Learning & Development: How Children Learn: Part 1 - In the process

Early years practitioners are eagerly awaiting the final publication of the revised Early Years Foundation Stage, which the DfE has promised will be available by April 2012. The new document will be the culmination of lengthy consultations, calls for evidence and debates about how best to structure and support the learning and development of children from birth to five.

It also coincides with the declaration of a Government policy that keeps the now renamed 'Foundation Years' at the heart of their intentions.

The most recent DfE response, published in December, provides a number of reassurances - about the definition of 'school readiness', the 'simplification' of the assessment process and the reduction in bureaucracy and paperwork. It also provides an additional opportunity to comment on the further revisions to the early learning goals (ELGs), having taken into account the views expressed in the consultation and maintaining the commitment to 'reduce' the number of ELGs from 69 to 17.

However, also nestled within Dame Clare Tickell's review of the EYFS, and now apparently wholeheartedly accepted by the DfE, is an aspect that has a huge potential to transform practice, empower learners and acknowledge the professional expertise of early years practitioners.

The 'Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning' were introduced by Dame Clare to ensure that 'All early years practitioners... understand the different ways in which children learn, in order to provide effective support' (The Early Years, page 27). She goes on to state that these describe how, rather than what, children learn.

This distinction is a highly significant, one as it separates the idea of 'content' from that of 'process'. It separates the idea of curriculum, knowledge and skills, from the idea of understanding, applying and using them.

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

Of course the curriculum - the body of knowledge and skills described by the ELGs - is of critical importance. As a society, as a community, our responsibility is to give children the knowledge and skills they will need to be successful in the world they live in. The curriculum defines what we value and what we think is important, so this 'body of knowledge and skills' needs to be 'known' by children as they develop. However, on its own this is not enough.

Curriculum knowledge without understanding, without the ability to use it, becomes just 'stuff' - things that children can recite or produce without knowing why or what for.

Equally relevant is the fact that all curricula are historically, culturally and politically defined. The curriculum changes through time and through what is considered to be important or necessary. Take, for example, ICT. As ICT skills have gradually become a necessity of modern life, so ICT has moved from having no place to becoming an integral part of any responsible curriculum.

But the way in which children learn, and the means by which they process information, acquire knowledge, rehearse and master skills, make sense of their world and express themselves, do not change; these are universal traits of early learning.

It is precisely these traits that are described by the characteristics. By addressing them, we have the opportunity to truly empower children as confident, creative lifelong learners. If we focus on the how as well as the what, children will have the capacity to be flexible with their knowledge and skills, be able to adapt new knowledge and be prepared for whatever the future world might bring.

STRENGTH AND STATUS

What will also give strength and status to the characteristics of effective teaching and learning is the proposal (highly likely to form part of the new EYFS) that practitioners will need to provide information around them as part of the new EYFS Profile. The intention of this is that it will inform incumbent Y1 teachers of the kinds of and learning skills that these children have and will inform future support and interaction.

There are significant implications for the professionalism of early years practitioners. What practitioners do every day changes lives and possibilities. It is now widely accepted that early learning is a period of rapid growth and, therefore, the practitioners who work with the youngest children are highly influential on the kinds of learner, and indeed people, that these children are going to become. So, getting this process right is critically important. It requires practitioners being confident and self-assured about what they do.

In this series of articles, I will be exploring three aspects of the characteristics of effective teaching and learning. as identified in the Tickell review. These are:

• Playing and Exploring

• Active Learning

• Creating and Thinking Critically

Although there will be inevitable overlaps between them, I shall be examining the nature and significance of each of these characteristics in turn, considering what they might look like in practice and exploring the implications they hold for everyday practice and provision.

PLAYING AND EXPLORING

'Play' is a very small word for a very big concept. It encapsulates a vast range of behaviours, types of activity and approaches. We use the phrase 'learning through play' as a touchstone in the early years, a non-negotiable principle of how we work with children and support their learning development and understanding. And rightly so; the importance of play is extensively evidenced in research, and it helps protect children from the worst excesses of inappropriate and premature over-formalisation.

The current EYFS refers to the delivery of 'planned purposeful play' as a key means of implementation. However, the Tickell review notes that there is confusion about what this means and that there is also widespread confusion and misinterpretation in actual practice.

Identifying 'playing and exploring' as one of the three Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning will cement its importance and provide starting points for clarification.

It is through play that children learn vital aspects about themselves as learners and develop this understanding in order to become skilled and confident. In their play, they make sense of the knowledge and skills that they have by taking what they know, or have been taught, and applying it to their own interests, driven by their own motivations and immersed in their own fascinations. This is often generically described as their 'self-initiated activities'.

In their play, children assimilate their learning into their everyday experience so that they know what to do with it and what it is for, how it can be used and how it can be useful and meaningful. In their play children can take risks, make mistakes, try things out, explore the possibilities and qualities of what they know; they can adapt and change things, express ideas, experiment, represent, construct, and tell stories.

