Threads of Thinking: Young Children Learning and the Role of Early Education

'Reading 'Threads of Thinking' is like having a comfortable conversation with one who exudes experience and skilfully imparts knowledge about young children's learning and the role of early education!.it is a highly informative resource for teachers of early childhood. Students studying from Level 3 to degree level will find it a trusty companion' - ESCalate Threads of Thinking, Third Edition is a book for all early years practitioners who wish to support and develop children's thinking. The author presents evidence of continuity and progression in young children's thinking and shows, with detailed observations, that they are able and active learners. She considers aspects of children's patterns of learning and thinking - or schemas - and demonstrates clearly how children learn in an active, dynamic and creative way. Numerous examples of young children 'in action' are used, which illustrate their learning in areas of literacy, mathematics and science. Observations of babies and toddlers are included in this new edition with discussion of how their early schematic development can be supported. Examples of children learning through creative experiences in the arts are also included. Implications for curriculum, assessment and work with parents are thoroughly considered in a style that compels attention to children's own learning agendas. The Second Edition of Threads of Thinking was published 1999. Since then the policy context of early childhood education has undergone radical change. In response to this and other important policy developments, this fully revised Third Edition includes numerous detailed descriptions of children learning and discusses those observations in the light of our understanding about how children learn and how early childhood educators might teach. The impact of current national policies is addressed throughout, including the implications for practitioners of early assessment and the relationship of assessment to learning.

Table of Contents:
PART I: YOUNG CHILDREN AND LEARNING Thinking About Young Children and Learning Some Questions About Schemas PART II: CHILDREN'S PATTERNS OF LEARNING Consistency, Continuity and Progression in Young Children's Learning Schemas As Consistent Patterns of Behaviour - Studies of Three Children PART III: SCHEMAS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING Children's Developing Understanding of Mathematical and Scientific Ideas Patterns of Literacy Nourishing Children's Thinking Through Stories PART IV: IMPLICATIONS FOR EARLY EDUCATION A Curriculum for Thinking Children Assessment For Learning Working With Parents

About the Author :
Professor Cathy Nutbrown is Head of the School of Education at the University of Sheffield, where she teaches and researches in the field of early childhood education. Cathy began her career as a teacher of young children and has since worked in a range of settings and roles with children, parents, teachers, and other early childhood educators. Cathy is committed to finding ways of working 'with respect' with young children, and sees the concept of quality in the context of what it means to develop curriculum and pedagogy in the early years with the ambition of working in a climate of 'respectful education'. She established the University of Sheffield MA in Early Childhood Education in 1998 and a Doctoral Programme in Early Childhood Education in 2008. In 2010 she contributed to the Tickell Review of the Early Years Foundation In June 2012 she reported on her year-long independent review for government on early years and childcare qualifications (The Nutbrown Review). She is Editor-in-Chief of the SAGE Journal of Early Childhood Research and author of over fifty publications on aspects of early childhood education.