HMIE EARLY YEARS GOOD PRACTICE
CONFERENCE
DYNAMIC LEARNING
Wednesday 24 May 2006
James Watt Conference Centre, Heriot Watt University,
Riccarton Campus, Edinburgh.
CONFERENCE REPORT
August 2006
The aims of the conference were to:
•
focus on ensuring quality in children’s learning experiences
•
highlight the need for children to be partners in their own learning and
development
•
reflect on how children are enabled to become effective learners
•
reinforce the links between educational research and good practice
•
share good practice
•
inform the conference about the key messages in Improving Scottish
Education (HMIE 2006) and the implications of these
•
provide opportunities for participants to discuss and exchange ideas
informally
Some relevant links
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education
(Improving Scottish Education)
http://www.hmie.gov.uk/
http://www.hmie.gov.uk/publication.asp
http://www.hmie.gov.uk/ise/default.asp
Learning and Teaching Scotland
http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/earlyyears/
Assessment is for Learning
http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/assess/
A Curriculum for Excellence
http://www.acurriculumforexcellencescotland.gov.uk/
Scottish Executive
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/Departments/ED
Care Commission (Scotland)
http://www.carecommission.com/
Research Centre for Experiential Education Leuven
(Ferre Laevers)
http://www.cego.be
Contents
Making care and education more effective through wellbeing and involvement
An introduction to Experiential Education
Professor Ferre Laevers - Research Centre for Experiential Education
University of Leuven – Belgium
Slides used by Professor Laevers in his presentation
4
12
Dynamic Learning
Graham Donaldson, HMSCI
21
The Implications of ‘Improving Scottish Education’
Kenneth Muir, HMCI
25
Workshops - brief descriptors
31
Garden Technology – ICT enhancing and supporting outdoor learning
Mrs Grace O’Malley, Fife Council
Bringing Planning Alive – Learning to Learn
Mrs Joan Dowman, Glasgow City Council
Documentation – the cornerstone of our learning process
David Smith, Mrs Rosellen Dick and Ms Jennifer Brown, Stirling Council
Assessment is for Learning
Ms Linda Roger and Ms Susan Mullin, Angus Council
The Magic Kingdom of Chess
Mrs Frances O’Connell and Mrs Audrey Hinton, East Dunbartonshire Council
Down in the Jungle
Ms Marion Samson and Ms Anne Beaumont, Falkirk Council
Brucehill Science Project
Lynn McCafferty, West Dunbartonshire Council
Information and Communications Technology in the Expressive Arts
Mrs Helen Newman, Orkney
Evaluation
36
Making care and education more effective through wellbeing and
involvement. An introduction to Experiential Education.
Ferre Laevers
Research Centre for Experiential Education – University of Leuven - Belgium
In May 1976 twelve Flemish pre-school teachers, assisted by two educational consultants, start a
series of sessions with the intention to reflect critically upon their practice. Their approach is
‘experiential’: the intention is to make a close, moment by moment description of what it means to a
young child to live and take part in the educational setting. This careful observation and
‘reconstruction’ of the child's experiences brings to light a series of unsatisfactory conditions. Too
many opportunities to sustain children's development remain unused. During the following tens of
sessions the group discusses possible solutions for the problems they meet, work them out in practice
and reflect on their experiences. Gradually they begin to realise how much they have moved away
from current pre-school practice. A new educational model for pre-school is taking shape:
Experiential Education (EXE). It grew further to become one of the most influential educational
models in the area of elementary education in Flanders and the Netherlands. From 1991 the
dissemination in other European countries, including the UK, took off.
EXE offers a conceptual basis that proved to be useful in other contexts such as child care, special
education, secondary education, teacher training and any kind of setting where learning and
professional development is meant to take place.
In search of quality
What constitutes ‘quality’ in care and education? From the point of view of the parent, the counsellor,
the head teacher, the curriculum developer the question is very often answered by expressing
expectations with regard to the educational context and the teacher’s actions: the infrastructure and
equipment, the content of activities, teaching methods, adult style... From the point of view of policy
and government there is a more direct reference to the expected outcomes of education. With regular
assessments the system of care and education, in a sense, is ‘forced’ to get better results. In the middle
of this stands the practitioner, living and working with children. Wanting the best for them. Accepting
sensible guidelines and accepting at the same time the fact that education has to be effective. But how
to combine all those things and get the two ends - context and outcome - together?
Focusing on the process
The project Experiential Education’s most important contribution answers exactly this question, by
identifying indicators for quality that are situated just in the middle of the two approaches of quality.
It points to the missing link: the concept that helps us to sense if what we are doing (the context) is
leading to somewhere (the outcome)!
TREATMENT
Context
WELL-BEING
PROCESS
OUTCOMES
Objectives
INVOLVEMENT
The basic insight within the EXE-theory is that the most economic and conclusive way to assess the
quality of any educational setting (from the pre-school level to adult education) is to focus on two
dimensions: the degree of ‘emotional well-being’ and the level of ‘involvement’.
When we want to know how each of the children is doing in a setting, we first have to explore the
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degree in which children do feel at ease, act spontaneously, and show vitality and self-confidence. All
this indicates that their emotional well-being is o.k. and that their physical needs, the need for
tenderness and affection, the need for safety and clarity, the need for social recognition, the need to
feel competent and the need for meaning in life and moral value are satisfied.
The second criterion – involvement - is linked to the developmental process and urges the adult to set
up a challenging environment favouring concentrated, intrinsically motivated activity.
Care settings and schools have to succeed on both tasks: only paying attention to emotional wellbeing and a positive climate is not enough, while efforts to enhance involvement will only have an
impact if children and students feel at home and are free from emotional constraints.
Involvement, the key word
The concept of involvement refers to a dimension of human activity. Involvement is not linked to
specific types of behaviour or to specific levels of development. Both the baby in the cradle playing
with his or her voice and the adult trying to formulate a definition, both the (mentally) handicapped
child and the gifted student, can share that quality. Csikszentmihayli (1979) speaks of “the state of
flow”.
One of the most predominant characteristics of this flow state is concentration. An involved person is
narrowing his or her attention to one limited circle. Involvement goes along with strong motivation,
fascination and total implication: there is no distance between person and activity, no calculation of
the possible benefits. Because of that, time perception is distorted (time passes by rapidly).
Furthermore there is an openness to (relevant) stimuli and the perceptual and cognitive functioning
has an intensity, lacking in activities of another kind. The meanings of words and ideas are felt more
strongly and deeply. Further analysis reveals a manifest feeling of satisfaction and a bodily felt stream
of positive energy. The 'state of flow' is sought actively by people. Young children find it most of the
time in play.
Of course, one could describe a variety of situations where we can speak of satisfaction combined
with intense experience, but not all of them would match our concept of involvement. Involvement is
not the state of arousal easily obtained by the entertainer. The crucial point is that the satisfaction
stems from one source: the exploratory drive, the need to get a better grip on reality, the intrinsic
interest in how things and people are the urge to experience and figure out. Only when we succeed in
activating the exploratory drive do we get the intrinsic type of involvement and not just involvement
of an emotional or functional kind.
Finally, involvement only occurs in the small area in which the activity matches the capabilities of the
person, that is in the ‘zone of proximal development’.
To conclude: involvement means that there is intense mental activity, that a person is functioning at
the very limits of his or her capabilities, with an energy flow that comes from intrinsic sources. One
couldn’t think of any condition more favourable to real development. If we want deep level learning,
we cannot do without involvement.
Measuring involvement
Involvement may seem to be a subjective property, it is very well possible to assess in the levels of
involvement in children and adults. For this the "Leuven Involvement Scale" (LIS) has been
developed, encompassing seven variants for different settings, ranging from childcare to adult
education.
The LIS is a 5-point rating scale. At level 1, there is no activity. The child is mentally absent. If we
can see some action it is a purely stereotypic repetition of very elementary movements. Level 2
doesn’t go further than actions with many interruptions. At level 3, we can without a doubt label the
child's behaviour as an activity. The child is doing something (e.g. listening to a story, making
something with clay, experimenting in the sand table, interacting with others, writing, reading,
finishing a task...). But we miss concentration, motivation and pleasure in the activity. In many cases
the child is functioning at a routine level. At level 4 moments of intense mental activity occur. At level
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5 there is total involvement expressed by concentration and absolute implication. Any disturbance or
interruption would be experienced as a frustrating rupture of a smoothly running activity.
The core of the rating process consists of an act of empathy in which the observer has to get into the
experience of the child, in a sense has to become the child. This gives the information to draw
conclusions concerning the mental activity of the child and the intensity of his experience. Despite of
the required observational skills, the inter-scorer reliability of the LIS-YC (a comparison between two
observers) is .90 and thus very satisfactory.
Research with the Leuven Involvement Scale has shown that the levels of involvement within a
setting tend to be more or less stable (Laevers, 1994). They are the result of the interactions between
the context (including the way teachers handle their group) and the characteristics of the children. We
can expect that the more competent the teacher, the higher the level of involvement can be, given a
particular group of children. We find indications for this in our own research, but also in the large
scale Effective Early Learning project in the UK, where more than 5.000 adults learned to use the
scale and more than 50.000 children at the pre-school age have been observed with it (Pascal &
Bertram, 1995; Pascal et al., 1998).
Raising the levels of well-being and involvement
The concepts of well-being and involvement are not only useful for research purposes, but at least as
much for practitioners who want to improve the quality of their work. Capitalising on a myriad of
experiences by teachers, a body of expertise has been gathered and systematised in The Ten Action
Points, an inventory of ten types of initiatives that favour well-being and involvement (Laevers &
Moons, 1997).
