How you go about learning matters more than what you learn in the early years. Long-term research projects in Britain, New Zealand and the United States have all emphasised the crucial importance of children developing a positive disposition to learning in early childhood.
Young children need opportunities to develop their confidence, autonomy, feelings of wellbeing and belonging, and persistence in solving problems. They need to be protected from situations of failure, which might give them a long-term dislike of education. They need to find appropriate ways of expressing how they are feeling and ways to understand how other people feel.
Of course, you cannot make a real distinction between children's disposition to learn, and what they learn. Children are unlikely to be well disposed to learning in an environment that bores them. Planning that emphasises what children ought to know, and fails to build on what they actually do know, will not help them.
For learning to take place, there has to be a secure attachment, but the nature of this attachment will be different for each child. One child may need to spend a great deal of time right next to their important adult. For another child, the attachment will be more like a safety net. It will become something that the child knows is there, but needs only quite rarely.
The adult's role can then shift towards being an advocate for the child's interests and needs, ensuring that the child feels a sense of belonging in the setting, and that there are planned experiences which meet the child's interests and development. For example, if a child is hitting out and finding it difficult to share, an adult who is advocating for the child's needs may decide that the child needs some protected time with a piece of equipment before they are ready to tolerate other children joining in.
Experiences in the Foundation Stage can help children to broaden their horizons, to discover that other children and families are different, and to learn positive attitudes to diversity. The models that practitioners provide will be important. Practitioners need to listen carefully to what children say, and to help them to feel that they belong by ensuring that they see images and equipment that relate to their experiences in their families.
Children need opportunities to explore their emotions safely in the setting. Practitioners can help children by modelling ways of putting feelings into words - 'you look like you're really angry about that' - so that children can explore alternatives to hurting or shouting.
Recently at Woodlands Park Nursery Centre, one child felt upset because she was unable to join in with a game that a small group were playing. But the group of children felt that their game would be spoilt if someone else joined in, because they had decided on the roles. When a practitioner encouraged all the children to sit down together, they were able to listen to how the first child felt sad about being left out, and they were able to negotiate a role for her to play in the game. The practitioner helped the children by showing how important it was to listen to what everyone thought. By suggesting solutions, but allowing the children to accept or modify them, she gave them just the right mixture of security with the freedom to make their own decisions. NW
Julian Grenier is deputy head of Woodlands Park Nursery Centre, part of the London Borough of Haringey's Early Excellence Network
References
You can find out more about international research into the benefits of early childhood education and care on the internet:
* New Zealand: http://www.nzcer.org.nz/research/compchild.htm* Britain: http://www.ioe.ac.uk/cdl/eppe/ * The United States: http://www.highscope.org/research/resper.htm
