Characteristics of Effective
Learning
Andrea Sully, Justine Greenwood and Cathy
Packwood (Lead Teachers)
aims for the day
• To familiarise ourselves with the
Characteristics of Effective Learning
• To have more confidence in
understanding how to develop the
CofEL in our own settings, than when
we arrived
• To plan how to share our learning today
with others
How do children learn?
How do
you think
we learn?
Group
Activity
Six human needs in order to be able to
learn
Certainty
We must grow
Variety
Significance
Connection
and love
Needs of the personality
Contribute
beyond
ourselves
Needs of the spirit
What do children need
beyond having their
physical needs satisfied?
Agency: influence over what
they do and some choices
Belonging: being cared for, part
of a community
Competence: the feeling of
being successful
Motivation and the brain
Even if a learner is personally motivated to
learn a topic, if the learning content itself
isn't motivating, the learner's brain will do
everything possible to look for something
more interesting. This applies to both
getting and keeping attention, as well as
memory. Remember, you can't do anything
until you get past the brain's ‘is this
worthwhile’ filter! And to the brain, a dry,
dull explanation is definitely not very
worthy of attention (regardless of how
much your mind cares about the topic or
content).
Children are sophisticated thinkers...
Privileged Domains
• Physical concepts
• Biological causality
• Early number
concepts
• Early attention to
Language
They show us their thinking....
• through their pre-occupation or
schemes of thought which are seen
most often in their self-chosen play
• in their questions (both verbal and nonverbal) which are based on their search
for explanations
• in their talk while they are ‘doing’ - pole
bridging
The Children we Teach - Susan Isaacs
1932
the love of bodily movement and
perfecting bodily skills
the interest in actual things and events,
the discovery of the world without
the delight in make believe and the
expression of the world within
Playing and Exploring Engagement
• Finding out and exploring
• Playing with what they know
• Being willing to ‘have a go’
What might it look like?
• experience
• imagination
• stories
• ‘Can do’ attitude
Active Learning - Motivation
• Being involved and concentrating
• Keeping on trying
• Enjoying achieving what they set out to
do
What might it look like?
You’re very
clever...
You’ve worked
very hard on that...
Dweck’s theory
of growth and fixed mindset
What can you say
about my picture?
Creating and Thinking Critically thinking
• Having their own ideas
• Making links
• Choosing ways to do things
What might it look like?
Young children are highly complex thinkers,
and they need to be equipped, and challenged,
to play and to think as well as to know.
No-one can teach effectively without professional knowledge
about how children’s thinking and
knowing develops...Knowing about schemas enables
professional educators to
extend their own thinking and further refine and develop their
practice.’
Cathy Nutbrown, 1994
Named schemas
• dynamic vertical
• dynamic back and forth / side to side
• dynamic circular
• going over and under
• enveloping and containing space
• transporting
• going through a boundary
• going round a boundary
What are schemas?
• Patterns pervade children’s play, their thinking and
their language
• These patterns are described as ‘forms of thought’
(schemas)
• These ‘forms of thought’ can be nourished with
worthwhile ‘content’
• The ‘content’ of a schema relates to the resources
and experiences we offer
Trajectory; vertical / horizontal / diagonal a child may drop things from their cot, make
arcs in their food, play with running water,
climb up and down and jump off furniture,
line up toys, build tall structures and knock
them down, throw
Transporting a child may carry all the bricks from one
place to another in a bag, the sand from
the tray to the home corner in a bucket,
push a friend around in a pram
Containing / enclosure -
a child may put their thumb in and out their
mouth, fill up and empty containers of all
kinds, climb into large boxes, sit inside
tunnels, build enclosures with bricks, make
dens
Positioning a child may put things on their head, place
things side by side, prefer their custard next
to their pudding not over it, lie on the floor
or under the table, walk around the edge of
the sandpit.
And some more examples of schematic play...
• Enveloping - a child may cover themselves with their flannel when
washing, wrap dolls up in blankets, sit in the same tray and cover their
legs with sand, cover their whole painting with one colour, wrap toys up
in sticky tape
• Rotation - a child may be fascinated by the spinning washing machine,
love anything with wheels, roll down a hill, enjoy spinning around
• Connection - a child may distribute and collect objects to and from a
practitioner, spend time joining the train trucks together, stick the
masking tape from the table to the chair, like puzzles
• Transforming - a child may add juice to their mashed potato, or sand to
the water tray, enjoy adding colour to cornflour or dough, enjoy toys that
change shape
Tool Words
Concepts
similiar
identical
different
Verbs
remember
comment
question
Nouns
team
imagination
mystery
create
Drawing my thinking
Rich Tasks
• Is the task worth doing?
• Is it interesting enough to talk about?
• Will it develop and draw out the
Characteristics of Effective Learning?
• Will it provoke questions (verbal or nonverbal) from the children?
And at the end of the day...
The practitioner is smiling...
...and the children
are,
quite rightly, more
tired because they
have worked harder.
Reflect and plan
• what could be developed further in our
practice?
• who needs to know and help you in your
setting?
• how can it be achieved?
• when?
• how can we help you further?