Developing stretch and challenge in the Early Years; A case study.
Jane Flood; Senior Teacher, Oaks CE Learning Federation
Learning something new is a challenging process; it requires the learner to take risks, make
mistakes, often fail before succeeding and requires persistence and empathy. In an attempt
to move away from a knowledge driven curriculum towards a more learning centred system
where mistakes are celebrated and learnt from and challenge is the norm we began to
develop “growing our brains” across our Reception classes in a federation of three small
infant schools. This small scale case study involved five teachers and seven TAs working
together through a school year. Tight (2017) suggests a case study in its most basic form is
“small scale research with meaning whilst ” Yin (1984) defines the case study research
method as an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its
real-life context; when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly
evident; and in which multiple sources of evidence are used. To this end pupil observations,
staff questionnaires, parent workshops, JPD activities and team learning conversations were
used to develop and evaluate our approach.
As part of the Early Years Foundation Stage, established in 2008 and revised in 2017,
defining educational provision for children under 5 in England, the Characteristics of
Effective Learning (CoEL), set out by the Department for Education (2012) provide the
context for learning in the Early Years in England. Yet it is these statements, of playing and
exploring, active learning and creating and thinking critically, that often prove the most
problematic for practitioners to understand, provide opportunities for and assess children
against. As Claxton (2002) suggest “It is quite possible to help students learn more without
helping them become better at learning. One of the core aims of our case study was to
develop children to become more self-motivated and engaged in their learning; quite simply
to begin the journey of life -long learning. The American psychologist Carol Dweck suggests
in her book Mindset; the new psychology of success (2006) that we all have different beliefs
about the underlying nature of ability. She uses the term growth mindset - “a belief that
your basic qualities are things that you can cultivate through your efforts.” to describe
children (and adults) who believe that intelligence and abilities can be developed through
effort and persistence, the trying out of different strategies and leaning from mistakes. On
the other hand someone with a fixed mindset believe that intelligence and abilities are fixed
traits; something that you are born with and can rarely do anything about. To this end we
wanted to develop practitioner use and knowledge of CoEL to encourage the children to
learn more effectively, show a desire for challenge and develop resilience in the face of
failure. Developing Dweck’s idea that the brain can grow from exercise we set out to
“Grown our brains”.
As a federation we had been working on developing the 6 learning values of thinking,
creativity, emotional intelligence, interdependence, independence and spirituality. A staff
questionnaire quickly revealed a general confusion between these learning value and the
schools Christian values. At this point it was decided that the process needed simplifying to
make it useable for teachers and meaningful for children! The learning values became
learning characters with an associated finger puppet (for example Octavia Octopus is very
creative; she has lots of different ideas) which have subsequently developed their own
short story and accompanying video (green screening practise at a staff meeting helped
teachers become more familiar with the characters and the associated learning behaviour).
Fig 1. A slide used to present our learning characters to parents
We felt there was enough over-lap with CoEL that we would use the same language with the
children in Reception , which could then be developed as the children continue through
school. To quickly improve staff confidence a character was carefully chosen to be in focus
each half term across the school and celebrated at a weekly assembly, where children who
had shown that learning behaviour were rewarded with a certificate. It made sense, for
example to look at Emotional Intelligence in Spring 2 when the children were well settled in
their new classes and Easter and New Life were a project focus. In Year R these characters
were used to drive adult directed tasks and praised and valued during child initiated
activities. For example interdependence (or working as a team as it was called with the
children) was a timely focus after the excitement of the Christmas holidays so where
possible activities such as PE, number, the introduction of paired reading etc all started with
the introduction “Today we are practising working as a team, we are going to …” as a
precursor to the activity. This deliberate shift in presenting the learning behaviour to the
children first bore out Florez and Sammons (2013) claim “Research shows that learning
orientated pupils are more motivated, resilient in the face of failure and achieve better
results”
After the first term in full time schooling we felt the children were settled and confident
enough in the environment and with each other – we made use of the Leuven scales to
assess our summer born children’s well- being and involvement in adult directed tasks
initially during the Autumn term – we began to make use of the High Scope Plan do review
model during child initiated learning. The philosophy behind High Scope is based on child
development theory and research, drawing on the work of Jean Piaget, John Dewey and Lev
Vygotsky. A key component of the High Scope approach is the plan-do-review sequence.
Children take the first step in the learning process by making choices and following through
on their plans and decisions. ( https://highscope.org/); developing many of the CoEL.
We adapted the model but in keeping with the underlying principles the children first
planned what they wanted to do that session, and whom they want to do it with in their key
person group with an adult.
