Sustained Shared Thinking - Practical Pre-School Books

Books
Using projects to promote
sustained shared thinking
by Marianne Sargent - Author of The Project Approach in Early Years Provision
The Early Years Foundation Stage pledges a commitment
to promote creativity and critical thinking and outlines
specific requirements in relation to creating a learning
environment that fosters sustained shared thinking:
• Practitioners support and challenge children’s thinking
by getting involved in the thinking process
• Adults are aware of children’s interests and understandings
• Adults and children work together to develop ideas
and skills
• Need responsive trusting relationships
• Adults show genuine interest, offer encouragement,
clarify ideas and ask open questions to support and
extend children’s thinking and help make connections.
(Principles into Practice Card 4.3)
What is sustained shared thinking
Recent influential research projects including the Effective
Provision in Preschool Education (EPPE) and Researching Effective
Pedagogy in the Early Years (REPEY) underline the importance of
social interaction in young children’s learning and development.
The studies highlight the role of the practitioner as collaborator,
finding that positive outcomes “are closely associated with adultchild
interactions … that involve some element of sustained shared
thinking” (Siraj-Blatchford and Sylva, 2004, p.720).
Sustained shared thinking is the means by which practitioners
nurture and develop children’s critical thinking skills. It involves
seeking out opportunities to build upon the children’s interests
and challenging them to indulge in a deeper thought process:
“Sustained shared thinking occurs when two or more
individuals ‘work together’ in an intellectual way to solve
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Using projects to promote sustained shared thinking by Marianne Sargent - Author of The Project Approach in Early Years Provision

a problem, clarify a concept, evaluate an activity, extend a
narrative etc. Both parties must contribute to the thinking
and it must develop and extend the understanding.”
(Siraj-Blatchford et al, 2004, p.vi).
Sustained shared thinking is a key approach in helping children
to become life-long learners with transferable skills. Children
who have the ability to enquire, consider, reflect, reason,
predict, evaluate and suggest creative solutions, will be better
equipped to succeed in a world where a job is no longer for life;
careers are constantly evolving, demanding adaptability and a
flexible approach. Thinking skills and sustained individual and
creative thought must be introduced early in order for children
to develop as learners and thrive in the future.
What is the project approach
Early years practitioners will be familiar with the use of topics
and themes when planning in early education. It is common
practice to choose a new topic each half term and plan subjectrelated
activities around the theme of animals or seasons. The
chosen topic is used to create commonality between curriculum
areas and allows children to gain some basic knowledge about
the focus subject matter.
The project approach involves planning to exploit an area of
interest – which may stem from a topic – and using it as a basis
for in-depth enquiry or research. Areas of learning are not
simply linked by a theme, they are integrated as a result of the
investigative process. Knowledge and skills are not taught in
isolation, but rather acquired and practised within a meaningful
context that makes sense to the children. For example,
practitioners may plan a farm topic that aims to inform children
about the various animals and foods that are bred and cultivated
on a farm. In addition to this, practitioners might plan a range
of farm themed activities aimed at teaching children skills in
mathematics and literacy. For example, counting eggs produced
by chickens or reading farm themed stories. In contrast, a
project stemming from a provoking farm visit might be planned
in response to the children’s interest in tractors. The children
may be given the opportunity to investigate a real tractor and
see a farmer demonstrate how it moves and works. This could
lead to any number of different activities that incidentally cover
a number of areas of learning. For example, the children may
choose to draw pictures of tractors and label the different parts;
they might create models of tractors with moving parts; or they
might experiment with using tractors to dig sand, transport the
sand, and fill containers. This could lead to an investigation into
the purpose and use of tractors in the sand pit.
Projects stem from the interests of the children and are
planned or developed in collaboration with them. This is in
contrast to topics that might have initially been suggested by
the children but are ultimately planned and developed by
adults to meet predetermined curriculum objectives.
A project is started with an initial provocation that triggers
conversation and debate. A provocation could be:
• An event, e.g. a visit to the dentist or a village fête;
• A question such as “why do pine cones open and close”
or “how does a bicycle work”;
• A picture, e.g. a famous artwork or a photograph of a puppet
misbehaving;
• An object, e.g. a tractor wheel or a foreign fruit.
After the children have had some time to explore this
provocation or trigger, they are gathered together to share their
experiences and think about what they would like to find out or
do next. The children’s questions and ideas are recorded and
practitioners meet together to discuss and use these suggestions
as a basis for planning the project. Practitioners then set up
various resources around the setting that will help facilitate
the children’s explorations. The children might investigate
individually, in groups, or as a class and practitioners work
alongside them to help develop and extend their ideas.
The book, The Project Approach in Early Years Provision, explains
how to plan and carry out a project and provides several case
studies as examples. These include, planting a fake cocoon
in a reception classroom to build on the children’s interest
in butterflies; hiding a popular puppet, prompting a missing
person’s investigation; and an alternative idea for encouraging
nursery children to investigate freezing and melting.
In her recent review of the EYFS Dame Tickell (2011)
underlines the importance of active learning, and in
particular playing and exploring. She explains that children
learn through active investigation and it is through such
concrete learning experiences that children have the
opportunity to develop creative and critical thinking skills.
How do projects promote the use of
thinking skills
In order to learn critical thinking skills children need to be
given the opportunity to immerse themselves in a deeper
thought process with the help of skilled practitioners:
“All of us have the ability to think creatively, but the extent to
which we do will probably be highly dependent on the quality of
our earliest experiences … With the right stimulus and support
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Using projects to promote sustained shared thinking by Marianne Sargent - Author of The Project Approach in Early Years Provision

