Saturday 28 September 2013

Learning through play

If almost every centre's philosophy states that children 'learn through play', why are we still undervaluing it?

It seems that we keep forgetting that children learn through play, and continue to look for other ways of teaching that seem more impressive. The result is that all we're doing is succeeding in impressing people who have very limited understanding of educational theory. The question is, are we here to impress, or are we here to make a real difference to children's lives? I'm constantly hearing people advise others to have conversations with children on the mat about this or that. I've been puzzling over this for some time now, wondering if this is something I should do more of, or whether there's some vital aspect of early children education that I'm missing or misunderstanding.

I recently read somewhere that children forget 90% of what we say to them within 30 days. If this is true then it says a lot, doesn't it? I happen to be an auditory learner. I was born with a natural connection to music, a sensitivity to noise in my environment, an inability to ever forget verbal criticism, and the ability to sit in a lecture theatre for hours without taking notes and retain a significant quantity of knowledge and understanding. Is this you? Probably not. Everybody has a different learning style. Auditory learners are a distinct minority. My understanding from talking to others is that the majority of people learn best through engaging with information visually or kinaesthetically. Children are even more grounded in their bodies, connected to the immediate reality of their environments, and still having the freedom and the ability to exist in the present moment.

The foundation of children's learning is play! Deep, sustained, concentrated, repeated, shared, facilitated, scaffolded engagement with concrete materials in the man-made world, the natural world and the social world. I was taught that the early childhood teacher is the facilitator who enables this quality engagement to happen, and that this is an important job that takes advanced skills of observation, knowledge, thinking, creativity and reflection. We have to understand the importance of this foundation of knowledge and understanding. Lack of foundation leads to scattered knowledge and superficial understanding. We don't want children to enter school teetering on this precarious ground because gaps in understanding lead to further gaps when they become unable to catch up.

Our bodies are powerful, intelligent instruments which carry memory. The time to have those conversations with children is when they are holding concrete objects in their hands, or at an appropriate moment while they are engaging in imaginative play with their peers. Children are then better able to connect the new information to the experience that they're engaging in. Their ability to transfer knowledge, grasp more abstract concepts, and transform reality will develop in time as they gain, consolidate and transcend this foundation.

I asked a parent (who is a secondary teacher) the other day if there was anything in particular that she wanted to see in our program. She said, "Well I'm from a country where children don't go to school until they're seven or eight (Finland). I'm all for play-based learning". I said, "Yes, and Finland has one of the best education systems in the world". She said that it's typical for child care centres in Finland to have a Masters qualified teacher in every room. Wow, you're probably shocked. I was. This shows how vastly far behind we are in recognising the value of young children's education and how important it is in setting them up for their future.

If we want to be where Finland is, we are the answer! We can't be led by every under-researched idea that every person who sets foot in a child care centre offers up to us. We have to be the advocates for play-based learning. We shouldn't feel that we need to change to fit in with school. We have to be the example that shows schools that they need to change. Societal, political and economic factors influence school constructs and curriculum. When society develops the understanding of how a change in the education system will benefit it as a whole, then the education system will change. Change takes time, but we don't have to wait for it. We have the understanding now. Let's use it, share it and fight for it.

Critical and creative thinking

How important are critical and creative thinking?

The answer: Hugely important! It's my need to question everything that drives this blog. It's like a feast set before me from which I can taste and reject at will. Critical and creative thinking allow the opportunity for endless possibilities to come into view and to be made real.

Critical and creative thinking feature prominently in the new Australian Curriculum where they are seen as different, but inseparable. School is gearing up to face the future and it's not only going to be about technology, and collaborative learning and working environments, it's also going to be about critical and creative thinking. I think critical and creative thinking are so important that I want them to underpin my program for the rest of the year.

