Group writing activities in Early Childhood Education: An analysis of teacher knowledge

Abstract

On the basis of Tardif’s propositions, the article analyzes the knowledge of two teachers about the work of group writing by 5 to 6 year-old pupils. The teachers were invited to watch the videotapes of three sessions of group writing activities they themselves had conducted. The researchers took part in these moments of “self-confrontation” and stimulated the refl ection and discussion about the practices observed. These meetings were recorded and the analysis of the data showed the teachers’ knowledge about strategies of interaction with the group, text co-authoring, the process of textualizing, text revision, activating the children’s previous knowledge about the text content and genre, among others. The discursive exchanges between teachers and the refl ections about practices proved to be important tools in the process of (re)building and validating teacher knowledge.

Keywords: teacher knowledge, group writing, Early Childhood Education.