First-hand experience: what matters to children
An alphabet of learning from the real world
by Diane Rich, Mary Jane Drummond, Cathy Myer with Annabelle Dixon
| Authors The authors are experienced and respected education consultants. They have come together to work on a variety of projects for many years, and have always been committed to promoting what matters to children. Diane Rich has been involved in children’s learning for many years, as play worker, teacher, advisory teacher, researcher, consultant, author, trustee for children’s charities. She co-ordinated the work of the What Matters to Children team from 2005-2013. Diane recently worked as a visiting lecturer at the University of Roehampton. She continues to work as a freelance consultant and runs Rich Learning Opportunities: keeping creativity, play and first-hand experience at the heart of children’s learning. Mary Jane Drummond is a writer and researcher with an abiding interest in young children’s learning. Before retiring she worked for many years at the University of Cambridge, Faculty of Education. Cathy Myer has been a teacher, advisory teacher, university lecturer and freelance education consultant. Although now retired, Cathy remains passionate about children and their capacity to learn from their experiences of the real world. Annabelle Dixon (1940-2005) Annabelle’s classroom was, in the words of a friend, ‘a place of genuine intellectual search.’ As psychologist and teacher she is committed to offering first hand experiences to children as the essential basis for such a search. Denise Casanova and Andrea Durrant were co-authors of the 2005 edition of First hand experience: what matters to children. |
| BOOK DEDICATION The authors dedicate the 2005 and 2014 editions of ‘First-hand experience: what matters to children’ to our dear friend and colleague Annabelle Dixon (1940-2005) in memory of her work with children and adult educators |
What is this book?
This new revised 2014 edition is for all teachers, and other educators of children from birth to 11, who seek to provide a curriculum, built on real, worthwhile experiences. It aims to support educators in thinking more deeply about children’s active learning, stimulated by high quality first-hand experiences. Each page has been developed as a springboard from which young and primary aged children, teachers and other educators can launch themselves into the mysterious and physical world in which we all live. With foreword by Sir Tim Smit.
Part one
• outlines the structure of the book
• explores the authors’ analysis of what matters to children
• examines the theoretical underpinnings of the work on which it is based
• describes how to use the book.
Part two has pages of different kinds:
• alphabet pages- which include the key elements: what matters to children, verbs and nouns as metaphors for children’s learning, big ideas, questions worth asking and books for children an adults
• learning stories- offered by educators who are committed to promoting first-hand experience with children
• alternative alphabet pages- which explore: active learning, important kinds of knowledge, the characteristics of worthwhile looking and listening, the characteristics of questions that stimulate children’s enquiries, important kinds of thinking that are stimulated by first-hand experience, and children as experts on the subject of their own learning.
• The book ends with an outline of the principles that are the basis of the authors’ work and gives warm encouragement for educators to build on their experiences of using the book to continue to act as critically aware, observant, reflective and inventive supporters of children’s learning offering them countless first-hand experiences to feed their insatiable appetite for the world.
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