How did your approach to nature-based and inquiry-based learning begin?
At the beginning of my teaching career, I was working in an area of significant and multiple deprivations and found that the creativity and challenge of being outside, combined with engaging children in decision making, were the most effective strategies I used to support learning.
What’s the funniest interaction you have had where children have shaped your thinking?
It was a child’s response to a rather dull series of repeated adult questions – linked to a Talking Tub relating to the culture of Scotland. After repeated questions of, “What is this?” the third child asked if the adult could hear, as the two children before him had already said it was a Loch Ness Monster!
It has stayed in my mind as a reminder to always think about what you do and be humble to accept feedback from children!
Why are Floorbooks® such a useful tool for capturing children’s voices and ideas?
They are a hub for many forms of documentation, that in turn create a place that holds the memories of a learning journey, where children and adults have collaborated in an inquiry. It truly is planning with and for children, so the pressure of time for adults is more balanced.
The key is to be with children, not doing too much repeated paperwork.
What’s one small habit or ritual that keeps you inspired in your work with children?
The ritual of being with them – to be aware. I work consistently in a few centres in Scotland and it’s important to understand the situations children and centres face today, rather than when it began 40 years ago.
Fortunately, Floorbooks have stood the test of all that time, as they respond to children’s voices and theories of the world around them, even when that world is changing.
If early childhood educators take away one key idea from your work, what would it be?
To be the one to notice. Notice comes from the Latin word notitia, meaning a knowing, being known, and when we achieve that, we may be lucky enough to share in all the complexities of what children explore and think every day. Documenting that in a Floorbook is the easy part!
About Claire Warden
Dr Claire Warden is an educational consultant who has developed her approach to nature pedagogy and experiential learning through a variety of experiences. Her experiences have taken her on a pathway that includes working in a variety of types of centre, advisory work, and lecturing in further education.