THE TEN ACTION POINTS
1. Rearrange the classroom in appealing corners or areas
2. Check the content of the corners and replace unattractive materials by more appealing ones
3. Introduce new and unconventional materials and activities
4. Observe children, discover their interests and find activities that meet these orientations
5. Support ongoing activities through stimulating impulses and enriching interventions
6. Widen the possibilities for free initiative and support them with sound rules and agreements
7. Explore the relation with each of the children and between children and try to improve it
8. Introduce activities that help children to explore the world of behaviour, feelings and values
9. Identify children with emotional problems and work out sustaining interventions
10.Identify children with developmental needs and work out interventions that engender involvement
within the problem area.
The action points cover a wide range of interventions. In AP1, 2 and 3 the organisation of the space
and the provision of interesting materials and activities are at stake. With AP4, the teacher is invited to
observe carefully how children interact with all that they encounter in their environment in order to
identify interests that can be met by a more targeted offer of activities. It is on this track that open
projects come to life. They gradually take shape building upon what children indicate as points of
interest in their responses to a former offer.
The realisation of a rich environment doesn’t stop with the provision of a wide variety of potentially
interesting materials and activities. A decisive element in the occurrence of involvement is the way the
adult supports the ongoing activities with stimulating interventions (AP5) which are part of an
effective adult style.
Using the dynamics in children and their exploratory drive requires an open form of organisation that
stimulates children to take initiative (AP6). That is why in EXE-settings, children are free to choose
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between a wide range of activities (up to about 65 % of the available time). This point includes the
setting of rules that guarantee a smoothly running class organisation and a maximum of freedom for
every child (and not only for the ‘fittest’ and the most assertive ones). It takes time to get this far with
a group of children. But the efforts to implement this open form are rewarded. Research indicates that
- given a rich offer - the more children can choose their activities, the higher the levels of
involvement.
In AP7 the field of social relations is addressed. The adult not only explores the relations between the
children, but also tries to be aware of how she/he is experienced by children. Guidelines in this area
encompass qualities already defined by Carl Rogers (empathy and authenticity). At the group level
explicit attention is given to the creation of opportunities to share experiences and build a positive
group climate.
In AP8 activities are generated that support the exploration of feelings, thoughts and values. For a part
it is about the development of social competence. One of the materials supporting this Action Point is
the Box Full of Feelings. The series of open ended activities linked to this set, helps children to
discern between four basic feelings – happiness, fear, anger and sadness - develop emotional
intelligence and role taking capacity. The effect has been reported by Nanette Smith – on the basis of
her PhD at Worcester College of Education - on a BBC programme for practitioners: "We’ve only
used the Box Full of Feelings for seven weeks. Already we’ve seen a big, significant difference. (-) we
can sense a general feeling of protectiveness, awareness, friendship and empathy in the children
which wasn’t there before.".
Children who need special attention
AP1 to 8 have a general character: they lay the foundations. The two remaining action points turn our
attention to children needing special attention because they do not reach the levels of well-being and
involvement that we strive for. In the first (AP9) we deal with behavioural and emotional problems:
children who, through all kinds of circumstances, do not succeed in realising a satisfying interaction
with their environment, who come under pressure and lose contact with their inner stream of
experiences. On the basis of a large number of case-studies, an experiential strategy has been
developed to help them. Interventions that proved effective range from "giving positive attention and
support" to "giving security by structuring time and space".
The last action point (AP10) is about children with special developmental needs. We define them as
children that fail to come to activity in which the quality of ‘involvement’ is realised in one or more
areas of competence. This means that their development is endangered and chances are real that they
will not develop the potential they have in them.
Five factors and basic work forms as a framework for primary education
In the field of primary education the logic of the original EXE-model has been maintained. This
means that a wide variety of educational interventions have been explored that promote "well-being"
and "involvement". In an attempt to make order in these practical experiences a framework originated
that can inspire teachers in the design of a powerful learning environment. The framework is built on
5 dimensions or factors that have a particular influence on the crucial process variables.
Teachers can, for any sequence of their lessons, focus on each of these factors and check (1) how the
planned activity affects the group climate and the relations with and between children, (2) if the offer
is not too easy or too difficult and is sufficiently challenging (3) if the content can be enriched by
more documentation, more lively brought information or concrete material, (4) if the organization
allows enough action and (5) how much opportunity is given to the children to make personal choices.
In the process of implementation, the five factors evolve towards 5 basic work forms that can be
considered as the building bricks of a primary educational model that offers enormous opportunities
for "well-being" and "involvement". These work forms are: (1) "circle times" and "reunions", (2)
contract work, (3) project work, (4) workshops and (5) free activity. They are the consequent
elaboration of the 5 factors but each of them contains several variants that allow an organic growth
from a very accessible to a more complex form.
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An experiential teacher style
Teacher interventions can vary a lot, depending on the nature of activities or on the responses and
initiatives of children. Nevertheless, we can discern individual patterns in the way adults intervene in
a wide variety of situations. The notion of ‘style’ is used to grasp this pattern.
The ‘Adult Style Observation Schedule’ (ASOS) is built around three dimensions: stimulation,
sensitivity and giving autonomy (Laevers, Bogaerts & Moons, 1997).
Stimulating interventions are open impulses that engender a chain of actions in children and make the
difference between low and high involvement. Such as: suggesting activities to children that wander
around, offering materials that fit in an ongoing activity, inviting children to communicate,
confronting them with thought-provoking questions and giving them information that can capture
their mind.
Sensitivity is evidenced in responses that witness empathic understanding of the basic needs of the
child, such as, the need for security, for affection, for attention, for affirmation, for clarity and for
emotional support.
Giving autonomy in not only realised in the open form of organisation but has to be implemented as
well at the level of interventions. It means: to respect children's sense for initiative by acknowledging
their interests, giving them room for experimentation, letting them decide upon the way an activity is
performed and when a product is finished, implicate them in the setting of rules and the solution of
conflicts.
Once we begin to look at the way adults interact with children we realise how powerful these
dimensions are. In view of getting high levels of well-being and involvement the person of the teacher
is even more important than other dimensions of the context, such as the space, the material and the
activities on offer.
The Process-Oriented Child Monitoring System
To identify children who need special attention systematic observation is necessary and, in fact, one or
another kind of monitoring system. Although the traditional product-oriented systems have their
value, especially for diagnostic purposes, they also have serious limitations. The first is that using
them at a group level leads to an enormous investment – ticking an endless series of boxes - leaving
no time for real interventions. Further, most systems concentrate on typical academic achievements
and do forget that success is often more dependent on the development of learning dispositions.
Finally, having discovered where a child stands do not mean one knows immediately which actions to
take. The paradigm behind most monitoring systems seems to be that one just has to break down the
task further to help the child overcome the gap. But this approach doesn’t take the nature of
developmental processes into account nor that the child functions as a whole.
Totally in consistence with the EXE-framework, the Process-oriented Monitoring System (the POMS)
focuses onto the two major indications for the quality of the educational process: well-being and
involvement. These give the answer to the essential question: how is each child doing? Are the efforts
we make sufficient to secure emotional health and real development in all important areas and for
each of the children? In a first step, children are screened, with a five point scale for each of the
dimensions. For children falling below level 4, teachers proceed with further observations and
analysis. A periodic assessment (3 or 4 times a year) of these levels has shown to be practicable and
effective. In contrast to other systems, the POMS gives a sense of purpose: teachers get immediate
feedback about the quality of their work and can get to work without delay. The target being to evoke
enjoyment and more intrinsic motivated action within the fields of development that are at stake
(Laevers, 1997).
The concept of deep level learning
In the EXE-theoretical framework, a lot of attention is paid to the effects or outcomes of education.
The concept of ‘deep level learning’ expresses the concern for a critical approach of educational
evaluation. Central to this is the questioning of superficial learning, learning that does not affect the
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basic competencies of the child and has little transfer to real life situations. In line with a
constructivist tradition, we don’t see the process of development as a mere addition of discrete
elements of knowledge or aptitudes to an existing repertoire. On the contrary: every performance is
depending on an underlying structure of fundamental schemes. These operate as basic programmes
that regulate the way one processes incoming stimuli and construct reality. By them we interpret new
situations and we act competently - or not. They determine which and how many dimensions of
reality can be articulated in ones perception and cognition (Laevers, 1995 & 1998).
The ongoing research programme in which instruments are developed to assess levels of
development, covers five areas of development: (1) physical knowledge; (2) psycho-social cognition;
(3) communication and expression; (4) creativity and (5) self-organisation.
In this context the exploration of forms of intelligence based on intuitive faculties, as opposed to the
logical-mathematical intelligence, gets special attention. Real understanding of the world is built on
the capacity to get the feel of it. Consequently, the difference in competence between people, in any
profession that requires a certain level of understanding, is made by their intuitive view on the matter.
This is the case for physicists, medical doctors, biologists, geologists, engineers... but also in any craft
where routine and technique is to be transcended and interpretations have to be made. This also holds
for the field of psycho-social cognition. Intuition is the core of the expertise in professions where
dealing with people plays an important role, such as, child care, teaching, all kinds of therapies,
human resources management, advertising and of course in all the sciences connected to these. This
domain is one of the most fascinating ones and can be seen as one of the challenges for educational
research in the current century.
Value education
Within the EXE-project the concept of ‘linkedness’ is the expression of the deep concern for the
development of a positive orientation towards the physical and human reality. It offers a point of
reference for the whole of value education.
