Transcript Play and Pedagogical Strategies Powerpoint Presentation 28-11-13

Play and Pedagogical Strategies
Cluster Training
Nov ‘13
Claire McMonagle , Catherine Cullen
NEYAI Professional Pedagogy Project
Agenda
 Welcome
 Presentation and discussion of
Pedagogical strategies
 Group work
 Feedback
 Reflecting on educators role
What is Pedagogy
 Pedagogy is the interactive process that takes place between
the educator and the child to enable learning to take place.
 Pedagogy is distinct from and complementary to the
curriculum
 Curriculum - describes the ‘what’
 Pedagogy - describes the ‘how’
Considering Pedagogy
Children need active support from adults who:
 Are well informed about child development
 Are respectful of and interested in children
 Are knowledgeable about and value the importance of play
and the powerful contribution it makes to children’s
development and learning
 Understand the importance of relationships with other
children and with adults
 Recognise learning contexts that are real and meaningful to
the child
Considering Pedagogy
 Children are often more knowledgeable
across a range of interests and experiences
than the adults with whom they are interacting.
 This knowledge is crucial in our
image of the child as a rich and
resourceful individual, in whose
abilities we need to trust
Considering Pedagogy
Educators who develop the ability to self-reflect learn in
different ways and are constantly adding to what they know.
Educators learn from:
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Practical research
General evidence from practice
Individual and group reflection
Exploration and enquiry
Being comfortable accepting that
they are still learning
Pedagogical Techniques and Strategies
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Scaffolding
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Co-constructing
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Modelling
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Positioning
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Questioning
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Encouraging and
Praising
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Problem-solving
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Documenting
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Empowering
Scaffolding
 Scaffolding is a process by
which adults support and
guide children’s learning,
enabling children to reach
to the next level of ability,
beyond their own
personal capability at that
time. The term was coined
by Bruner building on
Vygotsky’s work (NCCAAistear Research papers)
Scaffolding.........How do I scaffold?
3 Steps to Successful Scaffolding
1.
Closely observe the child’s competencies, abilities
and skills. Ask yourself, What can she do alone or
with a little assistance? Has she tried to do this
before? What activity would challenge her and take
her to the next level of competency?
2.
Spend time with the child. Support and guide the
child to move from one level of competency to the
other. Provide the necessary resources, equipment
or verbal guidance.
3.
Continue to observe the child’s progress,
extending understanding, competency and skill
through other techniques such as questioning,
praising, modelling, confirming
Co-constructing
 Co-construction describes how the
educator and the child form
meaning and build knowledge
about the world with each other.
 Promotes the collaborative nature
of children’s learning
 Children learn as a direct result of
meaningful interaction with their
environment (Social Constructivist
theory-Vygotsky, Bruner)
 Co-construction happens when you
explore multiple ways of explaining
something or working out a
problem
 The mutual involvement between
the educator and the child makes
the process exciting, stimulating
and enriching.
 Co-construction techniques
emphasise meaning and
understanding rather than the
acquisition of facts.
 Through a gradual, shared building
of knowledge, through symbolic
languages such as music, drama,
art, story or movement.
Co-constructing in Practice
Key functions in enabling coconstruction
1.
2.
3.
4.
Uncover, read and acknowledge
the child’s understandings
Enable the child Coconstructors: partners, guides,
nurtures, solves problems,
learns, hypothesizes to express
and share their understandings
with others
Collaborate children’s
understandings with others
Build on the child’s
understandings
Co-constructing Co-construction refers to adults and children making
meaning and knowledge together (MacNaughton and
Williams, 2004). Co-construction recognises the child’s
expertise and in order to understand this, the practitioner
needs to interact with the child and become aware of the
child’s thoughts and thereby to establish intersubjectivity.
(NCCA-Aistear Research papers)
 Jordan (2004) concludes that the two concepts, scaffolding
and co-construction have different applicability depending on
whether the goal of the practitioner is the exploration of
thinking or the achievement of pre-specified learning goals.
Co-constructing
Co-constructors:
partners, guides, nurtures, solves problems, learns, hypothesizes
Modelling
 Modelling is a process by
which children learn how
to behave by copying the
behaviour of others.
 The educator leads by
example over a period of
time.
 Children will be more
motivated to imitate adult
behaviours when they
have developed a secure
positive relationship with
the educator.
Modelling in Practice
 Modelling techniques can be used with just about any
behaviour the educator wants children to learn
Think about.....
 Social Behaviours
 Promote healthy and positive attitudes
 Building socially inclusive environments
 Spending time with older peers
 Disability and Additional Needs
 Gender, Ethnicity and Culture
Appropriate intervention in children’s play
 Observe the children’s play before joining in, unless you have
been invited from the beginning.
