European Journal of Psycholog y of Educat ion

2002. Vol. XVlI. n" 2.101-114 © 2002. I.S.P.A.

Children talk about learning to draw Nora Scheuer CONICET - Universidad Nacional del Comahue , Argentina Monserrat de la Cruz Universidad Nacional del Comahue , Argentina Juan Ignacio Pozo Universidad Aut6noma de Madrid, Spain

This study investigates f our- to six-year-old children's conceptions of learning, by applying the lexicometric method to their oral responses to questions about their learning of drawing, in GIl individual interview at school. Intervi ews were videotaped and full y transcribed. Subjects were 26 children from a middle-class background attending public schools in Argentina (in a f our-year-old class, a fiv e-year-old class and fir st grade in elementary school ). Differences amon g groups are described on the basis of correspondence analysis and modal response procedures. Such differenc es are then sy ste matised into several interrelated dimensions regarding changes in children 's conceptions of learning to draw, namely: learning agency as the internalisation of social mediation , nature of both learner's and teacher' s actions and mental states, learning goals and temporal fram e of reference. Thus, three main conceptions are identified: external agency. external/internal agency and internal agency conceptions, which are associated to the three different school grade groups studied.

Introduction This study explores children' s conceptions about learn ing, by analysing their verbal responses to question s about this process. Learning, as is well known, is a means of extending and deepening the learner's mastery over the physical and social world. Though this process takes place over the whole life span, a particularly strong orientation to learn seems to operate during childhood. The observation of children's behaviour in natural contexts offers various This research was supp orted by CONl CET (PEl 01/98) and Universidad Nacional del Comahue (B-093 ) in Argentina, and DGESlC in Spain (PB98-0095). Our thanks to Kindergarten 32 and Elementary School 298 in Bariloche for their helpful collaboration. to Martina Sayago and Silvina Neira for their assistance in data transcription and to Graciela Cafno and Nora Baccala for their comments on the manuscript. The authors are grateful to two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comment s.

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cues of the relevance that learning adopts for them. For instance, from an early age children use to show their achievements to significant others, evidencing overt satisfaction. Though this behaviour is obviously encouraged by adults, it may also be an indication that young children have certain awareness of their own success in situations they had previously experienced as being difficult in some way. Children's determination in their attempts to, for instance, build a particular block construction, reach a number when they enunciate the number sequence, or achieve a specific figural drawing suggest that, at least on occasions, children might be relatively conscious of their motor, verbal or graphic goals and achievements. It has been suggested that at any point in development, the individual does not only possess a set of skills and of perceptual and motor schemes, but also a more or less explicit sense of direction. "It may well be that (...) this movement toward a goal, is only dimly perceived, but the forward progress of the growth process in normal individuals is no less real and no less potent for eluding consciousness" (Gardner, 1980, p. 25). These considerations throw a different light into informal learning, a process often thought of as being basically incidental and implicit as regards the learner's point of view. Do children generate any ideas on the process of learning? If they do, what is their perspective about this very relevant adaptive process and how does this perspective develop? It has been proposed that children's thinking about specific mental processes is based on their general theory of mind (Montgomery, 1992). In particular, children's thinking about learning may be viewed as forming part of their theory of mind (Astington & Pelletier, 1996), since learning produces changes in the learner's mindset. This suggests that children's understanding of learning is related to their more general understanding of the links between the real world, the mental world and behaviour. Developmental studies show that important changes in theory of mind occur between ages three and six. Beyond important controversies in the field that we will not review here, most studies agree that young children focus on the successful results of action. Around the age of four of five they begin to consider environmental conditions that allow for information access. Successively, in a process extending to middle childhood, children begin to integrate the role of a growing variety of epistemic mental processes, including remembering, memorising, understanding, interpreting and inferring (Perner, 1991; Pramling, 1983, 1996; Schwanenflugel, Fabricius, & Alexander, 1994; Schwanenflugel, Fabricius, & Noyes, 1996; Wellman, 1990). Moreover, children gradually come to view the results of such activities as interpretative products, rather than as copies of reality (Carpendale & Chandler, 1996). In the frame of these processes, we are interested in studying children's conceptions of learning. Previous studies based on individual interviews or on observations of specially designed educational interventions, have shown that as early as from the age of three children are able to talk about their leaming, provided that this process concerns meaningful contents and contexts. Rather than talking about learning per se, children talk about how and what themselves and others learn in familiar and relevant areas (PramJing, 1983, 1996; POlO & Scheuer, 1999). According to Pramling (1983), three- to eight-year-old children's conceptions of what they leam progress from conceiving learning as doing, to conceiving it as knowing, and in a further level, as understanding. A passive conception viewing learning as a phenomenon that depends on growth and on external influences gradually gives place to an active conception, according to which the learner can influence his/her own learning. The means through which this influence operates is initially thought of to be practice, and later on, reflection. These studies focus on how children's conceptions about their relation with the object of learning changes and how this relation is increasingly mediated by different cognitive processes. In this work, we are interested in considering also how children conceive the ways in which other persons mediate their relation with the object of learning. Thus, we will study conceptual change in this domain also as a process of internalisation of these ways of social mediation. We study the lexicon used by four-, five- and six-year-old children in their answers to questions about how they learn and what they want to learn in relation to an area that is significant for them. Our aim is to gain a deeper understanding of (a) children's conceptions

