PEDAL Hub Library

Acting Director of PEDAL Centre, David Whitebread, is interviewed in BBC Breakfast report on playful writing.

PEDAL invited Ben Mardell from Harvard University’s Project Zero and Camilla Uhre Fog, the Head of the International School of Billund to share with teachers their experience of working together to develop a Pedagogy of Play. Through the work of the teachers at ISB, this collaboration has managed to define some areas of what it takes for a truly playful pedagogical approach to support children in their learning and exploration of the world.

This seminar will focus on the role of research-practice partnerships in bringing self-regulated learning to classrooms. In her talk, Dr Perry will review the research-practice framework in two separate research projects, addressing some of the challenges associated with traditional approaches to conducting research, challenging notions of control and fidelity. This seminar hopes to provoke fundamental questions about the role research should play in improving educational practice. Dr. Nancy Perry is the Dorothy Lam Chair in Special Education and Professor of Educational and Counselling Psychology and Special Education at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada. Her research has two main goals: understanding how classroom processes are implicated in children’s development of self-regulated learning (SRL); working with teachers to design activities and structure interactions with students that support SRL. Dr. Perry is a main contributor to our understanding that young children can and do regulate for learning, and how classroom tasks, instructional practices, and interpersonal relationships influence their SRL. She is also a leader in the development and use of measures, beyond self-report tools, that reveal children’s self-regulation in situ.

A rare opportunity to hear from two of the world’s foremost developmental psychologists about how their research has been applied to education and social policy. Of particular interest to academics, teachers, early years practitioners, and third/public sector professionals, Professor Blair and Professor Sylva will highlight the effects of early education on development, attainment and fulfilling individual potential. Prof Sylva’s talk is entitled ‘Nurturing 21st century skills in early childhood: evidence from the English EPPSE study and the EU CARE project’ Prof Blair’s talk is entitled ‘The Science of Self-Regulation: Supporting Executive Function Development in Early Childhood Through Play’ There will be time for a chaired Q&A session at the end of the talks and refreshments will be provided. Professor Clancy Blair is a developmental psychologist who studies self-regulation in young children. His primary interest concerns the development of cognitive abilities referred to as executive functions and the ways in which these aspects of cognition are important for school readiness and early school achievement. He is also interested in the development and evaluation of pre-school and elementary school curricula designed to promote executive functions as a means of preventing school failure. In 2002, Blair and his colleagues at Penn State University and at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill received funding from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development for a longitudinal, population-based study of family ecology and child development beginning at birth. In his part of the project, Blair is examining interaction between early experiential and biological influences on the development of executive functions and related aspects of self-regulation. Ultimately, Blair and his colleagues plan to follow this sample through the school years and into young adulthood. Prior to coming to NYU, Blair spent ten years as an assistant and then associate professor in the department of Human Development and Family Studies at Penn State. He received his doctorate in developmental psychology and a master’s degree in public health from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1996. After completing a doctorate in Developmental Psychology at Harvard, Professor Kathy Sylva moved to England for post-doctoral research with Jerome Bruner at the University of Oxford Department of Experimental Psychology. Her research interests fall into two themes. She has conducted several large-scale studies on the effects of early education and care on children’s development, acting as a lead researcher on the Effective Pre-school and Primary Education study (EPPE/EPPSE) which followed 3,000 children from pre-school entry to the end of compulsory schooling. She co-led the national Evaluation of Childrens Centres in England, another large scale study on the effects of early childhood services on development. Her second interest is in parenting programmes aimed at enhancing parents capacity to support their childs learning and behaviour. She has led three randomised controlled trials to evaluate parenting interventions, the most recent on a parent programme aimed at supporting early reading near the start of primary school. Currently Kathy is researching the early childhood curriculum across Europe, funded by the EU. Kathy has published seven books and 200 papers/chapters/reports on early education/care, early literacy and ways to support families. She was Specialist Adviser to the UK Parliamentary Select Committee on Education 2000-2009, the Tickell Review of the early childhood curriculum in 2011, and the National College Expert Panel on Standards for Early Years Teachers in 2012. In 2014-15 she was specialist advisor to the House of Lords Enquiry into Affordable Childcare. She was awarded an OBE in 2008 for services to children and families and in 2014 was awarded the British Education Associations Nisbett Award for outstanding contribution to educational research. She was elected Fellow of the British Psychological Society and also a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.

Dr Julie Kirkham is a senior Psychology lecturer and programme leader for the MScFamily and Child Psychology at the University of Chester. Her research interests include children’s symbolic development and the role of art, play and creativity within different educational curricula. Her published work investigates the relationships between language, drawing and symbolic play and the influence of Montessori and Steiner education upon these abilities. Dr Kirkham is currently involved in research studying the relationship between childhood fantasy play, imaginary friends and personality traits and abilities during adulthood, as well as the development of children’s aesthetic understanding and preferences for different forms of art. The seminar will consider several small scale exploratory studies which present interesting results and potential avenues for further research.

Play is a serious matter for young children across all cultures. This is evidenced by the passionate, intensive and energetic engagement many children invest in this activity. Play experiences are widely recognised to create the foundation for a child’s healthy and holistic development. In Finland opportunities for play are highly regarded in the education of children under seven years old, and the interest in playful learning has extended to the education of older children and even adults. Professor Kumpulainen’s talk will reflect on current international research and how this evidence is reflected in Finnish education policy and practice. It will show how play and learning is also about playing with learning. The talk will end by considering the changing landscape of play in the digital era and its consequences for children’s learning, educational practice and teacher professional competencies. Kristiina Kumpulainen is Professor of Education at the Department of Teacher Education at the Faculty of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki. She is a founding member and the scientific director of the Playful Learning Center (www.plchelsinki.fi). She has also served as the Director of the Information and Evaluation Services Unit at the Finnish National Board of Education before her current position. She received her PhD in Education from the University of Exeter in 1994.

Center for Universal Education

Early intervention is about taking action as soon as possible to tackle problems for children and families before they become more difficult to reverse. We focus on conception to early adulthood because intervention is not just about the early years but also about preventing adolescents and young adults from developing problems. When a young person is developing and growing up, this is a crucial opportunity to provide them with the skills and support they need. It is much more difficult if they have dropped out of school, become involved with youth crime or developed a serious mental health problem. Early intervention involves identifying children and families that may be at risk of running into difficulties and providing timely and effective support. We want every family to develop an intergenerational cycle of positive parenting, relationships and behaviour. Early intervention is about enhancing the capabilities of every parent to provide a supportive and enriching environment for their children to grow up in. Then the next generation has the best chance to flourish with the skills to engage in positive parenting themselves. Its purpose is to improve the life chances of children and families and benefit society at large, whilst being cost-effective.

The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) is an independent charity dedicated to breaking the link between family income and educational achievement. We aim to: raise the attainment of 3-18 year-olds, particularly those facing disadvantage; develop their essential life skills; and prepare young people for the world of work and further study. We support teachers and senior leaders by providing free, independent and evidence-based resources designed to improve practice and boost learning. We do this by generating evidence of what works to improve teaching and learning, funding rigorous trials of promising but untested programmes and approaches. We then support schools, as well as early years and post-16 settings, across the country in using evidence to achieve the maximum possible benefit for young people.