Linkedness with the eco-system in its entirety is essentially a religious concept, in the broadest sense
of the word. Etymologically, ‘re-ligion’ (re-liare) means ‘linking again’. As "de-linquency" means
"the lack of being linked", the sense of ‘connectedness’ can be seen as the cornerstone of prevention
of criminal behaviour or any action that brings damage to things and people. One who feels connected
with something would not act as a vandal.
In the elaboration of the concept at the level of preschool education, children are helped to develop
this attitude of linkedness with (1) themselves, (2) the other(s), (3) the material world, (4) society and
(5) the ultimate unity of the entire eco-system.
It is about energy
Experiences accumulated in the EXE project support the conclusion that well-being and involvement
are welcomed by practitioners as most stimulating and helpful to improve the quality of their work.
The concepts of well-being and involvement match the intuitions of many caretakers and teachers and
give them a scientifically-based confirmation of what they knew already: when we can get children in
that ‘flow state’, development must and will take place within the area(s) addressed by the activity. In
contrast to effect variables – the real outcomes are only seen on the longer run – the process variables
give immediate feedback about the quality of interventions and tell us on the spot something about
their potential impact. Furthermore, bringing at the foreground involvement as key indicator for
quality, engenders a lot of positive energy and synergy: the enthusiastic responses of children, when
teaching efforts are successful, are very empowering and give the teacher deep satisfaction both at the
professional and the personal level. Finally, taking involvement as a point of reference in the guidance
of professionals makes it possible to respect the actual level of functioning of the teacher and the
setting. When implementing Experiential Education one starts where one stands, with the room, the
children, the material, the methods and all the limitations linked to the actual situation. Then a field of
action is chosen and initiatives are taken that have the potential to bring about an increase in wellbeing and/or involvement. This increase – how small it may be - is experienced as a success and
drives one towards new initiatives.
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That is what experiential education is about: mobilising and enhancing the energy in people and
drawing them into a positive spiral which engenders deep level learning. Only this way can we make
settings and schools more effective and strong enough to meet the challenge of education: the
development of (future) adults who are self-confident and mentally healthy, curious and exploratory,
expressive and communicative, imaginative and creative, full of initiative, well-organised, with
developed intuitions about the social and physical world and with a feeling of belonging and
connectedness to the universe and all its creatures!
References
Csikszentmihayli, M. (1979). The concept of flow. In: B. Sutton-Smith, Play and learning (pp. 257273). New York, Gardner.
Laevers, F. (1993). Deep level learning: an exemplary application on the area of physical knowledge.
European Early Childhood Research Journal, 1, 53 - 68.
Laevers, F. (Ed.) (1994). Defining and assessing quality in early childhood education. Studia
Paedagogica. Leuven, Leuven University Press.
Laevers, F. (1994). The innovative project Experiential Education and the definition of quality in
education. In: Laevers F. (Ed.). Defining and assessing quality in early childhood education. Studia
Paedagogica. Leuven, Leuven University Press, pp. 159-172.
Laevers, F., (Red.), (1994) The Leuven Involvement Scale for Young Children. Manual and video.
Experiential Education Series, No 1. Leuven: Centre for Experiential Education. (44 pp).
Laevers, F., Early Childhood Education in Flanders, Belgium. In: Vejleskov H., (1994). Early
childhood care and education: 11 countries. Dundee, CIDREE, pp. 21-34.
Laevers, F. (1997). Assessing the quality of childcare provision: “Involvement” as criterion. In:
Settings in interaction. Researching Early Childhood, 3, 151-165. Göteborg: Göteborg University.
Laevers, F. (1998). Understanding the world of objects and of people: Intuition as the core element of
deep level learning. International Journal of Educational Research, 29 (1), 69-85.
Laevers, F. (1999). The project Experiential Education. Well-being and involvement make the
difference. Early Education, nr. 27, Discussion paper.
Laevers, F. (2000). Forward to basics! Deep-level-learning and the experiential approach. Early Years,
20 (2), 20-29.
Laevers, F. & Heylen, H. (Ed.) (2004). Involvement of children and teacher style. Insights from an
international study on experiential education. Leuven: Leuven University Press.
Laevers, F. (2005). The Curriculum as Means to raise the Quality of ECE. Implications for Policy.
European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 13 (1), 17-30.
Laevers, F., Debruyckere G., Silkens, K. & Snoeck, G. (2005). Observation of well-being and
involvement in babies and toddlers. A video-training pack with manual. Leuven: Research Centre for
Experiential Education.
Laevers, F. & Verboven L. (2000). Gender related role patterns in pre-school settings. Can
experiential education make the difference? European Early Childhood Education Research Journal,
8 (1), 25-42.
Pascal, E. & Bertram, T. (1995). "Involvement" and the Effective Early Learning Project: a
collaborative venture. In: Laevers, F., (Ed.), An exploration of the concept of "involvement" as an
indicator of the quality of Early Childhood Care and Education. Dundee: CIDREE Report, Volume
10, pp. 25 - 38.
Pascal, et. al. (1998). Exploring the relationship between process and outcome in young children’s
learning: stage one of a longitudinal study. International Journal of Educational Research, 29 (1), 5167.
Laevers, F. (1998). Editor's Introduction: Early Childhood Education: Where life takes shape.
International Journal of Educational Research, 29 (1), 3-6.
Laevers, F. (1998). Understanding the world of objects and of people: Intuition as the core element of
deep level learning. International Journal of Educational Research, 29 (1), 69-85.
Laevers, F. (2000). Forward to basics! Deep-level-learning and the experiential approach. Early Years,
20 (2), 20-29.
Page 10
Practice oriented publications from the Centre for Experiential Education available in English:
Laevers, F., (Ed.), (1994) The Leuven Involvement Scale for Young Children. Manual and video. (44
pp – 40 min.).
[A training video with 27 fragments with full description of situations and commented scores]
Laevers, F. & Moons, J.(1997). Enhancing well-being and involvement in children. An introduction in
the ten action points. (30 min.)
[A video based on more than 100 slides with English spoken comment.]
Laevers, F., M. Bogaerts & J. Moons, J.(1997). Experiential Education at Work. A setting with 5-year
olds. Video & Manual. (71pp / 23min)
[A video-impression with a guide to analyse the sequences from the point of view of adult style, the
ten action points and the developmental domains.]
Implications for Policy. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 13 (1), 17-30.
M. Kog, J. Moons & L. Depondt (1997). A Box full of Feelings. A playset for children from 3 to 8.
[A case with 4 posters, 4 little cases, 48 situational pictures, finger puppets, a set of worksheets to be
copied and a manual describing more than 20 different activities]
Laevers, F., Vandenbussche E., Kog, M., & Depondt, L. (1997). A process-oriented child monitoring
system for young children. Leuven: Centre for Experiential Education. (129 pp)
[A manual covering 3 stages, from group screening to interventions, with 8 forms to support all the
process and ideas for interventions]
Laevers F. & Heylen, L. (Ed.) (2003). Involvement of Children and Teacher Style. Insights from an
international study on Experiential Education. Studia Paedagogica. Leuven: Leuven University Press
Laevers, F. (2005). The Curriculum as Means to raise the Quality of ECE.
Laevers, F., Debruyckere G., Silkens, K. & Snoeck, G. (2005). Observation of well-being and
involvement in babies and toddlers. A video-training pack with manual. Leuven: Research Centre for
Experiential Education.
Laevers, F. (Ed.) (2005). Well-being and Involvement in Care Settings. A Process-oriented Selfevaluation Instrument (SiCs). Brussel: Kind & Gezin.[Can be downloaded from www.cego.be
For more information and leaflet:
Research Centre for Experiential Education – Leuven
Schapenstraat 34,
B-3000 Leuven
BELGIUM
Fax: +32 16 32 57 91
E-mail secr.: cego@ped.kuleuven.ac.be
E-mail: ferre.laevers@ped.kuleuven.ac.be
Web URL: http://www.cego.be
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Professor Laevers’
SLIDE PRESENTATION
The following pages contain the slides used by Professor Laevers during his presentation.
They are set out in the following pattern.
1
3
5
7
2
4
6
8
………..
and so on.
Page 12
EXPERIENTIAL
EDUCATION
A. What kind of
outcome
do we want?
Dynamic learning:
how to promote it and with
what effect?
Ferre Laevers
Research Centre for Experiential Education
University of Leuven - Belgium
1
2
OUTPUT
objectives
outcomes
Quality in care and
education
"
Emotional health / self-esteem #
CONTEXT
means
principles
OUTPUT
Exploratory drive #
outcomes
Competencies & life skills #
! PROCESS ! objectives
The basic attitude of linkedness #
3
Gross motor development
1
Shows excellent physical skills for his/her age,
demonstrated in a broad range of situations where
movement is required. It is a pleasure observing
his/her movements in space: supple and graceful,
4
Deep-level-learning
Holistic in nature
far from a checklist of isolated skills
grasps the essence
applicable to an unlimited age-range
purposeful and with efficacy, in an adjusted pace,
rhythmical, readily reacting to changes and signals.
Picks up new patterns of movement very easily.
5
6
Page 13
Basic competences
Fine motor development
Gross motor development
Fine motor development
Expression through visual arts
Expression through language
Understanding the world of objects
Understanding the world of people
Logical mathematical competence
Self-organisation & entrepreneurship
2
Is very skilful in handling objects and tools:
is able to perform complex operations
fluently and with precision. Masters a broad
range of manipulations. Has an excellent coordination of hand and fingers, detached
from the rest of the body. Easily picks up
new patterns of movement.
