Abstract

What's your about concept of theories? While Te Whariki (Ministry of Education, 1996) has two overall learning outcomes, dispositions and theories, we know far more about former than latter. At a meeting a few years ago, Helen described as the neglected sibling of popular big sister, dispositions, to which Margaret Carr responded bossy big sister! This article attempts to redress this imbalance by providing a work-in-progress definition of construct--our own current working theory about theories. We will discuss theoretical ideas that underpin this definition and provide some examples of children's to illustrate our ideas. Te Whariki is curriculum policy document in Aotearoa New Zealand for children aged from birth to 5 years. Te Whariki's principles emphasise relationships, empowerment, holistic development, and family and community, which are woven with strands of well-being, belonging, contribution, communication and exploration to construct curriculum. While a range of are evident in document, such as developmental, ecological and constructivist, over time sociocultural interpretations of Te Whariki have become emphasised, in keeping with its principles. Te Whariki's two indicative learning outcomes are described as combinations of knowledge, skills and attitudes that integrate as dispositions and theories. Te Whariki, however, does not seek to define in any depth, instead providing more of a descriptive statement regarding ways are useful to developing children's of world and might be developed in early childhood settings. Te Whariki states: In early childhood, children are developing more elaborate and useful about themselves and people, places, and things in their lives. These contain a combination of knowledge about world, skills and strategies, attitudes, and expectations. Children develop through observing, listening, doing, participating, discussing, and representing within topics and activities provided in programme. As children gain greater experience, knowledge, and skills, they develop will become more widely applicable and have more connecting links between them. Working become increasingly useful for making sense of world, for giving child control over what happens, for problem-solving, and for further learning. (Ministry of Education, 1996, p. 44) The term is also included in one of goals for strand of exploration: [children] develop for making sense of natural, social, physical, and material worlds (p. 82), including theories about social relationships and social concepts, such as friendship, authority, and social rules and understandings and working about living world and how to care for it (p. 90). In 1998, Ministry of Education provided a little further guidance in a publication named Quality in Action by defining as: a unique system of ideas that is based on a person's experience and provides them with a hypothesis for understanding their world, interpreting their experience, and deciding what to think and how to behave. This system is in a constant state of development and change. (p. 88) As noted earlier, in years since Te Whariki was published, notion of dispositions as a learning outcome has been developed extensively, particularly from a sociocultural theoretical perspective (e.g., Carr, 2001; Claxton & Carr, 2004; Ministry of Education, 2004--9). However, counterpart concept of has been less developed by teachers and researchers. Nevertheless, some New Zealand studies have begun this process. Simmons, Schimanski, McGarva, Cullen and Haworth (2005) researched how children's were developed through complex and sustained teaching and learning. …

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