Learning by doing not telling

1. Learning by doing not telling • Investigations • Play • Projects • My contention is that when we talk about play we have a tendency not to talk about direct teaching as well. Today we will talk about both, in cahoots! • An enabling environment

2. Learning Constructivism: humans generate knowledge and meaning from their experiences • learner is complex and multidimensional • culture shapes the knowledge and truth that the learner creates • learners construct their own understanding -they do not simply mirror and reflect • motivation gained from success • multiplicity of roles for the adult and dynamic relationship between adult and child • importance of context • knowledge should be discovered as an integrated whole

3. Key ways children learn • Playing • Being with other people • Being active • Exploring new things and experiences • Talking to themselves • Communicating about what they are doing with someone who responds to their ideas • Representing ideas and experiences • Meeting physical and mental challenges • Being shown how to do things • Practicing, repeating, applying skills • Having fun

4. Thinking about our pedagogy • ‘Effective Early Years practitioners will organise the time, space and activities in the daily routine to reflect the overall combination which best supports children’s well-being and learning’ • Learning, playing and interacting (2009) Crown

5. Learning, playing and interacting (2009) Crown • Role as educators is to interact with children and design the environment and program in such ways as to promote learning and development in the the best possible context to achieve those ends.

6. Play in the Victorian framework • Play is essential for its ability to stimulate and integrate a wide range of children’s intellectual, physical, social and creative abilities. Active engagement with, and attunement to children in their play extends and supports their learning. (p.g. 12) • Gradual shift from free play to more structured learning.

7. What is play • Play engages children’s bodies, minds and emotions. In playing children can learn to interact with others and be part of a community, to experience and manage feelings, and to be in control and confident about themselves and their abilities. • Learning, Playing and Interacting – Good practice in the Early Years (2009: 11) Crown • Grappling with the concept of play can be analogised to trying to seize bubbles, for every time there appears to be something to hold on to, its ephemeral nature disallows it being grasped. • Moyles (1994) The Excellence of play • Tendency to describe play in terms of outcomes, what is made possible by play, rather than what it is.

8. The same old same old • In play activities production may or may not be important; the emphasis is on children and their ownership of, and active involvement in, curriculum processes and on what they bring to learning which forms the foundations of knowledge, skills and understanding- all of which appear to effectively place play in direct confrontation with the current model of the curriculum. • Janet Moyles (1994) The Excellence of Play

9. What is a play based curriculum • Seamless curriculum • Based on an idea of childhood • Relevant and meaningful learning based on open ended tasks • Hands on, creative, concrete: constructing things as well as knowledge • Link literacy and numeracy • Promotes enjoyment • Builds on children’s experiences and interests • Provides an exiting stimulating environment • Objectives for learning and development are starting points • Relevant to boys and girls • (Based on Kathy Walker, 2007)

10. What does a play based environment enable children to do? • Construct knowledge, experimenting with language and deeply engaging in topics • Develop physically, intellectually and socially • Be able to think in abstract ways • Engage in exploring, problem solving, logical thinking, evaluation and higher order thinking skills • Develop literacy and numeracy skills in real contexts • Be inventive, flexible and engaged • Apply knowledge and understanding in real contexts • Be in control, resilient and positive about learning • Develop interests

11. Enabling Environments- The 3rd educator • Sustained time to develop child-initiated activities • Arranging, resourcing, and making time for children to make free use of rich indoor and outdoor spaces • Observing children as a natural part of all normal activity • Interpreting children’s actions and words to try to understand the child’s thinking and learning • Being sensitive to the child’s thinking and learning when deciding when to interact and when to value the child’s independent activity • Joining in play and child-initiated activity following children’s agendas • Scaffolding children’s learning through talk, discussing strategies and ideas, suggesting possibilities and modelling approaches • Providing brief, well-planned focused learning opportunities in response to observed interests, learning and development

12. Indoors • Access to equipment and defined areas • Welcoming and homely- individual spaces • Designed and constructed • Dramatic play- defined space with resources • Sensory play (play dough, clay, mud, sand, water) • Construction and collage • Writing and reading contexts both discrete and embedded • Computers and technology across the curriculum • Areas for whole class, group, paired or one-to-one work • Not dominated by tables and chairs

13. Outdoors • What’s inside can be outside too • Tables, chairs and seating • Painting • Nature area • Woodwork bench • Numeracy and Literacy contexts • Activities to support physical development

15. Practitioners role in child initiated activity and play • maintain their focus on learning • offer assistance and support as needed to help children to be successful • ensure that the learning environment offers a range of stimulating open-ended materials, outdoors and indoors • ensure that children have sustained time to develop their activities • encourage children to use the language of learning • use a problem-solving approach to resolving conflicts or behavioural issues • observe children’s activities carefully, trying to discover what the child is thinking about and learning and the goals of the play

16. Joining in play • Observe first: find out what the children are playing, and what are their roles and intentions • Do you need to enter the play and why • Try to play on the children’s terms by taking on a role that they suggest, and following children’s instructions. • Offer your own ideas when you are sure that they are consistent with the flow of the play. • Avoid going into closed questioning (‘How many? What colour? What size?’) • Try not to direct the play to your own learning objectives or assessment agenda.