7
8
3
Deep-level-learning
Self-organisation & entrepreneurship
Holistic in nature
Is able to manage him/herself well: knows what
(s)he wants, can set goals, can engage into action
without delay and achieve a good result. Does not
give up at the first obstacle and can persist. Can
step back and work strategically. Is able to exploit
various possibilities and adapt to changing
circumstances. Is not ruled by the surroundings,
but actively determines the group’
group’s course together
with others.
far from a checklist of isolated skills
grasps the essence
applicable to a nearly unlimited age-range
a sense of direction through imagination
an impact on the offer of activities
9
4
Understanding of the physical world
Is keen to explore and experience physical
phenomena. Has a differentiated sense of
properties and patterns of objects and living
creatures. Can make sound predictions about the
effects of combinations of materials and
interventions. Is able to come up with adequate
actions on objects and nature and to deal with the
physical world successfully.
10
Responses in a test on floating
and sinking
$ “because something light always pops up”
$ “this is made of plastic [ping-pong ball] and things of
plastic always float, but glass [the marble] always sinks
through the water”
$ “If wooden planks remain on the water, these sticks
also will remain floating” [saté-sticks]
$ “this is wood, and from wood they make things…”
$ “because this also is iron…”
11
12
Page 14
Logical and mathematical
thinking
5
Shows an excellent power of abstraction:
consequently handles criteria to sort or classify
objects, masters the necessary concepts to grasp
the world of spatial relations, time and quantities.
Holds spontaneous courses of reasoning by linking
phenomena, describing patterns and use concepts.
13
A. Role taking
6
Social competence
Has a strong and differentiated awareness of
his/her own feelings and perceptions.
Has a well-developed role-taking capacity:
can enter into people’
people’s feelings, needs and
thoughts, takes them into account and acts
accordingly. Masters a broad range of social
behaviours and strategies and knows how to
make use of them.
14
Social competence
Deep-level-learning
$ emotional role taking [feeling/emotions]
$ cognitive role taking [perceptions/thoughts]
$ conative role taking [motives/intentions]
Holistic in nature
Linked with ‘intuitive intelligence’
intelligence’
B. Understanding & explaining behaviour
linking emotion/cognition/motivation / (inter)action /
cultural context / individual patterns / traits
C. Predicting behaviour
based on linking emotion, cognition etc. …
D. Interacting
repertoire of responses & prediction of impact
15
16
Deep-level-learning
Mental schemes
Holistic in nature
Linked with ‘intuitive intelligence
the best ingenieurs in the States:
States: farmers’
farmers’ sons
abstract logical thought + intuition
The concept of ‘schema’
schema’
Reality
17
18
Page 15
The new paradigm:
paradigm:
‘competence oriented learning’
learning’
“not the learning is the point,
how to use the learned is”
is”
B. What kind of
environment should we
create?
competence is about tackling complex
situations
the concept of ‘implicit learning and ‘stealth
education’
education’
the taxonomy of Bloom revisited
19
Quality in care and
education
CONTEXT
means
principles
!
20
The OECD meeting on ECE –[Stockholm
2003]
High Scope [1962]
!
Reggio Emilia [1970]
Te Whaariki [1996]
Experiential Education [1976]
[1976]
21
22
!"Een ‘open framework’
framework’
Basic qualities
Initiative of the
adult
!"Respect of the child
!"An open framework-approach
Programmed
learning
Open
framework
Childoriented
Initiative of the child
Custodial
23
24
Page 16
Basic qualities
The concept of representation
!"Respect of the child
!"An open framework-approach
Perceptions
and
actions
!"A rich environment
Mental
representation
Symbols
and
signs
!"Representation:
impression-expression’ cycle
Representation: ‘impression-expression’
Understanding
Expression
25
26
Basic qualities
To express is to impress (Gendlin)
Gendlin)
!"Respect of the child
!"An open framework-approach
SYMBOL
!"A rich environment
!"Representation:
impression-expression’ cycle
Representation: ‘impression-expression’
!"Communication / interaction / inclusion
Unexpressed
!"Observation,
Observation, observation,
observation, observation
Expressed
27
28
Quality in care and
education
CONTEXT
means
principles
C. How to get there?
OUTPUT
! PROCESS ! objectives
WELL-BEING
outcomes
INVOLVEMENT
29
30
Page 17
Involvement
THE ZONE OF PROXIMAL
re
uDEVELOPMENT
l
i
a
ff
nt
o
e
r
a
m
fe
ve
l
vo edomsion
n
r s
i
bo pre
difficulty of task
When children are...
concentrated and focussed
interested, motivated, fascinated
mentally active
fully experiencing sensations and meanings
enjoying the satisfaction of the exploratory
drive
operating at the very limits of their
capabilities
competence of the child
31
The key question is:
HOW CAN WE CHANGE THE
PROGRAM INSTEAD OF ADDING NEW
FILES AGAIN AND AGAIN?
AGAIN?
32
Mental schemes
...we know that deep level learning
is taking place
de
Reality
33
SCANNINGSFORMULIER BETROKKENHEIDSCHOOLCODE: KLASCODE
!
!
!
!
!
LEERKRACHTCODE:VAK : AANTAL LLNDATUM: BEGIN/EINDE INTERVAL: ..........u. ........ tot ..........u. ........TOELICHTING CONTEXTLEERLINGminimaal 1SCOREomcirkel cijfer of tussenwaardeTOELICHTINGbeschrijving van gedrag en ev. relevante contextgegevens11
!
2
3
4
52 1
2
3
4
53 1
2
3
4
54 1
2
3
!
4
55 1
2
3
4
56 1
INVOLVEMENT IN 3 CHILDREN
22
SCANNINGPROCEDUREFORINVOLVEMENT
Number of intervals
!
34
19
20
18
16
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
2
"
"
"
"
0
13
14
12
8
6
4
10
9
10
5
8
5
3
1
2
2
3
4
CHILD 1 = 2,7
0
5
0
1
2
3
4
CHILD 2 = 3,5
0
5
0
1
0
2
1
3
4
5
CHILD 3 = 4,3
35
36
Page 18
2
3
4
57 1
2
3
4
58 1
SiCs
A Process-oriented Selfevaluation Instrument for Care
Settings
www.cego.be
37
38
Scanning of Well-being (SiCs)
WB
Frequency
%
Scanning of Involvement (SiCs)
Total
Low
1
1.5
2
73
51
257
1.38 %
0.96 %
4.85 %
7.18%
Moderate
2.5
3
3.5
259
1066
975
4.89 %
20.11 %
18.39 %
High
4
4.5
5
1804
316
500
34.03 %
5.96 %
9.43 %
WB
%
Total
Low
1
1.5
2
180
195
634
3.40%
3.6%
11.9%
19.04%
43.39%
Moderate
2.5
3
3.5
254
968
897
4.79%
18.26%
16.92%
39.97%
49.42%
High
4
4.5
5
1445
246
481
27.26%
4.64%
9.08%
40.98%
39
PROCESS ORIENTED CHILD
MONITORING SYSTEM [POMS]
NAMESWELL-BEINGINVOLVEMENTCOMMENTS
Frequency
40
The status of the process variables
Abrachim?12345?12345……………………………………
Tom?12345?12345…………………………………… Ben?12345?12345…………………………………… Olivier?12
Contain key information to improve quality
a measure for the POWER of the learning env.
env.
immediate feedback
the shortest way to interventions
A conclusive criterion for risk of stagnation
tells who is taking advantage from our efforts and
who doesn’
doesn’t
a common basis for the whole of the educational
system
41
42
Page 19
A process-oriented strategy
What about assessment?
% set out the developmental domains to be
find a consensus around the criteria
‘wellbeing’ and ‘involvement’
% start where you are and accept the
limitations
% select a relevant field of action
% take initiatives that are promising
% reflect: why did it work/why not?
% share your experiences with others
%
addressed
% monitor quality by evaluating the
process: are children intensively active
in these domains? [effort not outcome]
% use national tests for a general view on
effects, not for school linked feedback
% develop better tools to capture the
essence of competencies and life skills
43
44
Page 20
DYNAMIC LEARNING
Graham Donaldson, HMSCI
I am delighted to be here and to have the opportunity to meet so many colleagues from the pre-school
sector and of course to share a platform with Ferre Laevers.
This is an important time in Scottish education. Many of you will be aware that the inspectorate
recently published a report called ‘Improving Scottish Education’ which attested to many strengths
across all sectors but also drew attention to a number of challenges, some of which have been long
standing. In particular, the report looked forward to the role of education in preparing our young
people for what will be an increasingly uncertain future world. The First Minister yesterday made
reference in an important speech to these future challenges and, rightly in my view, placed learning at
the heart of our capacity to meet those challenges.
It is a sobering thought that some, perhaps many, of the young people entering pre-school this year
may still be alive at the turn of the century. They will undoubtedly need to be lifelong learners and to
have the capacity, not only to cope with change but to embrace that change in ways that allow them to
grow and thrive in a variety of different roles. Their capacity to be lifelong learners starts from their
earliest years – the people in this room will be critical to laying the foundations for that lifelong
learning.
We have seen a huge expansion in early education in the last decade and again everyone in this room
will have been part of that fast moving and challenging development. Who knows what the next
decade will bring but I am certain that we will continue to strengthen our work in that immensely
powerful period of early learning.
The conference title ‘Dynamic Learning’ suggests a view of learning which I think captures our
aspirations and intentions about how we want our children and young people learn.
However, it is perhaps most obvious when we watch and listen to our youngest children
enthusiastically rehearsing what they are learning that we see so very clearly what ‘learning’ is or
should be about. Our youngest children are quite naturally ‘dynamic’ learners. Most are enthused by
the world around them, eager to be involved in the task of learning and to share that excitement with
everyone they meet.
