Introduction to Contexts of Learning

Throughout this blog i will look at different contexts of learning and explain what each contexts entails. The four contexts I will post about will be:

1. Forest schools
2. Home Education
3. The Foundation Phase
4. Montessori Education 

I will also give my opinions on these contexts and will include pictures to give you an understanding of the context I will be posting about. I will also include videos where applicable to give you more of an understanding of the context.

References

Reference List :

Department for children, schools and families (2007) Elective Home Education; pages: 3-10 Available Internet: 
http://www.educationotherwise.net/attachments/article/125/Elective%20Home%20Education%20-%20Guidelines%20for%20LAs.pdf

Forest Schools Education (2014) What happens at a forest school Available internet: 
http://www.forestschools.com/what-happens-at-a-forest-school/

Forest School Wales (2014) Early years and primary at Forest School; WAG: The Foundation Phase Available internet:
http://www.forestschoolwales.org.uk/ysgol-goedwigforest-school/early-years-primary/

Montessoriconnections (2014) Goals of a Montessori School Available internet: http://montessoriconnections.com/about-montessori-education/goals-of-a-montessori-school/

Montessori Schools Association (2008) Guide to the early years foundation stage in Montessori settings; Available internet: http://www.montessori.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/50582/guide-to-early-years.pdf

ICME (2001) The Montessori Method Available internet: http://www.montessori-icme.com/method.html#curriculum

St.Andrew's Montessori  (2011) Discovering Montesssori Methodology; Introducing Maria Montessori Available Internet: http://www.saintandrewsmontessori.com/discovering-montessori-methodology/

WalesOnline (2012) Home schooling in Wales becoming popular choice for parents Available internet: http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/home-schooling-wales-becoming-popular-2026672

Welsh Government (2012) Seven Areas of Learning Available internet: http://wales.gov.uk/topics/educationandskills/earlyyearshome/foundation_phase/parentscarers/childlearn/sevenareas/?lang=en

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAR_OTMxNOs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Djz82FBYiug

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcgN0lEh5IA

Forest schools

Forest schools provide Local Authority Schools to take the children outside to learn. This is a target for schools as it is part of the Foundation Phase Curriculum. Forest schools are woodland areas where the children are taken from school and encouraged to explore and play outside. According to forestschoolwales.org.uk "current experience of forest school with nursery children is showing increased self-confidence in the children".

Children in a shelter they have created
Image Reference: http://out2playbristol.wordpress.com/category/forest-school/

Many activities are available at forest schools and there are activities such as building shelters that work on teamwork with the children but also activities that enhance an indivdual child's skills such as lighting fires and tool skills. Also after every session the children will each take something to encourage interest in their parents. This allows them to reflect on what they have done throughout the day and involve their parents in their learning of the outdoors (www.forestschools.com, 2014).

The benefits to forest school are that the children can experience the outdoors first hand they are not in a classroom watching videos of what they could do outdoors. They can gain valuable skills from the experience such as how to work as part of a group and develop an understanding of nature and how they can effect it.

In my opinion if children are being taught to build shelters and fires in the forest they could try this unattended if they are living close to a forest, or even in their garden and wont understand why they are aloud to to it when they are taken to a forest but not when they are in the forest without friends and a teacher from school.

Home Schooling

According to walesonline.co.uk (2012) in recent years the number of students being home schooled has risen significantly. According to this article it states that according the Welsh Government 986 pupils were taken out of local authority schools to be home schooled instead.

Home Education is also known as Elective Home Education. The 1996 Education Act stated that "The parent of every child of compulsory school age shall cause him to receive efficient full-time education suitable-

a. To his age, ability and aptitude

b. To any special educational needs he may have 

either by regular attendance at school or otherwise." (Department for children,schools and families, 2007).

There are some regulations regarding Home Education. These are;

• Parents can educate their children at home from a very early age.
• Parents are not required to register or seek approval from the LEA.
• Parents must assume full financial responsibility.
• Local Authorities are encouraged to provide support where resources permit.

The article "Elective Home Education" by the department for children,schools and families also provides reasons for elective home education. These include;

• Distance or access to a local school
• Religious or cultural beliefs
• Dissatisfaction with the system
• Bullying
• Special educational needs
• A child's unwillingness or inability to go to school
• Parents desire for a closer relationship with their children.

I believe that if the child is able to attend school then keeping the child home and effectively "Home-schooling" the child is isolating them from the social environment of school. From my experience when beginning secondary education, there is a large opportunity to make new friends and most social activities that involve meeting outside of school are planned and arranged during school breaks. I believe therefore to be home-schooled would deprive a child of other experiences and he/she might not have an opportunity to have as many friends as they would if they attended school.

Although i do believe home-schooling would provide the child with many extra abilities. A home-schooled child could volunteer somewhere that he/she finds interesting and could develop their knowledge in a topic that suits them and could have many more experiential opportunities than their friends at school. This could possibly lead to a well-paid job opportunity.

Another fact that I was shocked by when researching Elective Home Schooling was the list of things that a parent did not have to do when home educating their child. Some points included;

• Teaching the national curriculum
• Have a timetable
• Give formal lessons
• Mark work by their child
• Set hours during which education will take place
• Provide a broad and balanced education. (Department for children, schools and families, 2007)

In conclusion I believe that Elective Home Education could benefit the child in some way, but I do not believe this to be better than Local Authority Schooling. When a child is at school they learn many different academic subjects but also have the opportunities for extra-curricula activities and can socialise effectively with other pupils.

