Children develop and learn more rapidly than at any other

30/09/2013

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Early Learning Consultancy

tailored early years training and support www.earlylearningconsultancy.co.uk

4Children Conference 10.10.13

Let’s talk quality! Making early years quality achievable for all

Ensuring Quality

Helen Moylett



Children develop and learn more rapidly than at any other

stage of life

Effective early years practitioners use their knowledge about

child development and their observations of children to inform

and improve practice and provision through positive

relationships and enabling environments

First Five Years



Children are born ready, able and eager to learn.

They actively reach out to interact with other people, and in the world around them.

Development is not an automatic process, however.

It depends on each unique child having opportunities to interact in positive relationships and enabling environments.

Development Matters in the Early Years Foundation Stage



The adult role within

Positive Relationships

and Enabling

Environments affects

both how and what a

child learns.

The

characteristics

and the areas

of learning

describe how

and what a

child is learning



Pedagogy • Rooted in values and beliefs about what we want

for children

• The understanding of how children learn and develop

• The practices through which we can enhance that process

• Supported by knowledge, theory and experience

adapted from Learning, Playing and Interacting



If we want to know who

children are and what

they can do we need to

ensure we are giving

them the opportunities to

show us

http://www.earlylearningconsultancy.co.uk/






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How do children learn?



Born learners: innate psychological drives

Relatedness

Competence

Autonomy

IT’S A LEARNER!



Everyone is born with an intense drive to

learn. Infants stretch their skills daily.

Not just ordinary skills, but the most

difficult tasks of a lifetime, like learning to

walk and talk. Babies don't worry about

making mistakes or humiliating

themselves. They never decide it’s too

hard or not worth the effort. They walk,

they fall, they get up. They just barge

forward.

……What could put an end to this

exuberant learning?

Carol Dweck (Mindset 2006)

Born learners


tailored early years training and support www.earlylearningconsultancy.co.uk 10 P.O. Svanberg Sept 2010

Sensitive periods

• Biological development has critical periods

• “Sensitive” periods are important in human brain development

• Experiences can lead to enhancement or reduction of particular brain functions or later brain development - “programming”

‘Sensitive periods’ in early brain development

Binocular vision

0 1 2 3 6 5 4

High

Low

Habitual ways of responding Language learning Emotional control

Peer social skills

Central auditory system

P.O. Svanberg Sept 2010 Early Learning Consultancy


‘They begin at birth and are lifelong characteristics

which need to be fostered and developed during the

early years as they are

critical for building

children’s capacity

for future learning.’ Clare Tickell






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‘Research conducted over the last 10 years has

suggested that

a major source of the differences between the

highest- and lowest-achieving children in school

settings is the degree to which they become

regulators of their own learning.’

Martha Bronson

Characteristics of effective learning Self-regulated learners – skill and will

…and thrill!



In planning and guiding children’s activities,

practitioners must reflect on the different ways

that children learn and reflect these in their

practice. Three characteristics of effective

teaching and learning are:

EYFS Statutory Framework 1.10

Playing and exploring

Active learning

Creating and thinking critically



Social and

emotional

development

Well-being

Playing and exploring engagement

Ready

Active learning motivation

Willing

Creating and thinking

critically thinking

Able

Characteristics of effective learning



understanding

PSED

managing

behaviour and

feelings

mo

vin

g a

nd

handlin

g A

unique

child

Cre

ati

ng

an

d

Th

inkin

g C

riti

call

y

Havi

ng o

wn ideas

Usin

g w

hat

they

alr

eady

know

to

learn

new

thin

gs

Choosin

g

ways

to d

o t

hin

gs

A

unique

child





Self-regulating learners

Emotional self-regulation Cognitive self-regulation

Social and

emotional

development

Well-being

Playing and exploring engagement

Active learning motivation

Creating and thinking

critically thinking



‘What is this? What does it do?’

• sensory investigation, seeking knowledge

‘What if…? What else…?’

• using symbols, flexibility of thought

• theory of mind

Finding out and exploring

Playing with what they know

Being willing to

‘ ‘have a go’ • initiating activities

• seeking challenge, taking

risks

• ‘can do’ attitude








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Unstructured

Play and playfulness

Play without adult support

Child-initiated play

Adult support for enabling environment, and sensitive interaction

Focused learning

Adult-guided, playful experiential activities

Highly structured

Adult-directed, little or no play



Active Learning

Being involved and concentrating

Keeping on trying

Enjoying achieving what they set out to do



Creative thinking

Critical thinking

Having their own ideas

Making links

Choosing ways to do things



How can educators help children to be

self-regulated learners?

• Choice

• Time

• Space

• Open-ended plentiful resources

• Freedom to follow ideas

• Warmth and responsiveness

• Sensitive support for play, exploration and thinking

• Being playful

• Providing challenge

• Giving encouragement to keep wondering

• Thinking and talking together

• Avoiding anxiety about an end product or external

expectations





If we want to know who

children are and what they

can do we need to ensure

we are giving them the

opportunities to show us







Documents

Children develop and learn more rapidly than at any other