Folque Mendonca, Maria Assunção Cunha; (2008) An investigation of the Movimento da Escola Moderna (MEM) pedagogy and its contribultion to learning to learn in Portuguese pre-schools. Doctoral thesis , Institute of Education, University of London.

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Abstract

This study identifies how the Movimento da Escola Moderna model for pre-school education works in practice, and how it has supported (or constrained) effective learning processes associated with 'learning to learn'. The conceptual framework combines socio-cultural theories of learning with literature on learning to learn and the role of interactions in teaching-learning processes to identify effective learning processes in the early years. Adopting an interpretative approach to research, the study involves an in depth casestudy approach with ethnographic elements. Two classrooms, purposefully selected, provide detailed illustrative cases of the MEM pedagogy. Data included observations (participant observations and video recording), interviews (adults and children), and documents. The analysis combined a theoretically driven framework with grounded analysis. This research showed that relationships between the MEM model, its practice and the children's participation in processes that promote 'learning to learn', are not straightforward. Both classrooms provided 'communities of learning' where children were encouraged to self-regulate their learning and engage in collaborative activities, transforming their identity from 'child' to 'leamer', and their leading activity from 'playing with others' to 'learning with others' . It was found that the structural and dynamic quality of day-to-day practices sometimes had contradictory effects, which led to the identification of some conditions required to guarantee such change for all the children including the youngest and those less participative. The implications for further development of the MEM model and teachers' practices are discussed. These findings contribute to understand the role of pedagogy in mediating, from an early age, the development of a life-long learner.

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