Learning and Development: Well-being Part 3 - Zest for life

We hear a great deal today about the problem of affection in society. Many adults become disaffected with their partners, hence the high rate of family break-up. People in all walks of life grow to be dissatisfied with their jobs. Disaffected adolescents are accused of being demotivated towards study, lacking persistence and initiative. There is also a worrying trend of children being excluded from and truanting from primary schools.

Yet as the term 'disaffection' implies, at one time there was a positive attitude towards what is now being rejected. All partnerships start on an optimistic note; most people feel positive when starting a new job; at the start of their lives, children's brains are very alert and they are strongly disposed to find out about the world.

We are very fortunate to work with young children who have an insatiable curiosity, who question, ponder, suggest, exclaim and generally show us their hunger to learn. This zest is a precious life force, which, given certain conditions will blossom and grow or wither and diminish.

The curious and determined baby

Dispositions are grown during the earliest months of life. Growing up happens naturally. Gopnik and her colleagues remind us that babies are like mini-scientists who are primed to explore and explain their world (Gopnik et al 2006). But this natural process is helped by nurture. It takes a child huge effort and application to learn new things and be proficient, and optimally requires the close adult to be physically and emotionally present, to encourage and respond.

Very young babies quickly start to recognise familiar faces and make enormous efforts to communicate through eye contact and body gestures. This is behaviour that not only invites a reaction, but requires it. And our reaction is so important. It is easy to believe of a friendly and outgoing baby who is bursting with curiosity that these qualities will remain with her for life. Given supportive experiences, this is likely to happen. However, if the support is withdrawn, these early positive traits are in danger of becoming weaker.

Babies grow into toddlers by dint of sheer determination and application. They take a step and tumble, pick themselves up and start again. Again, the adult should be there to praise, support and share the achievement. And babies love the recognition - it gives them a buzz and an incentive to try for more.

Self-belief

Studies show that the way you feel about yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life (Dweck 2006). If you really have a fixed view of yourself and believe that this is the hand that you have been dealt, there is no scope for you to develop. If, on the other hand, you believe that you are able to have a stake in your destiny and are open to change and improve matters, then anything is possible.

These beliefs influence the way in which children approach learning. Those who have a fixed view of themselves are fearful of challenge and failure. If they make a mistake, they blame themselves and give up. This is the reverse of the baby's insatiable curiosity.

The children who are more open-minded continue with the baby's zest for learning. They relish new challenges, view any mistakes with interest and persist with difficulties. Although they are determined to suceed, these children are not so much interested with the end result as with the fascinating process of learning.

Making links in learning

Young children's comments, paintings, dance, drawings and models are the products of their exuberance for living and learning. But in the process of production, children are practising and refining newly learned skills and interests. Importantly, children need to practise and repeat what they know in their own ways, and explore new possibilities through self-chosen play rather than directed activity. We know that when we play around with familiar ideas in a relaxed and unpressurised way, the chances are that new thoughts may pop into our heads that lead to a new recipe, an idea for a holiday or a way of writing a letter. These ideas are unique to us, and so it is with children. In self-chosen play, they make connections in their learning, start to incubate new thoughts and experience the huge satisfaction of making learning their own.

How do we nurture zest?

Whatever we do, we cannot live children's lives for them or make them learn. Children need the golden seed of motivation; this gives them the incentive and commitment to do things and fuels their energy to do so. Motivation is at the heart of realising capabilities and ensuring that our young children make the most of what they have got. Our task is to provide the conditions that motivate.

The environment

The quality of resources that are made available to children on a daily and continuous basis determines the quality of their play. The provision should encourage them to select, mix, and match materials that will represent their thoughts and ideas.

One box of Lego blocks will not go far if you want to build a wonderful, extravagant giant's castle. But a rich supply of resources does not have to be expensive. It can include found and natural items. Open-ended resources give children the scope to make their own meaning rather than be dictated to by toys and games that have only one function.

The giant's castle can be extended and embellished using fir cones, sticks, wooden blocks, pieces of fabric and stones of different shapes and sizes. All of this stuff needs to be visible and accessible, as children's ideas may be triggered further when they spot a resource to use.

Providing time

There is sometimes a view that young children need to be kept busy, that their powers of concentration are limited and that they constantly need to be moved on to new attractions. But this hurry-along programme limits children's involvement and the pleasure of learning deeply. Children need time, which is so often a scarce commodity for us all.