By summer of this year HMIE and the Care Commission will have jointly inspected some 2500
nursery centres since 2003. That is a huge number of inspections – and the inspection teams agree
wholeheartedly with that fact - but the information gained about what is happening within the preschool sector provides a very clear picture of a sector which has, in a relatively short period of time,
made huge strides in extending and developing the overall range and quality of provision for young
children.
Staff have responded very well to a broad range of government initiatives about curriculum,
assessment and accountability and have worked very hard to deliver a consistently high level of
provision for children and their families.
Across Scotland, staff in nursery classes and schools, and in the private and voluntary and
independent sectors have addressed quickly and with real commitment the need to implement fully
the 3-5 curriculum. They have undertaken the task of evaluating the quality of their work using the
National Care Standards and the quality indicators from the Child at the Centre. They have taken
part, usually with great fortitude, in more inspections than any other sector and have achieved an
appropriate recognition of the overall quality of the work they have undertaken.
HMIE’s report Improving Scottish Education sets out many strengths within the pre-school sector.
Page 21
SLIDE.
Key strengths
•
close relationships between pre-school staff and parents which help ensure
effective attention to children’s pastoral needs;
• the commitment of staff, and the increasing number who have qualifications;
• the effective organisation and use of learning environments in many to
promote purposeful play and independent learning;
• the range of interesting learning opportunities available to children;
• consistently good progress of children across the key aspects of learning
and development; and
• secure, confident and motivated children who display an interest in learning.
These encompass most aspects of the work of many, many pre-school centres – positive relationships,
pastoral care and the commitment of staff. These elements underpin high quality learning. In
addition, an important feature of improving quality is the awareness of staff of the need to gain
additional qualifications.
The strengths also include those which relate to the quality of children’s learning and to the central
role of adults in supporting that learning and development.
SLIDE.
Improving Scottish Education HMIE 2006
the effective organisation and use of learning environments….to promote
purposeful play and independent learning
the range of interesting learning opportunities available to children
consistently good progress of children across the aspects of learning and
development secure, confident and motivated children who display an interest
in learning.
The elements, outlined on the screen, are essential in establishing learning both as a habit and as an
holistic process.
It is greatly to the credit of pre-school staff that we were able to describe - promotion of purposeful
play and independent learning as a key strength of pre-school provision. In the best of centres, the
promotion of independent learning is achieved with skill and a great deal of ingenuity. Very
importantly, the statement about motivated children who display an interest in learning is crucial if
we are to ensure that our children enjoy the process of learning and are helped to build on their early
skills. Indeed, as I said earlier, if we as a nation are to succeed and sustain all that is good about
Scotland then these outcomes must be maintained.
Clearly, in the most effective centres there is an enormous value and emphasis placed on the processes
of encouraging children’s learning - children’s independent learning. In the best practice, children are
supported in developing an understanding of the world around them and are helped to establish a sure
foundation for future learning. Critically, learning in nursery is about learning how to learn.
Page 22
SLIDES - photographs of children not available on web site.
These children are developing the foundations of learning through positive interactions and
experiences.
They are full of energy and enthusiasm, vigorous and purposeful, inquisitive, animated and interested
in all that goes on around them.
They have the confidence to explore, ask questions, interact with others and play happily together, and
even, dare I say, to relax.
Their natural curiosity and interest is stimulated by their interactions with the adults around them.
They are learners, and are learning rapidly and almost instinctively.
Not all children are so fortunate and there are still too many who live and ‘work’ in centres where
learning and practice are not of a sufficiently high standard. They are in centres where learning is not
valued and where children are not challenged by their experiences or encouraged to grow and develop
as they should.
HMIE are currently undertaking a small sample of follow-through inspections of centres inspected
over the last three years. The aim is to evaluate the improvement achieved since the initial integrated
inspection. The sample includes the range of provision and the range of evaluations. Some of these
follow through inspections have been completed and the outcomes are very encouraging. We are
using the 6-point scale to evaluate the progress achieved by centres in overtaking the
recommendations from the original report, and in most of the inspections completed so far evaluations
identify good or very good progress. That is a real and commendable achievement.
For a significant number of the centres included in the sample the initial inspection was the start of
what may prove to be a long journey. The follow-through inspection always recognises effort and
commitment by staff who often feel a great sense of relief when they hear such positive evaluations.
There is a sense of a job well done. When starting from a low point it is clear that staff have worked
very hard and have been supported well by education authorities in addressing the main points for
action. It is also apparent that most staff have a clear understanding that their journey is not complete
and that improvements are still to be made.
You will be aware that the latest Curriculum for Excellence progress document indicates that there are
perceived to be real strengths in the 3 to 5 curriculum - that the 3 to 5 curriculum is working well and
may only need to be “refreshed” with the “guidance updated and extended”.
The purposes of the Curriculum for Excellence - successful learners, confident individuals,
responsible citizens and effective contributors - sit very well with the philosophy and approaches of
early education.
Indeed, there is much in the approaches used in pre-school which would benefit learners of all ages.
The transition between nursery and primary school has to be about much more than a change of
building and a transfer of information. There has to be a much greater coherence between pre-school
and the early years of primary school.
The word ‘play’ is frequently used to describe what children ‘do’ in nursery and in the early years of
primary school. There are 16 definitions of the word ‘play’ as a noun or a verb in the Compact
Oxford Dictionary. As a verb the definition given is - to engage in games or other activities for
enjoyment rather than for a serious or practical purpose. And as a noun the definition is - games or
other activities engaged in for enjoyment.
Page 23
But 'play’ in the educational context goes much further. Yes, of course enjoyment, games and
activities are part of the learning process but the children’s engagement in play does have a very
practical and serious purpose – it is how they learn. And children in the early years of primary
school should be actively engaged in learning. Their interactions with adults should encourage and
stimulate their thinking, they should have opportunities to rehearse and reinforce more formal
learning in imaginative and challenging contexts. Children have to be interested in, and see a
purpose for, the experiences they are offered. Learning should be relevant, meaningful and
stimulating. In other words it should be ‘dynamic’.
I am very much looking forward to Professor Laevers presentation where he will discuss his
important work on children’s involvement in learning and the role we as adults play in encouraging,
challenging and supporting that learning.
SLIDES - photographs of children not available on web site.
Opportunities such as these for outdoor play,
- for the development of literacy and numeracy skills,
- for interaction and fun,
- for exploration and investigation, and to experience the more mundane roles of real life.
Such experiences should not end at the age of 4 or 5 or even 6. They should be developed and
extended as children move through the school. Good educational experiences should provide
appropriate challenge, be motivating and interesting, and be relevant to individual needs.
There are many challenges and opportunities ahead for early years staff. Sharing practice across the
pre-school and primary sectors will be particularly important. The real challenge lies in using and
sharing our knowledge of how young children learn, and developing appropriate, practical and
challenging learning experiences which sustain children’s continuing motivation and progress as
learners.
Our role in HMIE will be to support and encourage this process. It is our intention that from April
2007 nursery classes will be reintegrated fully into the general inspection programme for primary
schools. Inspectors will look closely at children’s progress in learning from nursery onwards. They
will look at the ways staff then ensure quality, coherence and challenge in the learning and teaching
approaches adopted across the whole school.
Everyone here today has a part to play in the process of change and improvement. We all need to
ensure that ALL our children in ALL our centres and schools have opportunities to experience
learning as a dynamic, challenging and enjoyable process. Learning should be fun.
This conference provides opportunities for us to reflect and to develop our own skills further as we
take account of the work of the practioners who are presenting in the discussion groups, and of the
work of Professor Laevers as he shares his research with us.
I wish you a dynamic and enjoyable day.
Page 24
The Implications of ‘Improving Scottish Education’.
Kenneth Muir, HMCI
It’s a great pleasure to be here today and to make this input.
As the title of my talk suggests, I’m going to consider the findings from our recently published report
“Improving Scottish Education”, or ISE as it has become known, and make some suggestions about
the role and implications of this report will play in future inspections. But I also want to try and
clarify what other factors are influencing the current and future landscape within which we all are, and
will be, operating in over the coming years. And to do this, I will try and set in context a number of
ongoing developments.
But before I do all this, and look forward, I want to begin by setting the context of where we’ve got to
within the pre-school sector by briefly looking backwards - to see where we’ve come from and, very
importantly, what many of YOU have achieved over the years.
As a number of you in the audience will be well aware, I am actually a bit of a fraud being here,
because my background is not in pre-school education. I came to the post of Chief Inspector having
spent a considerable amount of time in secondary education as an adviser in secondary social subjects
and working in 5-14 and, in my most recent post within the Inspectorate, as Assistant Chief Inspector
overseeing further education and teacher education. To prepare myself for the world of “play mats
and sand trays”, as one of my ill-informed colleagues referred to the pre-school sector, I did a
considerable amount of reading, particularly on the various challenges that the sector has faced over
recent years and how all of you have faced up to those challenges. And this exercise has shown a
number of interesting features. If I take you back to HMIE’s report on the education of children under
5 in Scotland published in February 1994.
SLIDE of front cover of report
in it, we state something that has become even more apparent recently as pre-school education has
developed over the last few decades - that the first 5 years of a child’s life encompasses a complex
period of rapid growth and development. The experiences which children have during these early
years exert a powerful influence on their long-tem development and, more importantly on their future
schooling.
