Shining a New Lightonline series

Learning Outcome 4Children are confident and involved learners

2011with Sue Inglis

Growing Early Childhood

What would we notice about a child who was confident and involved in their learning?

BabyToddler

PreschoolerSchool age

Reflection time…Consider your

setting…

Children develop

Dispositions for learning

Curiosity

Cooperation

confidence

creativity

commitment

enthusiasm

Persistence

imagination

Reflexivity (reflect on their own learning)

Children develop skills and processes

for learning

Problem solving

Problem solving

Danielle poured sand into thefunnel but nothing came out.Last time she did this the sandpoured out the bottom of the funnel.

"Why won't the sand come out?"

"It's stuck"

Poking down the funnel didn't work so Danielle tried poking upthe funnel.

Success !

Learning Outcomes

1. be open to new challenges anddiscoveries

4. use play to investigate, imagine and explore ideas

4. persevere and experience the satisfaction of achievement

4. use reflective thinking to consider why things happen and what can be learnt from these experiences

Shared inquiry

Experimenting

Hypothesising

The Diary of Laura1983

(Edwards and Rinaldi 2009)

Reggio Emilia

Researching

investigating

investigating

Exploring their environment

• Part 2 of Shining a New Light no 4

Sometimes it is easier to appreciate the importance of reaching the learning outcomes when we consider

what happens to children who are not demonstrating the outcomes we have for them.

Healthy growth requires the right conditions

The seed has a lot of potential

A child is born with a lot of potential as a learner

Play is nature’s way of ensuring children learn.

What are the ideal conditions for a child to flourish into a confident and involved learner?

How can we help children to be confident and involved learners?

• Reflect on our practices• Plan learning environments• Interact to support and extend learning• Document children’s learning(Arthur 2010)

Reflect on our practices

Following the child’s interestResponsiveness to children and

CollaborationAgency

Strengths based approachFlexibility

Intentional teachingAuthentic learning

TransitionsCulture and family

Ongoing learning and reflection

ORANGE DAY!

Confident and involved learners?

Plan learning environments

Plan learning environments

Interact to support and extend learning

Document children’s learning12 August 2011- Sam , Logan and Jules have been engrossed in the car game that emerged from Logan having a new car at home. For a week or two now they have been using outdoor play time to move materials around in the playground and have asked daily for the toy cars to build on their thinking. I have noticed that they are talking about having a garage for their cars.

19th August 2011- The addition of the boxes has really enhanced the play for the boys. They are now adding to the play by using the boxes to represent garages and the outdoor planks to representthe roads.

21st August 2011- Moving the blocks into the outdoor space has encouraged lots of involved learning that builds on the earlier ideas of owning cars and garages and driving on roads. The boys have been joinedby Will and together they have been engrossed in creating homes and roads with the blocks and exploring theirunderstandings of their worlds.This exploration has been accompaniedby lots of discussion and decision making.

The children are using creativity and imagination to recreate their

family experiences.

They are resourcing their

own learning and transferring and adapting what

they have learned from one context

to another.

Educators provided boxes to extend

children’s play

Educators moved

blocks to theOutdoor

space and

provided lino square

Focus on children’s interests and strengths

• as a way of respecting children• of engaging them• of extending their learning• To build their confidence• As a way to support their areas of need.

Play Based Learning…. What are children learning?

• As educators it is our role to be aware of the value of play and to be able to reflect on the development and learning that is taking place as children engage in experiences.

• What are the learning outcomes for them?• How can we plan to extend on it?