Features

Learning and Development: Child-initiated Learning - Like bees, not butterflies

Children learn best when engaged in something important to them, say Ros Bayley and Lynn Broadbent.

This is a true story. Ravi wasn't known for being talkative. In fact, it would be more accurate to say that his reticence to engage in any form of conversation with either children or adults was causing considerable concern.

All efforts by nursery staff to engage him seemed doomed to failure, until one lunchtime when his key worker returned from the local market carrying a plastic bag. The children implored her to let them see what was inside. Obligingly, she opened the bag to reveal the Spiderman figure she had bought for her son's birthday.

It was then that Ravi leapt to his feet and proceeded to give the assembled company a blow-by-blow account of the life history of Spiderman. In the next five minutes he spoke more than he had in the entire time he had been attending the setting.

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