Collaboration
is this the vital skill we need to be teaching?
When I was first designing the Original Learning Approach the “interaction” thread was very nearly called the collaboration thread, because I felt that this is a vital skill for all humans to learn. I changed it to interaction, because collaboration is an interaction, but I also wanted interactions with stuff, the world and more to be included.
What is preschools and schools focused on collaboration? That throughout the education system this was the key element of learning and teaching.
After all collaboration requires caring and empathic relationships, trusting environments, good communication and genuine mutual curiosity.
I prefer collaboration over cooperation -because the former means all those who are engaged have equal rights and responsibilities and are contributing - rather than the latter that implies that there is a one person/group deciding and others agree and follow.
So what skills do we need to be able to collaborate?
open-mindedness, communication, organisation, adaptability, active listening, empathy, risk assessment, and time management are some to get started..
of course many of the above require self-regulation.
So how do we start with young children?
I think care has to be central. Caring about ideas, caring about self, caring about others and being cared for. If we, as educators care about the children, their play, their ideas and their interactions with the world we are creating a space where collaboration can happen.
Curiosity (another thread of the Original Learning Approach) has it’s root in care - the latin “cura” - so our care for children includes being curious about them and what they are doing - as well as physical, emotional and social caring - or as Jools Page phrases it - Professional Love.
Being open-minded is an act of caring - we put aside our own agenda to listen to the ideas of others
Communication can be done in caring and not so caring ways - choosing how we communicate is vital for collaboration. How we choose our words, and how we say them, and the body language we use will be mirrored by the children - if our tone and words reflect curiosity, care and collaboration, this will be noticed by the children and tired out by them - but if we communicate in controlling, impatient ways then this will not pave the way for collaboration.
Organisation - how do we organise for collaboration as teachers with young children? I think we need to consider the dynamics of the group, do some children need to practice interactions in smaller groups, or just with an adult in order to understand how to self regulate, how to communicate well etc? Do we organise our space and time-table so that collaborations can flow? Are we allowing play to flow - because this is the first language of collaboration in young children - playing with others - maybe sometimes that will be parallel play, of learning how to play alongside others without interfering in each other’s flow.
Adaptability - how adaptable are we as teachers? not just how much freedom we have from the curriculum to be able to go with the flow of play and learning, but how free are we personally to not have to follow well thought out plans. Do we adapt with ease, or is it hard? How are we creating spaces and experiences that allow the children to practice being adaptable?
Active listening - this is another thread of the Original Learning approach. I think this is a skill that should absolutely be taught in every school. How to genuinely listen to each other. Not to hear facts, but to understand and to be able to participate as equals.
Empathy - bringing us back to care again. I think we are all born with empathy, but we don’t all know how to outwardly show it and some struggle to recognise the emotions of others, this does not mean they don’t empathise. Of course there will be some mental health issues that will lead to a suppression of empathy in situations like sociopaths and psychopaths - but these are extreme cases. Curiosity, listening, reflection, knowledge, interaction, time, imagination are all OLA threads connected to empathy. We don’t necessarily have to teach empathy, but provide the circumstances for it to thrive. I also think that empathy is often considered from a very normative perspective - which leads to sympathy for some rather than empathy. Empathy requires theory of mind, and if this is only being considered from a white, able-bodied, neurotypical, CIS-gendered mind it is highly likely that we are failing to fully empathise. I know as an autistic person that my theory of mind is autistic - and I have a fully functional theory of mind that was very confusing for most of my life (as I was diagnosed as an adult) because I thought everyone would have a similar theory of mind as me - yes different, but not that different. So my diagnosis brought with it the understanding that neurotypicals were not just strange but their ability to think like me was limited. I think this is why I was always able to connect well with the autistic and ADHD children when others struggled, because we naturally shared a theory of mind. Really, we should maybe calling it theory of minds to acknowledge the many different ways we approach the world that the normative concept of theory of mind I feel lacks. (I hope this makes sense)
Risk assessment - most descriptions of skills needed for collaboration include conflict resolution, but I think risk assessment is more pro-active. Besides if we have been working on communication, empathy and listening then our ability to resolve conflicts has been enhanced. What we do need is to not only be able to make risk assessments but to be able to do this together with benefit assessments. Children do this in their play - especially their risky play (which I include more than physical - but also cognitive, social and emotional). So by designing for adventure and for appropriate challenge and excitement we are helping children develop not only their ability to do benefit/risk assessments that can keep themselves and others safe as necessary - but they will also be building their resilience, bravery, competence, self knowledge, autonomy, self confidence and self regulation - all needed for collaboration.
Time management - I actually think this is an important skill to learn throughout life - to be a responsible collaborator we need to be able to manage our own time - do we have the time to do what we have agreed to do as part of the collaboration? Do we need to ask for more time, or more help to ensure it is done without unnecessary stress? I think collaboration should be connected with unhurried (where of course this is not about being slow, but knowing how to organise ourselves to have the enough time to complete the task together - small amounts of stress, and being fats workers are all part of being unhurried - but not a permanent state of stress and hurriedness)
All of the above can be learned through play, and taught in playful ways.
I have always rooted my teaching in togetherness, in “mwe” the me and the we valued equally, in a community of learners that know how to collaborate - because when they do there is more flow - both play and learning flow.