 Don’t be afraid to join in, but be aware of what your
involvement does to the quality of play. If play stagnates and
conversation stops when you enter an area or game, find a
way to politely leave! Then continue to observe from a
distance.
 Listen carefully to the language the children are using and
think about how to introduce new vocabulary as part of the
play.
Appropriate intervention in children’s play
 Model being a learner by talking out loud, asking children
for help with problems and trying out their ideas and
suggestions.
 You could join in play as a character – for example, the safety
inspector visiting the garage – in order to model aspects of
play or to model writing for a purpose.
 Intervention and modelling might be useful if play becomes
repetitive or resources are being mishandled.
 Play alongside the shy child, slowly including him or her in
your game through conversation.
Positioning
As a teaching technique,
positioning involves placing
learning materials to safely
and ethically support and
enhance children’s
learning.
Positioning
Positioning
Questioning
 From an early age children
use questioning as a means
of communicating with
each other and with adults
 Questioning is an effective
pedagogical technique for
the educator to promote
learning and development
with all children
Questioning in Practice
 Share ideas and understandings
 What happens in your house?
 Voice feelings
 How do you think he will feel?
 Guess and predict
 What is going to happen next?
 Recall experiences
 Who were the people in the story?
Questioning
A child’s intense interest in watching some
snails when he is playing in the garden can
be sustained by an adult sharing his interest
and asking questions or making comments
as they observe the snails together. Using
questions such as:
 ‘Where do you think the snails are
going?’
 ‘How do the snails move?’
 ‘Look Oliver, can you see a trail
where the snail has been?’
will help to keep Oliver interested and
extend his understandings about snails.
Encouraging and Praising
 As a teaching technique
praise shows children that
they deserve recognition,
acceptance and approval.
Praise can be verbal or
non-verbal
 Educators use encouraging
as a teaching technique to
support children when
attempting new or difficult
tasks
 Encouragement helps
children persevere with a
task, learn new skills or to
develop positive
dispositions such as respect
or co-operation.
How to encourage and praise
 Be sincere and specific with your praise
 Praise should be seen as encouragement, as part of a
continuing process
 Use descriptive praise that conveys realistic, attainable goals
 Beware of over-praising children for doing things they like
anyway
 Avoid praise that compares a child to others
Problem solving
As a teaching technique, problemsolving describes how the educator
helps children to find answers to
problems, questions, dilemmas and
issues that children face everyday.
Problems can be either physical or
social.
Learning how to problem solve
To enable this educators:
 Facilitate a problem-solving climate
 Allow time and space to problem-solve
 Provide materials to encourage problem-solving
 Prompt appropriate problems to solve
Problem solving
Problem solving findings
 The Study of Pedagogical Effectiveness in Early Learning
(SPEEL), conducted by Janet Moyle’s team found that
effective early years practitioners created many different
opportunities for children to define their own problems,
with the practitioner’s role being to clarify and model ways
in which problems might be solved. By taking a supportive
role, practitioners encouraged individual children to discuss
the processes of problem-solving. Listening to children
discussing their own understanding and hypothesising and
valuing children’s theories, gave practitioners insight into
children’s thought processes. These insights are then used to
inform future teaching.
Documenting
Documenting children’s
learning describes all the
ways in which information
is gathered and presented
to build a unique and lively
picture of the child
including their progress in
learning and development
over a period of time.
Documenting
Documentation is displayed or easily accessible to
teachers, children and families to:
 provide a record of the learning process
 reveal connections between events
 review past experiences
 plan future experiences
 make learning visible to children and families
 honour children's words
 honour children's families
Documenting
 It was really fascinating to watch them make
documentation decisions! They reflected about the
experience, and tried their best to choose pieces of work
that would tell their classmates and visitors what they
did. Talk about ownership!!"
Empowering
 Empowering is about helping
children gain a sense of inner
confidence, courage and strength
to successfully surmount
whatever life presents. The act of
empowering children is a process
of guiding them to feel and
believe that they are powerful. As
a teaching technique
empowerment involves giving
children the power to develop
dispositions such as confidence,
self-image, and resilience.
Empowering
Empowering
Taking it outside
 Messy play
 Books and storytelling
 Role play
 Creative activities
 Mark making
 Music and dance
 Gardening
 Mud patches
 Dens/shelters
Outdoor Play ideas
Paint
Creative ideas for Pallets
and for the DIY enthusiast....
Final thought
Show me and I forget;
Teach me and I remember;
Involve me and I learn.”
Benjamin Franklin
 “