DEVELOPING YOUR PRACTICE - MAKING A DIFFERENCE

• Developing your practice
• Reflective prompts and
  reading support
• Exploratory Play
• A Conversational Approach
• Emergence

Introduce a short free play session to engage learning. Observe interaction – use an involvement scale to record your observations (based on Leuven Involvement Scale – F. Laevers). What does this tell you? How did the children react? What are the implications for you as a practitioner?

Osborne and Brady (2001: 511) suggest ... Learning is a component of playing and playing is a component of learning – both taken together constitute a process of coming to know.
What do you think? What do you consider is the process of coming to know?
Osborne, M.D. & Brady, D.J. (2001) ‘Constructing a space for developing a rich understanding of science through play’ Journal of Curriculum Studies 33 (5) pp.511-524

What are your feelings about play? Do you see play as belonging only to the young? Try a short play session with older children.
Phethean, K. (2008) When are you too old to play in science? Primary Science, 103, pp.10-13