This early 90’s report was seminal in many ways. It set out a series of principles to guide curriculum
planning. It recognised the importance of a child’s home experience, and how it was critically
important that these early experiences be integrated into the curriculum. It talked about the continuity
of learning for children and the importance of guarding against poor quality or negative experiences
from which only poor quality or negative learning can follow. It talked about effective assessment,
incorporating a variety of approaches as an essential ingredient of an appropriate curriculum, and
critically, it pointed to the importance of viewing learning as a holistic experience involving the
integration of the different aspects of children’s development. Many of these messages still hold good
today, and I will return to some of them in the course of my presentation.
In our Report on Standards and Quality in Scottish Pre-School Education between 1997 and 2001,
SLIDE of front cover of report
we see many examples of the sector showing its flexibility, adapting and responding positively to
many of the challenges and changes, at a time when the percentages of 3 year olds and 4 year olds
attended pre-school educational centres had increased rapidly from around 35% to around 60% and
80% respectively.
Page 25
The 1997-2001 Report notes many examples of high quality provision across all sectors of pre-school
education, and continued improvements in the voluntary and private pre-school centres over the
previous 4 year period. The report commented positively on the broad and well balanced programmes
that children engage in almost all centres. It talked about the positive staff interaction with children to
encourage and support their learning and development and good or very good staff teamwork in all
but a very few centres.
I have taken this quick gallop through recent pre-school history in Scottish Education not as a
theoretical exercise but to remind us all the extent to which the sector has faced change and how it has
successfully taken forward the challenges facing it over the last 20 years. Where we are at now in
Scottish pre-school education, and in Scottish education more generally, is a real watershed time. One
of the reasons we recently published our Improving Scottish Education Report
SLIDE of front cover of report
was to reflect that watershed; to try and help practitioners make sense of education across all sectors;
to encourage staff to “look over the wall” beyond their own sector; to look at learning from the
learner’s perspective as a holistic, lifelong learning experience; and to give pointers as to what is
required to ensure the future delivery of high quality education to all our learners.
It is important to remember, as previous reports and the ISE report state, that our inspection evidence
shows that Scottish education does many things well and some things particularly well, and that most
learners are well supported and well taught.
The ISE report notes that the quality of service provided at the pre-school stage is strong overall and
that most children are given a very positive start in their learning. To show how much society has
changed and the pre-school sector has had to change to match it, we note in ISE that by 2005 the
numbers of 3 year olds and 4 year olds attending pre-school education had again increased to 81% and
98% respectively. I am sure you are all well aware that no other sector of Scottish education has
changed so much in such a short space of time!
I know too that you are all aware of the huge responsibility placed on those of you who deliver preschool provision to ensure that young children in your centres are given the highest quality of care
and education.
SLIDE - photographs of children not available on web site.
And that importance is reflected in the fact that the profile of the pre-school sector has never been
higher. There has been a growing realisation amongst policy makers and decision makers, bolstered
by a growing body of research evidence, particularly from longitudinal studies carried out in the
United States that attendance at high quality pre-school provision enhances and improves children’s
later life chances. The research shows that a quality pre-school experience can impact positively on a
child’s attitude to school and to staying on at school. As a consequence, it can improve their academic
achievements, with better opportunities for engaging in further studies or finding employment. There
are indications that children with a quality pre-school experience are better adjusted and find
socialising much easier, and, as highlighted recently in the Scottish and UK press, they are less likely
to offend as young adults. And the research points to many other benefits in the later life of learners.
So, unlike the one of the messages in the conclusion of the Education of Children Under 5 Report in
the mid-90s which hinted at pre-school experience only being a preparation to ensure that children
happily and successfully reached the so-called ‘real’ starting gate of learning in P1, we have reached
the stage in 2006 in the ISE report, where we highlight strongly that the pre-school education is no
longer an optional extra, it is no longer simply a means of preparing children to do the real learning in
Primary 1 but rather, it is a standard stage in the educational journey of virtually all Scotland’s young
learners. And that is a very important statement within the Report, and which I ask you all to
remember and urge you to share with colleagues, especially those in other sectors of education who
may still see pre-school as some mysterious land ‘play mats and sand trays’.
Page 26
Graham Donaldson this morning in his speech talked about the importance of young children
developing the foundations of learning in pre-school through positive interaction and positive
experiences. Graham recognised, much of what Ferre said confirms, that children are full of energy
and enthusiasm, full of vigour and inquisitiveness, they are animated and are interested in all that goes
on around them. Their natural curiosity and interest is stimulated by meaningful interactive adults
and others around them. They are dynamic lifelong learners and it is the pre-school sector and those
of you here today who help our young children take the first steps in that journey of lifelong learning.
And that message is entirely consistent with what we see in the Curriculum for Excellence initiative.
SLIDE of front cover of report
A Curriculum for Excellence challenges all of us to achieve the aspiration that all children develop
their capacities as successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective
contributors to society. What is important is that for the first time ever in Scotland we have a single
curriculum covering the 3-18 age group, a curriculum that applies to all children and young people
from the very earliest contact with the education system through to the time that they leave school as
young adults. A curriculum that recognises and values the pre-school experience and recognises it as
providing a critically important foundation for further learning.
And we should look forward in pre-school settings with much confidence to a Curriculum for
Excellence - because many of its principles and key features already figure prominently in the work
you do in your centres, and they are reflected well in the strengths we note within our ISE Report.
When you boil ACE down to the basics, its about making learning active, challenging and enjoyable.
It is about giving opportunities for children and young people to make appropriate choices to meet
their individual interests and needs, and ensuring that these choices lead to successful outcomes. It is
about better connecting different parts of the curriculum so that children so, so critically, see learning
as a holistic experience. It is about connecting the various stages of learning from 3-18 and it is about
ensuring that assessment supports learning. In short it is about delivering excellence for all of our
learners. And that is one of the reasons why we are dovetailing a Curriculum for Excellence and our
ISE Report with our recently published support document ‘How Good is our School – The Journey to
Excellence’.
SLIDE of front cover of report
I know that all of these reports and documents can seem confusing when they land in separate piles on
your desk, but it is important to recognise that the thrust and direction of all of them is very much in
the same direction.
Journey to Excellence is a tool which complements ISE and supports a Curriculum for Excellence. It
provides practical support for all those schools and early education centres which are ready to take a
step change from being good to great, something that from our inspection evidence, many pre-school
centres are clearly ready to do. It is a sign that the quality culture within centres and schools has
matured, and that Scottish education is ready to take self-evaluation to the next level, not as a sterile
exercise in itself but as a means of ensuring that children get the very best dynamic learning possible
as they embark on their lifelong learning adventure.
And of course there is a lot o support out there in the system for you. One of the very best papers to
take forward your own CPD on the theory and practice of learning, teaching and development in
education, is Learning and Teaching Scotland’s recently published occasional paper,
SLIDE of front cover of report
‘Let’s talk about pedagogy: towards a shared understanding for early years education in Scotland’.
The contents of this paper and the questions that it sets are designed to promote lively and stimulating
discussion on how policy and practice impact on Scotland’s very youngest children and beyond.
Page 27
Reading this document and considering its issues either individually or amongst your staff will take
you a long way along the road of exploring and considering how a Curriculum for Excellence, with its
4 capacities, can be introduced, how the Journey to Excellence can be progressed, how dynamic
learning in the form explained so well by Ferre can be developed, and how many of the areas for
improvement within our ISE Report can be taken forward.
I said at the beginning of my input that it was important to look backwards before looking forward
and that is what I have tried to do in this input. From my perspective, as a very recent convert to the
pre-school sector myself, it is an area of Scottish Education that has developed significantly in recent
years. It is a sector that has embraced change in a positive way, not least in implementing the
‘Curriculum Framework’ and using ‘Child at the Centre’ well as a self-evaluation tool for
improvement. It has seen pre-school centres acknowledged and valued as having a key role in
lifelong learning, and our inspection evidence shows that the pre-school experience has given children
learning experiences that give them confidence, promote their self-esteem and their thirst for learning.
SLIDE - photographs of children not available on web site.
We know from recent international research the critical importance of pre-school and early years
education in shaping and influencing future behaviours and attitudes to learning, and we are
beginning to see that the understanding that many pre-school staff have about how children’s learning,
and the methodologies they adopt to ensure successful learning, with a strong emphasis on
meaningful play, are now being developed into early years of primary because of the acknowledged
advantages that it brings. All of this points to a sector that is recognised nationally and internationally
as a dynamic sector. From my perspective, it is a sector that is very well placed to face the challenges
of the future.
I have painted a picture of a pre-school sector within which strong foundations have been laid over
recent years on which we can build – and this is reflected clearly in the strengths we identify in the
ISE report.
So what are some of the challenges for the pre-school sector (and for HMI!) in the future? How will
this impact on our model of inspection? And what will HMI be looking for in future inspections, and
– just as importantly-, how will HMI be supporting improvement in the future over the coming years?
Well, as I and my colleagues speak to practitioners like many of you here today, it is clear that making
sense of the future landscape can be a challenge, what with ISE, A Curriculum for Excellence,
revisions to Quality Frameworks, issues about the frequency of inspections and the recommendations
in the ‘soon-to-be-published’ report by ourselves and the Care Commission on the Integrated
Inspection of Early Education and Childcare Services from when we started in April 2003 up to June
2005, - a report that is likely to suggest the move to a more proportionate and targeted approach to
inspection, moving away from a single standard approach for all centres.
But, fundamentally, the main challenge is a relatively simple one – and that is the continued strive to
deliver excellence in the quality of provision we all offer – Scotland’s children, such as these ones,
deserve nothing less.
SLIDE - photographs of children not available on web site.
