Nursery World - Stick at it (1)

As part of our ongoing series on children's dispositions, Anne O'Connor discusses how to motivate children to work at tasks for their own sake rather than adult approval. As adults, we know that taking risks and making mistakes are all part of learning something new. That's why it can be difficult for some of us to try new things - the fear of failure makes us resist putting ourselves in that situation. Our early childhoods, and particularly our experiences in education, are likely to have shaped our disposition to persevere in the face of difficulty and uncertainty.

As adults, we know that taking risks and making mistakes are all part of learning something new. That's why it can be difficult for some of us to try new things - the fear of failure makes us resist putting ourselves in that situation. Our early childhoods, and particularly our experiences in education, are likely to have shaped our disposition to persevere in the face of difficulty and uncertainty.

Margaret Carr, in Assessment in Early Childhood Settings (see Further reading), has defined five domains (areas) of learning disposition, of which 'persisting with difficulty or uncertainty' is one of them.

Each domain can be looked at in three parts:

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