The story of communication... part two

In the last few days since writing the first part exploring our adult role in communication I have seen an increasing number of posts about setting up the environment ready for the new academic year to begin (in the northern hemisphere that is... of course in the Southern hemisphere the school year is different, and it is winter right now!)

So I decided that this next post in the series should take a look at the classroom... the learning environment ... the third teacher..

as  Reggio Emilia inspired educator I reflect a great deal about my colleague, the third teacher, and over the years I have written quite a lot of blogposts on the topic, as well as sharing images from settings I have visited...

What I have always struggled with is that many educators focus on how the third teacher looks a little more than how it functions... imagine if that is how we educators were treated too. That how we looked, fixed our hair, the clothes we wear whether we work out over not... all of this had more importance than how we teach, communicate and interact with the children... it was more important than the knowledge and experience we have gained over the years... or more important than the relationships we create with the children, parents and colleagues...

I think we would consider people that looked at us in that way as superficial and missing the point of us as educators... not seeing or valuing what we really do.

Of course the early years does not get the value it should, but not to be valued by our own ECE peers would not be healthy for our teaching self-esteem.

So in this post I want to look at how the room communicates... with you as a teacher, with the children as learners, with the humans that spend time there...

Start with the question...
what is the intention of the room?
The intention of the room at the start of the year might be about making the children feel welcome, feel settled and feel comfortable to interact with others...

How do you with the resources that you have meet these needs?
How are you going to arrange the furniture to create space for the children to meet and talk with each other? Do you want them in just big groups or smaller groups? or able to change the size of their group throughout the day (which would mean a selection of space sizes from large to the small).

Do you want the children to feel independent and competent? How do you set up a room to do that?
If you have EVERYTHING out and visible at the beginning and the children do not like to tidy up or are not ready to cope with the amount of resources then you are setting the children up for failure and yourself for frustration and hard work picking up after them... Why not limit the resources in the beginning to see how the children manage those, allowing them to feel in control of the space by being able to play and tidy up after themselves without feeling overwhelmed? New things can be introduced bit by bit... and these introductions can allow you as an educator to enhance the play and learning you see the children engaged in and allow the classroom to meet those needs. It also allows you the time to explain some tools and how they can be safely used... rather than having everything out at the same time and a feeling of risk in the everyday is higher than what it maybe should be.

For instance I have worked in groups where scissors are a great creative tool and all the children knew how to hold, transport and use them... while in other groups the scissors have posed a problem, carried in a dangerous way, not being held properly and accidents happen (too frequently) or children use them inappropriately which switches the scissors from risk to dangerous...
Access to scissors is based on the children's ability to use them and their relationship with them... the room needs to communicate I trust you... and if you are placing materials in the room that require you to police the children then the room and you are saying you do not trust.
When I have had groups with children unable to happily and safely interact with scissors (regardless of age) then I put the scissors out of reach and in a space where they need to ask me to use them, I will bring them down and we can work together, communicating with the children how to hold them, how to carry them and how to use them so that they can get creative... with the intention that as soon as they are ready the scissors can be placed in a place where they can reach themselves.
Just as we do not let people drive cars without lessons and learning first and proving that they can drive safely, I think we need to use the same approach with tools in preschools... so they do have that competence and I avoid coming in saying no.

I want to create a room that says yes.

And more importantly that allows me to say yes rather than no.

Look around the room. Do you see anything that might make you say no to the children? Why does it have this no potential? Can you make changes so that the room clearly allows the children - permits their play - rather than requiring you to police and possibly restrict their play and learning?

Take the time to look from the child's height. It does look very different from their height. Does it look inviting or intimidating? If the latter what changes can be made?

Children have a very different sense of beauty than what adults have. Attempting to clone what others do is not always the best option. Find out what your  children need and like.  Will baskets, neutral colours and the like calm them or send them to sleep? Is that their sense of a learning environment? I am personally not an educator that likes a lot of visual clutter and lots of colours brightly challenging my eyes... but equally I don not like the opposite where there is no colour and devoid of all clutter. I like a learning space that says welcome - come play, come learn, come share your ideas with others... and also a space that celebrates this process, the children can see their value, the value of their ideas etc as this is communicated in the space too. We do not need fancy furniture and expensive materials to be able to do this. We get creative with what we have.
Not all learning spaces have the financial means to get exactly what they want from the catalogues - it is about recycling and upcycling... which is a very sustainable approach to education and also has its own beauty/aesthetic

When we look at images from other people's settings we need to always take this into consideration... we do not know what kind of budget they have, we seldom know how the space is used and what kind of children's needs and abilities they are meeting, we seldom take the time to ask about how the space communicates with the children... it is so often judged on how it looks.

