Opening Presentation Sally Goddard-Blythe
“Identifying and Observing Physical “Readiness” for Learning. The significance of primitive and postural reflexes as reflections of central nervous system maturity.”
Sally Goddard Blythe MSc. FRSA, is a Consultant in Developmental Education and Director of The Institute for Neuro-Physiological Psychology (INPP) in Chester. INPP was established as a private research, clinical and training organisation in 1975, dedicated to the development of assessment procedures to identify underlying physical factors in specific learning difficulties and adults suffering from anxiety and panic disorder and to the development of effective remediation programmes.
Sally is the author of several books and published papers on child development and neuro-developmental factors in specific learning difficulties including: Reflexes, Learning and Behaviour and The Well Balanced Child. Her new book What Babies and Children Really Need due to published in April 2008 by Hawthorn Press and Attention, Balance and Coordination – the A,B,C of Learning Success, a new text book on the theories behind The INPP Method, is due to be published by Wiley-Blackwell Professional in the autumn of 2008.
She is the author of The INPP Test Battery and Developmental Exercise Programme for use in Schools – a programme of daily exercises designed to be used in schools with a whole class of children over one academic year – this programme has been the subject of published research[1] involving 810 children across schools in the UK. The aim of the programme has been to provide teachers with a method to help them identify physical readiness for learning and a programme of exercises designed to encourage physical readiness in children with problems.
INPP Chester is the international training centre for professionals wishing to access The INPP Method.
Summary:
The concept of physical readiness for formal education forms part of the core of Montessori philosophy. However, there are some children, who despite receiving ample time, space and opportunity for sensory-motor experience in the early years fail to develop at the same rate as their peers. Outside of Montessori education, we are seeing an alarming proportion of children in mainstream schools who are either failing to meet educational targets, who have behavioural problems or who are under-achieving.
A study published in 2005, showed that in a sample of more than 600 children in mainstream schools across the United Kingdom, 48% of 4 – 5 year olds and 35% of 7 – 9 year olds still had traces of infant (primitive) reflexes, which should not be active beyond the first 6 – 12 months of life. When reflex status was compared to educational achievement at the end of the academic year, children with immature reflexes had lower scores on measures of educational achievement using baseline assessment.
Primitive and postural reflexes at key stages in development provide indications of maturity in the functioning of the central nervous system. Reflex assessment can be used firstly, to identify children who are at risk of under-achieving as a result of neurological immaturity; secondly, to identify what type and developmental level of intervention is indicated and finally, as measures of change following an intervention programme.
Presentation Dr. Christine Pascal
“Capturing the Unique Child: Principled Observation and Assessment of Learning.”
Christine is Director of the Centre for Research in Early Childhood based in Birmingham and was leader of the national research project “ Effective Early Learning”. Currently she is working on the Baby Effective Early Learning Programme and the Children Crossing Border Project. Christine helped to found the European Early Childhood Research Journal, for which she is a trustee and co-ordinating editor. Christine is an adviser to the U.K. Government on education. In 2001 she was awarded the OBE for her services to early years’ education.
Summary:
Christine will be giving the third annual Oxford Montessori lecture as part of the Annual Montessori Schools Association Meeting (this year to be held in Oxford rather than London) and Montessori Europe Congress. She will be talking on “Capturing the Unique Child: Principled Observation and Assessment of Learning.”
In her presentation Christine will talk about the importance of the Unique Child in the new Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum, and what this means for practice, and will move on to talk about how we might use observation to capture and assess children’s competencies in their learning.
Assessment_and_the_Unique_Child.ptt
Presentation Lynne Lawrence
“Observation: the Cornerstone of Montessori Education”
Lynne is director of training and school at the Maria Montessori Institute in London, and Executive Director of AMI and is well known as an engaging speaker in the Montessori world.
She will be talking about the vitally important subject of “Observation: the Cornerstone of Montessori Education”.
Lynne is also the author of “Montessori Read and Write” and many other articles on Montessori. Her video/DVD “Montessori in Action” has been invaluable for parents, trainers and students as an observation of, and insight into, a true Montessori classroom.