In this process they are not limited simply to specific areas of the curriculum; these will all appear, disappear and then reappear as the activity evolves and changes. As learners they are interested in the idea, the challenge and the objective and will call on anything and everything that will enable it to happen, be achieved or be resolved. The openness of this, and the limitlessness that defines it, makes play crucial in making sense of what has been learned.

The important role of play is not necessarily to learn 'new' curriculum knowledge, but to take ownership of what they have and be able to understand what it can mean to them. Play makes sense of the curriculum; play makes it 'real' for the child, and provision for this is a critical way of empowering successful learners.

ADULT ROLE

Dame Clare's review also notes that there was particular confusion and misunderstanding about the role of the adult, with play often being seen as a 'child only' activity in which adults must not be present. This is not the case. The defining principle of play is that it is child-initiated, that the child has ownership of the project or the challenge, and that the child has chosen to do it. Therefore, the role of the adult needs to be carefully considered.

At times this role is as an active observer. At other times it becomes critical in taking the child's learning forward, engaging with the child's intrinsic motivation to provide opportunities and enhance the experience with what is possible.

Implications for practitioners

Practitioners need to remember that the characteristic of 'playing and exploring' concerns a process of learning, and so requires them to provide opportunities for children to:

• explore, investigate and experiment

• take ownership and control of developing these opportunities, following their interests and selecting carefully what they need along their own individual journey.

It is also important for practitioners to realise that there is no 'formula' for this learning, no ratio or any template. All children and all situations will be individual and specific. Different children will require a different kind of support, depending on what best motivates and inspires them. Different situations will give rise to different approaches that practitioners will use; each interaction will require a carefully considered decision on what is possible and what is appropriate.

The idea of 'learning through play' depends on using skilled practitioner judgement to allow opportunities to develop, to support children where appropriate, to scaffold ideas and enhance experiences through questions, suggestions, ideas and conversations. Sometimes the intervention will be crucial to enable the learning to develop, sometimes the best course of action will be for the practitioner to observe what is happening and allow the child to work through the situation themselves. Only the practitioner can make this judgement, through their knowledge of the child, their understanding of how children develop and their knowledge of the curriculum and the 'body of knowledge' that children need to explore.

KEY CONSIDERATIONS FOR SUPPORTING 'PLAYING AND EXPLORING'

Environment

The learning environment needs to be set up so that play can happen spontaneously and children can follow their interests independently and intensively. This will enable them to use their skills and knowledge to support their learning and understanding.

The dictionary definition of 'explore' is 'to search, examine closely' or 'to travel with the view of making a discovery'. The environment in the setting needs to be able to achieve this, and this means that:

• tools, equipment and resources need to be accessible for children, clearly labelled and appropriately stored

• there needs to be an ethos or 'permission' that these can be used in different ways, so that there are no artificial limitations on what they can be used for. There are safety limits to this, of course; but, for example, why can't the playdough be used in the role play as pretend food? Why can't the mark-making materials find themselves in the construction area being used to make a sign?

• Children also need the time to explore and play in depth; this means flexibility with schedules, timetables and use of the environment. If children come to expect a 'stop/start' experience, they will not feel confident enough to explore things in the depths that will really make a difference to their understanding.

Knowledge of children

The practitioner is the expert on the children in their setting and on what their development and learning needs are.

• Using ongoing observations and assessments will provide the practitioner with the information they need to make judgements about what that is and how best to approach it. Remember that these will not always need to be recorded or documented. As a practitioner, daily interaction with children provides them with a vast well of knowledge about all aspects of their personality, their likes, dislikes, friendship groups and preferred ways of working.

• Children are unique and they respond to different things at different times in different ways, so practitioners will need to use their knowledge of what inspires and works for the children who they know and work with. Some children respond enthusiastically to a direct challenge and will work independently to resolve or address it. Other children need 'emotional anchorage'2, an adult nearby, for security, perhaps providing encouragement and praise. It is practitioners themselves who will need to decide what is the most appropriate in each individual situation

Professional judgement

• Based on their knowledge of the children in their setting, practitioners should not be afraid to use their intuition in deciding whether to observe and let children's play develop, or to interact when a moment of possibility emerges; this could be as simple as making a suggestion, asking an open-ended question or demonstrating a skill.

• There will be occasions when children will need to be shown how to use particular equipment or resources and the possibilities that are available. By doing this at a sensitive, appropriate and considered moment, practitioners empower children to be able to then use it in different ways to support their own learning and understanding. With a new skill, or being introduced to a new resource, the play will evolve and develop at a higher level.

Planning

Although practitioners cannot plan children's play, as it is a self-motivated activity, they can and should plan for it, and opportunities for children to play and explore their ideas by:

• identifying different possibilities in areas of provision which will enable practitioners to gain an informed overview of how children are using resources

• ensuring that there are always opportunities for children to self-initiate activities and that all areas of provision are always available to them. This familiarity and predictability is vital for children to have the confidence to try out ideas

• enhancing areas of provision and adding specific resources, which will raise the level and quality of play as children will want to explore how these can be used

• ensuring that planning reflects opportunities to teach children new skills and knowledge that they can use and explore. A carefully focused adult-directed activity will enable children to use this in their play and take ownership of its possibilities.