This is part of the reason why Malaguzzi did not want people to take photos of the settings in Reggio Emilia... he did not want others to simply come and take photos to then replicate the space elsewhere... he wanted the educators to start a journey together with their third teacher... where they get to know each other and learn how to communicate with the children... to communicate a joy for learning. The downside is that there are many educators out there in the world saying you need to have this or that, or get rid of this or that for it to be truly "Reggio Emilia" inspired... and yet there are no images to say this is right or wrong, just word of mouth that seems to have been distorted over time - where no plastic, or natural baskets or loose parts or nature are the must do or the must have in order to be Reggio...
Start with the children.
Your relationship with the children.
How do you view childhood and what they can do, should do? How is this reflected in your learning space (indoors and outdoors). How do you communicate with children? How is this reflected in the space? What is the intention of your learning space? How does this impact the room?

What about sound, light, smell, touch - and why not taste... how do these all fit into your room? Do these elements hinder or enhance learning... what can be done to ensure that the room enhances learning rather than hinders, considering all the senses.

we also need to think about how the room communicates inclusion.
Does every child feel welcome?
Can every child feel they can identify with the room or elements of the room? ie does a child with a foreign language have access to her own language through books for example... even if you as an educator cannot read them, their very presence in the space says that her language is valued.
Does the learning space require that some children need extra help? Why do they need this support? Can the room be designed so that all children feel competent.

I have been seeing this image going round facebook the last few weeks, and it made me think of education... (in fact there are several versions that can be found if you google equality, equity and justice meme - so I included a few here)

What I feel we should be aiming for in our classrooms is the justice or liberation - the sad fact is the education is mostly set up for equality which means those that can thrive, those that struggle struggle more... there are schools and educators that strive to ensure that there is equity, that the children get what they need to be able to achieve... but really what we should be doing is designing our learning spaces so that all can be who they are and thrive and achieve and not have to conform to a school norm with standardised learning and tests that is so exclusive.
The really sad part is that reality seems to be going to some kind of extreme that there are those who have that keep getting more boosts and opportunities to achieve and thrive, while others get more taken away - not everyone is getting the chance to rise to the height of their own potential.

So designing your classroom and what it communicates is an incredible complex task. It is so much more than beauty.

How do you include the neurodiverse? Children of different colour, culture, language, religion etc? How do you include families that are not the norm... where the norm is seen as a mother father and children... not all families look like this... does your learning space make all children feel welcome, that all children can find their personal identity reflected?

is the room designed so that the children follow orders, learn obediently, or is there space for joy, laughter, care? What feeling/emotion does the room communicate... does it communicate an openness to learn and explore?

Then there is language?
Language to communicate?
Is your space set up to create a space that encourages children to communicate with each other, verbally and non-verbally?
Do you have words hanging over the room on shelves, walls and the floor, down from the ceilings? Why? Who are they for, especially for pre-readers? Does it overwhelm or enhance the children's desire to read? Or do they become invisible to the children... which in a way is devaluing the written word in the eyes of the child?
Are there other ways you can support language and communication? For instance Soledad at her preschool in Norsborg (see link below) has lists of words for the educators, they are tucked away, but visible enough to remind the educators to diversify their language - to not just rely on the same stock phrases. I like to hang question samples in the documentation room/office to remind educators that there are many many questions that can be asked... to the children, and ourselves as we make changes in the classroom and write up our observations...
Get the children involved in the documentation process so that they see that their words can be written down... this has far more power than vocabulary hanging from the ceiling or on shelves. The children's own words.
Are you communicating your expectations of the children by hanging these words... or the ideas and potential of the children by sharing their words? And this is not just an either or thing... both can work together... it is about mixing things up to create a space that works for you in your context.

Below are some links to posts that might be useful...