CHILDREN TALK ABOUT LEARNING TO DRA W

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about learning, and (b) of the changes in such conceptions during this period . Many studies on theory of mind development are based on the analysis of children's understanding and use of specific words, principally mental verbs as remember, know, guess , believe, think or imagine (Astington & Pelletier, 1996; Bart sch & Wellman, 1995; Flavell, Green, & Flavell, 1995; Montgomery, 1992; Pemer, 1991; Riviere, Sotillo, Sarria, & Nunez, 1994; Sotillo & Riviere, 1997). We propose to study the complete lexicon in children's answers, by considering that it offers rich information about children's conceptions about such process, that go well beyond the presence or absence of given words . To have access to children's conceptions of learning, we have chosen the field of figurative drawing, since its cognitive, affective and social relevance indicates that it is firmly anchored in children's experience (Gardner, 1980; Vygotsky, 1986, 1978; Wallon, Cambier, & Engelhart, 1990). Moreover, drawing activities produce visible and relatively permanent traces, a characteristic that provides children with a palpable basis to think about this learning. We have selected the age range four to six since, as sketched above, research in theory of mind and metacognition has shown that important changes in children's ways of conceiving the mental world occur during this period. Another reason is that children's linguistic and cognitive competence as expected by the age of four should enable them to participate in a verbal interview focussing on a theme that is related to their own interests and makes part of their everyday experience (Garbarino, Stott, & Faculty of the Erikson Institute, 1992). Studies on drawing development reveal that by the age of four or five children have already gone through a long way in this area (see Bombi & Pinto, 1993, for a review). The initial focus on the motor dimensions of drawing and on the marks produced on different surfaces when different instruments are used shifts to the interest in the resulting graphic forms . Progressively (and depending on a multiplicity of factors including the communicative context) , graphic production becomes oriented by the intention to produce culturally recognisable representations of objects, or to decorate surfaces integrating cultural iconographic norms and choices in different ways . In their figurative attempts, pre-schoolers use to include index clements into canonical drawings (as a chimney in the drawing of a house), with the aim of representing a class of objects, or of mastering the corresponding conventional drawings, rather than to represent a particular and real object (Berti & Freem an, 1997; Freeman, 1987; Vygotsky, 1986). Yet another aspect of drawing development we have considered is that drawing accomplishes a central function in children's learning in the ages we have selected (Vygotsky, 1986) whereas , for most children, such centrality diminishes notably in successive ages . The entry in primary education seems to contribute to this withdrawal, since many educational systems privilege writing as a main and almost exclusive graphic representational medium .

Method Subjects Twenty-six children from a middle-class background attending public schools in Bariloche, Argentina: 8 children in a four-year-old class (K4, mean age : 4.7), 8 in a five-yearold class (K5 , mean age: 5.9) and 10 in first grade in elementary school (G1, mean age : 6.7), selected at random. Children with special needs were not included. In each group, half the subjects were girls and half boys . For each child , consent to participate was obtained in writing from parents. In Argentina, drawing is one of the main activities in Kindergarten. Customary graphic production activities include free drawing, drawing specific themes (e.g. family, house, pet) and experiences (e.g. school vegetable garden), completion and painting of printed graphic forms and figures, collages. In first grade, drawing turns into a secondary activity in teachers' school class planning. In the course of the interview, we checked that subjects in the three school groups used to draw at home .

N. SCHEUER, M. DE LA CRUZ, & J.l. POZO

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Procedure Children were interviewed individually in a quiet room at school, in a videotaped session lasting approximately 15'-20'. Interviews were fully transcribed. Introductory tasks, aimed at establishing contact with the child and at directing his/her attention towards the domain of drawing, included the request for a free drawing and questions about the child's customary drawing activities (i.e. Do you like to draw", When do you use to draw", What do you use to draw?, Where do you draw", What do you draw for?, What do you do with your drawings ?). Main tasks consisted of two sets of questions. The first set referred to how learning has occurred, how it currently occurs, and how it will occur in the future. These questions are: How have you learned to drawl/So you have learnt more and more, better and better. What do you do to learn?/How may you go on learning? The second set of questions referred to the identification of anticipated or desired results of learning in the future: Can you carry on learning to draw? What would you like to go on learning? All subjects were presented with the same questions. If the child did not answer or did not understand, the interviewer first repeated the question; if necessary, she reformulated it in reference to the initial free drawing.

