themselves to resources or ‘They (Cherry) was activities . . . going on tours, bringing in resource persons . . .’ consistent with Essa (2011, p. 327) who maintains that have to construct “children knowledge for by interacting with materials and persons which are of themselves”
pupils of Barbadian primary schools (The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, 2010). Furthermore, it is significant that although the respondents from both schools confirmed that they believed children should be active, independent learners, only one from each school specifically communicated that the pupils should be involved in outdoor activities, interact with real life objects and engage in real-life experiences. This is somewhat surprising since these are critical components of ECE classrooms and based on my personal experience as a teacher of ECE these activities are usually prevalent in the early years classrooms. The question therefore arises as to whether most of the interviewees provide these learning activities for the pupils and if not, why not. Another expressed view of the participants is that one of the roles of the pupils is to be ‘socially interactive’. This belief, expressed as: “they are supposed to work with each other and discuss what they have been doing with the teacher and with the students’ (Lamonte), was similar to that of Perkins (1999) who proffers that knowledge and understanding are very social and are co-constructed through conversations with others. It also reflects the view of Speaker (2001, p.613) that classrooms should “encourage interaction” . . . “sharing of ideas, questions and solutions.” The implication for this is that every opportunity should be afforded for pupils to interact with their peers. In responding to how pupils of the 4-6 age groups construct knowledge, the teachers held varying views which were congruent with the literature. One response ‘mainly through play’ (Jean) alludes to the views of Kumar (2011); Doolittle and Hicks (2003) and Terwel (1999) who maintain that knowledge is constructed individually and socially. While stressing the importance of interaction Terwel (1999) however offers the caveat that the emphasis should be on the quality rather than the amount of interactions. Another response ‘They construct knowledge by applying themselves to resources or activities . . . going on tours, bringing in resource persons . . .’ (Cherry) was consistent with Essa (2011, p. 327) who maintains that “children have to construct knowledge for themselves” by interacting with materials and persons which are of
FINAL%20DISSERTATION%20-%20MARCH%202017.docx