Sustained Shared Thinking in the Early Years

Linking theory to practice

Kathy Brodie

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781317684589
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Used as a measure of quality in the ground-breaking Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE) project, Sustained Shared Thinking is fundamental to good early years practice. It costs nothing, yet research has shown that it improves outcomes for children by supporting their holistic development. This book clearly explains what Sustained Shared Thinking is and examines the skills and expertise needed to initiate, encourage and facilitate it.

The book explores the attitudes, knowledge and understanding that a practitioner must adopt in order to start or develop successful Sustained Shared Thinking. Combining theory with practical guidance, it demonstrates how it can be achieved, covering all aspects of early years practice including the Characteristics of Effective Learning, the Prime and Specific Areas of learning development, the role of the practitioner, the environment and working with parents.

Features include:

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• boxed links to key theory and research;

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• practical strategies highlighted in the text;

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• consideration of children at different ages and stages of development;

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• links throughout to the Early Years Foundation Stage.

Written by a leading consultant who regularly delivers training on Sustained Shared Thinking, this will be an essential text for students on foundation degree and childhood studies courses as well as early years practitioners.

1

An introduction to Sustained Shared Thinking

Thinking is closely involved with the whole child.

(Dowling 2013: 2)

Introduction

Sustained Shared Thinking (SST) has become a buzzword in nurseries and other settings. It is understood by most practitioners to be a good thing, and something that Ofsted is likely to be looking for. Many practitioners can give an outline description of what they feel SST is. However, not all practitioners understand how it underpins almost everything we do with children. It can support work with children of all ages, it supports parents and carers, and it improves the home learning environment.

The different aspects of SST are analysed individually in this book. The underpinning theory is discussed and suggestions for further reading detailed. There are examples and ideas for practice throughout, so practitioners can use SST immediately.

We start off in this chapter exploring some of the concepts behind SST; where it should come from and when it was first coined as a phrase. Practitioners will know that SST is linked to talking with children and actively listening. It is often the most enjoyable part of working with young children, and is something that good practitioners do naturally, without having to be told to or taught how to do it. Children, on the whole, are natural conversationalists who are more than willing to share their ideas, thoughts and views with an attentive and interested adult.

Of course, interacting with children and active listening are not new ideas. Over the years many theorists have advocated this as good practice – from Pestalozzi to Vygotsky and Susan Isaacs to Marion Dowling. There are pedagogical landscapes dedicated to this method, from Reggio Emilia to High-Scope and the mosaic approach. Sustained Shared Thinking differs slightly from these because it has a specific definition, which has come out of longitudinal research, and does not require practitioners to have special training in a new concept. The idea is not new nor is it something ‘extra’ practitioners have to do with children in their setting.

Sustained Shared Thinking is part of the English curriculum guidance for early years and was first mentioned in the 2008 Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), under creativity and critical thinking (practice card 4.3). It also appears in the updated Development Matters guidance for the EYFS, stating that ‘Sustained shared thinking helps children to explore ideas and make links. Follow children’s lead in conversation, and think about things together. Encourage children to describe problems they encounter, and to suggest ways to solve the problem. Show and talk about strategies – how to do things – including problem-solving, thinking and learning’ (Early Education 2012: 7).

Reflection

While doing training on SST some practitioners will say one of the challenges is evidencing the dialogues during the busyness of the day. However, SST can be more than just conversations. Last Christmas, the pre-school children chose to do a show based on the Fran’s Flower book, instead of performing the traditional show. This was because they had been reading the book and had spent a lot of time re-enacting the story in the book corner already. They had been dressing up and talking about all the different foodstuffs, exploring the story in their own way. They had quickly chosen who was to play each part and were asking each day to practice their story and songs. Even after the performance, the children were still dressing up and discussing how Fran had cared for her flower.

Sustained Shared Thinking is demonstrated in this example through the problem-solving of who would play what part, the extended narrative of their own storytelling and the continuous return to the role-play even after the show had been performed.

As a phrase, SST was used in the Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE) Project which, at the time, was the largest European longitudinal study of pre-school care and education. The EPPE research aims were to try to identify effective pre-schools and compare these with other provisions (and with children who did not attend any type of pre-school provision). Identifying the benefits of the provision, and then measuring how quickly these faded over time, determined the ‘effectiveness’ of the provision. This was a wide-ranging and detailed piece of research, which had many outcomes, including the analysis of SST and its effect on early education and care. As an interesting footnote, it was decided to use the word ‘Thinking’ rather than ‘Dialogue’ or ‘Language’ (both of which would be possibilities) when describing the interactions between practitioners and children. This came from the grounded theory used during the EPPE research. The coding categories were ‘collapsed’ (Sylva et al. 2010: 155) into Sustained Shared Thinking because it came from many, different observable areas that included language, dialogue, adult models and questioning techniques. This demonstrates the breadth of SST and how useful it is in many different circumstances.

Formally, SST is defined as:

an episode in which two or more individuals ‘work together’ in an intellectual way to solve a problem, clarify a concept, evaluate activities, extend a narrative etc. Both parties must contribute to the thinking and it must develop and extend. (Sylva et al. 2004: 36)

By deconstructing this definition, the full implications of implementing and embedding SST can be appreciated.

An episode in which two or more individuals ‘work together’.

Sustained Shared Thinking is something that happens between two or more people. This will most frequently be between an adult and a child, but it may also be between children, if one child is a ‘more knowledgeable other’ (Vygotsky 1978). Sustained Shared Thinking may happen in small groups and is not confined to one to one conversations. The use of the phrase ‘work together’ underlines the emphasis on it being an active and creative process.

