Abstract:
In Western Australia, 97% of the state’s four-year-old children start school in a non-compulsory Kindergarten year administered by the school system. The transition to school is an important milestone and can positively or negatively affect children’s educational journey. This qualitative study using a participatory research frame to describe and assess children’s learnt understandings of their transition experience. Five kindergarten teachers were assisted to use dialogic drawing (Ruscoe, 2022) to capture and assess children’s perspectives to transform and make changes to current transition processes. Teachers used prompts 4-6 weeks after school had started to elicit responses centred on what children knew about starting school, what they thought school was going to be like, what they were wondering about, how they were feeling and, if they had any recommendations for making school better. Data were analysed separately by teachers and researchers using a thematic framework developed by the researchers.
Findings showed that children believed family engagement mattered. Children described how their identity was changing; their expectation to make new relationships; and how known routines and rituals gave them a sense of safety and comfort. They described strong emotions at the time of transition, both negative and positive. Children believed school could be made better with more connection to family as well as self-choice of activities (especially outdoors) that bought fun, enjoyment and new friends. Dialogic drawing is an assessment technique that assists teachers to describe and identify children’s strengths and understanding, and facilitates children’s awareness of the documentation of their own learning.
Findings showed that children believed family engagement mattered. Children described how their identity was changing; their expectation to make new relationships; and how known routines and rituals gave them a sense of safety and comfort. They described strong emotions at the time of transition, both negative and positive. Children believed school could be made better with more connection to family as well as self-choice of activities (especially outdoors) that bought fun, enjoyment and new friends. Dialogic drawing is an assessment technique that assists teachers to describe and identify children’s strengths and understanding, and facilitates children’s awareness of the documentation of their own learning.