We recognise that, very often, weaknesses we find in the outcomes or outputs in inspections, are
directly related to weak inputs – and that these weaknesses can often be traced back to factors such as
leadership; access to training and ongoing CPD; levels of staff turnover; the extent to which there are
role models for staff and opportunities for career developments; and the extent to which there are
rigorous and meaningful quality assurance procedures in place.
All of these challenges are very real and, for some pre-school centres and their partner education
authorities, they remain significant challenges.
Page 28
These weaknesses I am talking about manifest themselves most noticeably and most consistently in
the four main areas for improvement highlighted in the ISE report.
SLIDE of front cover of report
Weaknesses in leadership – where the quality needs to be improved, particularly in a substantial
proportion of centres in the private and voluntary sectors, with managers and HTs needing to focus
their leadership more directly on improving the quality of children’s learning and the skills of their
staff in promoting it.
The second main area for improvement identified in the report is the need to address better the
learning needs of individuals, particularly those who require additional support in their learning.
Thirdly, staff need to engage more directly and more effectively with children to extend their
understanding and learning and; fourthly information gathered about children’s learning needs to be
used better to promote their future progress.
These are issues in the current landscape and they are highlighted in our ISE report because they are
very real challenges to be address in the future landscape as we strive to deliver excellence in the
quality of provision.
HMI intend to focus more closely on these four areas as we move to a more proportionate model of
inspection from next April, and as we continue to conduct follow-through inspection visits of they
type we have just introduced. In these follow-through visits, we report, in a published report, on the
progress made in centres, most of which had significant weaknesses identified at the time of the last
integrated inspection. However, we are also using follow-through visits to look in more depth at some
of the very good practice we have noted during integrated inspections with a view to sharing it more
widely on our website and at future Good Practice events such as this.
In relation to frequency of inspection, and to pick up on my mention of ‘proportionate inspections’, let
me say a few words.
We have discussed the issue of frequency with our Care Commission colleagues and, as I said, it is
our intention to move to a more proportionate model of integrated inspection in the pre-school sector.
Because of current legislation, the Care Commission is still required to carry out ‘singleton
inspections’ annually, and the extent to which that may change or not is likely to be heavily influenced
by the fall-out from the recent outbreaks of E-Coli in a number of pre-school centres. However,
‘proportionate integrated inspections’ will mean that the interval between inspections may vary
between centres, depending on a number of criteria such as the outcomes of the previous integrated
inspection, the outcomes of any follow-through inspection or the outcomes of discussions we have on
an ongoing basis with Care Commission colleagues.
In nursery classes, EA nursery schools and in centres in partnership with EAs, the frequency of
inspection may also vary depending on the findings in our inspections of EAs – with those EAs
showing strong consistency in the quality of the support and monitoring they provide, and where the
EAs own quality assurance arrangements are proving to be effective, receiving less frequent
inspections than in other EAs where these features are not in place or are not fully effective.
As part of this move to reducing the overall burden of inspection, we are piloting at the moment the
re-integration of nursery class inspections back into the cycle of inspections for the primary school of
which it is a part, and it is our intention to implement this model from April next year. We are also
looking at ways in which our published reports can be produced more quickly, and we are
experimenting with ways in which our website might be used more fully as a means of providing you
all with support.
And as changes are being made to various Quality Frameworks, such as HGIOS, we need to look
again at ‘Child at the Centre’ to make sure it reflects closely the changes we have seen in the sector
since its publication, and to make sure that supports the introduction of new developments.
Page 29
So just as the changing landscapes poses challenges for you, it poses challenges for HMI as well, to
which we are trying to respond. What we have in common however, whether it be through your work
in your centres, or our work as HMI trying to bring about improvement through inspection, followthrough and events such as today, is our strong united desire to see children and young people receive
the highest quality education possible.
I want to conclude now because I know from the experiences of this morning that some excellent
workshops await us all. If you are just waking up having fallen asleep after an excellent lunch, then
let me simply re-state what I think are the key messages I would want you take from this input.
Over the last 20 years, the pre-school sector in Scotland has earned an enviable reputation within the
UK and internationally for delivering high quality experiences to our children. You have all played a
part in that, and you should be proud of having done so.
The profile of the pre-school sector, and the respect in which it is held, is very much on the rise – it is
increasingly being acknowledged and valued as having a key role in lifelong learning.
And those of you working in the sector have shown yourselves to be flexible, adaptable and dynamic
in dealing with the challenges you have faced. These challenges and changes will not diminish as we
move into the future landscape with the likes of ACE, ISE, changes to Quality Frameworks, and
proportionate models of inspection.
In confronting this future landscape, remember my history lesson of today; remember the huge strides
forward you have taken forward over the past few years. In the theme of today’s event, I urge you all
to continue to be dynamic – as I said earlier,
SLIDE - photographs of children not available on web site.
Scotland’s children deserve nothing less.
Thank you.
Page 30
WORKSHOPS
Garden Technology – ICT enhancing and supporting outdoor learning.
Presented by Mrs Grace O’Malley, Lochgelly Sunflower Nursery, Fife Council.
The team from Sunflower Nursery presented a stimulating and challenging workshop which
demonstrated clearly how information and communications technology (ICT) can be used effectively
across the curriculum to enhance learning. The focus of the presentation was the use of ICT to
develop children’s learning in, and about, their outdoor play experiences.
Staff had developed the nursery garden to provide children with a purposeful learning environment
and, at the same time, take forward the principals of Early Learning, Forward Thinking. Grace
explained how she worked with staff to integrate these two main priorities for development.
Technology at Sunflower Nursery is integrated fully across the curriculum and is not seen as an ‘bolt
on’. The role of the adult was crucial to the impact on children’s development and learning. Staff
training opportunities were developed and staff undertook specific responsibilities for the
development of a variety of resources. Individual staff members had been innovative in creating
stimulating resources to enhance children’s learning. There was a concentrated team effort to make it
succeed. Everyone was determined to keep an appropriate balance between child-centred learning
and more adult-led activities. It was crucial to these developments that the children should take
ownership of their own learning. One unexpected outcome was the positive impact on children’s
language development.
The Sunflower team illustrated the successful use of technology in their setting through photographs,
slide shows and video footage. Workshop participants were encouraged to view the display boards
and laptop presentations and some relevant ICT resources before discussing the effectiveness of ICT
in supporting learning in their own setting/authority.
Bringing Planning Alive – Learning to Learn
Presented by Mrs Joan Dowman, Dowanhill Nursery School, Glasgow City Council.
This presentation shared an insight into how the planning process had evolved at Dowanhill Nursery
School over a period of three years. A philosophy of learning through play with the child at the centre
is at the heart of this process. Furthermore, the importance of involving parents in their child’s
learning was recognised as a key contributor to successful learning.
The policy of consultation is a theme throughout at Dowanhill. Consultation takes place with
children, staff, parents and the wider family. The process begins when a key interest is observed
whilst children are involved in play. For example, when children were overheard talking about a
nearby building site. Staff note the children’s interests and consult with them to find out what they
know about the subject. They start with what children are interested in and what they know sets a
solid foundation on which to build a variety of learning experiences with key learning outcomes in
mind. Staff discuss children’s contributions at a planning meeting and proceed to brainstorm a range
of ideas with a view to extending children’s learning through play. They plan visits to building sites,
museums and places relevant to the topic. Staff make sure that whilst on excursions, children are
encouraged to explore, investigate, ask questions and record information by using clipboards,
notepads and digital cameras. This information is brought back to the nursery and shared among staff,
children and parents. The topic is reviewed weekly at planning meetings and children’s interests and
achievements are shared and discussed.
Parents are invited in many ways to contribute to the process. Regular newsletters and a curriculum
board share children’s knowledge and ideas with parents. Staff set out clearly what children are
Page 31
expected to learn in ‘family friendly’ terms. A large interest sheet is displayed in the entrance area
and staff, students and parents are able to contribute their ideas and suggestions to the process.
The result is a topic which covers all aspects of the curriculum. It starts with what the child knows. It
starts with what interests the child. The process is holistic and involves everyone, children, staff,
students, parents and the extended family. It informs everyone about what is being learned and how it
is being learned. It gives ownership to all involved. It makes planning exciting and relevant.
Documentation – the cornerstone of our learning process
Presented by David Smith, Rosellen Dick and Jennifer Brown, Fintry Primary School,
Stirling Council.
This presentation provided an informative guide to the Reggio/Documentation approach to learning
that underpins Stirling Council’s work in pre-five settings. Reggio educators believe that each child
has unlimited potential, is eager to interact with and contribute to the world. Each child is driven by
curiosity and imagination. Each child is capable and delights in taking responsibility for his own
learning. Each child listens and is listened to. Each child is valued. Documentation in Reggio Emilia
focuses intensively on recording children’s experiences, memories, thoughts and ideas in the course of
their work in a variety of ways. Documentation typically includes samples of children’s work at
different stages; photographs showing work in progress; comments by adults working with the
children; transcriptions of children’s discussions. From these, staff become increasingly aware of the
participation, interests and development of each child. This awareness enables staff to plan with the
children on a daily basis to create learning experiences in which children will engage with
enthusiasm. It also gives them deeper insight and understanding into how and what children are
learning and how to progress their interests and develop their skills.
What staff have done is to implement and adapt the approach to suit their own particular skills, the
setting of the school and the children themselves. They needed courage, patience, and above all, the
recognition that they too had much to learn, in particular that they had to become comfortable with the
feeling that they were doing nothing! In the Fintry setting, the whole school is involved in the
documentation process. It is not just the nursery staff who document. Primary six pupils spend time
as “buddies” with the nursery children and have notebooks to record what the children tell them and
what their interests are.