The story of communication part one
Open ended materials vi closed ended materials - this posts looks on the materials used and offered to children... do you avoid plastic, why? What is an open ended material? Are closed ended materials bad - always? Why?
The Political Nature of Reggio Emilia - this post is here to remind you that this is NOT a pedagogy about beautiful materials... it is a pedagogy of communication of rights, values, and respect.
The benefits of BIG play - a post to remind you that BIG play is important... how are you designing your learning space so that children can learn with their entire bodies?
Visit to Anden preschool in Haninge
The story of eating together - a post to reflect on WHY to you serve the food the way you do? Is there a more correct way? How does culture and context play a part in all of this?
Story of a word - looking at language
A visit to Aspen preschool in Norsborg - this is Soledad's preschool, as I mentioned above
Inspiration not cloning - please always be inspired by the posts that I share, the images I share... but always always always reflect and think why is this meaningful and relevant for you and your children?

Some images

The Story of communication

This post has been brewing for a while... and my reflections have deepened due to chats with Kierna Corr who has stayed with me over the last few days and we have visited a preschool director (Soledad from Aspen preschool - link at the end to read a post about a previous visit to her preschool) in Botkyrka (Sweden's most immigrant rich commune) and also Annika who is responsible for the preschools in the Rinkeby/Kista area (another immigrant rich area).
The purpose of our visits have been to learn more about how can we better support the children of immigrant families - especially with language... with communication.

But before we can start with the children there is a need to start with ourselves... as educators. So this post will focus on that before moving onto the children and learning...

How do we communicate?
To create a safe space...
Knowledge...
to explore ideas...
learning...
etc

Do we speak in different ways depending on who we are talking to... and why do we do this? Is it appropriate?
When we communicate are we leaving enough space for others to communicate their ideas? Are we actually, truly, open to these ideas, or are they just words?
Why do we listen to some ideas and not others? Whose ideas do we give the most value to? and why?
What part of communication do we prioritise? Listening? Speaking? Reading? Writing? Why?
What are our expectations of others when it comes to these four areas of communication? Do we hold ourselves to the same standard of expectation as we do our peers, or the children...

Sometimes I think as adults we can struggle to create democratic classrooms, or listening classrooms, or even respectful classrooms because we did not experience this ourselves - we do not truly know what it looks like or feels like. So we have to be creative.

I also think that schools tend to focus on teaching children how to debate... and so teachers are debaters rather than skilled in dialogue, which is very different.
Debate is about getting your point across (whether you believe in it or not in school as a practice in the art of debating) - therefore debate is not so much about finding the truth, or the strength of the facts, but about the ability of the person talking - their passion, their ability to communicate, their ability to out-voice other ideas and opinions.
While dialogue is exploring ideas and opinions together, being open to learning from them, being willing to change your mind if the facts, the research point in a different direction from what you thought you might take at first... or it might just lead to understanding others better and a deepening of your understanding of your own opinion. Not just repeating your own opinion over and over without it ever evolving or without ever benefiting from a greater understanding of others. 
I feel that teaching children to debate is a great skill, but it is just one form of communication, and is not a great one for creating a great classroom atmosphere, of allowing children to learn from each other, for allowing children who are weaker in communicating but have amazing ideas and opinions that can benefit from others to shine.
I also think that debating means educators might be less open to try new things, because they excel in proving that what they know is the right way.
I also think that a school system that tests and has right and wrong answers is also going to produce teachers/educators that are going to need a whole load more bravery to try new ideas... as getting it wrong meant failure in school... that is a hard feeling to shake.

Are we, as educators, really comfortable with unpacking our own prejudices so that we can face them, learn from them and evolve? I think there are many things that we do without reflecting on, small, everyday things, that are steeped in stereotyped behaviour and tradition. These actions can accidentally exclude, even if that is far from our intention. This is why we need to be open with ourselves and how we communicate with others. What is a our view of the child? How does that impact the way we talk with them... do we see them as competent, do we worry about risk, do we stress about physical contact (you don't hug in school)... how does this impact the words and intonation and your body language?

What about the classroom? Does the layout/design of your classroom encourage communication? What kind of communication? Between the children or only from teacher to children - where they listen passively? How do you design a classroom to support active listeners? What is your knowledge about how the children listen? What does real listening look like?

