Early Years Research and Young People

I was asked by an eminent 21st Century thinker Michael Mac, “what kind of education you would like EYs and Primary years to have outside statutory”? I responded with some of my experiences from my University studies as an undergraduate and when my son was only 3 years old. I say this of course based around some concrete experiences and research that I carried out at the time in local schools. For example when I studied my degree in interactive design my son was 3 and I wrote Sydney the 10 x 10 Snake for him as a project. He even got to voice the snake so 1 x 10 = 10 up to 100 etc, the idea being was to teach him to count to 100. One day to my amazement whilst walking him along the sea front at the time he counted to 100 at 3 years old. When he started primary school he had the concept of 100 already and he had to wait patiently whilst his peers negotiated 1 to 10 the very first part of Sydney the 10 x 10 Snake he had learned with me. He went onto a good University was always top set in maths even though the secondary system let him down in some areas. And he achieved a 1st Class degree and I think from a very early start becoming familiar with the concept of number and working with me at 3 helped his progression.

The other overarching study and undergraduate research I carried out in my son’s primary school at the time but with older children aged 5-7 was again via a game to teach this age group Maths over a network.  However whilst I knew what I wanted to achieve I didn’t understand that the kids would teach me and write my game for me which they did. They all had game consoles I think early Nintendo and my game or design was familiar with them so they proceeded to inform me how it should work and play. What this taught me about this age group and it passed onto all levels of state school education I worked in. That being with our age and technology this is their time, the kids time and we do not get anywhere close to a comprehension of how they want to learn or what they want to learn. My conclusion being that as adults from a very distance planet some light years away these kids and today’s kids perceive everything differently and will continue to do so with such a rapid shift in perception along with technology that we cannot fathom how their minds really want to work.

But what is clear by today’s education standards and system especially primary education is that we do not meet this demand or even understand the pedagogical approach and curriculum that is required by today’s young people. This trend will accelerate and the requirements of today’s young people will out accelerate society to a point when no doubt the educational system will collapse or be self serving. We can adapt now and hopefully keep up with the young minds and technology today but if we stick to old outmoded ways of thinking when it comes to pedagogy and schools then we will not only fail young people but also society generally. We have the potential to work with these young people but currently don’t have the collective genius or intelligence to work out how. Again this is due to being time travellers ourselves from some distant planet light years away and we do not fully understand this current breed of humans or what they require in their society.