PEDAL Hub Library

The fourth edition widens the scope of previous topics, aiming to support beginning teachers working and playing with early years.

This paper reports two related studies intended to explore the interactions between children’s metacognitive abilities, their working memory capacity, the development and selection of strategies and their performance on problem-solving tasks. In the first study, a sample of 20 children aged 5 and 6 were presented with a reclassification task. In the second study, a sample of 72 children aged 6, 8 and 10 were presented with a multidimensional discrimination learning (MDL) task. Data was collected related to the children’s metacognitive abilities, working memory capacity, response strategies and task performance. The results indicated that performance on both tasks was dependent upon developmentally changing interactions between these various aspects of cognitive functioning. In particular, the relationship of working memory capacity to performance was dependent upon metacognitive abilities. The results also suggested that metacognitive awareness did not directly affect performance, but that such a relationship was dependent upon the development of strategic control. The implications of these results for understanding U-shaped behavioural growth and other common developmental patterns are discussed. Within the educational sphere, the study emphasises the significance and possibility for children as learners of fostering certain kinds of metacognitive ability. Cet article rapporte les résultats de deux recherches destinées à explorer les interactions entre capacités métacognitives de l’enfant, capacité de la mémoire de travail, développement et sélection de stratégies, et performances à des tâches de résolution de problème. Dans la première étude, un échantillon de 20 enfants âgés de 5 ou 6 ans, était soumis à une tâche de reclassification. Dans la deuxième recherche, un échantillon de 72 enfants âgés de 6, 8 ou 10 ans était confronté à une tâche d’apprentissage de discrimination multidimensionnelle. Les résultats montrent que les performances aux deux tâches, dépendent des changements développementaux dans l’interaction entre les différents aspects du fonctionnement cognitif cités plus haut et mesurés dans cette recherche. En particulier, les relations entre mémoire de travail et performance dépendent des compétences métacognitives. Les résultats montrent aussi que la conscience métacognitive n’affecte pas directement les performances, mais que la relation entre les deux dépend du développement du contrôle stratégiques. Les explications des ces résultats pour l’interprétation des patrons de développement courants ou des évolutions en forme de U sont discutées. Dans le champ de l’éducation, l’étude contribue à mettre en valeur l’intérêt et la possibiblité d’encourager le développement de certains types de capacités métacognitives.

Recently, research has increasingly focused on fostering self-regulated learning amongst young children. To consider this trend, this article presents the results of a differentiated meta-analysis of 48 treatment comparisons resulting from 30 articles on enhancing self-regulated learning amongst primary school students. Based on recent models of self-regulated learning, which consider motivational, as well as cognitive, and metacognitive aspects [Boekaerts, M. (1999). Self-regulated learning: Where we are today. International Journal of Educational research, 31(6), 445–457], the effects of self-regulated learning on academic achievement, on cognitive and metacognitive strategy application, as well as on motivation were analyzed. As the results show, self-regulated learning training programmes proved to be effective, even at primary school level. Subsequent analysis tested for the effects of several moderator variables, which consisted of study features and training characteristics. Regarding factors that concern the content of the treatment, the impact of the theoretical background that underlies the intervention was tested, as well as the type of cognitive, metacognitive, or motivational strategy which were instructed, and if group work was used as instruction method. Training context related factors, which were included in the analyses consisted of students’ grade level, the length of the training, if teachers or researchers directed the intervention, as well as the school subject in which context the training took place. Following the results of these analyses, a list with the most effective training characteristics was provided.

This paper describes a research project currently running in Cambridgeshire Foundation Stage settings exploring the development of independent learning in young children. In the first year the project has explored the work of 16 practitioners working with 3–5 year old children, using a range of methodologies including questionnaires, interviews and reflective dialogues (based on video recordings of particular classroom episodes), reflective journals and child assessment checklists. The development of the range of abilities involved in becoming a self-regulating, independent learner has been conceptualised in terms of research and theory relating to the development of ‘metacognitive’ abilities and dispositions. It is argued that, while the development of independent learning is generally accepted as an important educational aim, current trends in Primary education which have encouraged a more teacher-directed approach, are not helpful. The paper advances a model of independent learning which is based on developmental psychological research, and presents interim findings from the project which suggest that even our youngest children are capable of considerable independence in their learning. While particular pedagogical techniques and approaches need to be developed, many of these are well-established and researched, and can be shown to be effective in fostering independent learning abilities within the Primary school context.

