Play–based learning (and inquiry) – supporting learner agency: Part 3
Channel: Grow Waitaha
Date: 2017-08-07

Students and teacher Kate Bodger share how play, and student driven inquiry benefits learning and teaching at Halswell School.

TRANSCRIPT:
What we’re doing is talking to the children and getting an understanding of what they enjoy and what they’re passionate about and also building relationships with the children, which we’ve found creates that deeper engagement during the class time when you know the learners and know the things that they really are drawn to.

I made that frozen waterfall thing. Cos Sophie started to make Olaf and then Millar said that’s a good idea and we all just started to build frozen stuff. That’s Elsa, those are two trees and that’s a snowflake which is black.

I think the one thing that we have noticed is that children are really excited about coming to school because they’ve got projects that they haven’t finished, or something that they want to continue on with, or a wee group that their working with. So the parents are starting to say that their kids are really looking forward to going to school and that they're happy to go to school. Some of the other benefits that we’re starting to notice is that the children are able to concentrate more I think that when they’ve kind of got all those things out of their system that they’re actually ready to sit down and start their learning. Whereas they might not be straight away at nine o’clock. There seems to have been a flow on effect into their learning, so they are more settled and more enthusiastic to get stuck into their work after they’ve had that time to experiment and explore. Once we started to provide this agency and getting a better understanding of our students, the inquiry has flown on into all of our other curriculum areas. I think especially the need for student voice and acknowledging that has flown on, especially through maths, making sure that the children are being heard and have their chance to have a say.

We’re learning numbers that add up to 10, like, 5 and 5, if you know that 5 and 5 makes 10, you’ll know that 50 and 50 makes a 100 and 500 and 500 makes a 1000.

Our group got some multi–link cubes and we put them together and we made 20 and we did 19 plus 1 and stuff. This is the 7 that they did and this is the 13 and that’s the plus.

Through the play based learning we’re able to see what the children’s impulses are and see what they’re drawn to. Through the activities that get the most sort of action, we’re able to sort of evaluate their effectiveness and in a normal classroom programme. So we’ve had a lot of things that the children have been naturally drawn to that we’ve been able to incorporate into maths or get them to write about some of the things that they’ve done. So it does start to flow on . And when the children are really used to having a say about what they’re doing then they start to expect it, which keeps you honest as a teacher.

The chickens have been here for quite long and when they walk their foot is kind of spread but then when it goes up it kind of folds in and then goes back and they’ve got a big bucket that has food that they eat from.

We’re learning about where they come from and what they do in the wild. We found there’s nineteen billion chickens in the world and five hundred something breeds. We haven't found out how they lay eggs but that’s what I’m gonna do on the computer next. Yeah I’m basically enjoying everything. I think the computers is what I’m finding the funnest.

The play based learning has definitely helped the children to work with different groups of children and they’re finding children based on their interests, rather than their friends, their group of friends. I’m finding their conversations are a lot more sophisticated as they are actually talking about the activity, because they are also focused on trying to get the same outcome, because it's something that they’ve gravitated towards without being prompted by a teacher. I think you can see the benefit in children going with their passions. I think it’s the same as teachers going with their passions. If you’re engaged in the teaching and the planning aspect of it then you’re going with what you enjoy teaching. Then you enjoy teaching it. The children are able to express what they want through giving them agency and voice in the classroom. But you are also allowed to have agency as a teacher to go and find the things that you’re passionate about and also look at what other people are doing and be inspired on a daily basis by what they are doing as well.