Learning by thinking during play: The power of reflection to aid performance

• Published in: Early child development and care 2016-03, Vol.186 (3), p.480-496
• Main Author: Salmon, Angela K.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academic Achievement; Action Research; Australia; Child Care Centers; Child Development Centers; curiosity; dialogic thinking; Executive Function; executive functions; Foreign Countries; habits of mind; Intentional Learning; intentional teaching; Metacognition; metacognitive; Observation; Personality Traits; Reflection; scaffolding; Scaffolding (Teaching Technique); self-regulated; self-regulating; thinking dispositions; Thinking Skills; visible thinking; Workshops; Young Children
• ISSN: 0300-4430; 1476-8275
• DOI: 10.1080/03004430.2015.1032956

Coupled with reflection, play leads to the development of thinking dispositions and promotes deep learning and understanding. The twenty-first century world demands that children learn how to learn by becoming reflective, self-regulating inquirers capable of metacognition (thinking about thinking). This manuscript aims to analyse how young minds work and how children conceptualise thinking so that adults can better scaffold their thinking to help them understand their world. When adults help children make their thinking visible to themselves, children are likely to be more curious, more metacognitive and to develop thinking dispositions (tendencies that guide intellectual behaviour) as they find problems and try to solve them. The author reports research findings that reveal how adults can uncover children's thinking by engaging them in reflective conversations about the thinking process that took place during play, which will eventually evolve into sustained dialogic thinking (shared theory) associated with high-quality teaching and learning.