Method ofanalysis In order to describe and analyse conceptions about the learning of drawing in the three age/school grade groups considered, we have applied the method of textual data or 1exicometric method (Beene, 1991; Lebart & Salem, 1994) to the complete transcripts of children's full oral responses to the two sets of questions, with the programme SPADT (Lebart, Marineau, Beene, & Haeusler, 1994). The lexicometric method, that operates with all the words in subjects' responses, has been recently used to analyse children's oral responses (Becue, Lebart, & Rajadell, 1992; Bose & Wendt, 2000; de la Cruz & Baccala, 1996) and to infer subjects' conceptions about teaching and learning (Baccala & de la Cruz, 2000). In the present study, the analysis of information was performed in two steps; 1.

2.

Factorial correspondence analysis of a lexical aggregate table. Factorial correspondence analysis allows distinguishing groups or associations among characteristic words in the subjects' lexicon on one hand, and the modalities of the variable being considered, on the other. These groups are projected on a factorial plane. In this study, rows in the lexical aggregate table have been formed with all the different words that appear at least 5 times in the corpus for each set of questions, and columns by subjects' age/school grade, with three modalities (four-year-old Kindergarten class, five-year-old Kindergarten class and first grade class). Automatic selection of modal responses; analysis of these responses. In the case the factorial correspondence analysis performed in the preceding step shows differences among modalities of the variable being considered, by associating each of them to a set of characteristic words, it is useful to study the complete responses that are typical or characteristic of each modality. This is obtained by means of the modal response procedure, that selects the complete typical responses corresponding to each modality in decreasing order, by calculating the lexical average profile of the subjects that correspond to such modality (chi square criterion). This procedure allows situating the characteristic words identified in the previous step (1) in their context of production.

In the following section, we report the groups distinguished by the factorial correspondence analysis, by integrating the description of the corresponding modal responses. Excerpts of children's responses are presented in brackets; a slash separates those corresponding to different subjects. In the subsequent section, differences among groups are systematised into several interrelated dimensions regarding changes in children's conceptions of learning to draw. Namely:

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CHILDREN TALK ABOUT LEARNING TO DRAW

learning agency as the internalisation of social mediation, nature of learner's and teacher's actions and mental states, learning goals and temporal frame of learning.

Results Characteristics of the groups distinguished on the basis of the lexicometric method

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Three groups are distinguished in the factorial plane (see Figure 1): Group 1 (upper right side) is characterised principally by the words is (esta, indicating location or a continuous action), like (como), drawings (dibujos), (I) learnt (aprendi), pencil (lapiz), dad (papa), all (todos, m. pl.), (I) do/make (hago), mum (mama), cause (porque), also (tambien), my (mi) and by subjects in K4. Modal responses indicate that these children focus on the description of the child's mastery of drawing, by listing the figurative drawings they draw, in accumulative terms (J make firewood, I make, I make children, I make a fire/I can also make drawers as those ones, and also garbage as that one over there). These children explain how they learn, have learnt and will carryon learning by referring to teaching performed by the family. They report who operates as a "teacher'", the environment where teaching takes place, the observable actions the teacher displays and the instruments employed to produce graphic marks on the paper ([I: And do you do something yourself to learn?] No,

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my mum and dad are doing. So that I draw they hold my hand and the pencil and they begin to draw). Children in this group use predominantly the present tense in their descriptions of actions and situations. They employ the past only to answer the question about how they have learnt previously. Children situate the beginnings of this process temporally, relating it to their own age at the time (when I was a baby/when I was little). When the question refers to the future, responses inform the actions that must be performed so that learning proceeds (they must teach me/I must get up and do pictures as those). Group 2 (lower right side) is characterised principally by the words eh (interj.), times (veces), by (por), four (cuatro), Miss (sefio), that (thing) (eso, m. sing.), (they) are (son), another (otra, f., sing.), the (Ia, f., sing.), years (afios), (to) draw (dibujar), yes (sf), a little (poco), to see (ver), to learn (aprender), (he/she) taught (enseii6), to/for/at (a), when (cuando), for/to you (te). Subjects in K5 are associated to this group. Modal responses show that these children describe learning situations where the learner copies from external sources (copying from magazines) or informal teaching sequences take place. These children report past learning episodes, where they distinguish a first phase when the teacher initiates and carries out most of the task, with a successive increase of the learner's participation (in the number one she made a girl for me and I painted it, then I made it and then. .. I painted it... I did the two things). A few refe rences to the learner's mental activity occurring immediately before and after drawing are provided ('cause I was going to do another thing and a skirt came out, but I was going to do something different so I tried to do another one). Children also mention the eventual lack of permanence of the graphic models they use and of the learning outcomes they achieve (sometimes I forget how things are, cause sometimes things are difficult and sometimes pictures get lost). Growth and the passing of time are mentioned as learning factors. Learning, in this sense, is formulated as a progressive process. When the question refers to learning in the future, the answer is organised around the verb "to wait", formulated in infinitive (to wait a bit, lots oftime, and then I go on learning little by little). Group 3 (left sides) is characterised principally by the words: better (mejor), grandma (abuela), brother (hermano), sister (hermana), to/for him/her (le), she (ella), do (haga, subj.), like this (asf), (llhe/she) used to do (bacia), one (una, f.), if (si), (he/she) said (dijo) and by subjects in G 1. Modal responses report past episodes where learning of drawing is expressed as a process of combination of basic forms that gives rise to recognisable figurative drawings, with increasingly detailed information. Children express that drawing takes place under the guidance of an elder, more competent person (l made a small triangle once, my sister told me to make a small square below and then she told me to do like this and then she told me to make a line and she told me: a little house came out). Children mark two functions in the teacher's activity: to indicate the steps that the learner must carry out when he/she draws, and to attribute meaning to the learner's graphic products. The learner's agency is referred to in various ways: he/she performs the action of drawing, follows the indications provided by the teacher, uses aid tools, deliberately observes the expert's drawing procedures (l copy from my brother (...). No, he doesn't show me, I look at his drawings), transforms his/her graphic products, generates mental processes that orient action as well as anticipate and assess graphic results (cause I would have thought and would have made things like this and like this and it would have turned out). Appreciation of graphic products in relation to tacit graphic standards is frequent (right, wrong, so so, better, not so well), suggesting that for these children learning involves improvement respect to external benchmarks -- probably conventions that remain mostly implicit. Children base their answer to the question referring to the future in the recognition of what they do not know yet. This allows them to formulate learning strategies consisting basically of the deliberate use of external instruments (cause the things I don't know, my sister told me how to do them (...) I don't know to make hearts but I make them with moulds) and on the generation of anticipatory mental images (to imagine more things. Other things that I do not draw. When she imagines things, she learns to make many things). Some children refer to their ways of learning in the future by establishing continuity with their customary ways of doing so (go on doing what I know to do. Go on doing as I always did).

