Nursery World - Just a thought

Practitioners need to consider how their practice stimulates children's thinking and allows opportunities to observe the evidence for it Why is there currently such a huge interest in young children's thinking? Possibly because early years professionals recognise that a heavy focus on content and assessing knowledge is not the way forward. We can plan and implement a Foundation Stage curriculum, but we cannot ensure that children learn unless they are actively engaged, exercising choices, making decisions and offering their thoughts and views.

Why is there currently such a huge interest in young children's thinking? Possibly because early years professionals recognise that a heavy focus on content and assessing knowledge is not the way forward. We can plan and implement a Foundation Stage curriculum, but we cannot ensure that children learn unless they are actively engaged, exercising choices, making decisions and offering their thoughts and views.

When this happens, children are likely to be motivated and challenged, and so invest their energies in learning. The result is genuine intellectual growth and progress, as opposed to children simply knowing about things.

Good thinking in the early years is also fundamental to achievement later in school and in life. To learn to write clearly, children must be able to think clearly. Moreover, for adults, clear, hard thinking is required to take advantage of options in life and adopt a considered lifestyle.

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