This paper outlines research conducted with undergraduate students. By listening to students' learning experiences the authors were able to support them and develop ways to enable them to become more ...effective learners. Sharing their learning stories helped students establish a sense of community as they realised the commonality of many experiences. Reflection on learning also helped them to resolve issues from the past and move forward in a more positive spirit. Through talking and telling, thinking and reflecting the student voice becomes more audible and the tutor/student relationship more conducive to successful learning.
This article reports on a UKLA‐funded project in which a group of 10 teachers in South Wales were involved. The televised science fiction drama Doctor Who was chosen as the theme as it was based on ...popular culture as well as being of local and national interest. The main character in this television drama is an alien who can fly through time and space in a machine called the Tardis. The aim of the project was to improve standards in literacy, with writing as a particular focus and make teachers more aware of the effective use of media resources. Teachers were provided with an information pack containing sample lessons but were actively encouraged to implement the project in whichever way they chose. Questionnaires given to teachers before and after the project reflected a more positive attitude towards using media resources at the end. Pupils, aged between 8 and 11 years old, were given writing journals as part of the project and focus groups interviewed. It proved difficult to ascertain if standards had improved although pupil enthusiasm was a recognisable feature. The value of learning across the curriculum was another element that emerged during the course of the project. Results indicated that more training is required to enable teachers to use media resources and cross‐curricular approaches more confidently in their teaching.
This small-scale piece of research stemmed from a larger study on oral storytelling and the responses of children to stories told and read to them. In the larger study several children expressed ...preferences for stories from picture books, as told stories were not real stories. This concept of real stories and what constitutes a real story in the eyes of an infant child, aged between five and seven years, is what led to the basis of the research. One hundred and thirty-five children between the ages of five and seven years old were involved in the research. The investigation was conducted in three different schools in South Wales, UK. It was hoped that the research would give some insights into the literacy habits of children today. The children were asked some basic questions about home practices relating to storytelling and story-reading and about preferences in relation to oral stories and picture books. Finally they were asked if they thought oral tales were real stories. This essay gives an overview of some of the literacy practices of the children and deliberates on their comments as they wrestle with the concept of a real story.
This is a small-scale piece of research undertaken in two mixed-age infant classrooms in an inner city multicultural primary school with a mixed socio-economic background. The dataset which consisted ...of 38 recorded stories from 32 children, was collected during a 4-month period. It forms part of a larger study that is still in progress. The research evidence highlights the lack of vivacity in many of the personal stories recounted by the children and possible reasons for this. Analysis of the stories shows some common patterns and reflects on the time given to children, in an increasingly demanding curriculum, for personal storytelling. It concludes that the ability to recount personal history is important for oracy development.
This largely qualitative study had two main aims: to investigate the language young children used in their retellings of traditional tales told and then read to them in picture book form and to gauge ...their responses to these different modes of story. The hypothesis was that children experienced more vivid visualisations after storyteillings, having to create images for themselves rather than being presented with an artistic interpretation through picture books. Data were gathered in two large, inner city, multiethnic schools over a period of seventeen months from one hundred and forty nine children aged between five and seven. They retold stories they had heard orally or from picture books and were then questioned about their visualisations during these story experiences. These recalls and interviews were conducted audio-taped and transcribed with individuals. Initial analysis confirmed that older children were more adept at using language in this way, and richer data were available by concentraiing on children aged six and seven. Subsequently, in depth analysis concentrated on a core of sixteen children in this age range. Retellings were coded and given a score for identifiable events when compared to original texts. They were further examined for examples of repeated or 'created' story language directly representative of original texts, oral or read. 'Created' language was seen as a product of imagination. In semi-structured interviews directly following retellings children were questioned about visualisations they had experienced during story sessions. Visualisations were categorised into strands reflective of eiher direct storybased imaging or invented images. This revealed that imaginative responses to oral stories were greater than those related to picture book readings. Investigating visualisations of this type was not an area widely researched in the field of education so this study contributes to our understanding of the inner worlds of children and how they perceive stories.
This largely qualitative study had two main aims: to investigate the language young children used in their retellings of traditional tales told and then read to them in picture book form and to gauge ...their responses to these different modes of story. The hypothesis was that children experienced more vivid visualisations after storyteillings, having to create images for themselves rather than being presented with an artistic interpretation through picture books. Data were gathered in two large, inner city, multiethnic schools over a period of seventeen months from one hundred and forty nine children aged between five and seven. They retold stories they had heard orally or from picture books and were then questioned about their visualisations during these story experiences. These recalls and interviews were conducted audio-taped and transcribed with individuals. Initial analysis confirmed that older children were more adept at using language in this way, and richer data were available by concentraiing on children aged six and seven. Subsequently, in depth analysis concentrated on a core of sixteen children in this age range. Retellings were coded and given a score for identifiable events when compared to original texts. They were further examined for examples of repeated or 'created' story language directly representative of original texts, oral or read. 'Created' language was seen as a product of imagination. In semi-structured interviews directly following retellings children were questioned about visualisations they had experienced during story sessions. Visualisations were categorised into strands reflective of eiher direct storybased imaging or invented images. This revealed that imaginative responses to oral stories were greater than those related to picture book readings. Investigating visualisations of this type was not an area widely researched in the field of education so this study contributes to our understanding of the inner worlds of children and how they perceive stories.
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