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Questions about what the child wants to learn The corpus is formed with 385 total words and 158 different words, with diversity index=41.1 %. The lexical table is formed with the 17 words left after the threshold=5 was applied. Inertia is .3249.

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Three groups are distinguished in the factorial plane (see Figure 2): Group] (upper right side) is characterised principally by the word also (tambien) and by subjects in K4. Modal responses indicate that these children do not mention what they can learn in the future, but instead describe their current drawing mastery, in terms of the objects or scenes they are able or know to draw (I also know to make Dracula, cloud, sun, also day by night and also sunny day/I know everything, ] can make all the handles). Group 2 (lower sides) is characterised principally by the words yes (sf), one (un, m.), to make (hacer), of (de) and by subjects in K5. Modal responses show that these children admit the possibility of carrying on learning, since they mention a list of figurative drawings or procedural aspects as the content for their future learning (to draw a horse, an elephant, a tiger, a bear and a lion, they're five animals/the head, sometimes] make it a bit crooked). Group 3 (upper left side) is characterised principally by the words the (los, pi. m.) the (las, pi. f), more (mas), for/to me (me) and by subjects in G1. Modal responses show that these children state what they may learn on the basis of the recognition of unknown "portions" of the graphic world (l may learn those things] don't know: numbers, numbers, cause] don't know all the numbers). Children also speak of improving existent pieces of knowledge (so that when (something) comes out so so, it comes out every time bigger and nicer), of acquiring a production autonomy (a birdie, but by myself), setting goals that engage motor functions and self testing (I'll see if it comes out very small). Despite this question refers to the identification of contents for learning in the future, children spontaneously report the learnt status of their current drawing knowledge and report past learning episodes. They detail the sequence

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of actions performed by learner and teacher, as well as the verbal interactions between them (I learnt to make the pine trees and the trees on my own, cause once / made like this, / made like

this and / showed it to my mum and she said: a tree turned out and another time /made like this and... and / showed it to my sister and she said: a tria pine tree turned alit).

Discussion: Differences in children's responses as an indicator of developmental changes in their conceptions about learning to draw We propose that the differences among the group s described in the preceding section on the basis of correspondence analysis and modal response procedures may be interpreted as changes in childre n's conception s of learning to draw, as regard s seve ra l int errelated dimensions. Basically: -

learning agency as the internalisation of social mediation nature of leam er' s and teacher's actions and ment al states learning goals temporal frame of learning

