How to create a community of collaborative learners

30 April 2024

Lauren Grocott, our early years specialist, speaks with childminder Gemma Maclachlan to find out how she implements evidence-based teaching approaches for self-regulation and executive function in her outdoor setting.

Lauren Grocott

Interim Content and Engagement Manager: Early Years

The pandemic has had an undeniable impact on young children’s personal, social and emotional development, including their self-regulation.

As a result, many of us have recognised the need to prioritise building children’s self-regulation and executive functionCognitive skills that enable children to adapt their thinking and actions to achieve a goal. This might be a self-chosen goal (e.g. To build a tower) or set by an adult (e.g. to respond to a question about a story)..

Coming back post Covid, I had a lot of children coming in who hadn’t built relationships, hadn’t been around other children and their speech and language was massively down…I found that I was probably more needed than ever before in the last decade of my work.
EEF logomark

Gemma Machlachlan

Childminder

[The children] needed to be able to work for a shared idea or shared goal…we were able to…set up challenges and realistically achievable goals so they could start working at a deeper level
EEF logomark

Gemma Machlachlan

Childminder

The new Self-Regulation and Executive FunctionCognitive skills that enable children to adapt their thinking and actions to achieve a goal. This might be a self-chosen goal (e.g. To build a tower) or set by an adult (e.g. to respond to a question about a story). theme on the Early Years Evidence Store includes five, evidence-based teaching approaches to support children’s self-regulation and/or executive functionCognitive skills that enable children to adapt their thinking and actions to achieve a goal. This might be a self-chosen goal (e.g. To build a tower) or set by an adult (e.g. to respond to a question about a story)..

The approaches include ‘Creating a Community of Collaborative Learners’, whereby educators help to facilitate children’s cooperative play.

Evidence suggests that creative play, in which educators encourage children to plan and negotiate as they work towards a shared goal, can support some aspects of children’s executive functionCognitive skills that enable children to adapt their thinking and actions to achieve a goal. This might be a self-chosen goal (e.g. To build a tower) or set by an adult (e.g. to respond to a question about a story)..

Collaborative learners in action

To implement this approach, Gemma initially described taking a larger role in scaffolding and supporting children to regulate during collaborative learning, “Two years ago, my preschoolers were in a place where their language was delayed. So, I was doing a lot of the wording and teaching”.

To overcome some of the challenges she experienced in promoting children’s self-regulation and executive function through this approach, Gemma emphasised the importance of “…having to really know the children individually, know where they’re at, and be able to extend on what their existing knowledge is to give them the ability to have a voice.”

She described using the practices of questioning, refocusing, coordinating and signposting to support the children’s self-regulation and executive function. To see these practices in action, visit the approach page on the Evidence Store.

The broader approaches for developing children’s self-regulation and executive function include providing opportunities for them to practise and test out different strategies. In Gemma’s setting, she recognises the importance of creating opportunities for children to plan and reflect on their learning in different contexts: “One of the big things has been to make sure that what we do when we are out, we also do when we are in, so that we’re really cementing that down…It’s linking the outdoor and indoor to cement and solidifying one goal”.

What impact has this had?

“By creating this community…we have a cohort of mixed age ranges where the older children are able to showcase their skills and the younger ones will pick up those skills…bringing new ideas to the table. Not only is it building relationships between my cohort, it’s also just meant that they’re actually inspiring each other.”

“When they are enjoying themselves, they’re committed to the cause.”

If a child gives a suggestion that isn’t taken up by the group, they “will either choose to remove themselves from the group and go and do what they wanted to do, or they will stay with the group…They almost hold the idea so when the opportunity approaches or it opens up for them, they’ll then bring it to the table again”.

To see examples of this approach in action, visit the new Self-Regulation and Executive Function theme in the Early Years Evidence Store.