Working Theories

This blog post on working theories has 3 purposes:

1. To acknowledge a wonderful PD opportunity and encourage others to attend the next time it is offered

2. To recognise the importance of working theories in the most recent IB publication for early years

3. To reflect on my own understanding of working theories and consider next steps in my own learning journey. 

Young Children as Thinkers and Theory Builders

This webinar was developed by the always-inspiring team of Tania Lattanzio and Anne van Dam. This workshop over two consecutive Sundays is so well structured and honours its title with carefully sequenced engagements that balance modelled examples, discussion, independent learning and collaborative group thinking. There is a quality to Tania's and Anne's work that is in its own league. They are experienced educators themselves and weave magical moments of learning from their own practice with purposeful curated quotes and extracts from theory. There is an honesty to the way they facilitate as they share their own thinking and their own evolving theories, and model responsiveness based on the needs, wonderings and connections participants make. Having access to the recordings of the webinar, as well as the group's thinking documented on a Padlet, allows for ideas to be processed more thoughtfully. 

The Early Years in the PYP

The IB has recently published this new document that further unpacks From Principles into Practice through the lens of early years. The number of references to theory building (below) in this publication is quite striking. Inquiry is often 'reduced' to asking questions, so it is wonderful to see the acknowledgement and importance of children's working theories as they play, inquire and make meaning. The webinars allowed exploration of many of these ideas with educators around the world. 

My own learning journey

I have blogged about theory building before in this post. It is interesting to look back as the posts themselves document thinking at a particular moment in time. It is powerful to revisit ideas to get a true sense of how thinking may have evolved and to be active in seeking learning opportunities and professional growth. The webinars validated a lot of the ideas in the post and a lot of what is already happening in Kindergarten, but like the best PD should, provoked and inspired even more. 

It has been interesting to read the work of Dr Helen Hedges who was credited in the webinar. Her blog gives access to many different resources. Reflecting more about what working theories actually are, and recognising that these might include simplifications, over-generalisations, partial 'truths' and misconceptions, has made the concept of theory building much clearer. 

It has been wonderful to connect theory building, play and conceptual learning more consciously and explicitly in my mind. Having the complexity of big ideas to unpack and explore offers infinite possibilities for inquiry, and therefore endless theories to emerge, develop and revisit. 

The vocabulary of 'theory' is often used and modelled in my Kindergarten class. We discuss theories in response to literature, moments in the children's play, planned engagements linked to units of inquiry and during routines such as reflection time. 

I realised a lot of the theory building stayed only as conversations so this week I was more intentional in having children draw and move to share their theories. We have been thinking a lot about curiosity and pursuing the ideas we are most curious about. I asked the children to consider what it is we have as humans that allows us to be curious. The drawings and the children's explanations revealed so much. There was a lot of talk about the brain and the children used their hands to show their thinking about the shape and size of the brain. I need to be more intentional in considering opportunities to extend or disrupt children's theories (borrowing the phrasing from Dr Helen Hedges).

Although we document a lot of the children's thinking, I need to be more active in making this documentation visible to the children so we can revisit our working theories and see in concrete terms how our ideas have evolved and recognise the process of learning. 

Although I plan in response to children's interests, wonderings and thinking, I often do this recalling moments and interactions using just my memory. I must start to embed routines in planning meetings so dialogue is built around documentation that we actually see. 

Your own learning journey

Where are you in your learning journey with regards to working theories?

What are you most comfortable with? 

What are your own theories about the ways children construct meaning and develop their own theories?

What are you grappling with?