Changes in these dimensi ons allow us to identify three different conceptions that are summarised in Table I and commented in the following paragraphs . To begin with, children with different conceptions locate the agency in the proce ss of learning differently. According to Conception I, the principal agent is the person who teaches, since he/she initiates, guide s and supports the leamer's activity. In this sense, the teacher is conceived as caus ing learning. As we have suggested in the Introduction, from an early age children conceive learning to draw as a process centred not only in the object to be drawn, but also in the social actions performed by other persons that guide the child's drawing. Conception 2 is structured around imitation and demon stration : the learn er copies graphic produ cts and procedures from the environment. Instead , Concepti on 3 is impregnated by allusion s to the learner' s agency in the learning process, as an intemali sation of social mediation. An indication of this is that children characteristic of this conception focus on the leam er' s agency not only when they are asked directly about how learning comes about, but also when questions concern what is it they wish to go on learning. According to this conception, agency is centred in the learner, or it is shared with the teacher along several alternated interactional turns. Changes across conceptions are also evident with respect to the actions and the mental states attributed to learner and teacher. Conception 1 focuses on actions involving body parts, especially hands, respect to which no visual or cognitive dimensions are made explicit (to draw and to physically guide the leam er' s movements to make him/her draw). In a lesser extent, children expressing this conception refer to absolute competen ce and epistemic states (can, know). Knowing, for these children, seems to adopt a pragmatic meaning; something as being able to achieve graphic products (Pramling, 1983), hence evidenced by success (perner, 1991). According to Conception 2, the leamer's actions are dependent on external sources: the learner copies graphic products and imitates elder children and adults, i.e. activities integrating manual and visual components, "wait s" until learning occurs, and may forget what he/she learns. The teacher's actions, in turn , co nsis t basically in providing dem on strations. In the frame of Conception 3, the leamer' s mental states are qualified in positive, negative and also intermediate terms, but what he/she does not know, remember or sufficiently master is emphasized. Children characteristic of this concept ion exte nsively report the leamer ' s actions, including many mental verbs: he/she deliberat ely practices drawing, sets his/her own learning goals even when following external indication s or copying from someone or something, anticipates graphic products, is aware of steps occurring during learning and drawing activities, regulates drawing and learning practices accordin g to goals, and generates appreciations of the resulting graphic products. In sum, these children relate learning to their own cognitive control. Finally, it is worth mentioning that in the frame of Conception 3, children attribute the teacher a discursive activity, such as providing indications and communicating the meaning of graphic products.

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Table I Differences in the lexicon used by the three groups. Horizontal arrows indicate that afeature is maintained in the successive group/s Conception I

Conception 2

Conception I

Dimension

(mainlyK4

(mainly K5)

(mainly GI)

Internalization of agency in learning (mainly questions about how they learn, have learnt...)

Teacher causes learning (initiates, guides and sustains learner's activity).

Learner copies from teacher or from graphic model.

Agency is centered in the learner or is shared with the teacher (GI children express this view also in the questions about what they want to learn)

Natnre oflearner's/ teacher's actions and mental states (both sets of questions)

Manual actions (mark with pencil, "make" drawings, hold the learner's hand) Visual actions involved in imitation (copying from). Demonstration of graphic products/drawing procedures. Competence and epistemic mental states in positive terms (can, know)

Few epistemic mental states in negative terms (forget).

Competence and epistemic mental states in positive, negative and intermediate terns (know, remember, forget)

Few references to mental Mental actions (think, actions (to wait, to attempt, imagine, set goals, assess to find ideas). and regulate own graphic products and drawing practice). Discursive actions (indicate steps in complex procedures, attribute meanings to products) Learning goals (mainly questions about what they want to learn)

Emphasis in current graphic repertoire (no learning goals are referred)

Learning goals as the ability to produce new, unknown figurative drawings Learning goals as the improvement of current mastery by means of: - Qualitative and procedural changes

.. .-

..

- Incorporation of details into figurative drawings - Increasing production autonomy Temporal frame for learning (both sets of questions)

Predominance of present tense to describe customary learning actions and achievements.

Use of present tense to describe customary learning actions and achievements.

Use of the past only for Imperfect past to describe specifically oriented past customary actions questions (imperfect past to and achievements refer long standing states) Preterite past to report past learning episodes. The future adopts a normati ve sense, anchored in the present time (Imust...).

Infinitive to indicate anticipated learning outcomes and actions.

.. ..

Predominance of preterite past to report past learning episodes.

..

Conventional verbal periphrasis to indicate anticipated learning outcomes and actions.

