Part One: Teaching Colours in the Early Years

I recently saw a very interesting post online, where someone was asking for support for how do we teach children colours in the early years? Which spiralled into a very lengthy discussions about what we mean by the word teach, but also whether children should be taught their colours and how do we fully embrace this. I watched this conversation online unfold, quietly, as I saw some strong opinions and ideas coming through and this was something that I wanted to talk about in a more constructive way. As naturally, this conversation got me thinking, it sparked a consideration for me on two topics, what do we mean when we say “teaching” in our early years setting?

As well as the how do children learn and develop their knowledge of colours through our curriculum? This will look different across all settings as we are unique, we are different, but also, we have our curriculum and what we want children to learn in the early years. To me on a personal level, colour exploration has always been a part of my curriculum and what children develop a knowledge off over the time that they are with me. Mainly because children are naturally curious about exploring mixing colours, I mean how many times do they make a lovely icky brown out of all your bright beautiful colours?

What do we mean by ‘teaching’ in early years settings?

So, let’s unpack to begin with what are we defining as teaching in the early years. I think the confusion about what teaching is perceived like or thought of is muddied by those traditional views of teaching. Where a more knowledgeable adult, imparts information and knowledge and children sponge it up, and repeat what they have been told. Where in traditional method of teaching the teacher or educator is seen as powerful over the learning environment.

However, our view of teaching in the early years is different to this. We understand that in teaching we are collaborators with the children, we join to share that information. This is underpinned by the theoretical ideas such as Vygotsky, who talks about the zone of proximal development. The zone of proximal development is the concept that the learner alongside a more experienced peer (this does not have to be an adult), has a higher level of potential for learning and development, through engagement with one another. This is through careful interactions, scaffolding, and collaboration with one another.

The early years foundation stage refers to how high-quality settings engage in what is referred to as sustained shared thinking. Siraj Blatchford and colleagues defined sustained shared thinking as “An episode in which two or more individuals ‘work together’ in an intellectual way to solve a problem, clarify a concept, evaluate activities, extend a narrative etc. Both parties must contribute to the thinking and it must develop and extend.” (REPEY, 2002) This was part of the EPPE and REPEY study that looked at what was high quality teaching in the early years.

In my mind this is what teaching is in the early years, tuning into the individual children’s interests, developmental needs, our interactions, and positive relationships that allow us to collaborate with the children as they learn and develop. One that is built upon neutral respect and ownership. An environment that encourages curiosity and children to ask open ended questions and work together to learn and solve problems. This is us teaching the children and we shouldn’t under value what we do in an early year setting, just because we do or do not have the word teacher before our name. Because we are all teaching the very foundations to children’s learning.

Join us for part two of this blog next week that will look at how do children learn and develop their knowledge of colours through our curriculum.