Fig 2: Resources used (including a brain hat!)
Plan/Do/ Review session
Fig 3: An example of a small group of children for
reviewing their own learning after a session.
Once they have made a plan, however vague, of what they want to do, they can go and do
it. Then, at the end of the session before the classroom is tidied, the children discuss in their
groups, what they did and whether it was the same as, or different from, what they had
planned. Initially this is where the adult could model using the language of learning and
offer “process praise” such as “You are getting better at writing your name because of all
the practice”. Using the analogy of learning to ride a bike without stabilisers (an important
milestone in a 4-5 years olds life) helped them realise that learning can go wrong but
mistakes are good if they help us get better next time. After 6 weeks the children were
starting to use this language themselves; “I can nearly do this now, it is a real challenge” and
“Can I wear the brain hat now? I have really stretched myself”.
Fig 4: An example of the prompt sheet used with the children to talk about how they had stretched their learning.
Rewards such as wearing the brain hat and getting a successful learner sticker – where the
process of learning rather than the finished product was valued - were powerful motivators.
Figure 5; Proudly wearing the brain hat after stretching her learning.
This learning language and praise for learning behaviours was shared with parents at a
workshop and made up part of the statutory end of year reporting process whereby
individual children’s CoEL are recorded.
Displaying photographic learning stories of individual children undertaking a learning activity
(for example reading a story might involve looking at the books in the book corner, choosing
a book, sitting down and turning the pages) is another example of how the focus in the
classrooms shifted to emphasising learning. Displays such as learning walls showed learning,
not just finished work (product). We also made better use of the CoEL statements on
judgements we made on individual children using Tapestry, an online learning journey,
endeavoring to attach a CoEL statement to each EYFS statement. Parents were encouraged
to contribute too as each half term we asked them to add an example of their child working
on that learning characteristic, e.g. being like Bertie Bee and working as part of a team. A
repeat of the questionnaire about learning characters to staff at the end of the year showed
an increase in their knowledge of the difference between our learning characters and
Christian values; at the end of the year 80% of staff felt more confident in using the learning
characters with their class, whilst 100% could name all 6 characters and their associated
learning attributes! More work is still needed to assess how this might be reflected in
children’s outcomes. Certainly the Year 1 teachers who took on the classes commented on a
marked increase in the vocabulary of learning the children were using and their resilient
attitude to having a go to new challenges.
Accepting the notion “Research and evidence do not answer questions. Meaning comes
through the human act of interpretation” (Earl 2015) we made use of the work of Dweck on
developing growth mindsets and the models of High Scope in encouraging independent
learning behaviours to create a fusion of innovations to develop young children’s learning in
our setting. We are not offering any generalisations; our findings are context specific and
defined by the social factors and the culture of our federation. Yet by simply changing our
focus and emphasis as teachers – Teaching is one side of the coin of which the other is
learning.” (Saunders 2015) – we have been able to introduce the vocabulary of learning to
very young children and prepare them to take risks and feel comfortable with challenge in
the Early Years.
References
Boaler J (2013) Ability and Mathematics; the mindset revolution that is reshaping education.
Forum 55 (1); 143-152
Brown C and Rogers S (2015) Knowledge creation as an approach to delivering evidenceinformed practice among early years practitioners in Camden (London) In Brown C (Ed)
Leading the Use of Research and Evidence in Schools London; IOE Press
Claxton G (2002) Building Learning Power Bristol: TLO Publishers
Department for Education (2012) ‘Early Years Foundation Stage Framework 2012’ Online.
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/596629/E
YFS_STATUTORY_FRAMEWORK_2017.pdf (accessed June 1st 2017)
Dweck C.S (2006) Mindset: Changing the way you think to fulfil your potential New York:
Random House
Earl L (2015) Reflections on the challenges of leading research and evidence use in schools
In Brown C (Ed) Leading the Use of Research and Evidence in Schools London; IOE Press
Florez M.T and Sammons P (2013) Assessment for Learning; Effects and Impact London: CfBT
Martin A.J (2015) Growth approaches to academic development; Research into academic
trajectories and growth assessment, goals and mindsets. British Journal of Educational
Psychology 85: 133-137
Saunders L (2015) ‘Evidence’ and Teaching; a question of trust? In Brown C (Ed) Leading the
Use of Research and Evidence in Schools London; IOE Press
Tight M (2017) Understanding Case Study Research; Small scale research with meaning.
London: Sage
Yin R (1984) Case Study Research; Design and Methods London: Sage