The authors present findings from a large 2-year study exploring the development of self-regulatory and metacognitive abilities in young children (aged 3 to 5 years) in educational naturalistic settings in the United Kingdom (English Nursery and Reception classrooms). Three levels of analysis were conducted based on observational codings of categories of metacognitive and self-regulatory behaviors. These analyses supported the view that, within the 3- to 5-year age range, there was extensive evidence of metacognitive behaviors that occurred most frequently during learning activities that were initiated by the children, involved them in working in pairs or small groups, unsupervised by adults, and that involved extensive collaboration and talk (i.e., learning contexts that might be characterized as peer-assisted learning). Relative to working individually or in groups with adult support, children in this age range working in unsupervised small groups showed more evidence of metacognitive monitoring and control. Relative to children in supervised groups, they also showed more evidence of “other” and “shared” regulation. The implications for research, theory, and educational practice are discussed.

Contributions from early childhood educators, teachers, psychologists, music therapists, occupational therapists, and psychotherapists highlight the crucial role that early relationships and interactions in group settings play in the development of children’s personal, emotional and social skills. The book features the latest research and methods for successfully encouraging the development of these skills in groups of children aged 4-12. It explores how play within children’s groups can be facilitated in order to foster emotional and empathic capacities, how to overcome common challenges to inclusion in schools and introduces practical, creative approaches to cultivating a sense of unity and team spirit in children’s groups.

Why is it that the best and brightest of our children are arriving at college too burned out to profit from the smorgasbord of intellectual delights that they are offered? Why is it that some preschools and kindergartens have a majority of children struggling to master cognitive tasks that are inappropriate for their age? Why is playtime often considered to be time unproductively spent? In Play=Learning, top experts in child development and learning contend that the answers to these questions stem from a single source: in the rush to create a generation of Einsteins, our culture has forgotten about the importance of play for children`s development. Presenting a powerful argument about the pervasive and long-term effects of play, Singer, Golinkoff, and Hirsh-Pasek urge researchers and practitioners to reconsider the ways play facilitates development across domains. Over forty years of developmental research indicates that play has enormous benefits to offer children, not the least of which is physical activity in this era of obesity and hypertension. Play provides children with the opportunity to maximize their attention spans, learn to get along with peers, cultivate their creativity, work through their emotions, and gain the academic skills that are the foundation for later learning. Using a variety of methods and studying a wide range of populations, the contributors to this volume demonstrate the powerful effects of play in the intellectual, social, and emotional spheres. Play=Learning will be an important resource for students and researchers in developmental psychology. Its research-based policy recommendations will be valuable to teachers, counselors, and school psychologists in their quest to reintroduce play and joyful learning into our school rooms and living rooms.

What roles do playful behaviour and playful thought take in animal and human development? How does play relate to creativity and, in turn, to innovation? Unravelling the different meanings of play, this book focuses on non-aggressive playful play. The authors emphasise its significance for development and evolution, before examining the importance of playfulness in creativity. This discussion sheds new light on the links between creativity and innovation, distinguishing between the generation of novel behaviour and ideas on the one hand, and the implementation of these novelties on the other. The authors then turn to the role of play in the development of the child and to parallels among play, humour and dreaming, along with the altered states of consciousness generated by some psychoactive drugs. A final chapter looks ahead to future research and to what remains to be discovered in this fascinating and important field.

Adults talk a lot about play, pretending they know what it is and what it’s good for. We have asked a couple of real experts about what it is and what it feels…

What is Play? Play experts revealing their secrets… from LEGO Foundation on Vimeo.