Challenge in the Pre-Prep

"It all starts here" - The importance of Pre-Prep Education

How to Teach Reading Skills in the Early Years

A presentation given to the ISA Early Years Conference on 2nd October 2014

Early Years and Pre-Prep Issues in the News

This is an on-going post which list Early Years and Pre-Prep issues in the News:

• Majority of underprivileged children 'unprepared for school' BBC Radio4 Today Programme - Sir Michael Wilshaw
• Sir Michael Wilshaw defends his view about needs for higher standards in Early Years Education
• Ofsted early years overhaul will have 'catastrophic' impact Daily Telegraph 03/042014
• A group of Educationalists write to the Daily Telegraph criticising Sir Michael Wilshaw's proposals to introduce more formal Early Years education.
• Ofsted chief: test nursery children in the three-Rs SundayTelegraph 30/03/2014
• Sir Michael Wilshaw argues that the Early Years education system needs to be more accountable.
• New insight into how children learn maths  BBC 27/03/2014
• How Research Psychology is informing educational practice.
• Many parents 'paying more for childcare than mortgage' BBC News 04/03/2014
• The Family and Childcare Trust's annual report says average fees for one child in part-time nursery and another in an after-school club are £7,549 per year.
• 'Live tuition for toddlers beats lesson on video' The Times 25 February 2014
• Reseachers find that young children do not expand their vocabulary by watching recorded videos and need interaction to develop speech.
• 'Bold steps needed in preschool education provision' Daily Telegraph 20 February 2014
• Thinktank proposes parent child care loans to enable more to afford pre-school education
• 'Neglect pre-school education and we will all be the poorer' Daily Telegraph 18 February 2014
• Every £1 invested in EY schooling saves 9x spent later in education - importance of pre-school education.

How Children Learn and Develop

A presentation to Early Years and Key Stage One parents at Berkhamsted Pre-Prep given on Thursday 13th. February 2014.

Berkhamsted Pre-Prep Curriculum Evening Presentation

A presentation given to Berkhamsted Pre-Prep Parents at the Curriculum Evening on Monday 16th September, 2013. This presentation includes a section on how parents can help children learning to read.

 

A Handbook of Reflective and Experiential Learning - Theory and Practice by Jennifer A Moon - Book Review

This is a book of two parts with the former providing a theoretical base drawing strongly on Moon's research (she is a Researcher at Exeter University), and the latter outlining practical strategies which provide a useful tool for developing reflective writing.

Moon's approach is to summarise the academic literature in the realm of reflection and learning. (Be warned that the lengthy theoretical section is not an easy read!) The book slowly gathers pace with outcomes for the reader focused on improved wisdom regarding reflective learning, experiential learning and the benefits of keeping a learning journal.

Reflective learning is defined many times over by Moon and her fellow academics but the overarching message is that a learner who seeks to find deeper meaning through reflection, and is aware that there are potentially different views of the same event is likely to have a more valuable learning

experience.

There are some worthy examples of how learners can experience the same learning opportunity but take away different outcomes - e.g. the concepts of 'Figure' and 'Ground', (see Marton and Booth 1997) and how learners construct their own 'Frames of Reference' motivated by their various intentions that guide their learning.

Moon also suggests that if learners know that they will be required to explain something (either as an assessed essay, a presentation or group work) then they are likely to adopt a deeper approach to the material/experience.

The book goes on to clarify the misconception that experiential learning is simply learning from experience. Moon explains that experiential learning usually occurs when there is an intention to learn; it is not usually mediated, the material of learning is usually direct experience and reflection is usually involved.For example, a child might have the experience of tripping over their shoe laces but may not learn from it unless they make the connection with tying them up next time!

Throughout the book, Jenny Moon extols the value of Learning Journals and exhorts readers to keep one to record their experiences (and more importantly, their emotions) for academic and personal reflection. Here time plays a valid part in how our emotions and views of an experience can change and develop; an initial reflection recorded in our journal, contrasted with an entry on the same event but three weeks on will demonstrate significant differences in our reflection and understanding.

"Personal frames of reference can change according to the emotional state in which it is written, the acquisition of new information, the review of ideas and of time passing."

Like many academic works, the practice of detailed accurate referencing of other works gets in the way of some of Moon's most interesting theoretical observations. It is of little surprise given Moon is a leading expert on reflective learning techniques, that she has a propensity to cite her own works: thus this book is at times self-referential and self-referencing to the point where she even quotes her own poetry. Having said that, if you can persevere, this book is a useful initial read for anyone looking to study at Masters level.