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COMPETENT YOUNG LEARNERS

What children know and can do

Introduction

Before starting statutory schooling at the age of 5, young children have developed a range of skills, knowledge and understanding at a speed that will never again be repeated in their lives. The years from 0 to 7 are a period in human development when the capacity to learn is, in John Brierleys words (1994) at fl ood- readiness. All the evidence shows that, in their early years, young children demonstrate a variety of skills and competences that make them natural and successful learners. However, when those same children begin their more formal education it can be a different story. Children who have been motivated and determined become disillusioned and disaffected (Barrett 1989; Smith 1995; Entwistle and Alexander 1998); children who made sense of things and had begun to form their own personal construct of the world become confused and disorientated (Donaldson 1978; 1992); children who posed a thousand and one questions become quiet and uncommunica-tive (Tizard and Hughes 1984; Cousins 1999; Siraj- Blatchford et al. 2002). It seems that education can inhibit some of the most prominent characteristics of competent young learners.

So how can there be such a gap between some childrens learning before they begin at school or their early years setting, and the learning that follows? Is it simply a question of ratios too many children and not enough practitioners? Are those practitioners not suffi ciently knowledgeable about how young children learn and how to support that learning? Is there too much pressure from external agendas to allow practitioners to follow childrens interests and preoccupations? It would seem that at the root of the dichotomy between learning and teaching lies a failure on the part of many educators to learn them-selves from those who have been so successful in the teaching and

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2 Starting from the child

learning process in the childs preschool years at home. If more time were spent observing the strategies of children as learners, prior to the constraints of the educational setting, and more notice taken of the strategies of the signifi cant adults with whom children learn in their homes and communities, then there might be more chance of schools and other early years settings mirroring the effectiveness of childrens earliest learning environments.

The infl uence of experience on heredity

The development of every child is the result of a unique interaction of experience with heredity. While genetic programming determines many of the characteristics displayed by any human being, a variety of environ-mental infl uences combine to affect the development of the brain and consequently the individual (Shaffer 1999). The balance between these two key factors varies within each child, but the impact of nurture on nature will determine the characteristics which differentiate one child from another and make his or her development unique. Hereditary infl uence means that given the same set of experiences, one childs abilities will differ from anothers, irrespective of the experiences they have. Equally, a child raised in a particular set of environmental circumstances can have their genetic programming nullifi ed and their hereditary advantages diminished (Meadows 1993).

Until fairly recently, the emphasis in education has been to make up for the defi cits of a poor set of hereditary circumstances (Anning 1991). In the 1960s and 1970s there was a naive belief that compensatory education would serve to combat the known effects of social disadvan-tage on childrens educational achievements (Anning 1991: 5). While many research studies have now discredited such assumptions, there is other evidence that highlights the negative effects on development of a poor set of environmental factors (e.g. Smith 1995). Mia Kellmer Pringle, the fi rst director of the National Childrens Bureau (see http://www.ncb.org.uk/), identifi ed four human basic needs which have to be met from the very beginning of life and continue to require fulfi llment to a greater or lesser extent throughout adulthood (1992: 34). In Chapter 2 she identifi es:

the need for love and security; the need for new experiences; the need for praise and recognition; the need for responsibility.

Jennie Lindon in her book on child development (1993: 1112) also identifi es some basic needs of young children:

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Competent young learners 3

the need to be cared for physically; the need to be kept safe; the need for emotional well- being.

Much current thinking about these universal human needs has its roots in the hierarchy of needs presented back in 1943 by the American psychologist Abraham Maslow which, when presented as a pyramid the most common representation of his theory places the largest and most fundamental levels of needs at the bottom, supporting all the others (Fig. 1.1).

Research cited by the Carnegie Corporation of New York (1994) provides substantial evidence that lack of these basic human needs, and inappropriate or impoverished environments in the early stages of learning, may have long- lasting detrimental effects on development. The report, drawing on research that illuminates the workings of the nervous system, highlights the critical importance of the fi rst three years of life and led to fi ve key fi ndings which are of profound signifi -cance to all those who are concerned with the development and educa-tion of young children:

Figure 1.1 Maslows hierarchy of needs

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4 Starting from the child

brain development that takes place before age 1 is more rapid and extensive than previously realized;

brain development is much more vulnerable to environmental infl u-ence than was ever suspected;

the infl uence of early environments on brain development is long lasting;

the environment affects not only the number of brain cells and number of connections among them, but also the way these connec-tions are wired;

there is new scientifi c evidence for the negative impact of early stress on brain function.

(Carnegie Corporation 1994: 79)

These fi ndings give a clear rationale for creating learning environments that offer experiences sensitive to the needs of young children and appropriate to their development, because the results of these experiences good or bad stay with children for ever. The fact that the effects of early experiences appear to be cumulative only adds to the need to safeguard the environmental infl uences determining the development of all young children:

an adverse environment can compromise a young childs brain function and overall development, placing him or her at greater risk of developing a variety of cognitive, behavioral, and physical diffi culties. In some cases these effects may be irreversible.

(Carnegie Corporation 1994: xiii)

Recent understandings about brain development

Our increasing knowledge of the brain and its functioning is illumi-nating our understanding of childrens development at an exponential rate. Indeed this knowledge about the brain is increasing so rapidly that information is often out of date before it is written down. We currently know that at birth, a childs brain contains around 100 billion neurons, each with the capacity to contribute to that individuals knowledge and understanding of skills and concepts that will deter-mine their unique growth and development (Pinker 1977; Bruer 1999). Indeed, by nine months gestation, human beings have most of the neurons (nerve endings) in their brains that they are ever likely to have (Greenfi eld 1997). Of particular importance to those in early education is the evidence that it is not the number of brain cells that is important, but how they become connected to each other that makes them effective (Greenfi eld 1997; Diamond and Hopson 1998; Geake 2009). It is the use to which the neurons are put that determines the growth of

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Competent young learners 5

a brains functions (Calvin 1996; Geake 2009). Growing neurons can adapt sensitively to changing circumstances in order to make the best of a situation (Greenfi eld 1997; Howard- Jones 2010) but the key to growth is whether the neurons are suffi ciently stimulated to make contact with other neurons and make a fi rm connection (Cohen 1997; Diamond and Hopson 1998; Geake 2009). Brain activity and growth go hand in hand. It is not only a question of use it or lose it says Susan Greenfi eld (1997: 115), but use it as much as you can.

In the fi rst three years of life, the neural connections are established at a phenomenal rate. By the age of 5 or so, they begin to tail off and are virtually complete by age 10 (Gammage 1999; Howard- Jones 2010). However, this does not mean that after age 3 no worthwhile learning can take place, or that if connections are not made by age 3 then an individual has lost the opportunity for development and growth. Some writers, in their eagerness to exhort the benefi ts of early learning, have suggested that if a child has not been fully stimulated by age 3, then their opportunities for learning and development become closed off. Mercifully for most of us, this is not the case! The brain may not grow more neurons, but it does go on making connections and these can be stimulated at any age (Bruer 1999; Geake 2009). Neuroscientists used to refer to the optimum moments for learning as critical periods, but most have now altered this to speak of sensitive periods times in our lives when we are a