Great! Something really interesting happening on a Monday when I am not working with the children. Of course I booked myself onto these three free lectures and headed into Cambridge to the Faculty of Education to listen to interesting research findings. (I really know how to rock “Me-time Mondays.”)
I’ll be honest, throughout my life, I have never thought my ‘place’ is within the academic world. I didn’t enjoy school particularly through varying factors, both the content and the people. My childhood and adolescent social economic status (SES) did lot lend itself to academic success. However I have always loved learning, I enjoy reading academic journals in my spare time and was disappointed when my degree was more about regurgitating information (similar to school) than any deep learning and reflection, although I am entirely grateful that Open University was an option for me when a bricks and mortar University was not a route I could take. However this being said I for some reason have grown to develop a sense of self that while at times is self depreciating, is not of one where I have to sit in a ‘place.’ Instead I will wander into different scenarios and take up room there, politely I hope, but I don’t shrink away from attending things that seem out of my level. So how great it is that an academic institute at Cambridge University are welcoming, accepting and valuing of a Childminder with this history, and not really an academic career to their name.
Feeling welcomed and ready to listen to the lectures I whipped out my paper diary and a pen, I am yet to be taking electronic notes for such things and here are the notes and my reflections combined from that Monday afternoon.
Prof Michelle Ellefson was up first reflecting on the development of executive function. This is a highly popular topic right now especially in social media linked to neurodiversity, so it was good to hear facts relating to it. Ellefson highlighted the skills we think of under the umbrella of executive function, these being inhibition, shifting, updating and delayed gratification. There were lots of charts to make sense of in her presentation, but Ellefson highlighted a key finding that UK male children was the only group in her research where SES affected both their executive function and academic skills, whereas every other group it affected only academic attainment. This is curious and made me ponder about why this could be. Is there a possibility that we expect girls to be more resilient in lower SES situations and the societal phrase (that I strongly disagree with) “boys will be boys” has meant that the expectation on them is to function ‘less’ through stereotyped behaviours? I am sure it is far more nuanced, but I like a good ponder.
In the most part, Ellefson’s lecture was positive, concluding that executive function skills generally equalise in adulthood, meaning people aren’t necessarily left behind, but that high quality education can impact these skills developing earlier. As a practitioner, good to note.
Next up Prof. Jenny Gibson telling us all about play and human flourishing. I enjoyed the quirky start to this lecture, it felt personal and warm, not something you expect sitting in a hall being in a lecture. Gibson talked about diversity of play and how there is room in life for different perspectives and types of play, and that they ae all a mechanism for learning. Gibson also spoke a little about repetitive play which we might see in neurodiverse children, and that through a mapping observation style of data collection/chart, there was a high probability of that child transitioning to a different play state, and that practitioners should trust those children to regulate themselves in this way, and not see this type of play as ‘wrong’ or ‘obstructive.’ Gibson had many conclusions, but a significant one for early years practice was that good education requires integrating cognition and social skills, there is no either/or situation here. (Something in my reflections that early years probably excel in, but is lost during primary skill due to a strict curriculum.)
The final lecture from Prof. Sara Baker was something really relevant to early years in my opinion, and something that Childminders should be focusing on strongly. The idea of Learner Competencies as States not Traits. Interestingly, it was the lecture I took the least notes on, but maybe that’s because it was something I more easily understood. Knowing that children learn in a variety of ways, that growing up is not a tick box exercise and that skills can ebb and flow. We’ve probably all seen children who develop language skills, then seem to regress slightly, we start thinking about putting in interventions to support it, but actually they have developed how to walk in the meantime, and then the language just pops back. This has always felt like a gut feeling to me, but viewing children as learners passing through states that may change was linked in my head to this kind of anecdotal experience. My question that I presented to Baker was along the lines of what does she think the impact would be if Characteristics of Effective Learning was viewed as a spectrum that children flow between rather than just skills to achieve? Baker didn’t have a one word answer for this, but she echoed that this could be an important way of viewing this tool, and that early years is lucky to have these kinds of frameworks to work in, where settings of older children are more restricted.
It was an interesting day and there was plenty of food for thought in the world of play as usual. A chance to network for a brief time afterwards and then onto the rest of the day away from academic life.
I think we can all get different things from these types of events, so if you are a practitioner who doesn’t feel very academic but wants to have first hand dissemination of research, PEDAL is a really welcoming institute that really value on the ground practitioners. I always feel I gain something of value and give something of value, and that is a rare and treasured space to be in.
