Learning & Development Schemas: Part 2 - Observing ... Maja

When Maja came to Pen Green aged three years and five months, our first observations revealed her interest in lines and making lines, particularly cutting paper with scissors, building very tall towers and connecting construction pieces to make long lengths - all activities that indicate an interest in a trajectory schema (see box).

Gradually, we realised that she was working on a cluster of schemas - trajectory, transporting, containing - each of which seemed to dominate for a short time in turn.

Every day she would arrive with a small object or objects, a small notebook, and a bag (sometimes containing make-up) or freezer bag (containing biscuits). At nursery, she enjoyed carrying a random selection of objects around in a large shopping bag, sometimes depositing the contents in a heap on the floor. We realised that Maja was pursuing aspects of a trajectory schema (with an end point), called transporting and heaping.

Transporting is first seen when children are toddlers and like to carry objects from one place to another, often depositing them in a heap as they move from A to B. In our nursery each child has a box for containing objects that are special to them, often from home.

In her journey to and from nursery, Maja chooses objects to make the journey with her, depositing them for a time in her box at the end point (making a heap) before carrying her objects back to the start point (home).

Chris Athey, although talking about much younger children, describes this behaviour, 'The defining characteristic of the heap at the end of the trajectory is transportability or, looked at from a child's point of view, "I brought it here". The trajectory is the forerunner of higher-order notions, such as distance, length and speed. The heap is the forerunner of classification' (Athey 2007, p125).

There may be some emotional aspect to Maja's transporting of objects. Sometimes these are called 'objects of transition' and they represent to the child an aspect of themselves or 'home' (Bruce, 2004). The objects can be very important in aiding a child's smooth transition from one context to another. We wondered whether Maja's objects help her to visualise and make sense of her journeys. Perhaps, to her, they represent 'home', and bringing familiar objects to nursery allows her to hold 'home' in mind while she struggles to accommodate a world bigger than 'home'.

She also likes to transport objects in bags and wheelbarrows and place objects in pots. She has begun to draw circles inside circles and has asked me if she can sit in the bath in the nappy-changing room.

HOME CONTEXT

Maja lives with her mother Tracey, her father, and brother, aged eight. When Tracey and I watched the video of Maja's containing behaviour (see below), Tracey shared with me some of Maja's related interests at home. For example, she liked to:

- draw lots of circles inside circles, and spirals too

- trace circles that she had found on advertising displayed on the window of a local shop

- put lots of things in a handbag and then take them out again.

- play with water and fill up cups. Recently, she had asked for a jug and bowl and had arranged and filled with water several more containers of various sizes. "It's my cooking," she had informed Tracey. "I'm waiting for it to cool down".

We put this story on a Parent's Voice sheet to add to Maja's 'Celebration of My Achievement' file.

NURSERY CONTEXT

The nursery is set up like a workshop, providing a rich environment full of open-ended resources. In such an environment, Maja has the time and opportunity to pursue things that are her 'persistent concerns' (Athey, 1990). She can choose what she uses and how, which gives workers observing her an insight into her current cognitive interests and allows them to support her play in appropriate ways.

For example, Maja explores her schematic interests using containers at the water station, bags, trolleys and wheelbarrows to both contain and transport objects.

OBSERVATION

Maja was filmed while exploring resources from the woodwork bench: corks, small rings (from the centre of rolls of Sellotape), clear plastic Sellotape holders, flat cardboard discs and two large cardboard tubes. Attracted by the circular properties of these objects, she uses them methodically to explore her interest in containing.

She groups like-objects together, lines them up and fits them inside each other in various ways (figure 1), as schemas develop into forms of classification and ordering. Eventually, she piles lots of corks and rings inside one of the pieces of tubing (figure 2).

Using the tubing as a container is an idea that Maja finds very satisfying. She knows a lot about containers and expects the tube to act as a container only when it is flat on the bench. She tries to pick it up, but all the contents fall out (figure 3).

She refills the tubing with the same contents and lifts it again, expecting the objects to fall through as before. To her surprise and delight, the objects remain wedged inside the tube (figure 4).

Suddenly, this container is capable of being used to transport objects. 'Did they get stuck?' asks the adult. 'Yeah! Make it again!' laughs Maja. She tries to achieve the same result by placing the same objects, in the same order, back inside the tube.

LEARNING

Maja's cluster of schemas include transporting, containing, going-through, fit, enclosure and 1:1 correspondence, inside (see box). Her explorations are very mathematical. She is developing early concepts around:

- shape - she chooses circular objects to investigate

- size and fit - she explores the volume and capacity of circular spaces and solid shapes

- sorting, matching and classifying - she recognises similarities and differences in various objects and groups them accordingly

- sequencing her actions - she tries to recreate the order in which she places the objects inside the containers in case this influences the outcome.

Maja shows a strong aptitude for self-initiated problem solving. When the unexpected happens and she is able to carry the objects inside their circular container, she seems to experience disequilibration in her understanding. This encourages her to hypothesise: 'If I can put these objects back into the cardboard ring in exactly the same order, can I make this happen again?' She then tests her theory by trying to repeat the same sequence of actions, and discovers that it is not about the order, but rather about the friction.

DEVELOPMENTAL LEVELS

Sensorimotor Maja is using her senses and motor actions to explore the resources, getting feedback through her body.

Symbolic representation In the video observation, there is no evidence to suggest that Maja's explorations are at a 'symbolic level', because her level of involvement is so high that she uses little language. However, when she watches the video with her mother and me, she says she is 'building towers'. At home, Maja is exploring her containing schema symbolically when she fills containers with water and calls her actions 'cooking'. When she then says, 'I'm waiting for it to cool down', she is thinking at a functional dependency level too - that is, she knows that to be 'ready', her cooking must be cool. Cooling is functionally dependent on the passing of time.

Functional dependency When she lifted the objects in the tubing, this was 'functionally dependent' on the objects jamming, by chance, against the sides of the tube. She tries to find out if a specific sequence of actions can recreate this effect. Maja's learning is about the functional dependency aspect of this tube as a container.

DEFINITIONS

'A schema is a pattern of repeated actions. Clusters of schemas develop into later concepts.' (Athey, 2003)

Cluster of schemas - When children are working on several schemas at once and starting to co-ordinate them

Schemas explored by the child in this article are:

Containing* - Putting materials inside an object capable of containing them

Trajectory* - Moving in or representing straight lines, arcs or curves

Transporting* - Carrying objects from one place to another (an aspect of the exploration of trajectory)

Heaping - Marking the end point of a trajectory

Enclosure - An enclosing line often surrounds paintings and drawings

One-to-one correspondence* - Matching one object with another, in this case corks with Sellotape rings

Going through a boundary* - An interest in movement from one space, through a boundary, to another space

Fit* - Exploring the relationship between the volumes of an object and similarly-shaped space capable of containing it

Disequilibration - When an event makes you question what you think you know

* repeated actions/schemas