Children Talk about their Early Experiences at School

Abstract

Researchers have explored the issues associated with transition policies, practices, and children's readiness for school. They have collected parents' and teachers' attitudes towards and feelings about children starting school. However, little attention has been given to the voices of children in this matter. This paper reports on the perspectives of one-hundred children aged 5-6 years on their early experiences of school. The first section explores some of the literature relevant to starting school and the emerging international research trend to giving children a voice in matters that concern them. The second discusses the research methodology and findings. These indicate that, while most children settle in well to school, many have concerns about the affective domain of the school environment, the fear of punishment, being bored, and the lack of choice. While just over half of the children liked school most of the time, 83 per cent of them said they did not like school work, which they clearly defined in their own words.

Beyond the Preschool Years: Children’s Perceptions About Starting Kindergarten

“…This latter finding is consistent with research reporting that young children in school make a distinction between play‐ and academic‐based activities. For example, young children perceive play as the opportunity to self‐direct their activity (Wing, 1995), whereas work is characterised as teacher‐directed and mandatory (Potter and Briggs, 2003). Five children indicated that they expect to ‘work’ in kindergarten.…”

“…Research on children’s perspectives about starting school demonstrates their capability for expressing the experiences that are important to them and can provide insight into issues of continuity and discontinuity. By listening to children, researchers have learned that they view friendships (Griebel and Niesel, 2000; Pelletier, 1998; Potter and Briggs, 2003; White and Sharp, 2007) and peer relationships (Margetts, 2006) as important for starting school. In other research, children emphasised the importance of rules in the transition to school and implied that children should know the rules at school entry (Dockett and Perry, 2004; Margetts, 2006).…”

‘As good as chocolate’ and ‘better than ice cream’: how toddler, and older, breastfeeders experience breastfeeding

“…It has increasingly been understood that research involving children should consider the experience of the children themselves (Greene & Hogan, 2005). Those who interact with children can inform research with their observations of their behaviour; however, in understanding an individual's experience, it is undesirable to rely solely on the opinions and interpretations of others (Potter & Briggs, 2003). Providing children with the opportunity to share their views can provide important information that adds to external observations.…”

Starting School—A Singapore Story told by Children

“…There have been relatively few attempts to investigate transition experiences from the perspective of children. In recent years, however, researchers in Europe, Australia (Clyde, 2001;Dockett & Perry, 1999;Einarsdóttir, 2003;Perry, Dockett & Howard, 2000;Potter & Briggs, 2003), and Asia (Clarke & Sharpe, 2003;Sharpe, 2002) have begun to give children a voice in their early school transition experience.…”