Learning and Development: Schemas Part 1 - Observing ... Scott

Scott is three years and ten months old and has been attending Pen Green Nursery for five afternoons a week since September 2008. He has a strong urge to 'contain' materials and an interest in dressing up (see box).

I noticed his interest in containing during my early observations of him. He would make sandcastles, both indoors and out, and was satisfied if they retained the shape of the container he had used. He seemed compelled to seek out containers and was confident in choosing the resources around him to support his interest.

As well as his many sand-play experiences, Scott's play also involved dressing up in full-body suits and headdresses, thereby 'containing' and 'enveloping' parts of his body.

Home Context

Scott lives with his mother Tina, his father Stephen and two sisters. Tina attends our weekly 'Parents Involvement in their Children's Learning' group, when parents and nursery workers come together to share video footage from both nursery and home and discuss children's play using schemas, well-being, involvement and adult teaching strategies.

Tina explained that Scott enjoys dressing up with his 19-month-old sister at home and that they had bought him dressing-up outfits to support this interest.

I visited Scott and his family at home to share a piece of video of Scott in a body suit. We discussed his 'schemas' and growing confidence in making relationships with other children.

Observations of Scott (3 years 3 months)

Scott settled well in the nursery but after a short time he found the transition difficult. A catsuit became really important to him, as it 'contained' and 'enveloped' his whole body. I would spend the early part of each session with him, helping him to put on the suit and offering reassurance. As his family worker, I understood that having the catsuit safe and available when he arrived was vital for him to settle.

The suit was kept in his special box. As time went on, the suit became less important for Scott, although it was still kept within his box.

I also started to observe Scott exploring 'connecting' and 'disconnecting' at the beginning of the session. Here, he would use a range of materials, in particular the Duplo train track. I started to speculate whether Scott was exploring 'together and apart', and whether this was connected to his separation from and reunion with his mum.

What might these early observations mean?

Scott's transition into nursery seemed to be helped by providing opportunities for him to 'contain' and 'envelop'. Wearing the catsuit seemed to help him feel more confident to approach other children with my support.

It was interesting that he moved on to explore 'connecting' and 'disconnecting', which may have mirrored his concern with being together and apart from his family. We made sure that there were plenty of other opportunities for Scott to explore this new pattern of behaviour.

He frequently spent time connecting the train track. Scott joined all of the carriages to the engine and it was important to him that he used up all of the track and all of the carriages.

Observation of Scott (3 years 7 months)

Scott was videoed in the sand area transferring sand from one container to another. I responded by providing containers of varying sizes and put in each a different sand and water mix, ranging from dry to very wet sand.

- Scott started his exploration by 'containing' sand inside a bun tray. It was important to him to have each section level and smooth. He called these 'cakes' and when each section of the tray was full and smooth, he poured the sand from the tray into a saucepan, a different shaped container. (Fig 1)

- Scott smoothed the sand using a spade in a 'trajectory' movement and added more sand to the saucepan, ensuring his container was full. After each spadeful, he smoothed the sand. He continued filling and smoothing throughout this process of transferring from one container into another. (Fig 2)

- Scott picked up a container of very wet sand and tried to tip out the contents as he had done before. When the sand failed to move, he peered inside and adapted his actions to try to tip out the contents. He stood up, forcefully shook the container up and down, then got his spade, which he used to scoop out the wet sand and added it to a second container. (Fig 3)

- He continued his exploration, repeating the actions - pouring from one container into another, ensuring that each container was completely full and smooth. (Fig 4)

- His exploration ended when he found a match in capacity between two of the containers. He poured from one container into another, filling it to the top. He smoothed the sand over and offered it to me, looking really chuffed with the result of his exploration.

Learning

- By containing sand Scott was symbolically representing sandcastles and cakes;

- Covering (enveloping) himself in a catsuit - experiencing being 'inside' a suit, pretending to be a cat;

- Developing physically by putting on the suit. Scott at first needed a lot of help but eventually mastered the skills to almost do it by himself;

- Interacting with me, in what became a ritual that helped him to separate from his mother and to build a trusting relationship with his key person;

- Connecting with Duplo, trains and track - learning about 'adding on' and 'taking away'; length; magnetism (with the trains); connecting Duplo (this was quite difficult for Scott, but he did it repeatedly and showed great persistence in trying to master this skill);

- Transferring sand from one container into another - Scott was deeply involved in exploring concepts such as conservation of quantity. He seemed to use different-shaped containers with similar capacities at first, just as we might transfer water from a tall thin container to a short fat container and discover that the amount looks different but is the same. Scott may have been looking for a match, because when he found one, the play ended;

- When Scott discovered the bowl with wet sand that would not tip out at first, this seemed to go against his working theory. Up until then, whenever he tipped a container upside down, the sand would pour out. Scott persisted with trying to transfer the wet sand to another container and adapted his actions - scooping the sand - to transfer it.

Developmental Levels

Sensorimotor: Some of the time Scott was experimenting with transferring sand and getting feedback through his body.

Symbolic representation: Scott explored his 'containing' schema at a 'symbolic level' when he said he was making 'cakes'. Also, when he put on the catsuit, he seemed to absorb that role and talked about being a cat.

Functional dependency: Tipping out the sand was at first 'functionally dependent' on Scott turning the container upside down, but later on his using the spade to scoop it out.

Thought: We have no evidence of Scott thinking about what he was doing in the absence of concrete reminders.

FINALLY ...

My observations of Scott, over time, show that he could only engage in 'deep-level' learning when he was feeling well settled and secure in the nursery environment (Laevers).

Part 2 of this series by Pen Green practitioners will appear in the issue of 15 October

DEFINITIONS

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

Schemas explored by Scott in this article are:

Containing - Putting materials inside an object that is capable of containing them

Enveloping - Covering themselves, objects or a space

Connecting - This shows an understanding of the positioning of objects, for example, in graphic schemas, when legs are connected to bodies. Children become interested in connecting themselves to objects and objects to each other

Disconnecting - Reversing the connections made, resulting in greater understanding of connections and reversibility of operations

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

Other terms

Well-being - children who are in a state of well-being feel like 'fish in water'

Involvement - 'when children are intensely engaged in an activity' (Laevers, 1997)

Adult teaching strategies - strategies used by adults when interacting with children (Whalley and Arnold, 1997)