Understanding of the World in the Eyes of a Childe

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Recommended: parental involvement in education

Fleer (2007) refers to the important contribution the practitioner makes with regards to initial scientific exploration in the early years. This is concurred by Cowie & Otrel-Cass (2011) who also discuss the importance of planning horizontal learning to enable deeper understanding by the child. However Gee (2004) warns of how this may appear like ‘mucking around’ to the untrained eye. This was found to be the case when the child was seen to throw the leaves in the air time and time again singing ‘autumn leaves are falling down’.

The school woodland area where the activity took place is referred to by the EYFS (EE,2012) as an enabling environment, placed within the four themes. The provision of which provides a safe and secure place within which the child can interact and explore, to enable independence. The Reggio Emilia approach, (1945) as evoked by Miller, Cable and Devero (2005) refer to the environment as the third educator. This is concurred by Niklasson & Sandberg (2010) who refer to the outdoor nursery environment as the representation of the world of the child. This was found by the practitioner when features of the natural environment triggered reflection by the child on a previous investigation into leaf varieties during a family walk.

Nevertheless Maynard and Waters (2007) discuss how merely being outside is not enough. The interaction by the practitioner is paramount as referred to by Rogers (2012) who discusses how the confidence of the practitioner to deliver such activities, impacts greatly on the quality of pedagogy the child receives. However this is further discussed stating that the practitioner who self reflects on unknown knowledge and researches this, is found to increase in confidence, resulting in the practitioner allowing the child more free exploration, rather than being driven by the end product of the activity. This was found to be the case when in the practitioner’s experience, through the confidence to allow the planning to be led in a different direction, the focus became the texture and sound of the leaves while collection took place, leading to deeper discussions and heuristic understanding by the child.

Farmery(2002) refers to how for the child, science is about the heuristic exploration, involving independent discovery and questioning which in turn places ownership on child’s own learning. The use of open ended questioning used during the activity is discussed by Kawalkar & Vijapurkar (2013) as the key to quality pedagogy and the scaffolding of scientific knowledge and sustained shared thinking.

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