Sustained Shared Thinking

What is

Sustained Shared Thinking?

Š The Curiosity Approach

SS T

At Curiosity Approach® settings, mindful educators interact and encourage talk with children by keeping with the child’s interest and attention. Getting down to their level and being excited about what the child is doing, exploring or interested in! To ask open-ended questions which promote thought and clarity of ideas and thinking. To be mindful of play clues and knowing when it’s appropriate to join a child in play!

Through verbal interactions which promote development of children’s language and thinking skills. Children and adults share a magical bond of Sustained Shared Thinking.

What is SST?

Sustained = carry on for a reasonable amount of time.

Shared = felt or experienced by more than one.

Thinking = it must extend and develop.

“SUSTAINED SHARED THINKING IS DEFINED AS THE RESULT OF TWO OR MORE INDIVIDUALS (ADULTS AND CHILDREN) (MORE COMPETENT CHILD AND YOUNGER CHILD) WORKING TOGETHER IN AN INTELLECTUAL WAY TO SOLVE A PROBLEM, TO CLARIFY A CONCEPT OR EVALUATE A DISCOVERY, TO BE CURIOUS TOGETHER. IT REQUIRES ALL PARTICIPANTS TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE THINKING AND HELPING TO ENSURE THAT THE THINKING IS EXTENDED.”

Nursery World

The Curiosity Approach® pedagogy believes mindful passionate educators are the key to this success.

This is how Loris Malaguzzi (Edwards et al, 1998) explained the weaving together of children’s learning with adults teaching.

He used the metaphor of a table tennis game. Where a child bats an idea or interest and the participating adult, bats the idea back to the child. The adult, showing a keen interest and acknowledging the child’s interest.

Through Sustained Shared Thinking the adult shows respect for the child, their ideas and thoughts.

Each time the teacher receives the ball from the child, they thoughtfully return it with added challenge. A skilful educator will ensure the ball remains in play for extended periods of time, adding deeper levels of thinking and challenge. This ensures the learning will move to a much deeper level. In effect, this is where children will reach levels of sustained shared thinking, which we know from the research, is where most learning takes place.

Taking into account the longitudinal research project The Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE) Project (2004) which clearly identified that the ‘most effective settings encourage sustained shared thinking’ and that it is a ‘necessary prerequisite for the most effective settings’.

The EPPE Project concluded: ‘In addition to sustained shared thinking, staff engaged in open-ended questioning in the settings where children made the most progress and provided formative feedback to children during activities.

Adult ‘modelling’ skills or appropriate behaviour was often combined with sustained periods of shared thinking; open-ended questioning and modelling were also associated with better cognitive achievement.

Sustained shared thinking occurs most often when the child or children have initiated and led an activity and the teacher has responded to this by using the children’s interests to shape the planning and the curriculum.

Sustained Shared Thinking occurs most often when the child or children are leading their learning/play and the mindful practitioner responds to this by being in the moment with the child/children, scaffolding their learning and then goes on to enhance the learning environment with the interests of the child. Joining together on journey of discovery, investigation and learning. Where both adult and child interact, engage and become researchers in their own play.

RNING AND A E L S U IO R A CU IRONMENT V N E G IN K THIN

OPEN-ENDED QU ESTIONS

4 Key Ingredients for Sustained Shared Thinking

ADUL T MOD ELLIN G

IATED PLAY IT IN – D IL CH EXTENDED

Metacognition & Thinking skills in the Early Years

When children hit a roadblock of understanding and they become frustrated by challenges faced, sadly too often children become despondent and frustrated.

Their confidence starts to plummet and they become tempted to utter the words “I can’t do it”. As mindful and passionate educators it is our role to support children through this transitional time. Helping them to understand and recognise their own abilities. To clarify thinking and to overcome challenges, emotional setbacks and new experiences.

Enabling children to become proactive in their thinking, ensuring they have the resourcefulness to overcome obstacles and solve problems. As Margaret Mead said, “teaching children HOW to think and not WHAT to think.” Supporting children to gain confidence and recognise their capabilities, HOW CAN I? There’s a word for this, and it’s metacognition. https://childmind.org/article/how-metacognition-can-help-kids/ Metacognition = young children can reason or engage in ‘metacognition’ (thinking about their thinking).

Thinking skills can be divided into 6 areas • Enquiry skills - asking and answering appropriate questions, deciding on the next question.

• Information processing skills - these help the child to ‘do something’ with the information they receive in answer to their questions; organising it and retaining the most important parts.

• Reasoning skills - forming an opinion based on the information gathered (closely linked to the development of language, social and emotional skills).

• Evaluation skills - children look at the information they have and decide whether they agree with it or not.

• Problem-solving skills - recognising that a problem is something to be solved rather than a failure and being able to recognise that changes can be made that will affect the end-result.

• Creative thinking - using the imagination to generate new ideas, looking beyond the obvious.

The Role of the Adult

The role of the adult is of paramount importance, Dowling (2005) suggests that the adult can use both verbal and nonverbal communications to develop positive interactions and in so doing assist in the development of children’s thinking skills. She talks about the need for adults to: • tune in; • show genuine interest; • respect children’s own decisions and choices; • invite children to elaborate; • recap; • offer personal experience; • clarify ideas; • remind; • use specific praise; • offer an alternative viewpoint; • speculate; • reciprocate; • ask open questions; and • use model thinking.

Remember - SST can also happen between children too, when one child is ‘more knowledgable’ . (Vygotsky 1978) says this is an active and creative process when children are ‘working together’.

The Curiosity Approach 118 Wood End Road Birmingham B24 8BJ Phone 0121 384 8096 Email support@thecuriosityapproach.com

Did you know that we are committed to the United Nations 17 Global Goals? We focus on Global Goal 4 – A Quality Education For All. We donate directly to Sparkle Malawi and sponsor numerous children to attend school!

The Curiosity Approach Limited is registered in England & Wales, number 10623250. Registered office 118 Wood End Road, Birmingham, B24 8BJ.