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With respect to how learning goals are conceived, Conception 1 reveals a focus on the learner's current mastery of an ample graphic repertoire, what seems to interfere with their possibility of formulating any learning goals for the future. Children characteristic of Conception 2 do formulate learning goals, which they basically express in the same accumulative tenms with which children in Conception 1 describe their current mastery: an enumeration of many different figurative drawings. According to Conception 3, learning goals are related to the recognition of lack of knowledge or of errors in current knowledge. Consistently, the function assigned to learning is knowledge fulfilment or improvement. Finally, changes across conceptions indicate a progressive expansion of the temporal frame in which the learning process is located. Children showing Conception 1 typically provide responses that consist basically of present tense descriptions of current actions and achievements. These children do use the past tense when the question is fonmulated in such a tense, but they continue to privilege the present tense when the question regards the future and eventually include references to what must be done. Children characteristic of Conception 2 frequently employ the imperfect past, thus indicating the continuance or repetition of actions and achievements, and eventually use the preterit past to report episodes. In the frame of Conception 3, this autobiographical memory (Nelson, 1993) functions as an organising pivot for children's responses about learning to draw. Children expressing this conception frequently integrate references to past episodes in their lives into their responses, even for questions referring to the present or to the future. Our impression is that these children's anchor in their autobiographical memories, together with their emerging attention to limitations in their achievements and knowledge, allows them to generate an image of themselves as learners in the future. To conclude with, the results of this study show three learning conceptions of different complexity. Conception 1, which we call External agency conception (characteristic of the youngest subjects), is centred in the learner's current mastery over a variety of graphic products. Instead, Conception 2, or External/internal agency conception (characteristic of five-year-olds), emphasises factors that act on the learner from the outside, mostly the role of teaching and graphic models, and begin to consider mental states and actions that basically precede, or are the outcome of, learning processes. Finally, Conception 3, or Internal agency conception (characteristic of six-year-olds) refers to an agent learner, who generates and activates mental representations before, during and after learning, reports complex procedures, assesses his/her own products and identifies omissions, distortions or errors. These results may be interpreted according to Olson and Bruner's view that "What changes as we move from the simplest pedagogies to the most sophisticated, is the development of an increasingly internaJist or insider's view of thinking, learning, and knowing. Externaiist theories focus on what an adult can do to foster learning - a view that makes up the bulk of traditional educational psychology. Intemalist theories, on the other hand, focus on what children can do, or what they think they are doing, and how learning can be premised on those intentional states" (p. 25, 1996). Our view is that these results indicate a developmental trend that proceeds in tenms of growing complexity. This increasing complexity allows distinguishing and integrating ideas in two interrelated directions (Scheuer, Pow, de la Cruz, & Baccala, 2001). One is agency and internalisation of action. Children's conceptions about learning are increasingly self-oriented. This trend is close to that posed by Dienes and Perner (1999) in their theory of knowledge as a process of progressive and hierarchical expiicitation of three knowledge components: content, attitude and self. Thus, younger children talk about what they draw (content), whilst older children begin to consider also their mental states about drawing (attitude). Finally, their drawings are placed in the continuity of a learning autobiographical story (self). The other direction is contextualisation, enabling the consideration of the situations where learning takes and has taken place, as well as the integration of the learner's past and future (Damasio, 1999). This temporal expansion regards both a micro level of action, as anticipating and assessing are integrated into doing on-line, and a macro level of learning, as the focus on the leamer's present achievements gives place to the integration of past learning experiences and to the anticipation of future learning.

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Notes The term "teacher" is used to indicate the role played by someone who, in most cases in the texts analysed here, is not a professional.

References Astington, J.W., & Pelletier, J. (1996). The language of mind: Its role in teaching and learning. In D.R. Olson & N. Torrance (Eds.), Handbook of Education and Human Development: New Models of Learning, Teaching and Schooling (pp. 593-618). Cambridge: Blackwell. Baccala, N., & de la Cruz, M. (2000). La importancia de la estadfstica textual aplicada al estudio de las concepciones de ensenanza.In M. Rajman & J.-c. Chappelier (Eds.), Proc. of5emes Journees internationales d'Analyse statistique des Donnees Textuelles (vol. II, pp. 519-524). Martigny: Copy Service Pillet. Bartsch, K., & Wellman, H.M. (1995). Children talk about the mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Becue, M. (J 99 J). Analisis Estadistico de Datos Textuales: Metodos de Andlisis y Algoritmos. Paris: Cisia. Becue, M., Lebart, L., & Rajadell, N. (1992). EI analisis estadistico de datos textuales. La lectura segiin los escolares de ensefianza primaria. Anuario de Psicologia, 55, 7-32. Berti, A.E., & Freeman, N.H. (1997). Representational change in resources for pictorial innovation: A three-component analysis. Cognitive Development, 12, 405-426. Bombi, A.S., & Pinto, G. (1993).1 colori dell' amicizia. Bologna: Il Mulino. Bose, I., & Wendt, B. (2000). Zur beschreibung temporaler parameter kindlicher gesprachsgestaltung. In M. Rajman & J.-c. Chappelier (Eds.), Proc. of 5emes Journees internationales d'Analyse statistique des Donnees Textuelles (vol. 2, pp. 553-556). Martigny: Copy Service Pillet. Carpendale, J .1., & Chandler, M. (1996). On the distinction between false belief understanding and subscribing to an interpretive theory of mind. Child Development, 67,1686-1706. Damasio, A. (1999). The Feeling of What Happens. Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness. New York: Harcourt Barce Company. de la Cruz, M., & Baccala, N. (1996). Analisis lexicornetrico: Un aporte ala comparaci6n de las formas discursivas de docentes y alumnos en el nivel primario. Estudios Pedagogicos, 22, 7-20. Dienes, Z., & Pemer, J. (1999). A theory of implicit and explicit knowledge. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22, 735-808. Flavell, J.H., Green, FL., & Flavell, E.R. (1995). Young children's knowledge about thinking. Monographs of the Society for the Research in Child Development. Serial No. 243, Vol. 60, No. I. Freeman, N.H. (1987). Current problems in the development of representational picture-production. Archives de Psychologie, 55, 127-152. Garbarino, J., Stott, F.M., & Faculty of the Erikson Institute (1992). What children can tell us. Eliciting, lnterperting and Evaluating Critical Information from Children. San Francisco: Jossey - Bass Publishers. Gardner, H. (1980). Artful Scribbles. The Significance of Children's Drawings. USA: Harper Collins Publishers, Basic Books. Lebart, L., & Salem, A. (1994). Statistique textuelle. Paris: Dunod. Lebart, L., Morineau, A., Becue, M., & Haeusler, L. (1994). SPADT - Systeme Portable pour l'Analyse des Donnee Textuelles. Paris: Cisia. Montgomery, D.E. (1992). Young children's theory of knowing: The development of a folk epistemology. Developmental Review, 12, 410-430. Nelson, K. (1993). The psychological and social origins of autobiographical memory. Psychological Science, 4(1), 7-14. Olson, D.R., & Bruner, J.S. (1996). Folk psychology and folk pedagogy. In D.R. Olson & N, Torrance (Eds.),