The great thing is that young children are naturals at this. This is the time for them to start developing these habits of mind that will equip them for a challenging future in their education and in their work. Critical and creative thinking are about open-mindedness. They're about logical reasoning. They're about problem-solving, assessing, evaluating and charting new ways forward. They're about more than just answering questions. We want children to invent new questions that beg for answers. That's what critical and creative thinking are all about. What have we not yet thought about? What does the world need that it doesn't yet have?

Young children have this capacity, which makes this very exciting. They absorb facts like sponges, they process them, they question them. They constantly question, question, question. Maybe it drives you crazy. The thing is, if we can grab onto this and nurture it and keep it as part of their everyday thinking, then we are halfway there. Children will carry it with them going forward.

I've seen a strong musical interest with my four year olds, so I've decided to use this as the beginning of our journey to becoming more effective critical and creative thinkers. I'm going to encourage them to make their own instruments. The instruments are available all the time now. It's all about hands-on engagement and experimentation first. Then we start asking the children to think about the sounds that are made (what is happening), how they are made (how is it happening), and whether they like those sounds that are made (personal / emotional reflection). These conversations have already been happening and we've been documenting them.

When we have a really good grounding in this knowledge we will start to invent, create and problem-solve. We will experiment, we will bounce ideas off each other, we will transfer our knowledge to make decisions about which materials we will need to achieve our desired outcomes. Hopefully many new ideas for extending critical and creative thinking will emerge as we progress through the next three months. Children, are you ready to ask the 'ungoogleable questions'? There are so many out there, I can't wait!

Sunday 22 September 2013

Invisible teaching and learning

Can what is unseen be quality?

The eyes of the world stare outward, applauding the extravagant, the entertaining, the flashy or even the vulgar, seeing only what is precociously displayed in their immediate view. The thing about me though, is that I'm not that person. If only a quarter of the population value introspection and outer calm, it's easy to understand why I sometimes feel discouraged, and that I'm in the wrong profession, and that my more quiet style of interacting and facilitating learning is going unnoticed. There is however, a stronger part of me that delights in the fact that early childhood is the only time in children's lives when they can truly follow their own passions without the constraints of an enforced curriculum. It's also the only type of teaching that allows me to find the essence of what I believe is truly important and valuable in a young child's experience and education, and attempt to provide this for the children in my care.

I have said before that teaching can be intentional without being clearly visible as teaching. Interactions can seem spontaneous, but also be intentional. If I choose to spend some one-on-one time with a child, listening to what is really happening in his mind in order to attempt to assess whether his parents' concerns about his social skills are truly valid and this is not noticed, does it mean that it's not valuable? If I choose to read a book about sharks to a small group of interested children rather than to stage a whole-group performance, does this make the learning experience of lesser quality? Maybe the rest of the children have no interest in sharks, and why should they? One of them is at the construction table remembering the conversation he had with his dad while he was fixing the car. He has been waiting for days to come to kinder and test out his theories with the mobilo. Another is lost in his created world, moving his body to the Star Wars theme song, in blissful ignorance of those around him. A group of three are negotiating roles in an imaginative play scenario, discovering their own ways to compromise and resolve conflicts. Why should I force them to come and learn about sharks?

Maybe the teacher you remember is not the one who wanted to entertain herself or be the centre of attention. Maybe the one who had the most lasting impact on who you became was the one who really listened to you, who validated who you were, who allowed you the time to discover who you were, who gave you the opportunity to explore all the possibilities that were open to you. Maybe you don't remember her but she had a part in creating who you are now. Maybe you still don't know who you really are. Maybe you were always told who you needed to be and what you needed to learn. The great thing is, we don't have to be these kinds of teachers. We don't have to do anything because it's how it's always been done. As early childhood teachers we are at the head of the game, developing and refining our own learning framework through our practice, being given licence to innovate, to reflect, and to draw on the best examples from around the world.

The difficulty is making this thinking visible to those who are still looking for bells and whistles. Documentation, conversations and photos all help. Ultimately though you have to do what you believe is right whether anyone notices or not. It's a lesson I'm still struggling to learn, but I believe that the benefits to me and to the children will be worth it in the long term.