Using talk to promote children’s thinking and learning in the early years (part 1)

24 October 2024

Lauren Grocott, Early Years Specialist, speaks with Nichola Hesslewood, deputy headteacher of Wingate Nursery School, to discuss their approach to supporting children’s thinking and learning skills.

Lauren Grocott

Interim Content and Engagement Manager: Early Years

Promoting talk about learning

The EEF's Metacognition and Self-Regulated Learning guidance report includes a recommendation to promote metacognitive talk with children. Metacognitive talk includes children’s ability to explain why they have chosen to use a particular approach to do something, and how it’s going.

This can be associated with self-regulated learning or a child’s ability and motivation to choose a suitable approach to tackle a problem, and monitor how well the approach is working, adapting it where required.

In the early years, we can set the stage for self-regulated learning. Research evidence tells us one effective strategy is when educators explicitly model their thinking aloud, while planning and reflecting on their own learning.

Deputy headteacher Nichola, from Wingate Community Nursery School, explains why this is important in her setting:

Children are being supported to think for themselves and to structure their thinking. In order to focus on something and really plan it out and think about it, you need a little bit of structure in your thinking
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Nichola

Deputy headteacher, Wingate Community Nursery School

As adults we are trying to support children’s thinking. So, a big part of that is telling them about our own thinking – what is going on in our heads and how our thought processes are working. Then, we explicitly support children in how they can frame their thinking, how they can manage their own thinking and how they can express that thinking
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Nichola

Deputy headteacher, Wingate Community Nursery School

Context matters

The context in which we help to develop children’s talk about learning is also important. We should include it as part of children’s everyday play and learning, rather than as a standalone activity.

Below, Nichola describes how she used an opportunity to encourage children to talk about their thinking and learning after they discovered a nest of baby birds:

“We were listening to the children, to their ideas and thoughts about these chicks. One of [the children] said they wanted to tell their friend back at the main school site about what they had seen. And I’m saying to them, ‘so how can we do that’? And in my mind, I’m thinking we might draw pictures, write messages and send them back to their other friends at the school site...”
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Nichola

Deputy headteacher, Wingate Community Nursery School

Nichola suggests that having a fixed or ‘correct’ idea about what to do next can result in children “guessing what’s in the teacher’s head”, focusing on finding the correct response, rather than using and developing their thinking and speaking skills.

Once Nichola had used questions to encourage the children to plan for themselves, they explained their own ideas about what they wanted to do next:

“But what [the children] were thinking was ‘We’ll FaceTime [the other group]’, which was actually so much better...there was a lot more learning and excitement and thrill.”
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Nichola

Deputy headteacher, Wingate Community Nursery School

Promoting talk about learning: in action

From Nichola’s example, we might encourage the children to plan the call, by asking them to think about:

  • When they should make the call.
  • Who is going to talk during the call?
  • Where should they place the camera?
  • What do they want to say?

Afterwards, we might help the children to evaluate their learning – how did the call go? Was it the best way to share this exciting news with their friends?

For more inspiration, visit the approach of ‘Promoting Talk about Learning’ in the Self-Regulation and Executive Function theme of the Early Years Evidence Store to watch and read examples of practices we might use to do this.

Want to find out more?

Read ‘The Power of Wondering’ blog, to learn more about the evidence for thinking aloud to support children’s self-regulation and executive function.

Visit the Self-Regulation Strategies strand of the Early Years Toolkit.