Presentation Catherine McTamaney
“A Lens-Inward: An Introduction to the Importance of Self-Observation for Montessori Teachers”
Catherine a professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Peabody College, Vanderbilt University, and the Institute Chair for the Peabody Institute for Montessori Leadership which will have its inaugural session in the Summer of 2009. She is a former Montessori teacher, teacher educator and school director and was Montessori educated as a child. Her book, The Tao of Montessori, was released in 2006 and is currently being translated into German for European release.
Summary:
“We don’t know who discovered water, but we know it wasn’t the fish.” – Marshall McLuhan
Observation of children is a keystone of the Montessori philosophy, that core belief that, in order to prepare an environment best suited to each child we serve, we must first observe those children. We are trained in our teacher education programs in methods and procedures for objective observation. We practice being unobstrusive. We write it into our plans for each new lesson we offer the child. Knowing how to observe and how to make sense of what we see is an essential component of our role, defining the Montessori teacher as Scientist. Our goal, as scientists, is to draw objective conclusions from what we observe. The degree to which the environment we prepare is suited to the children for whom it has been prepared depends up on that objectivity. It is clear, then, why we emphasize this skill so prominently in our teacher education programs. Without objective observation and evidence-based analysis, our choices as teachers are more snake-oil than science.
Montessori wrote, “When she feels herself aflame with interest, “seeing” the spiritual phenomena of the child, and experiences a serene joy, an insatiable eagerness in observing them, then she will know that she is initiated. Then she will begin to become a teacher.” We understand this role well, and distinguish ourselves as “scientific observers,” honing our ability to observe children and to make sense of those observations, first in teacher education and then throughout our careers in the classroom. I’d argue, though, that an essential element in our ability to observe children is missing in our preparation as teachers: the ability to observe ourselves.
The United States, never known to be shy, is in the midst of a period of extraordinary cultural narcissism. More than ever, we find ourselves fascinating. We broadcast “realty” television shows in which anyone can be a celebrity. We publish blogs and commentaries in which anyone can be a journalist. When we are not our own center-stage, we offer it instead to call-in radio shows and television therapists who make their living talking about our lives. We may disdainfully term this behavior, “navel-watching,” but, nonetheless, we tune in. It may seem ironic, then, in a culture so egregiously self-aggrandizing, to recommend more self-observation. After all, haven’t we seen just about all we need to? Don’t we already know, in far too intimate detail, how we operate? As Montessorians, isn’t our goal to turn the spotlight away from the adults, to focus the lens instead on the child before us? Indeed, it is exactly because we seek to find a place in the shadows that we must first cast some light on ourselves.
Have you ever had a time when you disagreed with a colleague or parent about what was motivating a child’s behavior? One adult attributes a child’s challenging behavior to hunger. Another to mean-spiritedness. One blames the challenge on too much TV. Another on a chemical imbalance. One adult attributes a child’s positive behavior to her gentle spirit. Another to changes that have been made in the classroom. Another to separation from a peer. How can so many educated can look at the same child and see such different things? Is one adult “wrong” and another “right?” Quite simply, we have all been educated in very different ways. Our formal education may have been the same, but the ways in which we make sense of the world are immeasurably different, the result of an indefinable algorithm of parenting, socioeconomic factors, familial influences, early education, inherent traits, and the endless experiences that we have each had since our own childhoods that have confirmed or countered our individual view of the world. Inescapably, we bring that view with us into the classroom. It is reflected in the choices we make as teachers and colleagues and the practices in which we engage with children. In order to understand whether their influence supports or hinders our classrooms, we must first understand the nature of that influence.
“This inescapable duty to observe oneself: if someone else is observing me, naturally I have to observe myself too; if none observe me, I have to observe myself all the closer”- Franz Kafka
Montessori described the need for teachers who are “microscopists,” observing in acute detail all of Nature. In our efforts to focus those microscopes on the needs of the child and the environments around them, we often overlook the microscope itself. Self-observation allows us to recalibrate the microscope. Because we observe children through the lens of our own highly subjective life experiences, we need to take the time to understand how they have affected our view and how they can interfere with our ability to observe with objectivity in our classrooms.