I received a letter from my son's school in preparation for the new term starting in the latter half of August... there it stated (yet again) the need for "studierro" STUDY PEACE - what does this mean? Sometimes it feels that the teachers are expecting silence and to sit still so that the children can learn... but really there is only a small minority of children who need silence in order to be able to learn.. and even fewer that appreciate sitting still as an effective way to learn.
If children are spending their energy on trying to be quiet and trying to be still, then there is less energy being spend on listening, language acquisition, learning and participating in lessons... and also less time for the educator to be facilitating the learning as time is being spend on micro-managing children to sit still and be quiet. So how do teachers create learning environments? That allows all the children to learn... including those that need to move and need to make noise in order to access knowledge?

This might mean the traditional classroom will not work... and there is a need for flexible seating... but equally it might mean a traditional classroom does work with a particular class and a particular teacher (as long as the teacher is open to seeing the needs of all the children and is not just trying to convert all the children into sit still and be quiet learners... as no matter how good you are at making that happen it does not guarantee you that all the children are learning effectively. Silence and compliance does not equal learning.

The norm is an important part of what makes up our society... our expectations of others, what we accept and what we do not... that hitting, violence, being rude, murdering etc are not part of the norm... what we wear is also part of the norm, how we speak, the words we choose, swearing, what foods etc... there is a need for them to create community and also to create a kind of ethical code. The problem is that these norms can be too small and too restrictive and they have a nasty habit of excluding... this is why, we as educators, need to look at the norm we participate in, our own context, and how that impacts our communication.
In the below images if have drawn the norm as a rectangle... the small circles are groups, for a variety of reason that get excluded from the norm, and very often educators strive to include them. The problem is that these children, these groups have to learn how to become a part of the norm, and their differentness is highlighted as a problem... my son with autism/ADHD refuses to adapt, while my daughters have been able to (but at a great personal expense... complete exhaustion and sometimes depression - in fact when I was with my 17 year old as she got her ASD diagnosis the doctor complimented her on her self awareness and the fact that if she continued to work on that her autism would go away... I pointed out, as a mother with ASD that the autism does not go away, what happens is that we get better at hiding it so that neurotypicals feel more comfortable - we learn how to step into that box)

Educators learn various strategies etc to help children enter that box, become a part of the norm... and in this very process alienate even more the identity and the differentness of the child. Whether it be autism, or being an immigrant, a different home language, a different culture or religion, or skin colour, or family or. or , or ... there is no real inclusion.

What we need is to expand the norm... this idea of what is acceptable... to learn that neurodiversity, languages, cultures, religions, ethnicity etc etc enrich our communities. We need to communicate, to listen and to understand... to allow not just the educator but the whole classroom and the whole of society to understand and include and to accept.
To ensure that the rectangle that represents the norm includes all the children and all the groups and that there is a mutual respect and adaptation so that all can stay true to their identities.

I sometimes hear that this cannot be done in a classroom that we need change in the whole of society... but I argue that it is in the classroom that we need to start making the change... so that bit by bit the future looks more accepting, more understanding more respectful, and more peaceful.

If we are learning to dialogue instead of debate
If we are learning to listen to understand rather than listening to answer
if we give children the time to learn rather than instructing at a hurried schedule
If we are open to evolve as educators rather than just do what we have always done
If we are brave - to face our mistakes, to stand up for what is right.

Communication is essential for change. And language is a part of that. so the up and coming posts will be about communication and language... and since I believe in the 100 languages I will attempt to reflect from many perspectives and also on the many ways we communicate and can support language acquisition.

In the meanwhile... here are a few posts to read...

The story of a word - one of my posts exploring the importance of discussing what words mean between colleagues... are we communicating on the same page, or are we interpreting words differently and creating mixed messages?

Oral Language - the verbal child - another of my posts reflecting on language development

The importance of the spoken language - another of my posts... this one reflects on why there is so little focus on non-verbal communication.

Teacher Child Conversations - Dickinson
quality dialogue, open ended questions, also about non-contextural, not just context based vocabulary (ie past and future)...

Why the babies brain can learn two languages

Body Language - how we read body language for deeper understanding of what others mean... that women are better than this than men on the whole, that women with young children are even better... and men with nurturing jobs like nursing arts etc are good too... dues to being in tune with non-verbal. Films without sound had actors gifted in body language to communicate the story... with words/sound, this is not needed, it needs to be verbally good as well as body language skills
negotiating over the phone it is about the words and the stronger argument... face to face it is about the performance

Aspen Preschool in Botkyrka

Reggio and the power of words - a blogpost from Without Windows.

