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3 tips for scaffolding children’s play with materials

3 tips for scaffolding children's play with materials www.louisapenfold.com

Children’s play with materials is important as it allows them to think and learn in different ways. As a child’s creativity is always limited by what they do and do not know, scaffolding can open up new opportunities for more complex learning over time. Scaffolding is a term that was first coined by Vygotsky (1978) who described the process as something that allows children to move their current level of understandings to a more advanced one. This process helps children to undertake activities that they usually would not be able to without the help of others. Teachers and parents often do a lot of scaffolding in children’s lives. They teach children how to brush their teeth, share with others and read. Children’s peers, technology and information resource like a YouTube video can also scaffold children’s learning in different ways. Scaffolding is important in children’s play with materials as it allows…

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Learning

3 books on documenting children’s learning

Documenting children’s learning is a brilliant way to make creative and critical thinking processes visible. Documenting is also a great way to debate the assumptions, ethics and politics that shape education practices. This process can then be used to deepen and complexify education practices towards children (Krechevsky et al. 2013). Different terms are used to describe the process of documenting children’s learning around the world (Pacini-Ketabaw et al., 2015). For example, in England, the process is often referred to as ‘learning journeys,’ in Italy and parts of Scandinavia it is ‘pedagogical documentation’ and in Canada ‘pedagogical narration.’ It makes sense that different terms have been created as documenting children’s learning varies significantly in different contexts. Below are three of my favourite books on documenting children’s learning. Each book has been written in a different country (America/Italy, Canada and Sweden) and generates diverse theoretical and practical perspectives on the topic. I hope…

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Amazing artists and educators

Simon Nicholson’s theory of loose parts

Loose parts theory, children learn through experimentation with materials by Simon Nicholson

In 1972 Simon Nicholson, the son of artists Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth, presented the idea that young children’s cultural participation comes from the presence of open-ended ‘loose part’ materials that can be transformed in different ways. This post explores the key principles of the theory, including key debates surrounding it. What is loose parts theory? The term ‘loose parts’ was coined by Simon Nicholson, an English architect and artist. The loose parts theory was first presented in Nicholson’s article ‘the theory of loose parts: An important principle for design methodology.’ This theory rejects the idea that creativity is a characteristic of a select few. Nicholson claimed that people have been misled to think that creating artworks and buildings is so difficult that only highly gifted people can do it. In opposition to this, Nicholson argues that all people, including young children, are capable of participating in the construction of culture. Loose parts…

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Learning

How to use artworks in children’s art activities

Artwork projection at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris

Artworks can support children in imagining the world differently. I draw upon the work of Maxine Greene and John Dewey to explore the proposition that children’s learning through artworks has the potential to challenge dominant discourses, opening up new ways of thinking and being. There is also a resource list for educators and parents interested in incorporating artworks into children’s learning. “It is not that the artist offers solutions or gives directions. He nudges; he renders us uneasy; he makes us (if we are lucky) see what we would not have seen without him. He moves us to imagine, to look beyond” Maxine Greene (2000, p. 276). Artworks can be used in many ways for many different reasons in learning contexts. They offer rich possibilities for experiencing and imagining the world from new and multiple perspectives. Visual art as well as the arts more generally, have the ability to make people aware of…

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PhD Research

‘Children’s learning with new, found and recycled stuff’ symposium at AARE

This post discusses the symposium presentation ‘Material play: children’s learning with new, found and recycled ‘stuff’ given by Professor Pat Thomson, Nina Odegard and Louisa Penfold at the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) in Canberra, Australia. Image: Bradley Cummings On November 27, 2017 Professor Pat Thomson (University of Nottingham), Nina Odegard (University College of Oslo and Akershus) and myself (University of Nottingham) gave a presentation at the AARE conference on children’s learning with materials. Each of our presentations was built on the understanding that many educators and artists working with young children are committed to play-based practices and understand this as being critical to individual and social learning. Over the 90 minute symposium, we talked about how our individual work with children explores the research question: when children are ‘doing art’ play what are they learning with the materials they choose? Overall, we argued that when children are playing with materials, they are simultaneously:…

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Amazing artists and educators

Palle Nielsen, The Model & play as social activism

Palle Nielson (1968) The Model www.louisapenfold.com

In 1968 the Moderna Museet, Stockholm and artist Palle Nielsen created The Model – a social experiment involving 20,000 children, an indoor playground and no rules. The Model positioned children’s play as an instrument for social and political activism. This post features discusses The Model as well as Nielsen’s work as an artist, educator and social activist. The Model – A radical social experiment In 1968 Danish artist Palle Nielsen exhibited a giant adventure playground at the Moderna Museet, Stockholm. The Model – A Model for A Qualitative Society was a free play zone where children could jump off bridges, swing from tyres, make things out of DIY tools, climb rope swings, paint and mix music using turntables. From September 30 – October 20 1968, The Model hosted 35,000 visitors – 20,000 of them young children. The installation was free to all visitors under the age of 18. Kindergartens and school groups from all over Stockholm were invited…

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