Acknowledgements
About the Author
Foreword
PART ONE: KNOWING ABOUT SCHEMAS
Introduction
Schemas and the Youngest Children
Observing Children: Spotting Schemas
PART TWO: HOW DO CHILDREN UNDER THREE PURSUE THEIR SCHEMAS? ′ALL
ABOUT HENRY′
Henry′s Containing and Enveloping Schema
Henry′s Back and Forth Schema
Henry′s Dynamic Vertical Schema
Henry′s Mark Making and Figurative Representations
PART THREE: DEVELOPMENTAL JOURNEYS: TRACING DEVELOPMENTS IN
CHILDREN′S THINKING FROM MOTOR TO SYMBOLIC BEHAVIOURS
Containing and Enveloping Schema
Going through a Boundary Schema
Dynamic Vertical Schema
Stories from Home
Epilogue
Bibliography
Name Index
Subject Index
Cathy Nutbrown is President of Early Education and Professor of Education in the School of Education at the University of Sheffield. Her research over the last 30 years, has focussed on young children’s learning and work with parents to support young children’s literacy development. She won an ESRC Award for Research with Outstanding Impact on Society and a Nursery World Lifetime Achievement Award. She is author of over 150 publications including Early Literacy Work with Families (with Hannon and Morgan, Sage, 2005), Early Childhood Educational Research (Sage, 2019), and Home Learning Environments for Young Children (with Clough, Davies and Hannon, Sage, 2022).
′I am very excited about this book. It fills many gaps: the age
group focused on, the integration of theory with observations of
schema learning, effective learning and teaching in play settings.
Atherton and Nutbrown have followed in the footsteps of other
important researcher-theorists in studying young children in depth
over a long period of time (18 months). They listened intently to
what seven children were ′telling′ them about their patterns of
thought whilst attending a day care setting - including without
spoken language to begin with. The authors demonstrate that babies
and toddlers are "astonishing thinking things" when adults get to
know them differently through observing their play from a schematic
perspective. Dozens of detailed observations of schematic
development are provided that enrich practitioner and academic
understanding of how very young children learn. The authors
integrate theoretical and research knowledge following each
observation by precisely matching quotations from Athey, Piaget,
Rogoff, Gardner or other learning theorists with the point the
child has demonstrated about learning. Atherton and Nutbrown "walk
their talk" albeit at an academic level. In discussing the role of
practitioners in early years settings, they assert the need for
precise matching of adult talk to the children′s thinking concerns
and challenge practitioners to provide a conceptual response to
children′s thinking - and they mean concepts that many would expect
from school learning. They provide practical and specific
illustrations of how this can be done in connection with the main
forms of thought that babies and toddlers demonstrate as they
explore the material world. With socio-cultural learning theory
gaining prominence in the field of early education, attention to
children learning about schema and mathematic and scientific
concepts declined for a time. I am confident that this book will
reverse that. Atherton and Nutbrown have brought together
socio-cultural and cognitive learning theories with ease in their
synthesis of the literature, in theorising the schema stories about
the children, in providing "stories of the characteristics of
effective learning", and in stories about strengthening children′s
dispositions and understanding of the world. Their metaphors are
brilliantly evocative; for example, adults should be "learning
accomplices" of children showing "compatible like-mindedness". This
book will greatly enhance understanding of learning throughout the
early years, not just of babies and toddlers, and reinforces the
importance of responsive professionals who understand children′s
schemas. It details how communication with family members at home
enhances the opportunities for matched learning encounters between
adults and children′
-Dr Anne Meade, Consultant
′This book makes a welcome and valuable contribution to the recent
literature on young children and schemas. It strengthens and
supports findings of earlier studies and focuses on a younger age
group. It is drawn from a study carried out with rigour and
contains several ′gems′, such as ′the bike and slide exploration′;
the idea of adults engaging in ′a dialogue of conceptual
correspondence′ with children; ′attuned accompaniment′ and tables
outlining ′what the children might have been thinking′. A great
read!′
-Dr Cath Arnold, Pen Green Early Years Centre
′This is an exciting and illuminating account of babies and
toddlers, following their schema fascinations with determination
and competence, as they continually explore and experiment and come
to know their world. A most valuable resource not only for early
years practitioners working with the youngest children, but also
for those responsible for the over threes, indeed, for anyone
desiring to learn more about using the schematic approach. The
complex skills of the "attuned matched learning encounters" between
adults and children and the vital partnership between practitioners
and parents are woven throughout the report. This book captivated
me. It should be in every early childhood education setting′
- Pam Cubey
[This book] is original in the way that it situates schema theory
in the context of other contemporary theories about care, learning
and development, and also original in its specific focus on babies
and toddlers. The observations of these very young children’s
activities and their play are strikingly written; the book is
exceptional for the quality of its material and the skilful ways in
which narratives from children’s lives are presented.
*Julian Grenier, Sheringham Nursery School and Children’s Centre,
London*
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