Those who teach often share a common challenge: uncovering children’s thinking.
In a quick glance we can audit the happenings of a classroom, but how is it that we scratch past that surface and understand what drives the play in which children partake?
Children emersed in deep imaginative play, for example, aren’t likely to turn around and tell you the who, what and why of their undertaking. In reality, there is a whole world of thinking we have no way of accessing, particularly when working alongside children at a non-verbal stage of development.
So how do we get closer to understanding what it is that children are thinking enough to support the deep work they engage with in play?
The power is in observation.
Observation has long been used in Early Childhood as a form of data collection of children’s learning, but what if observation wasn’t a document as much as it was a position to take? Somehow along the way we have forgotten the power that lies in attunement and exactly what it means to be fully present. The lines between observation for assessment and observation for making meaning of children’s ideas, theories and play have been blurred.
True observation is more than a moment. It’s bare of assumptions, it’s full of evidence, presence and restraint. It’s generous of time, of perspectives and is made robust with patterns.
To truly observe, one must use a lens of curiosity. Luckily, we work closely with the experts. Children seek to remind us of the joy of inquiry, the beauty of learning through the unknown. Mirroring their position offers an opportunity to ask more questions rather than focusing on answers, to pause a little longer instead of jumping in, and to join in their wonder.
How we see affects what we see; what we bring attention to is what we bring intention to.
Recruiting our full self; not only our eyes, but ears and our minds, gets us closer to uncovering the ideas and thinking of children and allows us to see beyond what is obvious. Rather than looking at play and assuming “Jack is interested in trains”, what do we see when we pause and practice restraint? When we just watch, when we deeply listen, when we tune into cues, and join in the wonder – what lies underneath the play with trains?
Could it be motion, connecting, working theories?
There is an art to understanding the meaning behind the words, body language, gestures, cues, expressions and exchanges unfolding before us. Deeply listening in this way brings our attention to what really matters for children and keeps us grounded in the now.
When paired with curiosity, behaviour acts as pieces to a puzzle.
In the well-known poem, The Hundred Languages of Children, Loris Malaguzzi speaks of the innumerable ways by which children express, perceive and share, both with and about themselves and their surrounds.
It is observation that allows us to uncover the 100. Language is both deeply personal and shared – all of which is best understood in the context of relationship.
The ripple effect is endless when approaching observation in this way, our curriculum becomes organically guided by the children’s ideas, ever evolving, unfolding and unravelling in real time alongside children. We become aligned with children as partners in learning, discovering, researching together and expressing all of the many ways we think, create, communicate, play and explore.
Not only are we more responsive to children, but the environment reflects this responsiveness in the way we design our classrooms as spaces where children have agency. Spaces that reflect back their current ideas and thinking and that engage, excite and empower further exploration. Inviting the co-construction of their experience to satisfy the needs that would otherwise stay unknown.
Children know when they’re known. What true observation offers to a child is more than our ability to respond.
Being present with a child speaks to them of their incredible worth. An intention of attention offers the understanding that what they have to say is important – that they are important, and that their voice is worth listening to.
Children deserve to be seen, be heard and be known.
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