Both parties must contribute to the thinking

This is not the traditional ‘teacher’ role, where information is presented by the teacher to be simply absorbed, unquestioned by the child. This is a true two-way exchange with information flowing both ways, so the practitioner also learns from the child. It follows the analogy attributed to Plutarch, who suggested that the mind was more ‘like a fire to be kindled and lit than a vessel to be filled’. This is the ‘shared’ element of SST.

An intellectual way to solve a problem, clarify a concept, evaluate activities, extend a narrative, etc.

The thinking element of SST is provided by the content of the conversation and the thought process that goes into it. This may be a practical problem or a theoretical one, such as ‘how many bricks do I need to build this tower?’ or ‘how much does the moon weigh?’ Good practitioners constantly explain and expand concepts, making the meaning clear to their children. This could be as simple as ‘milk sometimes comes from cows’ to more complex concepts such as the solar system or floating and sinking. Most practitioners will constantly evaluate activities in their settings, almost without thinking about it. Those that went well are repeated; those that were not so successful are adjusted.

However, it is less common to find practitioners discussing the activities directly with the children. The one exception to this is the HighScope approach, which has a review of activities at the end of each session (High-Scope 2013). It is revealing to discuss activities with children, to find out what they felt the activity was about or how they engaged with it. Sometimes this is at odds with the intended outcomes, but may have provided equally valid learning opportunities. Similarly, extending a narrative helps practitioners to catch a glimpse of the thought processes that young children are using when they are active in the setting.

As the ‘etc.’ in this part of the definition suggests, this is not an exhaustive list and SST can be applied to everything we do in any setting, at any time. Some more specific ideas and examples are explained in more detail, linked to each area of learning and development in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), in later chapters.

…and it must develop and extend

This is the sustained part of SST. A problem might be solved, or a concept is explained, but the deep level learning that stays with children and can be built upon, occurs when the thinking is extended. This embeds the knowledge and helps to make it transferable to other circumstances and situations. It may be that the episode is sustained – an activity continued on after snack time for example, but equally ‘Sustained’ here can also mean that the thought process is sustained. For example, a child may return to a conversation from the previous day, having given it some thought meanwhile. This is the crucial part of SST, which elevates it from a passing conversation to a deep level learning experience for child and practitioners.

Example

Thomas is trying to solve the problem of carrying a long plank of wood out of the small door of the shed. The practitioner encourages Thomas to look at the length of the plank and size of the door. Thomas says ‘the door is too little’. The practitioner replies ‘Yes, the door is too small for the long plank. What can we do?’

Thomas says ‘We could cut it small’, to which the practitioner replies, ‘What else could we do?’ Thomas shakes his head, not sure how to solve this problem. The practitioner gently says, ‘Look, it’s shorter this way. Maybe we could turn the plank round, so it comes out lengthways?’

Thomas gives this suggestion a moment’s thought, and then turns the plank round. Delightedly, he says, ‘Look! It goes through now!’ With a big smile on his face, he exits the shed with the plank.

When tidying up later on, Thomas realises that the brick box is too wide to fit on the shelf the way he was holding it. After a moment’s thought, he puts the box down and picks it up lengthways, presenting the short end to the shelf and sliding the box on easily.

Even in this really small example, the practitioner has learned that Thomas understands size difference and how related problems can be solved. Thomas has been introduced to an alternative solution to a problem and has been able to transfer this knowledge to another situation.

What are thinking skills?

This section investigates exactly what thinking skills mean, in terms of SST. It has already been said that SST is more than just the transference of information from one individual to another; it also involves thinking and communication skills from both parties. White (2002: 99) suggests that ‘thinking’ is many different activities, which may be described as being directed, undirected, practical and theoretical. Each of these has clear definitions and examples that demonstrate how they may differ. For example, undirected thinking may be called daydreaming or thinking haphazard thoughts, whereas theoretical thinking may be about mathematics or science. Robson (2006: 2), however, uses very different language to describe the thinking process – intelligence, knowing and learning. Taking Robson’s first descriptor, intelligence, and investigating this further, it is soon apparent that there are theories of multiple intelligences (Gardner 1983) and even what is meant by ‘intelligence’ is debated (Roberts et al. 2001). Dowling (2013: 2) favours a more holistic approach, linking mind and thought, with ‘thinking’ being the result of ‘processing all the experiences that are received in the mind’. These very different approaches highlight how complex the concept of ‘thinking’ actually is and how thinking skills can be developed in many different ways.

The thinking skill of a child is one of the areas of learning and development where the competence of the skill does not necessarily directly correspond to the child’s age. If a child has been encouraged to think of different solutions and discuss their problems, they will be more skilled at this over time.

Developing children’s thinking skills

At the heart of SST is the idea of developing children’s critical thinking processes with support from more knowledgeable others. It is a continuous process and is applicable to all activities that a child gets involved in, whether it is in the setting, at home or out and about. It is a powerful way for practitioners to model to children how to ‘think about thinking’ or metacognition. These sorts of conversations will be happening all the time in settings and homes all over the country. Sustained Shared Thinking supports many areas of child development, including personal, moral, social, emotional and cognitive development and creativity, as described in later in the book.

It is widely recognised t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• 1 An introduction to Sustained Shared Thinking
• 2 How Sustained Shared Thinking can support the Characteristics of Effective Learning
• 3 Sustained Shared Thinking in the Prime Areas
• 4 Sustained Shared Thinking in the Specific Areas
• 5 The role of the practitioner and key person
• 6 Environments to support Sustained Shared Thinking
• 7 Different ages, different requirements, including SEN
• 8 Parents, carers and the home learning environment
• 9 Concluding thoughts
• References
• Index