PhD Education: Using Pupil Views Templates to investigate the development of thinking across children at point of school entry in Scotland.

Metacognition is an area of increasing relevance in education, with strong correlations reliably confirmed between metacognitive awareness and attainment; however, what this looks like in young children starting school is under researched. With the Scottish Parliament’s emphasis on early years education then a systematic exploration of the metacognitive awareness of children entering their first year at school and the variables that impact on this would be useful in informing the ways in which we induct children into learning and support their achievement. This would also have close links to the Scottish Attainment Challenge.

The aims of this proposed research are twofold. Firstly, to systematically collect data across the youngest age group in schools to explore developmental themes in declarative metacognition at point of school entry. This will not only contribute to the research field, but also provide empirical basis for the use of PVTs in schools for assessment and diagnostic purposes. Secondly, it will investigate PVTs as a research tool. A research tool that can be used empirically and pedagogically to examine young children’s metacognitive development.

The research design will use a strategic sample across 8 primary schools chosen for a range of socio-economic and geographical factors. In each school, all children in their first year of school (primary 1) will be asked to complete a PVT in their first month of school. This should make a sample of around 240 templates (presuming each school has one class of 30 children in P1). Variables such as gender, age, family circumstances, pre-school education and teacher assessments of attainment will also be gathered. Quantitative analysis will be beneficial to identify patterns and trends that are statistically significant. This would prompt further investigation or more in depth qualitative analysis.