Nursery World - EYFS Training, Part 10 - Sustained shared thinking

Children need time to think and lead. This important concept requires training, says Mary Evans.

The early years sector is awash with jargon and buzz words, and while some of the new fads in terminology seem to add little to practitioners' knowledge and understanding, there is one phrase which is of fundamental importance - sustained shared thinking.

Although the term first came into common currency in the work of Professor Iram Siraj-Blatchford and her colleagues on the Researching Effective Pedagogy in the Early Years (REPEY) study, most early years theorists value the adult-child interaction.

REPEY defines sustained shared thinking as an episode in which two or more individuals 'work together' in an intellectual way to solve a problem, clarify a concept, evaluate activities or extend a narrative. Both parties must contribute to the thinking, and it must develop and extend.

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