Sarah-Jayne's Blog: April 2013

Thursday, 25 April 2013

Introduction to context learning

Learning is about being a researcher. The young child is a builder of theories. The young child learns by communicating and expressing their concepts and theories and by listening to others” Rinaldi (2002)

Learning is a stage a person goes through in order to absorb and obtain information, once this information has been understood and obtained then it is said that the person has learnt. There are many ways in which a person can learn and people find different strategies easier than others. Many theorists have different opinions and theories in which they believe is the way people learn. For example Piaget argued that children build their knowledge through experience and the environment. Meanwhile the contexts in which children are based in have a great influence on their learning. While one child may learn best from playing, another child may benefit from being outdoors. It is therefore important that early years settings have a mixture of context. It is essential that the child involved is simulated to learn therefore needs to be interested in their context. Within this blog I will discuss; Play, Forest
Schools, Montessori, and the Foundation Phase.

Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori was a very well educated women, from studying mathematics and science she moved onto study medicine at the University of Rome. After 10 years of working in this area her interest moved to children with mental disability. Montessori was influenced by the work of Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard (born in 1775). The work was based on a child who was found running wild around in the Aveyron wood. Itard developed many of his own methods in order to allow the child to develop. His methods allowed the “promoting the boys language skills based on sensorial experiences and matching, pairing and sorting activities” Isaacs(2010). Montessori recognised that children need to be given the opportunity to developed rather than being treated medically.

In 1900 the National League for Retarded Children opened the medical- pedagogical institute, which we call today children with special needs. Twenty-two children attended and Montessori was the director of these children. During the same year Montessori returned to the University of Rome to study education and anthropology. She kept a deep interest and pursued Seguin’s (a pupil of Itard) theory that children need to be educated through their senses of concrete experiences. From this she later developed the ‘materialised abstractions’. The materialised abstraction were based on two theories which were “exploring the notion of training of the senses and the importance of approaching abstraction through concrete forms a child could see and touch” Isaacs(2010).

In 1907 Montessori opened the first children’s house known as Casa dei Bambini. As soon as the children entered Montessori observed the reactions of the children, which gave her a further insight of the nature of children. From this Montessori discovered an important approach ‘The Montessori approach’.

The Montessori approach was a holistic approach and aimed to develop children as a whole to their full potential. It was made up of three key elements; the child, the favourable environment, the teacher.

The child is made up of 3 stages. The absorbent mind is from conception to six years. Within this stage there are three embryonic stages also known as the ‘periods of rebirth’. One being the physical embryo, this is when the physical body is being formed in the womb. The second is spiritual embryo, this is the period after birth where the child becomes an individual and grows a personality. The third being the social embryo, when the child is ready to be in involved in social aspects of their life, and they are aware of their culture, needs, and feeling of others. The second stage is childhood which Montessori describes as the calm stage. The child is egger to learn and to be a part of a group . The final stage is Adolescence which has similar elements as the first stages such as unpredictability. During this stage puberty takes place from twelve to fifteen years of age.

“Montessori, just like Piaget saw the environment as a key factor in children’s spontaneous learning” Isaacs(2010). Qualities of the favourable environment are; accessibility and availability, freedom of movement and choice, personal responsibility, reality and nuture, beauty and harmony. By having these qualities Montessori supported that children are able to scaffold their learning.

The teacher plays a vital part in learning. Montessori 's idea was that teachers were to be a guide to scaffold learning not to be a dictator or a disciplinarian. The foundations for learning was set by Montessori but it was the teachers responsibility to develop such materials to meet the individual childs needs. Montessori also called out for teachers to be current in legislation, and to be well trained.

Throughout the whole develop of Montessori, she was able to recognise and change major factors which influence our education today. Factors such as; the layout of the classroom, child sized equipment, life skills, sensorial materials, mathematics, language cultural studies, art and creativity, imagination, the outdoors, and social skills. To name but only a few of these factors, child sized equipment such as cupboards, chairs and tables. Montessori wanted the child to feel as the school belonged to them and they were welcome to their environment. By this children felt more freedom to carry out and encouraged to do activities by choice. Also Montessori created materials to ensure that children learn through trail and error where they are able to self-discipline. A good example of this is a shape sorter, where children are able to learn and recognise that a circle will not fit in a square.

During this video we can see the benefits of the Montessori approach and what the classroom focuses on, in order for the child to be happy and to develop.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYUS0wofNN8

Foundation Phase

The Foundation Phase is fairly recent within education. In 2008 the Foundation Phase gave light to the benefits of learning though discovery. Defined by the EYFS “Children develop and learn in different ways and at different rates” they also recognised that “All areas of learning and development are equally important”. Realising these actualities the Foundation Phase was able to support the children in developing. Only basing their research and plans within the 3-7years (key stage 1) all planning was based around developmentally appropriate activities, which reflect the child’s interest, and promote communication, concentration and exploration.

Quoted from http://wales.gov.uk/topics/educationandskills/earlyyearshome/foundation_phase/?lang=en

The curriculum will focus on experiential learning, active involvement and developing each child's:

· skills and understanding

· personal, social, emotional, physical and intellectual well being so as to develop the whole child

· positive attitudes to learning so that they enjoy it and want to continue

· self-esteem and self-confidence to experiment, investigate, learn new things and form new relationships

· creative, expressive and observational skills to encourage their development as individuals with different ways of responding to experiences

· activities in the outdoors where they have first-hand experience of solving real-life problems and learn about conservation and sustainability.

