The Role of Subject Knowledge in the Early Years of Schooling

Originally published in 1994, the aim of the authors was to provide a comprehensive introduction to recent advances in research which had been made in learning and teaching in the early years of schooling at the time. Emphasis is placed on how subject knowledge is constructed or acquired, and the organization of teaching to promote the learner’s active construction of meaning through the integration of new knowledge with existing understanding. The National Curriculum is founded in subject knowledge, though little examination appears to have been made of this in terms of how subject matter is transformed into the content of teaching that young children can understand. It this remains for the teacher to develop instruction through the creation of a curriculum content and sequence which both reflects and advances the structure of existing forms of representation, problem-solving and knowledge which the child brings to the school. The whole thrust of the book challenges the conventional early years ideology with its emphasis on child-centred, concrete and empirical approaches to learning, with a view of teaching which is concerned with making sense of children’s understanding, and allowing their active construction of knowledge and information-processing to develop expertise in context.