I have argued previously in this publication for the need to establish sound cycles of observation in our classrooms: looking at the child, documenting what we see and reflecting upon it. We engage in observation as a primary and integral part of each day because we understand that the authenticity of the environment depends on it. These same three elements are essential to improving our authenticity as teachers, our internal consistency, our centeredness and our ability, more often than not, to put aside our own experiences in reverence to the unlimited potential of the child. Likewise, we need to offer ourselves the same environment for self-observation as we protect for the child. We must observe professionally, purposefully, systematically, humanely, respectfully when the lens is on the child or on ourselves.
“Knowing others is wisdom; Knowing the
self is enlightenment,” – Lao Tzu
Professional self-observation asks us to focus on how our choices as professionals affect our practice. Purposeful self-observation requires to know what we’re looking for (bias, frequency of certain tasks, etc.) Systematic observation assumes that we will observe regularly and that we will use specific tools to do so. Humane self-observation gives us the forgiveness to learn from what we see and move forward, instead of using our observations to beat ourselves up. Finally, respectful self-observation sets high the standard, encouraging us to take ourselves seriously and to recognize that our own habits and biases are as important to understand as the children’s. “To respect something is to treat it with importance,” says Master Instructor Katherine Wieczerza, 7th Dan Tae Kwon Do. The work that we do each day with children is immeasurably important. Understanding who we are and how who we are changes how we teach is an integral part of that work. Self-observation can benefit our teaching practices, but it can also enhance the deeper understanding of what motivates us as humans, of what drives our work or inspires our joy.
Catherine McTamaney, Ed.D.
Department of Teaching and Learning
Peabody College
Vanderbilt University
Peabody #330
230 Appleton Place
Nashville, Tennessee 37203-5721
Presentation Sue Palmer
“What are our children watching?
The problems of raising children in an electronic village”
Sue Palmer, a former primary head teacher, is an independent writer and consultant on primary education, notably literacy. She has written over 200 books, TV programmes and software packages for children and teachers, and acted as an independent consultant to the DfES, National Literacy Trust, Basic Skills Agency, numerous educational publishers and the BBC. She is well known to primary teachers around the UK for her inservice courses and articles in the educational press, especially the TES and Child Education. Her ‘skeleton books’ for teaching cross-curricular writing are used in over 10,000 UK schools. In 2004, she collaborated with Early Years specialist Ros Bayley to produce Foundations of Literacy, which has just gone into a third edition.
Sue’s best-selling book Toxic Childhood: how modern life is damaging our children… and what we can do about it [Orion 2006] was her first for a more general audience, and helped spark a national debate about the nature of contemporary childhood. It was followed by a ‘self-help’ book for parents, Detoxing Childhood, and she is at present working on The Trouble With Boys: how modern life is driving them off the rails, and how we can get them back on track, for publication in 2009.
Since researching Toxic Childhood she has become actively involved in many campaigns relating to children’s well-being and mental health. With Dr Richard House she was co-author of two open letters to the Daily Telegraph, bringing together hundreds of experts on childhood to raise awareness of the issues. She is regularly consulted by action groups and politicians, has spoken at conferences around the world, and is a patron of the English Speaking Board and the Scottish Pre-School Play Association and Standing Chair of the Scottish Play Commission.
Summary:
‘It takes a village to raise a child.’ Bringing up the next generation has always involved the collaboration of many adults: parents, teachers, others in the local community. But, as well as their real-life environment, today’s children are growing up in the ‘electronic village’ of screen-based entertainment. And the adults who control this village don’t necessarily have children’s best interests at heart.
Around 80% of children now have TVs and other electronic equipment in their bedrooms, and the 2008 Childwise survey of children’s media habits found UK children now spend an average of five hours twenty minutes per day on screen-based activity. This is more-or-less the same amount of time they spend at school. Media moguls and marketing men now have direct access to children’s minds, often by-passing the real-life adults in their lives. Over the last fifteen years, there’s been a huge increase in levels of marketing to children, including very young children. As the president of Kids R Us put it, ‘If you own this child at an early age, you own this child for years to come. Companies are saying, “Hey, I want to own the kid younger and younger.’
This marketing bombardment goes alongside ease of access to media violence, ‘lowest common denominator’ TV and virtual networking systems that are very difficult to police. Adults are unaware of the growing power of these ‘strangers on screen’, but for many children today a media-based ‘culture of cool’ far outweighs the influence of the real-life adults in their lives.