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Perner , 1. (199 1). Understanding the represenuuional mind. Cambridge MA: MIT Press. Pozo, 1.1., & Scheuer, N. ( 1999 ). Las co nce pcio nes sobre el apre ndiza je co mo teorias irnplfcitas. In 1.1. Pozo & C. Monereo (Eds .), £1 aprendizaji estrateg ico (pp. 87- 108). Madrid. Santillana. Pramlin g, I. (1983 ). Tile child 's conception of leaming. Goteborg: Acta Unive rsitatis Gothoburgensis, Praml ing, I. (1996). Understa ndi ng and e mpow ering the child as a learner. In D.R. Olson & N. T orrance (Eds.), Handb ook 0/ Education and Human Development: New Models of Learning , Teaching and Schooling (pp, 565 · 592 ). Cambridge: Blackwell . Riviere, A.. Sotillo, M., Sarna , E., & Nunez, M. (1994). Metarrepresentaci6n, intensional idad y verbos de refere nd a mental: un estud io evolutivo. Estudios de Psicologfa, 55. 23-32. Scheu er, N., Pozo, 1.1., de la Cruz . M.. &. Baccala, N. (200 1). i.C6mo aprendi a dibujar? Las teorias de los nifios sobre el aprend izaje. Estudi os de Psicologia, 22(2), 185-206. Schwanenflugel, P.l .• Fabricius, W.V., & Alexander, 1. (1994). Devel oping theories of mind: Understanding concepts and relations between mental activities. Child Development, 65.1546-1563. Schw anenflugel, P.l., Fabricius, W.V., & Noyes, C. (1996). Developing organization of mental verbs: Evidence for the development of a constructivist theory of mind in middle childh ood. Cognit ive Development. 11, 265-294. Sotill o . M., & Riv ie re , A. (1997). Algun as cues tia nes sabre el desarroll o del lenguaje de referenda ment al: Los problemas de los nifios con ellenguajc de estados mentale s. Estudios de Psicologia. 57, 39-59. Wallon, PH., Carnbier, A., & Engelh art. D. ( 1990). Le dessin chez l'enfant, Paris: Presses Univers itaires de France. Wellm an, H. ( 1990) . The child's theory ofmind. Cambrige, Mass: MIT Press. Vygotsky, L.S. ( t978). M ind ill society: The developmental of h igh er p sychologi cal p rocesses. Ca mbridge . Mass: Harvard Universit y Press. Vygotsky, L.S. ( 1986). La imagina cion y el arte en la infan cia. Madr id: Aka l,

Dans cette etude, 011 recherche les conceptions de l 'apprentissa ge des enfants de quatre a six ans en appliquant la methode lexicometrique aux reponses orales aux questions sur l ' apprent issage de dessiner de l ' enf ant. On a f ait des entretiens individuels aux enfa nts a l ' ecole. Ces entretiens ont he enregistres sur videocas se ttes et co mp letement transcrits. Les suje ts etaient 26 enfants d 'un mili eu du classe moyenne qui allaient aux eco les publiques en Argentin e (dans une classe de quatre ans, un e classe de cinq ans et le premier anne e de I' ecole elementaire). Les dijTerences entre les groupes sont decrites sur la base de I' analyse de corre spondences et le precede de reponses modales. Cettes differences sont systematisees dans des dimensions liees entre eux, concernant le changement des conceptions de l 'apprentissage de dessiner chez les en/ GIlts, a savoir: l' agence de I'apprentissage comme l 'internalisation de la mediation sociale, la nature des actions et les etats mentaux de l 'apprenti et du professeur, les buts de l 'apprentissage et le cadre de reference temp orelle. Alors, trois conceptions principales sont ident ifi ees: agence exte rne, ag ence ext ern e/int ern e et ag en ce int erne; qu i sont associees aux trois differents gro upes des classes ecolaires etudies.

