With changes to training and qualifications, proposals for longer school days, and the hectic nature of working in educational settings, could we be forgetting the importance of those who work with young children thinking deeply about what they do?
To help children develop into thinking people, we need thinking teachers and practitioners - and this is no less the case in the complex and nuanced world of the early years setting. I can think of few intellectual challenges greater than figuring out how a young child is thinking and how this thinking can be supported and taken to the next level. Meeting this challenge takes experience and it takes empathy, but it also takes an understanding of theories of how children learn.
I would argue that thinking about and using theory distinguishes educators as professionals rather than just technicians. If they were technicians, then their role would be to apply the best practice set out to them as effectively and efficiently as possible without deviating too much from it. Clearly this is not what we do, and instead the role involves adapting, improving and creating in order to get the best outcomes. If an approach does not work as well as it could, then we need to be able to do more than just try plan B or plan C; we need to be able to understand why one worked better than another and adapt accordingly.
UNDERSTANDING WHY
These decisions are based on understanding, and understanding learning and teaching is based on more than just a series of examples about how to do things. Real understanding means appreciating not just what is happening but why it is happening. Theories don't tell us what to do, but instead provide a structure in which to think about what we do.
However, it is more complicated than simply building up a stockpile of theoretical knowledge about learning and then applying it. Theory and practice are so often depicted as two very separate things, but when it comes to learning they are strongly linked. The Brazilian educator and theorist Paulo Freire described the link between theory and practice as praxis. This can be summed up as 'informed action' - the process of taking practical action while acting within a theoretical framework.
In praxis, theory is only useful as long as it informs concrete action; likewise, action must be informed by deep thinking. Only by combining the two did Freire believe that learners could find their own way, create their own schemas for learning and not simply copy those of their elders.
In the past few decades, a tradition of 'reflective practice' has built up in education, emphasising the need for practitioners to evaluate their practice so that they can learn from it. Most practitioners are encouraged to continue learning by reflecting on action and considering how they could move forward, whether this takes the form of annotating lesson plans, a reflective diary or just thinking about it. Reflection during action is given less attention, but it also has links to praxis in that it involves making use of previous experience and professional expertise to make changes that will improve practice. This is the idea of 'thinking on your feet' that is often so necessary in the classroom.
POWER OF PRAXIS
Praxis is not a case of 'doing' and then 'reflecting' on it later; rather, it means making sure every action has an informed basis and every valuable thought is put into action. A practitioner involved in bringing theory into practice could consider their actions when planning, and then again when reflecting or evaluating on it. Those immersed in praxis would bring theoretical concepts to bear on every decision as they make it, adapting their actions with children to ensure they continue to encourage learning.
While reflection is a powerful tool for improving your practice, praxis is something quite different - it can lead to the action that moves teaching and learning forward by taking on board influences from others. Just as it is important for young children to develop their own understandings, it is important for those who scaffold those understandings to ha
ve developed their own sense of how this works. Making time for increasing our knowledge of the various theories of how children learn, and even developing our own, can provide an environment in which this understanding can continue to develop and inform the action we take to support learning.
Further information
- Oliver Quinlan is the author of The Thinking Teacher, www.amazon.co.uk/The-Thinking-Teacher-Oliver-Quinlan/dp/1781351082
- Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire (1970), Penguin.
