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Responding to children’s answers: questions embedded in the social context of early childhood education

Abstract
This article presents analysis of question–answer sequences during problem inquiry between a teacher and two children in an early childhood crèche in New Zealand. Conversation analysis is used to reveal which questions the teacher asks, how children answer the questions, and the teacher’s responses to the child’s answers. Although adults’ ‘effective’ questions were identified and promoted in the REPEY study much less attention has been given to how adults respond to children’s answers. It is imperative to investigate the sequences of talk which follow a question in order to establish how teaching and learning is co-constructed in context, one utterance at a time and as a joint project between teacher and child. The findings suggest that task problems and emotional problems are treated in a similar way during problem inquiry, highlighting the complexity of interactions when teachers are providing both emotional care and educational support for young children.
Type
Journal Article
Type of thesis
Series
Citation
Bateman, A. (2013). Responding to children’s answers: questions embedded in the social context of early childhood education. Early Years: An International Research Journal, published online 08 June 2013.
Date
2013
Publisher
Routledge
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