Training Talk - Listen up
Gabriella Jozwiak
Monday, April 3, 2017
After going on a quality teaching course, Hannah Richardson now waits ten seconds after asking a question of a child
Ofsted expects nursery practitioners to teach. But this is a broad expectation. Archfield House Nursery practitioner Hannah Richardson decided to expand her teaching knowledge by attending a one-day NDNA course on Quality Teaching in the Early Years.
As an unqualified practitioner who hopes to begin an Early Years Teaching course in September, Ms Richardson says the course thoroughly changed her daily practice. Through presentations, group discussions and role-play exercises, she learnt the importance of play within learning and how to balance adult- and child-led activities. ‘The main thing was looking at our setting, thinking about our different resources and what the children are actually learning from them,’ she says.
Her nursery now uses more ‘open-ended’ toys, such as different-shaped bricks, which children can play with creatively. ‘Before, the children were just building towers,’ she says. ‘Now they line them up, categorise them, or make walls for a farm yard.’
Ms Richardson also reviewed the resources to ensure they matched the children’s zone of proximal development – what they can do without and with adult help.
The course taught Ms Richardson better communication, particularly how to question children. ‘I’m asking more questions now that encourage creative thinking, rather than just recalling,’ she says. ‘Maybe the children are sick of you asking what colour something is. Now I ask open questions so they’ve got more space to think.’
The trainer also encouraged the group to do active listening; for example, by waiting ten seconds after asking a child a question. Ms Richardson says older children have responded well to this.
However, Ms Richardson did not find aspects of the course on demonstrating teaching approaches to Ofsted helpful. ‘It may have more impact on a nursery manager,’ she says.
But as the group of ten on the course came from various levels, Ms Richardson got much out of discussion exercises. ‘As a practitioner, the course was really useful, and maybe for a manager for training purposes,’ she suggests.
www.ndna.org.uk
