Skill, w Ski , will a and t nd thr hrill Thinking with Learners - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Early y Learning Consu sultancy cy

tailored early years training and support

Ski Skill, w , will a and t nd thr hrill

Thinking with Learners

Helen Moylett

Oxfordshire Headteachers Conference February 2018

Early y Learning Consu sultancy cy

tailored early years training and support

Dispositions to learn

Our habits of mind are formed as our brains and bodies develop and we come to understand

• urselves as learners.

The role of adults in this process is key. When children are left to their own devices in a stimulating learning environment most will learn through playing and exploring - but this is not enough

Early y Learning Consu sultancy cy

tailored early years training and support

Te Teaching to Learn

When we work with children, when we play and experiment and talk with them, when we watch them and everything they do, we are witnessing a fascinating and inspiring process: we are seeing them

• learn. Through our observations in everyday practice

we think about what we see, and try to understand it…..and then put our understanding to good use’.

Drummond (1993:13)

Early y Learning Consu sultancy cy

tailored early years training and support

I rarely paused to listen….

..I saw myself as the bestower of place and belonging,

• f custom and curriculum, too often ignoring the

delicate web being constructed by the children in their constant exchange of ideas the moment I stopped talking and they resumed playing.

Paley (2004:19)

Early y Learning Consu sultancy cy

tailored early years training and support

‘You read in the books the fire alarm went off. Shouldn’t it turn on if there is a fire?’

(Ewan – nearly 5yrs old)

quoted in Chilvers (2013)

Early y Learning Consu sultancy cy

tailored early years training and support

Teaching v Play?

Playful, everyday activities are just as much about teaching as learning the names of shapes or remembering the sounds that letters represent. Setting up teaching and play as opposites is a false dichotomy.

(Teaching and play in the early years – a balancing act? Ofsted 2015 p5)

Early y Learning Consu sultancy cy

tailored early years training and support

Self-regulating learners

Emotional self-regulation Cognitive self-regulation

positive dispositions to learning plus awareness and control of one’s own thinking.

• Positive feelings about
• neself as a learner
• Sense of well-being
• Ability to manage one’s

feelings and behaviour.

Playing and exploring

engagement

Active learning

motivation

Creating and thinking critically

thinking

Skill Will Thrill

Early y Learning Consu sultancy cy

tailored early years training and support

‘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

Early y Learning Consu sultancy cy

tailored early years training and support

Being involved and concentrating Keeping on trying Enjoying achieving what they set out to do

Early y Learning Consu sultancy cy

tailored early years training and support

Being involved and concentrating

Involvement means that there is intense mental activity, that a person is functioning at the very limits of his or her capabilities, with energy that comes from intrinsic sources. If we want deep level learning, we cannot do without involvement.

• - Ferre Laevers

Early y Learning Consu sultancy cy

tailored early years training and support

Intrinsic motivation

Enjoying achieving what they set out to do they set out to do

§ More involved in learning § Develop deeper understanding § Use strategies more effectively § Apply understanding in new situations § Have more enjoyment § Gain greater knowledge § More persistent

Early y Learning Consu sultancy cy

tailored early years training and support

Creative thinking Having their own ideas Making links Choosing ways to do things

play

What if? What else?

planning strategies checking

Early y Learning Consu sultancy cy

tailored early years training and support

The Self-Regulated Learner

§ is intrinsically motivated, seeks challenge, persists when facing difficulties and interprets failures as opportunities for learning

§ has a repertoire of strategies for thinking, and for doing things

§ uses strategies to suit particular tasks § plans, monitors how things are going changes strategies when necessary

Early y Learning Consu sultancy cy

tailored early years training and support

Sustained shared thinking

Siraj and Sylva (2004) investigated developmental outcomes for children in UK preschools.

Best developmental outcomes where there were frequent communicative interactions that showed ‘sustained shared thinking’ :

• ‘working together in an intellectual way to solve

a problem, clarify a concept or evaluate

• activities. It requires all participants to contribute

to the thinking and that the thinking must be extended’

This was found in only 15% of settings

Early y Learning Consu sultancy cy

tailored early years training and support

Playing and exploring Active learning Creating and thinking critically

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h e s i s e , d e s c r i b e , e x p l a i n , c l a r i f y , n e g

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e n g a g e d thinking motivated ‘I am interested not just in what you know, but especially in how you think.

Let’s talk about it.’

Early y Learning Consu sultancy cy

tailored early years training and support

Early y Learning Consu sultancy cy

tailored early years training and support

‘If teachers want their young pupils to have robust dispositions to investigate, hypothesize, experiment, conjecture and so forth, they might consider making their

• wn such intellectual dispositions more visible to the

children.’

(Katz 1995 : 65).

Don’t pretend think – be a thinker!