The Foundation Phase

Much like the Montessori approach to education, the Foundation Phase encourages children to learn through play. Their curriculum's are very similar as the Welsh Government adopted some of Montessori's ideas. The Foundation Phase curriculum consists of;

• Personal and Social development; well-being and cultural diversity.
• Language, Literacy and Communication skills.
• Mathematical Development
• Welsh Language Development
• Knowledge and Understanding of the world
• Physical Development
• Creative Development (wales.gov.uk,2012)

The Foundation Phase curriculum is very much centred around play. This curriculum shows that children learn best through experiences. From my experience of working in a Foundation Phase setting, I see play as a tool for learning continuously. The benefits of the Foundation Phase in my opinion are that children are enjoying learning and sometimes not even realising that they are learning. Of course I also believe there are disadvantages to this curriculum as many children will believe they are just playing and not take interest in what they are supposed be learning.

Children Investigating and learning through experience
Image reference:http://www.walesonline.co.uk, 2011

The role of the teacher in the Foundation Phase is to ensure that all children's opinions are valued in the classroom. They also act as observers and have to document the progress of each child. They also ensure that the children are encouraged to give their opinions and to explain their thoughts.

According to the Welsh Government (2012), the curriculum focuses on experiential learning, active involvement and developing children's;

• Skills and understanding 
• Personal, Social, Emotional, Physical and intellectual well-being so as to develop the whole child.
• Positive attitudes to learning so that they enjoy it and want to continue.
• Self-esteem and self-confidence to experiment, investigate, learn new things and form relationships.

From working at a school that teaches the Foundation Phase it is clear to see how learning is influenced by play and how the students are actively involved in their own personal education. For example, I was in placement and the children were being taught a poem about a policeman ready for a visit from a policeman in a couple of days. They learnt the poem through acting out what the poem described and were very involved. They were asked as a class for suggestions on how they believed the best way to learn the poem would be. There were many suggestions such as singing it, having a certain amount of children dress as policemen and many more. Previous to the Foundation Phase, I doubt this would have happened. The children would have been told the poem repeatedly and would not have been asked for their suggestions on how they would like to learn the poem. 

I believe this gives the children an impact on their own learning. Obviously these activities are overseen by the practitioner/teacher. I believe this makes the learning experience more enjoyable for the students and that it could encourage them to do well at school and possibly aim to go on to further education in the future. 


The disadvantages to the Foundation Phase in my opinion are similar to the ones of Montessori education. If the child has no interest in taking part it could affect their education as a whole, and I believe although the teacher/practitioner ensures every child develops at a good pace, that if a child does not enjoy the hands-on approach to learning and would rather be doing things through workbooks and learning through reading and writing more than physically learning it will be less beneficial for them.

Montessori Education

Maria Montessori was born in Italy in 1870. Montessori was the first Italian woman to qualify as a physician. She became interested in children's learning disabilities and studied the topic in great detail. In 1906 she began to work with 60 young children who belonged to working parents on the renowned slum of San Lorenzo. Maria Montessori was given one room in a large run-down building, with no equipment or food. It was in this building she founded the first Children's House (Casa dei Bambini). All of Montessori's ideas on children's learning came from her observations on these children, and what they were able to achieve without any assistance from adults (St.Andrew's Montessori, 2014).

Maria Montessori
Picture Reference: http://www.noteablebiographies.com/Mo-Ni/Montessori-Maria.html

The main purpose of a Montessori school is to allow children to be in a stimulating environment. It allows children to develop an excellent ability to learn creatively. The learning programme of a Montessori school is based on the children having independence in their education and being thoroughly involved in their own learning (montessoriconnections.com, 2014) . The Montessori education system consists of six areas of learning. These are; 

• Practical Life
• Refinement of the senses
• Communication, Language and Literacy 
• Mathematics
• Cultural aspects/ Knowledge and understanding of the world
• Creativity

(www.montessori-icme.com, 2014)

Practical life involves the children of the Montessori school developing fine motor skills and a very good standard of hand-eye co-ordination and balance through participating in practical life activities. They also participate in outdoor activities, dance and gymnastics, creative activities, health awareness and any activities that promote the flow and movement of a child through diverse and challenging environments.(www.montessori.org.uk, 2008)

Communication, Language and literacy allows the children of Montessori school have more opportunities for dialogue compared to those in community schools. Involves story-telling and literacy activities, which eventually leads to the ability to write. An important factor in this area is pre-literacy skills with strong emphasis on phonics. Phonics are the pronunciations of letters individually and sometimes two letters together.(www.montessori.org.uk, 2008) My placement is not in a Montessori school although this idea is included in the Foundation Phase. When learning the phonics which the children refer to as "the jolly phonics" they are incorporated into songs, in order for the children to remember how to pronounce the letter/s correctly. For example when learning the letter "A" they sing about ants on their arm. The song uses three different words beginning with the letter "A" in the song so that the children have an idea of how to pronounce the letter. The children also have an action associated with each song which makes it more fun for them as well as making it easier for them to remember the sound of the letter. Below is a video of "the jolly phonics" that I spoke about.

These are just two of the areas of learning that Montessori developed. From the two I have described and from my research I believe that learning through the Montessori approach it prepares children for the skills and challenges of practical life. It is also effective in stimulating their senses. The positives of learning through play are that the children develop their own understanding of the things around them. They are not influenced by the beliefs of the teachers or practitioners. They are more engaged with their learning and therefore are more comfortable and less pressured into learning. They can learn and enjoy learning in this setting. 

Although I believe some children may need more motivation than others. Some children might find learning easier when told what to do, and learn better through instruction. I find this one of only a few downfalls to Montessori education. The other negative of Montessori education is that if for any reason a child had to move location to somewhere where there was not a Montessori school I believe they would struggle to adjust to the education system of the majority of schools of the UK, as it does not involve the child in their own education, especially at Secondary education level.

Below is a video of a animated description of how Montessori Education differs from a convention Community school.