ABSTRACT
Throughout these comments I have referred to the need to be continually interpreting children’s activity-their actions, their language, their writing and so forth. However, given the real classroom situation, with thirty or more children often engaged in a wide variety of activities and only one teacher, much of our interpretation is done very rapidly and on the spur of the moment. The speed with which we have to make decisions on our feet often allows little time for cool reflection. For this reason, the interpretations we make in the classroom are likely to be based upon rules of thumb and everyday assumptions about the children and the subject matter which we use uncritically. A more careful investigation of what children’s activity really means requires not only time but a certain ‘intellectual space’: an opportunity to reflect, preferably with others, and to develop and share insights into the children’s concerns, skills and understandings. Certainly, we cannot reflect with this degree of intensity upon all the children’s work, nor even upon a major proportion of it. Nevertheless, the in-depth study of selected samples of activity from our classrooms can lead us to challenge, modify and at times radically alter those assumptions from which we work when we interact with children in the classroom. It can help us build an understanding of the learning process and of the concerns of children which are expressed and developed through that process. We must develop such understanding if we are to realize our role as educators rather than merely as purveyors of knowledge.