Learning for Life - here you can follow Kierna's 4 week adventure with the Churchill Fellowship - learning about migrant children and the early years in Berlin, Norrköping and Stockholm.

The story of a WORD

(this post is in Swedish after the photograph)

When I first moved to Sweden I not only had to learn a new language but also a new culture... since I came from northern Europe myself I was not expecting much of a difference and I think this is why I suffered a bit from culture shock... Sweden back in 1992 was very different from the UK that I left... I mean Sweden was not even a part of the EU then (which is quite funny at the moment since the UK is in the Brexit process - if only they knew how limited Sweden was back then for choice compared to UK back then, and compared to now)

Language is not just words... it is also culture. A word carries so much history with it, that can be collectively understood and his was a huge problem for me when I first started working in early years settings in Sweden.

The Swedish interpretation of discipline, for example, is more or less exclusively about punishment and is seen as a negative word... which it was not for me... it was about teaching and learning and not at all about punishment... so there was a time when there was a lot of miscommunication, and people looking at me strange until I worked out that they did not understand the word the same as I did.

This has left me with a life-long impact that we need to talk about the meaning of words so much more than what we do as a team of educators... so that we all know we are talking about the same thing when using words... We need to create our own language our own culture and to always make sure we invite people into this and not keep them on the periphery where confusion occurs.. (for all concerned)

I could never understand the side-glances when I used the word discipline... I had simply made the assumption that they interpreted as I did, and they assumed I was a raving lunatic that liked to punish children (hitting in particular seemed to be linked to the word)... which I am absolutely against. I will not hit a child, and I do not believe that punishment is a good form of learning...

How can we ever dig deeper into understanding what learning is, understanding the children etc etc if we are not even understanding each other?

Finding a mutual language is important... what is play... what is competent... what is learning... what is teaching... what is scaffolding... and so many more words all need to be explored as educators in our process to understand children...

När jag först flyttade till Sverige fick jag inte bara lära mig ett nytt språk men också en ny kultur ... eftersom jag kommer från norra Europa själv förväntade jag inte så stora skillnader kultur-mässigt och jag tror därför att jag led lite av kulturchock ... Sverige, i 1992, var väldigt annorlunda från den Storbritannien som jag lämnade ... Jag menar att Sverige inte ens var en del av EU då (vilket är ganska roligt just nu eftersom Storbritannien är mitt i Brexit-processen - om bara de visste hur begränsat Sverige var då jämfört med Storbritannien då och jämfört med Sverige nu)

Språk är inte bara ord ... det är också kultur. 

Ett ord bär så mycket historia, det kan kollektivt förstås och det var ett stort problem för mig när jag började arbeta inom förskolan i Sverige. Den svenska tolkningen av disciplin är, till exempel, handla nästan enbart om straff och ses som ett negativt ord ... vilket det inte var för mig ... det handlade om undervisning och lärande och inte alls om straff ... så det fanns en tid då det fanns en hel del missförstånd, och folk tittade på mig lite konstigt eftersom vi tolkade på olika sätt. Detta har påverkat mig enormt - vi behöver prata om betydelsen av ord så mycket mer än vad vi gör - som ett lag av lärare ... så att vi alla vet att vi pratar om samma sak när vi använder ord ... Vi måste skapa vårt eget språk, vår egen kultur och alltid se till att vi bjuder in människor i detta och inte behåller dem i periferin där förvirring uppstår .. (för alla berördas skull)

Jag kunde aldrig förstå varför folk tittade snett när jag använde ordet disciplin ... Jag hade helt enkelt antagit att de tolkade som jag gjorde, och de antog att jag var en galning som gillade att straffa barn (att slå speciellt tycktes vara kopplad till ordet) ... vilket jag absolut är emot. Jag kommer inte slå ett barn, och jag tror inte att straff är en bra form av lärande ...

Hur kan vi någonsin gräva djupare för att förstå vad lärande är, förstå barnen etc etc om vi inte ens förstår varandra? Att hitta ett ömsesidigt språk är viktigt ... vad är lek ... vad är kompetent ... vad är undervisning ... vad är lärande ... vad är stöttning ... och många fler ord behöver utforskas som pedagoger i vår process för att förstå barn ...