The Foundation Phase gives praise to similar work of Montessori, that children learn best whilst doing. Therefore a lot of the approach involves children being actively involved within their work rather than completely exercise books, children will carry out the actual activity. Another major aspect of the Foundation Phase was that no subjects were involved, but instead there were themes and areas.

The Foundation phase consists of 7 areas, these are; mathematic development, knowledge an understanding of the world, physical development, welsh language development, creative development, personal and social development, language, literacy and communication skills. As stated previously these areas are not subjects. The change the Foundation Phase has made within the curriculum is that the areas can be integrated with one and another. For example by role playing a petrol station children are about to use their physical development on the bike. Mathematic development by the cost of the petrol, knowledge and understanding of the world that’s cars need petrol for energy and to work (just like we need food), welsh development by naming certain items in welsh, personal and social development, by communicating with the people around them, language an literacy could involve writing receipts and discussing costs.

http://www.schoolsworld.tv/node/377

Play

“Play is not the predominant feature of childhood, bit it is a learning factor in development.”

Bruce(1991)

It has been made clear by many educationalists, psychologist, including, Froebel, Vygotsky, and Piaget that play has a great influence of the child’s learning and development. Play enables children to connect to real life experience which allows the child to develop their initiative, and to build resilience which equips them for disappointments. By having a strong, yet positive resilience outlook children are more confident learners allowing them to take risks and to not get affected by getting things wrong but will lead to wanting to learn and work out the correct solution.

Through play children are able to;

· Make relationships

· Have freedom and choice

· Build communications skills

· Be in control

· Develop all areas of learning in the national curriculum

· Make rules and follow their boundaries

· Be happy

The Effective Provision of Pre-School Education project (EPPE) suggested the approach of child-led activities, which are unstructured, and adult-led activities which are structured. The project believed that with the two approaches being used effectively that the “activities can produce the best outcomes for children” Broadhead (2010). In order for children to develop successfully there must be opportunities of both approaches. As children need to learn independently, off one and another, but also to be challenged in order to scaffold learning. “Play activities enable children to make connections with many areas of learning and experience” Broadhead (2010). Play helps all areas of learning including cognitive development, physical development, social development, cultural development and most importantly develops crucial life skills.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXyYQccegEk

Explained in the video clip are the many positive outcomes of play. As stated through play children are able to create themselves, meaning they build on their communication, find out their interested and develop themselves. By play coming natural to a child it is critical that we allow the child to explore themselves through play, as they develop and learn skills naturally they are more likely to remember the consequence of their action.

“Play can thrive in the more open, flexible, diverse and indeterminate nature of the outdoor environment where children have greater space, freedom of movement, choice of control” Broadhead (2010)

Forest Schools

“I hear I forget, I see I remember, I do I understand.” Confucius

A big area of learning outdoors within schools is forest schooling. Forest schooling involves practitioners who are Forest School qualified to take groups of children usually between 3 and 10 to access the outdoors on a regular basis, such as visiting their local woodland area once a week.

The aim is to allow children to feel relaxed within their local facilities. Activities are carried out in the environment, and are lead by the child. This enables the child to feel important and in charge of their own discovery. Forest school empowers children to learn through their experience of trial and error, which allows the environment to do the teaching. By being in the outdoors all areas of intelligence are able to be used and developed such as; visual auditory, and kinesthetic. By using all areas the children are able to learn to their highest standard. Using forest schools as a way of learning is very beneficial to the child, as the children can build and strengthen many different skills such as; independence, social skills, creativity, resilience, and self-esteem. This as a whole makes the child more of a confident learner. One important benefit that stands out from others is that children within forest schools have the opportunity to attain high levels of knowledge and skills regardless of their academic ability. Being aware that “Children learn and develop in different ways” Isaacs(2010, ) it is important that children get to shine and have the opportunity to develop in their preferred style.

A very well written article explaining all about outdoor learning and forest schools including: the role, the importance of the outdoors, the benefits, and how it is carried out.

http://www.tandfonline.com.v-ezproxy.smu.ac.uk/doi/pdf/10.1080/03004270802291798

From the below video it is made clear the benefits of the forest schools. We can see the child grow with confidence and develop their skills. Many things are being explored that would be near impossible to do within the classroom. Being outside the children are able to see, hear, touch, and smell. By experimenting in the outdoors the children get a real life experience and actual results of their consequences Therefore the children are learning first handed and are able to see the actual product and what the purpose is. The children have a complete freedom within forest schools allowing them to do what they want, and to be in charge of their own learning through experimenting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAR_OTMxNOs

Conclusion and reference list for context learning

After looking at a few contexts of learning, it can be concluded that each context has a benefit towards learning. Whilst some perhaps have greater benefits, it is important to involve as many different contexts into the child’s learning experience. As some contexts can offer benefits that others may hinder. An example of this could be play, if play was left freely to the child no academic outcome is necessarily going to be gained. However the child will learn other skills mentioned such as gross skills, confidence etc. It is important to recognise when adult interaction is needed in order to scaffold the child's development. Looking at the four contexts discussed there is a clear link between them. As Montessori set the scene of how important it is for children to be interactively involved, and for children learning for themselves. This philosophy has motived the move into the foundation phase, where plays and outdoor is a huge factor. To summarise it can be agreed the more varied context of learning the child has the more positive the outcome.