Early y Learning Consu sultancy cy

tailored early years training and support

• We learn what we live –ensuring opportunities for

children to use their ‘learning muscles’

• Scaffolding approaches to learning – modelling,

suggesting, demonstrating, discussing

Pl Planni nning ng to suppo support chi hildr dren’ n’s s learni ning ng po power

Early y Learning Consu sultancy cy

tailored early years training and support

Children and adults

§ thinking § predicting § testing § solving § reviewing § evaluating § choosing ……

Cr Creative and cri ritical thinkers

… recalling, planning ahead, speculating, reasoning, explaining, justifying, making connections, imagining, reflecting, comparing, sorting out feelings…

Early y Learning Consu sultancy cy

tailored early years training and support

Questions……..…………and Comments

What’s that? I can see…

(describe)

I think…

(share ideas)

What noise does it make? What colour is it ? I wonder.....

(express curiosity)

Oooooo....

(social oil)

He might…

(speculate)

Let’s think what to try...

(discuss strategies)

So you think that…

(clarify)

I’d really like to know about this…

(be a learner)

Early y Learning Consu sultancy cy

tailored early years training and support

Teacher: Wow! Look at your shoes! That is so cool. They light up when you step down. Child 1: Yes, they do this. [Jumps up and down several times] Teacher: How does that happen? How does it light up? Child 1: Because they are new. Teacher: Um. Mine are new too but they don’t light up. Child 2: No, because they light up when you step down on them. [Steps down hard several times] Teacher: [Steps down hard several times] That’s funny. Mine don’t light up when I step down. Child 3: No, no, no, you have to have these holes [points to the holes] Teacher: [Pointing to the holes in her own shoe] But I have holes and mine still don’t light up, and Josh has holes in his trainers too and his do not light up either. I wonder why? Child 4: I think you need batteries. Kids, you need batteries. Child 1: Yeah, you need batteries to make them work. [Thinks for a while]. But I did not see batteries when I put my toes in. Child 4: I think they are under the toes. Child 2: I can’t feel the batteries under my toes. Teacher: I wonder how we can find out about this? (Sylva 2013)

Early y Learning Consu sultancy cy

tailored early years training and support

Shared control

Neither directive nor “anything-goes” atmosphere. Instead, a supportive climate in which adults and children are partners throughout the day.

HighScope

Early y Learning Consu sultancy cy

tailored early years training and support

Sel Self-re regulated, no not t othe thers-re regulated

Our role is to help children develop the ability to manage their

• feelings
• thinking
• actions

This takes lots of practice!

Early y Learning Consu sultancy cy

tailored early years training and support

Plan Plan, do, revie view

Education Endowment Fund: ‘Teaching approaches which encourage learners to plan, monitor and evaluate their learning have very high potential, but require careful implementation. Have you taught pupils explicit strategies on how to plan, monitor and evaluate specific aspects of their learning? Have you given them opportunities to use them with support and then independently?’

Early y Learning Consu sultancy cy

tailored early years training and support

HighScope

Planning: encourages children to connect their interests with purposeful actions Working: encourages children to focus attentively on both play and problem solving

Children immediately begin what they have chosen to do with the appropriate materials and people, and continue until they have completed their plans or changed them. Adults pay close attention and move easily among the children — observing, supporting, and assisting them as needed.

Recalling: helps children reflect on, understand, and build on their actions

Early y Learning Consu sultancy cy

tailored early years training and support

Plan Plannin ing

Teaching how to plan : Have you asked pupils to identify the different ways that they could plan (general strategies) and then how best to approach a particular task (specific technique)?

Do Doin ing

Teaching how to monitor: Have you asked pupils to consider where the task might go wrong? Have you asked the pupils to identify the key steps for keeping the task on track? (EEF)

Early y Learning Consu sultancy cy

tailored early years training and support

Pl Playful adults and children en en engaged ed in su sustained sh shared thinki king

• sharing ideas and thinking, including ‘out-loud thinking’
• problem-solving together
• comments and open-ended questions that invite a range of

responses

• constructive conversations and representation of thinking

Early y Learning Consu sultancy cy

tailored early years training and support

The fact of the matter is this: when students are helped to become more confident and articulate about the process of learning itself, they do better, not worse, on the tests. Young people who have been helped to know how to think and persevere take these strengths with them into the examination hall, as well as onto the sports field or the concert stage. With a hundred small adjustments to the milieu of schools and classrooms, we can produce young people who are more confident, capable and enthusiastic about engaging intelligently with difficult things. When we articulate the virtues of uncertainty in clear and concrete terms, we find we can teach in a way that prepares young people both for a life of tests and the tests of life. Claxton (2012) https://aeon.co/essays/a-life-of-tests-is-no- preparation-for-the-tests-of-life