Critical Doubt

During the last 24 hours I have been engaged online (on and off) in a dialogue with Tom Drummond and it has been one of those exhilarating kinds of dialogues that gets your head turning somersaults... and there is also a healthy sense of self doubt that is critical for making progress in your own thinking...

in fact my doubt came about in the actual phrase "critical thinking" - what is it, what does it mean.. and that Carla Rinaldi chooses not to use these words together...

I wondered why she chooses not to use the word... of course only she can truly answer that... but I have found texts where she is connected to the words critical thinking

'Research is a habit of mind, an attitude that can be developed or neglected. It is a response to curiosity and doubt. It constructs new knowledge, makes for critical thinking and is part of citizenship and democracy. Like everything else about Reggio, research is not a solitary activity, but a process of relationships and dialogue.' Carla Rinaldi and Peter Moss.

and as part of the description of the competent child...

A child who is fully able to create personal maps for his own social, cognitive, affective and symbolic orientation.

A competent, active, critical  child; a child who is therefore ‘challenging’, because he produces change and dynamic movement in the systems in which he is involved, including the family, the society and the school. A producer of culture, values and rights, competent in living and learning.

A child who is able to assemble and disassemble possible realities, to construct metaphors and creative paradoxes, to construct his own symbols and codes while learning to decode the established symbols and codes.

A child who, very early on, is able to attribute meanings to events and who attempts to share meanings and stories of meaning.”

I have put the the word critical in bold text, as it is the word that I was intrigued by... what does Rinaldi mean by this... as she was the one that wrote down/interpreted the words of Malaguzzi. So I went to look up the word -
 Merriam-Webster online dictionary... (I also checked other dictionaries, not just one)

Definition of critical

1

a : inclined to criticize severely and unfavorably 

• His critical temperament cost him several friends.

b : consisting of or involving criticism 

• critical writings

; also : of or relating to the judgment of critics 

• The play was a critical success.

c : exercising or involving careful judgment or judicious evaluation 

• critical thinking

 

• a critical commentary on the mayor's proposal

d : including variant readings and scholarly emendations 

• a critical edition

2

a : of, relating to, or being a turning point or specially important juncture 

• a critical phase

 : such as 

(1) : relating to or being the stage of a disease at which an abrupt change for better or worse may be expected; also : being or relating to an illness or condition involving danger of death 

• critical care

 

• a patient listed in critical condition

 

(2) : relating to or being a state in which or a measurement or point at which some quality, property, or phenomenon suffers a definite change 

• critical temperature

b : indispensable, vital 

• a critical waterfowl habitat

 

• a component critical to the operation of a machine

c : being in or approaching a state of crisis 

• a critical shortage

 

• a critical situation

d : crucial, decisive 

• a critical test

3

a : of sufficient size to sustain a chain reaction —used of a mass of fissionable material 

• a critical mass

b : sustaining a nuclear chain reaction 

• The reactor went critical.

 So what kind of "critical" is this child as part of being competent... and also as part of being a "challenge".
As I read the definitions of critical I rather like the idea of critical thinking being something along the lines of "being a turning point or specially important juncture", the idea that the thought process are in a state of change, that we are learning and that our thoughts are at the point of moving from one accepted idea to another... or an alteration of one, or the realisation that another idea is not somehow right... is the child in a state of change?
Or is the child exorcising judicious evaluation that can make it difficult for the adults, as the child will not just accept the status quo, but asks questions until they feel they have found an acceptable answer, come close to their truth? I hope it is not the negative definitions where the child severely criticises, or is in danger...

So then Tom pointed out - is it critical thinking or thinking critically? BUT interestingly enough the definition of critically is EXACTLY the same as critical... so does this make a big difference by swapping the words around?... or is this about our relationship with the word? 
Because I have been using the words critical thinking so much in the last few years in conjunction with working philosophically with children the word critical no longer has a negative tone for me at all... its meaning has changed... but maybe for others it is harder to dissociate the negative tone of the word critical? I don't know? But it is something worth exploring.

Over the years as part of working philosophically with children I have thought a lot about thinking, often together with others...
I am of the opinion that there are many forms of thinking... just as there are many forms of learning and many forms of play... this all ties in with the hundred languages for me...

some forms of thinking (other than critical thinking):

• reflective
• empathic
• creative
• prejudice
• biased
• distorted
• partial
• uninformed
• abstract
• divergent
• meta

listening is another way of thinking

and there will be more... but I do not want to write an exhaustive list... just show there are many ways to think - including daydreaming - but is that really thinking, or storytelling in the mind? Do we need to phrase it thinking reflectively instead of reflective thinking... ? Or do we just call it reflection? How does reflection differ from thinking? What impact does that have on our perception of what that kind of thinking means?

