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ERIC Number: EJ969810
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2011-Dec
Pages: 9
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1836-9391
EISSN: N/A
Moral and Social Development: Teachers' Knowledge of Children's Learning and Teaching Strategies in the Early Years
Boulton-Lewis, Gillian; Brownlee, Joanne; Walker, Sue; Cobb-Moore, Charlotte; Johansson, Eva
Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, v36 n4 p6-14 Dec 2011
The intention of the analysis in this paper was to determine, from interviews with 11 early years' teachers, what informed their knowledge of children's learning and teaching strategies regarding moral development. Overall, the analysis revealed four main categories: definitions of moral behaviour, understanding of children's learning, pedagogy for moral learning, and the source of knowledge for moral pedagogy. Children's learning was attributed by five of the teachers to incidental/contextual issues. Nine of the teachers reported using pedagogies that involved discussion of issues, in various contexts, as a way of teaching about social and moral issues. The majority of the teachers (n = 7) described the source of their knowledge of pedagogy as practical/observed as opposed to being theoretically informed. There was no clear relationship between teachers' definitions, understanding of children's learning, pedagogy or source of knowledge. These results suggests a strong need for the teaching of moral development to be given more prominence and addressed directly in in-service courses so that teachers are clear about their intentions and the most effective ways of achieving them.
Early Childhood Australia. P.O. Box 7105, Watson, ACT 2602, Australia. Tel: +61-2-6242-1800; Fax: +61-2-6242-1818; e-mail: publishing@earlychildhood.org.au; Web site: http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Early Childhood Education; Preschool Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A