Children’s understanding of teaching: A component of self-regulation?

Children’s understanding of teaching and the conceptual relationships of this understanding to selfregulation and epistemic beliefs were explored by interviewing children identified as gifted, aged 6 to 17, about how they would like to be taught core academic subjects and how they would teach them to their own class. Data were analyzed using a constructivist approach to grounded theory informed by neo-Piagetian cognitive developmental theory. Five levels of understanding were articulated that formed a developmental trajectory in which young children saw teaching as actionbased and concrete, focused on helping them do things right. By middle childhood, recognition of basic principles of teaching and learning were evident, then consciousness of the interdependence of teaching and learning. In early adolescence, emergent philosophical views on the nature of knowledge were expressed. Some of the older adolescents demonstrated personal philosophies of learning focused on growth, mutual partnership, and excitement about learning.