The Competency of Children - excellent article from teachreggio.org

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Caine's arcade - what kids will do with a resource rich environment

I was amazed when I first saw Caine's arcade, but not surprised - kids are amazing and with access to the right resources, they have a chance to show us that. Caine's story made me wonder whether the fact that his Dad just left him to it (because he was working) was key? If his Dad had designed and built with him, whilst it could have been great bonding, would Caine have run with this like he did? But we know (from Sugata Mitra's work as a good example) that encouragement can play an important role. Was that the role his Dad played that made this the perfect recipe for Caine? What else played a part?

Child or adult-led in Singapore

On a similar theme, as a Year 4 teacher in Singapore we repeated the same PYP unit after a one year gap. The unit, Where We Are in Time and Place, was reimagined the second time around. Instead of a focus on world changing explorers - Cook, Columbus... - we used Singapore as the focus. With a great trip we explored the diverse cultures currently present in Singapore and encouraged wondering about why they might all be there. Subsequent inquiries were so much more child-led and independent because we had narrowed the focus to Singapore. Children could see, feel, hear, eat the changes and find out about the causes on their own doorstep. The initial adult-led direction created the context for learners to be as independent in their inquiries as possible, putting them in a resource rich environment.

Child-led or adult-led

The Forest School experience is quickly helping us see the many benefits of standing back and letting children lead their learning - including allowing them to 'get bored'. However, where does adult-led start and child-led stop, for example with our treehouse pulley that was so successful? 

Although Forest School learning is conducted in a wildly more natural environment than the conventional classroom it is still adult-led on some level. In addition to leading some activities like fire making, our facilitator always had in mind a spot of the forest that gave the children the best opportunity to lead their learning and experience independence at a young age. These spots were not enormous nettle patches or favourite spots for dogs to relieve themselves. Neither were they flat patches of grass with no challenges. Was us creating a pulley too adult-led? It created an environment that allowed us to stand back and let the children lead, or did it control and direct their learning too much?