"If the school for young children has to be preparatory and provide continuity with the elementary school, then we as educators are already prisoners of a model that ends up as a funnel. I think, moreover, that a funnel is a detestable object, and it is not much appreciated"
Loris Malaguzzi
Early childhood environments are extraordinarily important spaces where children are able to explore safely the world in which they live. They are places full of excitement, challenge and flow, where each child's innate capacities can gently unfold. The environment isn't just made up of the external objects, however, but is the sum of the energetic qualities of every person within it, which is why one person who is angry or sad can so quickly impact on a whole room.
We know that young children are enormously sensitive to the energetic dispositions and non-verbal signals that they receive from others. In fact, these frequently impact on them far more powerfully that the spoken word. They read, therefore, the unsaid just as clearly as the said.
There are certain things that happen as soon as we alter a free-flowing, spontaneously creative environment to become one that is controlled, however well-meaning, by targets and outcomes.
1. The adults in the environment immediately have their focus and deep engagement with the children eroded. Instead of fully 'being in the moment' with the child, their attention is split between the child and a possible outcome that can be ticked.
2. The adults, both consciously and unconsciously, send both verbal and non-verbal messages to the children about what has priority in the classroom.
3. The children start to move from their own natural, free-flowing areas of interest to those that they feel will make the adults happy.
4. The children 'dumb down' to expected norms, rather than freely developing their unique capacities.
5. The children increasingly equate self-worth through externally imposed levels of achievement, rather than their own natural mastery of the environment.
6. The adults increasingly equate self-worth through the achievement of ongoing targets and outcomes rather than the joy of social relationship and the excitement of mutual creativity.
7. Poorly trained practitioners accept the targets and outcomes as an accurate view of what children should achieve, and use them as checklists.
8. Experienced practitioners are demotivated by paperwork and bureaucracy that they know serves neither themselves nor the children.
In other words, both adults and children become extrinsically, rather then intrinsically, motivated. They look to what they 'should be achieving' rather than following their innate instincts - and that changes everything.
MOTIVATION
Researchers into intrinsic motivation have discovered an underlying similarity that is common to all intrinsically rewarding activities: they give the participants a sense of discovery, exploration and problem solution. They also appear to need no goals or rewards external to the activity itself.
Flow occurs when the experience of learning becomes its own reward. It is when the level of challenge meets the individual's own level of skill and profound involvement and concentration is exhibited. There is also frequently a feeling of togetherness and friendship, with a consequent loss of self-centredness.
Systems, therefore, that deprive the child of intrinsic motivation tend to be those that are predominantly interested in externally predicted results and in preparation for a later stage. The criteria set by the adults in these systems increasingly dictate the learning process itself and result in the creation of ever more complex frameworks that can track the desired progress against pre-established norms. Every child is measured against the norms and is labelled accordingly.
SCHOOLIFICATION
In 2007 a study was carried by John Bennett, the main author of the OECD Studies 'Starting Strong I' and 'Starting Strong II'. Twenty of the 30 OECD member countries participated and, for the first time in history, a comparison was made of early childhood education and care models (ECEC) of the said countries, which brought a rich harvest of new insights in this area.
The study highlighted a particular difference between countries that followed what is called the 'Nordic Approach' and those that followed a 'Schoolification' or Pre-School Approach. It concluded that the former was much more attuned to the requirements of children up to six years of age (see table.)
It is easy to see where the current English focus stands, with its 69 early learning goals and over 500 developmental milestones listed by the EYFS. The original 112-page guidance document for practitioners was organised according to learning goals, and directed carers to 'look, listen and note' how children in their care behave. Even though it stated this guidance 'should not be used as checklists', at the same time it made clear that it was intended to support 'the continuous assessment that practitioners must undertake'.
And now a new publication has been issued, called Progress Matters (March 2009), that puts even more pressure on over-worked practitioners to track children's performance against the predetermined learning goals.
WORLD VIEW
This issue is simply too important not to be looked at again, even if the process is uncomfortable for those who have invested time and money in the system.
The thing that is important to realise is that we are all the result of an educational world view that has been totally focused on rational thinking and individual achievement. And that system, along with all the others that are now being seen to be dysfunctional, has not served the well-being of our society.
We have some of the unhappiest, and most socially disconnected, children in the world. Levels of childhood depression are at an all-time high and there has been an extraordinary increase in the number of children with special educational needs (1.6m pupils under 11 - an increase of 178,000 in just five years, according to the Daily Telegraph, 8 May 2009).
The single most important thing that any new government can do is to look at what part the current educational system is playing in this and then start again, with a particular focus on the foundational importance of the early years. I very much hope that early years experts and practitioners in the UK will unite to call for such a change.
Wendy Ellyatt is an independent writer and researcher specialising in the early years, and a core member of the OpenEYE Campaign. She can be contacted on wendyellyatt@googlemail.com
Early childhood education and care models
Characteristics Nordic approach Pre-school approach
Central or de- A broad central guideline Centralised development of
central approach stressing inclusion and the curriculum, stressing
democratic values, with autonomy of the child and
local development of the competition between the
curriculum by the children
teachers and the parents
Focus of the work Focus on broad develop- A focus on learning
mental goals and living standards, teachers,
together in a learning classroom environment,
community of educators preparation for school.
and peers: the competent Children can or cannot
child read
Pedagogical Broad orientations rather Often prescriptive: clear
strategy than prescribed outcomes: targets and outcomes,
play, music, arts, project detailed competencies
work, interaction with
peers and nature. The own
learning strategies of the
child are respected.
Educational goals Individual goals for each Assessments and sometimes
child are set with unobt- testing required
rusive, developmental
assessment
Learning focus Culturally valued 'topics Teaching subjects
of learning' privileged, privileged
taking into account the
interest of the child. A
holistic development of
the child, which includes
aspects like physical,
arts, social etc.
Attention to social
values.
Focus on the child A growing focus on indiv- Focus on competence in
versus focus on idual language and oral the national language,
pre-set standards competence ... and much oral, phonemic ... with
'play' reading and some formal skills in
writing writing and reading
