Chapter 7: Listening to young children

Test your understanding of each chapter by taking the quiz below. Click anywhere on the question to reveal the answer. Good luck!

1. In the context of the arguments put forward in the book, what does ‘competence’ mean in terms of research participation?

  1. Being an older child or being an adult – very young children do not make competent research participants as they are too immature
  2. Having good communication skills
  3. It’s a complex issue because young children (and sometimes adults) are competent and vulnerable. Researchers should think carefully about strategies which are inclusive
  4. Asking educators if a child is competent enough to take part in research as they know the child best

Ans: C

2.  Finish the following sentence (from Woodhead and Faulkner, 2008: 35). Respect for children’s status as social actors

  1. Does not diminish adult responsibilities
  2. Means children can look after themselves
  3. Means adults should not let children participate in research
  4. Recognizes that children enjoy role play as a method for eliciting their perspectives

Ans: A

3. What document underpins the international shift towards listening to children?

  1. The Early Years Foundation Stage
  2. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
  3. The Good Childhood Report
  4. Te Whariki

Ans: B

4. Having read Chapter 7, why might children’s perspectives be included in a research study?

  1. Because my tutor will give me a higher grade
  2. Because children say such lovely things and it will make my report look child centred
  3. Because children are experts on their own lives
  4. Because it will ensure I have plenty to talk about

Ans: C

5. Which of the following would be an example of research framed around a perspective of ‘listening to children’?

  1. Piaget’s clinical interviews
  2. Pavlov’s experiments – ‘classical conditioning’
  3. UNICEF report into child well-being
  4. Millgram’s experiments into obedience to authority

Ans: C

6. What is significant about Hart’s (1992) ladder of participation in terms of researching with children?

  1. It shows steps to success in a research project
  2. It indicates a shift from tokenistic involvement in research to a position where children are involved in the decision-making of a research project
  3. It indicates how children are able to participate increasingly as they get older and have more experience in the world
  4. It shows how research projects have different stages, represented as rungs on a ladder

Ans: B