One of the most significant findings is that 'sustained shared thinking' is vital for effective early years practice. Yet the open-ended questioning by practitioners which is part of this is being used far too little. The settings involved in REPEY had already been identified as among the best by the Effective Provision of Pre-School Education project, but observations of staff-child interactions found that open-ended questions made up only 5.1 per cent of the questioning used.
Children's language development is already causing great concern, and if they are not encouraged to respond to open questions there will be an adverse effect on their language, cognitive and problem-solving skills.
Children need to be helped to become keen and curious learners, who will move on to seeking their own answers.
In our curriculum and activity articles, we aim to give suggestions for open-ended questions that all practitioners can use in their work. This is something that must become recognised as indispensable to good early years practice.