all children can learn to think in ways that enable them
to solve problems, be inventive and make discoveries…”
(Bayley and Broadbent, 2002, p.i).
Project work promotes the use of creative and critical thinking
skills in the following ways:
Information processing skills
Information-processing skills enable children to gather and
use information.
When first encountering a provocation, the children process
what they are seeing and begin to analyse the information
they gather through their explorations. As the project
develops they may be required to classify information, look
for connections and apply their newly gained knowledge to a
variety of situations.
Reasoning skills
Reasoning skills enable children to use logic; make connections;
give reasons for opinions and explain actions; and make
informed judgements and decisions.
Project work involves constant discussion and debate.
Throughout a project the children are frequently asked to
share their ideas and opinions with each other, as well as with
practitioners. Practitioners use open questioning to encourage
children to draw on their knowledge and experience and
provide reasons and explanations.
Enquiry skills
Enquiry skills enable children to ask relevant questions; plan
what to do; and speculate upon and predict outcomes.
Although young children are naturally inquisitive they often
have difficulty formulating questions in order to gather the
information they require. Charlesworth (2005) suggests that
children should be encouraged to ask questions in order
to develop their enquiry skills, but that they first need to
understand what questions are for and how they are formed.
Projects provide plenty of opportunity for children to practice
these skills.
Creative thinking and problem solving skills
Creative thinking and problem solving skills enable children
to come up with ideas and suggestions and to use their
imagination to think of creative solutions.
The aim of project work is to find out more about something.
Children are not judged on performance or whether they get it
right or wrong. Without such pressures, the children are more
likely to consider problems and look for possible solutions,
which will eventually lead them to learn skills such as preempting
likely obstacles and creatively planning around them.
Evaluation skills
Evaluation skills enable children to reflect, recall and evaluate
information in order to formulate opinions.
Throughout the life of a project the children are asked to pause
and reflect. Practitioners share photographic observations and
film footage of the children involved in their investigations,
and encourage them to recall what they learned. At the end of
a project the children are presented with a display or learning
story so that they can further reflect upon the project as a whole.
Fantasising and imagining skills
These skills enable children to suspend their disbelief and
think imaginatively.
According to Rattigan (2008) young children need such
opportunities in order to develop their lateral thinking skills
and personal creativity. Clarke explains that creative thinking
“enables the learner to look for alternatives, not always
accepting the first answer” (2007, p.12). In order to help
children achieve this higher level of cognition, they should be
exposed to open-ended experiences and encouraged to offer
ideas. Setting up an imaginative provocation that leads to an
interesting project is an ideal way of encouraging children to
indulge in a fantasy and use creative thought.
The Project Approach in Early Years Provision provides a detailed
example of how a project about a missing puppet was used to
develop the creative and critical thinking skills of a class of
reception children.
How can practitioners help children to use
these skills
Projects provide an ideal arena for promoting thinking skills.
Children are engaged in investigations that perpetuate their
interests and absorb them in ongoing open-ended activities. This
gives practitioners ample opportunity to become involved in the
children’s thought processes by introducing lines of questioning
and enquiry. However, providing the guidance the children
need to develop their investigative and critical thinking skills
is a difficult task. Rinaldi highlights the difficulties that early
years practitioners face in terms of gauging when and how to
intervene and scaffold children’s learning:
“The challenge for the teacher is to be present without being intrusive,
in order to best sustain cognitive and social dynamics while they
are in progress. At times the adult must foster productive conflict by
challenging the responses of one or several children. At other times,
the adult must step in to revive a situation where children are losing
interest because the cognitive map that is being constructed is either
beyond or beneath the child’s present capabilities. The teacher always
remains an attentive observer…” (Rinaldi, 1998, p.119).
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Using projects to promote sustained shared thinking by Marianne Sargent - Author of The Project Approach in Early Years Provision