To find out more about what critical thinking means... check out this page as they go into much greater detail and with several thinkers sharing their definition of critical thinking... far beyond my thinking capacity at this present moment... 

Tom Drummond wrote

... words we use in our dialogue can have a shared meaning because we have a relationship. The long relationship with your best friends sharpens the communication. When we use words outside of relationships, it is different.

and

This is, as Carla says, all in a context of relationships and dialogue. I would add trust. It is also in a context of documentation. We have artefacts to ground meaning-making. Artefacts we can revisit. Relationships that evolve. New meanings can be made in each here and now. 

If we can look back at ourselves over time, re-co-construct the meaning of our shared history, we then share that, too. This is the meta-cognition where we are up another stair in the path of life.

The Municipal Preschools and Infant Centres of Reggio Emilia, Italy, have gone up many stairs.

And it is so true relationships are so important in our dialogues and our understanding of how we use words... it is why we need to build trusting relationships with the children and with our colleagues... it is why we need enable the children to trust each other - so that their dialogues and play have the element of truth, their communication is of a kind that they can all participate in and all understand. And when we have the understanding we can push our thinking further... we continue to go up the stairs is we are to use Tom's analogy.

I think, though, that thinking is more cyclical... or in waves... or sometimes walking up the down-escalator and it feels like you are going no-where... a kind of trapped on the merry-go-round feeling.
But thinking with others can help you start in the right direction, or get off that merry-go-round to pursue new thoughts...

I also think we have to be aware that there are many of these so called "stairs" - while the municipal preschools in Reggio Emilia might have gone up many stairs in their documentation, their collegial dialogues etc... I know they have not gone up an many stairs within outdoor learning or norm-awareness (anti-bias) as Sweden has ... and I think this is so important to reflect on... that we all have so much to offer each other because we have all been focusing on climbing different stairs...

we need to be open to the thinking of others - to allow our own thinking to evolve - we need to be aware of our own thinking and whether it is there to meet an agenda or whether it is there to explore an idea... when is it doing what... ? and how do we know?

I felt working philosophically with children made me so much more aware of my own thinking and my own participation and how I shared my thinking and was more aware of the children's thinking - and how their thinking connected with each other and with things we had experienced etc etc. I realised just how much power my thinking had over the group not just when I was sharing my ideas and thoughts... but also when I thought I was not participating... my non-participation says something too (why not at this moment, and why at other moments) - my body language and facial expressions can give lots away about what I think... I do not have a good poker face...
Being aware of my power in the group was fuel for thinking about how I could empower the children...

But back to the exploration of critical thinking...

it all started in a dialogue about what is "scaffolding" in practical terms - what do you actually do to scaffold...? which developed into a question - what does encouragement mean...? how do you actually do that...?  that lead to support and what is that...? that lead to the critical thinking exploration

I so enjoy exploring words - digging deeper in my own understanding, definitions and interpretations of words... learning from how other define words... we create new relationships with words that allow us to gain a more nuance understanding of dialogues in the future... as a word used in a sentence is no longer just a word it is a symbol for a whole lot of of meaning-making.

It kind of reminds me of attempting to read James Joyce "Ullyses" - there were times when I struggled to follow, well just didn't get it... and there were times when I got it because I realised he was using one or two words to describe a situation that would require pages normally... because he would refer to something from another piece of literature or something... for example there was one sentence that only made sense if you had read Shakespeare's Julius Caesar... because without that knowledge the sentence just contained some random words in it that did not relate to the previous pages... It made me realise how much I must be missing because there were probably loads of these "hidden" meanings. Would having a dialogue and relationship with James Joyce been a key to understanding the book due to creating a common language?

Below are some quotes about thinking...

creative thinking... to be aware of what the established pattern is, whether it needs to be change, what change is needed and how to go about that...

actually "support" was another word that was questioned in the last 24 hours... what is support... how do you support... when is too much, when is too little... ????

and we need to think about how do we listen to the thinking of non-verbal children... how are we receptive to that... what enables them to share more, what in our behaviour limits them?

yeah... I like this photo of my daughter holding an egg that had just been collected from the hen house and washed - it was warm.