Assessment

Although the characteristics will run throughout the EYFS, they will come into especially sharp focus during reception. Within the revised EYFS, there will be a requirement to provide information about individual children's characteristics of learning as part of the new EYFS Profile. This will not be 'measured' in any way, nor will the information be collected by local authorities as with the ELG attainment. The characteristics will need to be considered carefully by practitioners and then the incumbent Year 1 teachers, who will be expected to use the information to continue supporting the child's learning and development.

It is important to distinguish this aspect of assessment from assessing the curriculum/ELGs. 'The learning characteristics represent processes rather than outcomes. This has implications for assessment. How a child exhibits these characteristics could be observed within formative assessment, in order to better understand the child and support their development as learners; it is not considered appropriate to specify particular ages or stages for the development of learning characteristics, which apply alike to children and adults, nor to assess the extent to which these have been achieved in a summative form. Early learning goals, therefore, have not been developed for the characteristics of learning in the proposed model.' 3

For the characteristic of 'playing and exploring', practitioners will have to consider examples of children demonstrating how they learn in the following.

Finding out and exploring

• Which areas of provision and what kinds of activity is the child drawn to?

• Do they prefer to work in a group or on their own?

• Do they start activities themselves, or join an existing one with a group?

• Do they 'think aloud', describing what they do?

Using what they know in their play

• In their play, do they draw in experiences from home/outside school?

• Do they act out situations in the role play area?

• Are they confident in finding tools, materials and resources they need for a particular project or idea?

Being willing to have a go

• What levels of persistence to they have? Do they give up at the first hurdle, or continue until the challenge is solved?

• Are they eager to try new ideas, or do they stay with what they are familiar with?

• Are they able to talk about and review what they have done if things haven't worked?

• Do they work best with continual support, or do they like to get on with activities themselves?

'PLAYING AND EXPLORING'

- IN PRACTICE

Molly has chosen to go to the Art and Craft area of provision, where paint is available and children are being encouraged to use their hands and fingers to create pictures and patterns. Molly does this, carefully painting her hand and then pressing it down on the paper. However, when she lifts her hand back up again, she becomes more interested in the paint that is left on her hand and starts looking at it carefully, moving it around with her other hand and watching the texture change, particularly as it begins to dry and get flaky.

She adds more paint and continues to mix it on her hand, forgetting about the paper but becoming fascinated with the feel of it on her skin and the way it changes. She carries on doing this for some time, talking about how it feels and what happens to the paint when it changes on her skin.

Through this brief, simple activity, Molly demonstrates key aspects of 'Playing and Exploring', in the way she:

• chooses an area she is interested in and is keen to try something new and different

• is open to this new experience and then 'subverts' it by following her own interest, investigating the property of the material rather than making a representation

• carries on doing this and is happy to talk about what she is finding out

• spends time doing this, following her fascination and trying out different ways of changing the material.

PLAYING AND EXPLORING - ENGAGEMENT

'Play is the prime context for development.' (Evangelou, 2009, page 4) Alongside development in all areas of learning, which is enhanced in play, this strand particularly highlights the agency of the child in actively constructing knowledge and understanding through playful qualities of engaging with their environment and with others.

• Finding out and exploring is concerned with children's open-ended, hands-on experiences which result from innate curiosity and provide the raw sensory material from which children build concepts, test ideas, and find out.

• Using what they know in their play describes the importance of play as a context for children to bring together their current understandings, flexibly combining, refining and exploring their ideas in imaginative ways. Representing experiences through imaginative play supports development of narrative thought, the ability to see from other perspectives, and symbolic thinking (Evangelou, 2009, page 78).

• Being willing to have a go refers to the role of play in children finding an interest, initiating activities, seeking challenge, having a 'can do' orientation, being willing to take a risk in new experiences, and developing the view of failures as learning opportunities.1

REFERENCES

Dame Clare Tickell (2010) The Early Years: Foundations for life, health and learning - An Independent Report on the Early Years Foundation Stage to Her Majesty's Government. DfE

1: Annex 8 - The Early Years: Foundations for life health and learning. Dame Clare Tickell (DfE, 2011)

2: Eleanor Goldschmied, Infants at work (1989, video)

3: Annex 8 - The Early Years: Foundations for life health and learning. Dame Clare Tickell (DfE, 2011)

FURTHER READING

• The National Strategies, Early Years (2009) Learning, Playing and Interacting - Good practice in the Early Years Foundation Stage. DfES

• Nancy Stewart (2011) How Children Learn - The characteristics of effective early learning. Early Education

• Janet Moyles (1994) The Excellence of Play. Open University Press

• Janet Moyles (1989) Just Playing? Role and status of play in early childhood education. Open University Press

• Tina Bruce (1987) Early Childhood Education. Hodder Education

• 'The Practitioner Role', a four-part series on supporting young children's learning by Julie Fisher, Nursery World, 23 January, 20 February, 19 March and 16 April 2012.

Jan Dubiel is national development manager of training and resource centre Early Excellence in Huddersfield