Key words: Children, Conceptions, Drawing, Learning, Lexicon.

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Recei ved : June 2oo1 Revision received: November 2oo 1

Nora Scheuer, CONICET and Universidad Naci onal del Comahue. Qu intral 1250. 8400 Bariloche, Ar gentina . E-mail: [email protected] coma.edu.ar Current theme of research :

Children's , teachers' and parents ' concept ions of learning . Numerical development and notational development in children in different sociocultural environments . Most relevant publication s in the fi eld of Psychology of Educat ion:

Barbieri, M.S., Co(avita, F., & Scheuer, N. ( 1990). The beginning of the explaining capacity. In C. Snow & G. Conti Ramsden (Eds.), Children's Language (vol. 7, pp. 245-271). New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Scheuer, N.. Pow, J.I., de la Cruz, M" & Baccala, N. (2001). Como aprendf a dibujar? Las teorfas de los nifios sobre el aprendizaje. Estudios de Psicologia, 22(2), 185-205. Scheuer , N" Sinclair, A., Merlo de Rivas, S., & Tieche Christinat, Ch. (2000). Cuando ciento setenta y uno se escribe 10071: Nifios de 5 a 8 aries produciendo numerales. Infancia y aprendizaje, 90, 31-50 . Sinclair, A., & Scheuer, N. (1993). Understanding our written number system: 6 year-olds in Argentina and Switzerland. Educational Studies in Mathema tics. 24, 199-221. Zuccherm aglio, C , & Scheuer, N. (1996). Children dictating a story: Is together better? In C. Pontecorvo, M., Orsolini, B. Burge, & L. Resnick (Eds.), Early Text Constru ction in Children (pp. 83-98). New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Montserrat de [a Cruz. Centro Regional Universitario Bariloche, Un iversidad Nacional del Comahue. Qu intral 1250,8400 Bariloche, Argentin a. E-mail: cornagli @bariloche.com.ar Current theme of research :

Students' , teachers' and parents' conceptions of learning and teaching. Teachers' and students' discourse in class in different sociocultural environments. Most relevant publications in the fi eld of Psychology of Education:

Baccala, N.• & de la Cruz, M. (2000). La importancia de la estadistica textual aplicada al estudio de las concepciones de ensefianza, lA DT 2000 (vol. 2, pp. 5 19-529). Lausanne: EPFL. de la Cruz, M., & Lolich, M.S. (1995). Recursos cognitivos de habitantes de sectores sociales marginales: Huellas del bricoleur? In S. Schlemenson de Ons (Cornp.), Cuando el aprendiraje es UI! problema (pp. 112-153). Buenos Aires: Mifio y Davila. de la Cruz, M., & Pow, J.1. (2001). Concepciones de ensefianza de profesores universitarios. Actas pedagogicas, Ano 2, 1,5-15. de la Cruz, M., Scheuer, N., & Castorina, J,A, (2001). La identidad personal como nivel de analisis del cambio conceptual. Propue sta Educativa, 24, de la Cruz, M., Scheuer, N., Cafno, G., Huarte, M.F., Baudino, Y., & Ayastuy, R. (2001), EI discurso en la sala de clase de maestros de nivel primario que trabajan en distintos sectores socio-culturales . Estudios Pedagogicos , 27.

Juan Ignacio Pozo, Departamento de Psicologia Basica, Facultad de Psicol ogia, Uni versidad Aut6noma de Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain . E-mail : [email protected] Current theme of research:

Science learning and teaching . Conceptual change. Learning strategies. Students' and teachers' conceptions of learning and leaching.

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Most relevant publications ill the field of Psychology of Education: Carretero , M., Pope. M.. Simmons. PJ .. & Pozo, J.1. (Eds.). (1991 ). Learning and Instruction. European Research ill all Intemational COiltext. London: Pergamon Press. Postigo, Y., & Pozo, J.1. ( 1998) . Learning of geographic al maps by experts and novices. Educational Psychology. IB( I),

65-80. Pozo, J.1. (1996). Aprendices y mae stros. La Ilueva cultura del aprendizaje. Madrid: Alianza. Tran slated to portugue se: Aprendizes e mestr es. A Ilova cultura da aprendizagem. Porto Alegre. Brasil: Ed. Artes Medicas, 2001. Pozo, J.I., & Carretero, M. (1992). Causal theories , reasoning strategies and conflict resolut ion by experts and novices in newtonian mechanics . In A. Deme triou, M. Shayer, & A. Efklides (Eds.). Neop iagetian theories of cogn itive developm ent , London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Pozo, J.I., Gomez Crespo , M.A.• & Sanzo A. (1999) . When conceptual change does not mean replacem ent: Different representations for different contexts. In W. Schn otz, S. Vosniadou, & M. Carretero (Eds.), New Perspectives 0 11 conceptual chang e, Oxford : Elsevier .