Fun and Learning Collide – Insights at Journey Carseldine
Have you ever come across Benjamin Franklin’s quote: “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn”? It’s one that I find particularly inspiring, especially in our work of supporting learners.
This week, Krystal Johnston, our Educational Leader at Carseldine, shares a thought-provoking team challenge that took place during their recent L&D session that ignited laughter and profound discussions on children’s behaviour and educator mindsets. Her perspective illuminates how playful experiences can profoundly enrich our learning and refine our approach to early childhood education.
Understanding Behaviour – Centre L&D Session
Our Warm In – Chance to win $20
Educators were challenged to try and take money out of our Centre Manager Billie’s hand. There were 2 rules to this challenge. #1 – You have 5 seconds to get the money. #2 – If you get the money you keep it.
Immediately we had an educator attempt to take the money by force, an educator with a veiled threat ‘you have 3 seconds to give me the money’ and the last educator who approached asked Billie “Can I have the money?” This educator won the $20.
Noticing’s: “Brit was the only one to ask for the money.”
We used this experience to highlight that when we get excited about something, or we get told there are only 2 rules, just like children, adults can forget to transfer the ‘general’ rules such as we don’t take things out of others hands, or communicate using force, so why do we expect children under 4 years old to always ‘use their words’ when engaging in social interactions.
We explored and deep dived into children’s behaviours and how children’s brains process and connect information through genuine experiences. We reflected on how Educator mindsets impact these experiences and explored what this might look like in a negative and positive lens. Our team discussed current challenges they are experiencing and together we collaborated about ways we can shift our mindsets and intention to continue to create quality outcomes for children.
This L&D has contributed to noticing a difference in the way we understand and look into children’s behaviour especially with the reminder that we know as adults, we have the same tendencies to lose ourselves to our emotions, to struggle with noise/lights/spontaneous changes to routines – we shouldn’t be expecting children to learn these skills on their first attempt.
From here, we will be continuing to reflect upon our mindsets and how they contribute to our image of the child and the child’s own image of themselves and engage in further reflective conversations surrounding current practice and ways our environments can support us in engaging and building children’s capabilities and knowledge pathways.
