Learning & Development: National Strategies series - part 4 - Supporting and Extending Children's Learning

The Early Years Foundation Stage is permeated with learning. Learning, development, health and well-being go hand-in-hand as children's brains develop, making more and more connections as they grow. Young children depend on adults for their basic needs such as warmth, nourishment and attachment (see Part 1, Nursery World, 9 October 2008). The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (2005) states, 'Early attachment relationships are a crucial consideration in realising children's rights ... Babies and infants are not passive recipients of care, direction and guidance. They are active social agents, who seek protection, nurturance and understanding from parents or other caregivers, which they require for their survival, growth and well-being.'

Young children who feel confident and loved are active social beings who want to explore the immediate environment and satisfy their natural curiosity to learn from everything around them. This article explores some of the ways the EYFS supports practitioners in extending children's ability to think creatively and make sense of the world.

Active Learning

EYFS Card 4.2 Active Learning talks about how children learn best through physical and mental challenges. Active learning involves other people, objects, ideas and events that engage and involve children for sustained periods. Everyone learns better when doing something of interest, and that interest is key to the engagement and involvement that keeps everyone working at challenges. Young children need to relate their learning to their real-life experiences for it to have meaning. They also need some control over their own learning. Practitioners can support this by not being in charge of what happens all the time, but allowing children to make decisions and have genuine choices in their play.

Children do not make distinctions between play and learning. Julia Manning Morton, early years educationalist, warns that the idea that young children 'don't really concentrate' and 'just need to let off steam' may lead practitioners to make a false distinction between 'play' (running about) and 'learning' (sitting down). In fact, she goes on to say, a huge amount of learning occurs as young children move around, and they need play opportunities that support physical activity indoors and outdoors. For example:

Simon, aged three, is fascinated by dinosaurs. He lines toy ones up randomly, mixing up the different sizes. The practitioner does not tell him how to order them, but sees this as an opportunity to talk with Simon to extend his thinking about size and joins in the play. She plays alongside him and comments on what he is doing, using words like big and small, huge and tiny. Occasionally she asks open-ended questions like: 'I wonder what would happen if ...?' Consequently Simon uses his voice to make big loud sounds for the biggest dinosaur as he munches his big dinner and stomps around. In contrast, the practitioner uses a small voice as the smallest dinosaur nibbles at his small dinner and tiptoes around. Later they read 'The Three Billy Goats Gruff.'

Taking time to consider what is done to support children's learning is important to achieve active learning.

Look, listen and note

Observation tells us what children can already do and what the next steps might be in their learning (see Part 3, 11 December 2008). It can identify what is of interest to the child and what learning style is preferred. For example, do they concentrate better if the activity is physical? Do they enjoy pictures and stories? Do they prefer to be on their own or with others? Do they like being outside? These, and other questions, can be answered through observations from home and the setting and by talking with other practitioners, parents, and partner professionals.

The next step may be to leave the child to get on with what they are doing or to intervene and join in. The timing of this is important. For example:

The practitioner had been watching James, aged four, with the train track. He was alone and totally absorbed in joining the tracks. The practitioner decided she would join in. 'I wonder where the trains are going?' she said. James turns his back and continues with his play. She does not read the signs and continues: 'Oh look, this bit could go here.' James picks up the track and the train, puts them away and moves to another activity.

Practitioners learn by experience and knowledge of their children when and how to intervene. Once engaged with an activity, the next challenge is to know when to speak and when to be silent. The practitioner and the child should be partners in conversation, taking turns and leaving space for thinking. Effective practitioners listen to the children talking and follow their lead in the conversation. If they do this skilfully, children's language, ideas, thinking and understanding are extended. These moments of shared sustained thinking (EYFS card 4.3) support quality learning. Asking open-ended questions requires children to give more than a 'yes' or 'no' response. Language can also be developed through modelling or 'recasting', so when the child says, 'I sitted down', the practitioner replies, 'Yes, you sat down in the sand.'

The National Strategies Inclusion Development Programme resource has plenty of examples of this and other effective strategies for language development.

Psychologist Lev Vygotsky developed the idea of the 'zone of proximal development'. This is the space between knowing about something and not knowing. It is a more-knowledgeable other child or practitioner who can move the child's thinking and understanding through this proximal zone.

Children's learning is extended when they feel confident about pushing the boundaries of their play, using resources in different ways, moving them from one area to another - and not being constrained by artificial time constraints, routines or the weather. For example:

It is raining and water is dripping through an umbrella on to the sandpit. Two boys and a practitioner, appropriately dressed, are exploring the effect of the dripping water on to their buckets of sand (see film clip 3.3 on the EYFS website or CD-ROM).

Doing an activity such as this challenges the accepted view of how children should behave or how they should play with certain resources, toys or equipment.

Two girls, aged four, were studying some snails moving on the ground. They set up a pulley system, with their key worker's support, so a bucket with snails in it could be raised up a tall post because they wanted the snails to be able to see what they could see! This extended learning includes the mechanics of a pulley system, mapping, empathy with living creatures and collaboration.

Observing and recording the key moments provides a useful insight into a child's learning and next steps.

Every child deserves the best possible start in life and support to fulfil their potential. Many children at some time in their life need additional support to learn and develop. Observation and tracking progress helps decide when and if additional support is necessary. Early support should include families and partner professionals, and practitioners need to listen and share how best to meet the needs of the child, including calling in specialist help if needed (EYFS card 1.2 and Inclusion Development Programme p23-36).

ROLE OF THE LEADER AND MANAGER

There are many things a leader or manager can do to create the right environment for supporting and extending children's learning.

- Create a can-do culture for children and staff.

- Encourage flexible use of resources and space, so practitioners feel comfortable encouraging children to explore and be adventurous in play.

- Support a manageable system of observation and assessing children's progress, so practitioners feel they are in touch with children's development.

- Use staff supervision time and/or meetings to look at individual children's learning, showing that this aspect of the practitioner's role is valued.

- Make flexibility and observing children's learning key priorities when self-evaluating settings.

- Use visual timetables so that children can see what is going to happen.

- Lead by example in supporting and extending learning.

REFERENCES

- The Early Years Foundation Stage: setting the standards for learning, development and care for children from birth to five. DCSF, May 2008 (Ref: 00261-2008PCK-EN)

- The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (2005), Implementing Child Rights in Early Childhood, General Comment No. 7, Geneva, UN; also available online at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/crc/docs/AdvanceVersions/GeneralCom ment7 Rev1.pdf

NATIONAL STRATEGIES RESOURCES

- The Early Years Foundation Stage: setting the standards for learning, development and care for children from birth to five. DCSF, May 2008 (Ref: 00261-2008PCK-EN)

- Early Years Website: http://www.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/eyfs/ and www.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/nationalstrategies/earlyyears

- EYFS CD-ROM or website Learning and Development/Play and Exploration/Resources/Caring for under threes: play by Julia Manning Morton

- Inclusion Development Programme: Supporting children with speech, language and communication needs: Guidance for practitioners in the EYFS (Ref: booklet - 00215-2008BKT-EN)

- Materials are available at: http://www.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/nationalstrategies

- The EYFS and The Inclusion Development Programme are available to order by telephoning 0845 602 2260 and quoting the reference numbers.