The video clearly showed how documentation could contribute to the breadth and depth of children’s
learning and how children could become even more curious, interested and confident as they took
their ideas and interests forward. The workshop took the audience along with the children, on an
audio visual journey which used practical examples of children’s talk, their interactions with adults,
photos and scribed dialogues. We saw how ongoing dialogues between children and adults created an
intimacy between them and deepened their relationships. The video also demonstrated how listening
to children, consulting with them and supporting their participation and ,most importantly, letting
them take the lead created very effective learning experiences in which children, their parents, the
primary school and the wider community participated with enthusiasm. Through making their
learning visible, we saw children who were rich, resourceful, dynamic and full of potential.
Assessment is for Learning
Presented by Ms Linda Roger and Ms Susan Mullin, Monikie Primary School, Angus Council.
The idea for this project started when there was a growing awareness that staff in pre-school settings
were spending a great deal of time gathering assessment information about the children but that this
information could not always be used effectively to plan next steps in learning.
Those involved in the project asked, ‘What do we actually need to observe and what do we need to
record?’ When reflecting upon how information had been gathered previously, staff felt that they did
Page 32
not always have time to allow for ‘depth’ – and perhaps moved too swiftly from one observation focus
to the next. They decided to try a new approach. It was very challenging to change the way that they
had traditionally worked. A new approach required plans and room layout to be more flexible but
crucially allowed staff more time to listen to and respond to the children’s ideas. Those involved are
very enthusiastic about their new way of working. They report that it is more motivating, stimulating
and rewarding for all. Staff, pupils and parents are more confident.
Children now have more of a ‘voice’. All are very involved in planning and are excited about every
new topic that emerges.
There are many photographs and examples of the children’s work on display around the nursery and
gathered, by the children themselves, in their folios. Children and their parents have access to the
folios at all times and can look at photographs and examples of work, often revisiting previous
projects. They can talk in great detail about what they have learned – even if this was some time ago.
Children are going home and talking about what they are learning with their parents. A space for
parents to write comments on the nursery notice board allows all to contribute and share children’s
learning experiences at nursery and at home.
This project required staff to ‘let go’ of a traditional way of working. A new challenge is never easy,
but all agree that they are very glad that they made the change and are finding their work much more
rewarding and much more fun!
The Magic Kingdom of Chess
Presented by Frances O’Connell and Audrey Hinton of Holy Family Primary School, East
Dunbartonshire Council.
The presenters described how children were encouraged to develop an understanding of the game
through an integrated curriculum approach. Children were gradually introduced to the chess pieces
and basic rules of the game through experiences such as, storytelling, imaginative play, mathematics
and creativity, set in the daily play routine,
The presenters described East Dunbartonshire’s pilot of chess in nurseries and the challenges for staff
to make it appropriate and relevant to young children. Staff were trained and supported by the
primary school chess coach in how to play the game of chess. A key element in the success was the
development of a partnership with parents in playing chess at home.
Staff, parents and children indicated that the training had been effective and enjoyable and had given
them the confidence to take the project forward. Parental involvement in playing of chess was very
positive and had a significant influence to the success of the pilot. In particular, parents who had no
previous background or knowledge of the game thoroughly enjoyed playing. Children also enjoyed
spending concentrated periods involved in the game.
Some of the benefits for children in playing chess were identified as
Focusing: observing carefully and concentrating.
Thinking ahead: think first then act “ If I do this, what might happen then “
Evaluating: children learn to evaluate the results of specific actions. I did this – did it
help me or not?
Encourage memory, language and mathematical skills such as spatial awareness,
pattern, numerical and directional ability.
Foster thinking
Challenge gifted children while potentially helping develop underachievers.
Build confidence and self esteem.
Build friendships.
Page 33
The workshop concluded with a practical session where delegates discussed and evaluated video
footage of children at differing ages and levels of skill playing chess.
Down in the Jungle
Presented by Marion Samson and Anne Beaumont, Westquarter Primary School, Falkirk
Council.
Westquarter Primary School is situated in an area of urban regeneration in Falkirk. The nursery class
had been extensively refurbished. Unfortunately, staff had been left with an unattractive outdoor area
which because of its construction became known as ‘The Concrete Jungle’. The nursery teacher and
staff recognised the need to develop this area as a context for learning by involving children and
parents in the process. Staff used children’s ideas to develop the area and included learning across
many curricular areas into this process. It also became clear that children saw that the space could be
used for outdoor play as well as energetic play, and this was incorporated into the plans for
development.
When staff consulted with children they found that
there was a closer match between the child and the curriculum
children’s self-esteem was enhanced considerably
children’s motivation was also increased.
The presentation, as well as telling of the positive aspects of involving children and parents in such
developments, also highlighted the need for wider community involvement to ensure such play spaces
are appropriately maintained. Video presentations highlighted the ways in which outdoor spaces can
be used effectively by children and staff. During workshop discussions, delegates were encouraged to
reflect on how best to develop outdoor spaces, and how to counteract problems which early years staff
often encounter when supporting children to play outside.
Brucehill Science Project
Presented by Lynn McCafferty, Brucehill Education and Childcare Centre, West
Dunbartonshire Council.
Brucehill Education and Childcare Centre caters for up to 80 children at any one time. A very strong
emphasis has always been placed developing real partnerships with parents in the education of their
children. The science project was aimed at extending staff and parent partnerships through the
development of Science Boxes. It was a team effort where everyone involved was valued highly and
contributed equally. Staff and parents worked together to ensure children thrive and develop and reach
their full potential. Parents are involved closely in their child’s learning through the creation of
science boxes.
Parents describe the project.
“ Basically as parents we were involved in everything and that includes from shopping for the
boxes, the cameras, making up the information sheets, putting the project leaflets together
and writing up the experiments.”
“ I feel more confident in contributing to my child’s learning and I’ve done things in the past
with my child’s homework etc, but never been involved to such an extent as I have been with
this project”.
Workshop participants were able to explore resources used by the children to help them learn about
magnets, electricity, mini-beasts, light and dark, and growing up.
Page 34
The video shown, was filmed in the nursery and at home. It shows parents, children and staff working
together.
“ We were looking at children’s learning, looking at how children learn in the home and in
the nursery..”
“One of the most important things is the parents are involved in their children’s learning.
They’re taking this home. This whole thing about science being a scary word is not
anymore”.
Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in the Expressive Arts
Presented by Mrs Helen Newman, Sanday Junior High School, Orkney
.
Mrs Newman used a wide range of resources to support the teaching and delivery of practical music
making with children. Initially, the children’s relatively short attention span and their as yet, not well
developed language skills limited their ability to express readily their own responses to music.
Margaret was aware that the children were more receptive to music when it was an integral part of a
visual drama. She chose to use Maxwell’s Reel with Northern Lights, by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies
and used Windows Media Player visuals to heighten the experience for the children. The computer
was linked to a digital projector and amplifier and the visuals were used in a large darkened room.
When the lights were dimmed, the music and moving images filled the room. Children jumped up
and danced excitedly. Margaret made a conscious decision not to ask children to explain or describe
their actions or ideas. Instead, she gave them the freedom to create their own giant Northern Light
painting. From this experience a variety of activities developed, all undertaken with music playing in
the background.
As the project progressed Margaret realised that children who were not naturally comfortable with
‘messy’ activities, enjoyed using ICT and making a mess! She found working with a variety of media
gave them the opportunity to internalise and formulate their own ideas. It also stimulated the
children’s imagination and creativity, and encouraged them to articulate their responses. The project
culminated in a session where children created an imaginative story while listening to music. As well
as expressing their creative ideas about music, children were able to recognise and express distinct
and sometimes quite complex concepts regarding musical style, form and timbre.
At first parents, were hesitant about being involved in the project but their children’s excitement and
creativity encouraged them to become very supportive. Children and parents talked enthusiastically
for along time about the project, especially about the music and the different media techniques they
had used.
The use of ICT with a range of media not only encouraged children to form links between the
different activities and ideas, but also had an immense impact upon the development of their creative
skills and self-confidence.
Page 35
Evaluation of HMIE Dynamic Learning Conference
24th May 2006
James Watt Conference Centre, Heriot Watt University
Edinburgh
How relevant were the aims of the conference to your
professional needs?
Very
Relevant
Relevant
88.2%
5.9%
Marginally
Relevant
Not Relevant
% based on number of returns received from delegates.
Which element of the programme was most useful?
Presentations & workshops highlighting effective practice.
Opportunities for networking.
Workshops
Speech from Prof. Ferre Laevers – easy to listen to, stimulating and encouraging.
Input from Graham Donaldson and Ken Muir.
Which element of the programme was least useful?
Disappointing examples from practioners.
All aspects were useful.
Workshops.
What actions will you undertake as a result of attending this conference?
Dissemination to staff & colleagues.
Review current practice and look at ways for development and improvement.
Incorporate key ideas into the teaching programme for undergraduate and postgraduate students.
Information gained spread throughout pre 5 sector to improve children’s learning & development.
Use Prof Laevers presentation with staff
Reflect/discuss with colleagues the way forward for pre-school and P1.
Report to LA directorate and use ideas to influence local authority approach to ACE.
Continuing work on developing play in P1.
Develop an electronic tracking system in partnership with Ferre Laevers and relate to the four capacities in the
curriculum for excellence.
Have followed up information about Involvement Scales being used in Scotland.
HMIE Communications Team
Denholm House
Almondvale Business Park
Livingston EH54 6GA