Guy Claxton makes a powerful case for learning that is based on intuitive hunches and strengthened through mulling things over and reflecting. He alerts us to the need for time in order for any deep learning to take root. The younger the child, the more opportunities are needed for horizontal learning, allowing them to practise and apply what they know and move on from a position of confidence.

Noting the response

We have some useful tools when observing children that will help us gauge how they are responding to experiences. Ferre Laevers' levels of involvement help us to see how deeply child is absorbed in learning. Laevers' well-being scale provides a way of monitoring energy and vitality. A child's high level of zest will be recognised if he scores highly on these scales. He is absolutely focused on an activity, is mentally active and extremely challenged. He appears confident and delights and savours his experience.

If you observe this, it is evident that this child is at the peak of his learning and having a very positive experience.

Question: what signs do you look for which indicate that your key children are highly motivated?

Noting children's interests

Babies and young children develop all-abiding interests from a very early age. These are often linked to their repeated patterns of movement and behaviour called schema.

PEEP (Peers Early Education Partnership) is a longstanding project that helps parents to understand and support their children's learning. Their findings form an original important study project with children and parents. It suggests: 'Children often have favourite ways of playing. Sometimes they seem to need to do things in the same way again and again. Underlying the ways in which they play are their schemas ... the mental framework of children's thinking.'

If we observe children regularly and frequently, playing in a rich and varied environment, we can spot their schema and so come to understand what is absorbing them and how we might build on their interests.

Question: How familiar are you and your colleagues with different children's schemes of thinking, and how well do you use schema to plan for enrichment of learning?

Our role as co-player

As children grow older, they continue to need an interested and well-informed adult to support them. We may describe this work as teaching or scaffolding, but essentially it involves listening, responding and dialogue. The best way to enter into dialogue with a child is through having an easy and reciprocal conversation, such as you might have with a good friend.

Young children will appreciate your genuine fascination with their work, your encouragement, your occasional questions, your sense of fun and occasional nugget of inspiration.

So what suppresses zest for learning?

Over-tight planning can inhibit opportunities. If all the time we are typing up what we want children to learn, we don't leave space for them to meander off in other directions (this is not urging you not to plan, but suggesting that you take your lead from what you observe children doing and saying).

Over-direction/over-control can limit children's enterprise and stifle their curiousity. Mechanical teaching of literacy and numeracy, so prevalent in reception classes until recently, has done just that with narrow questions, simple answer tests and an emphasis on external rewards rather than on self-motivation.

Anxiety inhibits a creative flow. It causes that part of the brain concerned with new learning to virtually close down. If children can't comprehend things, if they are unclear about what they have to do, they really believe that it is their fault. Sitting for long periods, or waiting for things to happen, will switch children off.

Dull, repetitive routine can kill children's enthusiasm. Given the best of intentions, many things can happen in settings and classrooms because they have always happened. Just how many times do children have to respond to the register in the same way, sing the same rhymes and songs or state what the weather is like today? (Particularly meaningless when, as I observed, the Venetian blinds were closed and it was impossible to see outside!)

These cripplingly repetitive activities are sometimes provided with the excuse that children need predictability in order to feel secure. It's true, of course, but we can easily overplay that card! Children like familiarity, but when do they slip into boredom?

CASE STUDY

Daisy at 15 months was introduced to heuristic play (providing her with an array of natural materials and containers that she has time to explore and investigate freely). Her keyperson observed her on three separate occasions engaged in the following:

• wrapping up her teddy, placing it in a bag and carrying the bag around with her;

• collecting fir cones and placing them in boxes, taking great care to replace the lid of each box;

• attaching dolly pegs in a circle to the lid of a circular wooden container;

• covering small-world characters with shawls and blankets that were placed nearby;

• repeatedly attempting to attach a necklace around her neck.

Comment

Sue, Daisy's key person, felt that she had some secure evidence to suggest that Daisy had an enveloping schema. She supported this by providing more drapes and bags and moving a large cardboard box into the area Daisy used as a 'hidey hole'.

REFERENCES

• Dweck, CS (2006) Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. New York: Ballentine Books

• Evangelou, M and Sylva, K (2003) PEEP: the Effects of the Early Education Partnership on Children's Developmental Progress: Research Report No.489

• Gopnik, A, Meltzoff, AN, Kuhl P (2001) The Scientist in the Crib: what early learning tells us about the mind. London: Harper Perennial.

• Laevers, F (2005) Well-being and Involvement in Care. A process oriented self-evalaution instrument for care settings. Research Centre for Experiental Education, Leuven University, www.kindengezin.be

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- Marion Dowling is an early years consultant

- Next: Spiritual development (13 May)