Helm and Katz (2001) explain that rather than give children
information, practitioners should give them time and space
to obtain it for themselves. Practitioners can help with this by
facilitating discussion, encouraging children to talk together
and ask questions of each other as well as adults. This involves
asking open questions, a difficult skill that takes time and
practice to develop. For examples of open questions, see the
prompt card on an investigation area below. It can be made
easier by including question ideas on planning and observation
documents. It is also a good idea to display reminders around
the learning environment that will serve as prompts for all
practitioners. This can be done in the following ways:
Display open questions both inside and outside
These serve as prompts for practitioners who are seeking to
develop a conversation with a child in order to help further
their thinking. The questions are intended to act as inspiration
for practitioners, who need only glance up for a moment to
get an idea about what to ask next. They also serve as useful
prompts for additional adults such as students, parents and
support staff, who might be new to the setting.
Create sustained shared thinking cards
It is also helpful to display cards that promote sustained
shared thinking in each area of provision within the setting.
These cards have suggestions for open-ended questions and
useful key words that can be introduced into conversation. In
addition, the cards might highlight where such activities fit
into the curriculum.
Set up informative displays
Informative displays set at the children’s eye level are also an
effective way to prompt discussion. Such displays might feature
posters or photographs with snippets of information and questions
about the project theme. These displays can be used to provide
information and stimulate conversation about a subject. Helm
and Katz (2001) suggest also mounting children’s questions for
investigation in the relevant areas of provision around the setting.
Reflect with the children
Display photographs of the children taken while they were
involved in their investigations. These photographs can be
captioned with questions or observation notes and quotations
An example of a sustained shared thinking card for the investigation area
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Using projects to promote sustained shared thinking by Marianne Sargent - Author of The Project Approach in Early Years Provision

taken from the children. Practitioners can use these to help
the children talk about their investigations and reflect upon
what they have been doing. In addition, children can be
involved in setting up displays that show others what they
have learned.
Conclusion
This mini-guide has briefly demonstrated how projects can be
used to promote the development of children’s creative and
critical thinking skills. Setting up imaginative provocations is not
only interesting and exciting for practitioners, but also a fun way of
motivating young children to use and develop the most important
skills they will need for their futures as life-long learners.
References
The article is written by Marianne
Sargent, author of The Project
Approach in Early Years
Provision. This book covers:
• How to set up a project
in your setting
• An overview of how
projects can help deliver
the aims of the EYFS,
Foundation Phase,
Curriculum for Excellence
and Northern Ireland curriculum
• Examples of projects, and planning and
observation resources
SAVE
10%
Bayley R, Broadbent L (2002) Helping Young Children to Think
Creatively. Lawrence Educational Publications, Walsall
Charlesworth V (2005) Critical Skills in the Early Years. Network
Educational Press, Stafford
Clarke J (2007) Sustaining Shared Thinking. Featherstone
Education, Lutterworth
Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) (2007)
The Early Years Foundation Stage: Principles into Practice Cards.
DCSF Publications, Nottingham
Helm JH, Katz L (2001) Young Investigators: The Project Approach
in the Early Years. Teachers College Press, New York
Rattigan M (2008) Imagine the difference. Early Years Educator.
9(9): viii-ix
Rinaldi C (1998) Projected curriculum constructed through
documentation – Progettazione. In: Edwards C, Gandini L,
Forman, G, eds, The Hundred Languages of Children. 2nd edn.
Ablex Publishing, USA
Siraj-Blatchford I, Sylva K (2004) Researching pedagogy in
English pre-schools. British Educational Research Journal 30(5):
713-730
Siraj-Blatchford I, Sylva K, Melhuish E et al (2004) EPPE:
Final Report. DfES and Institute of Education, University of
London, London
Tickell C (2011) The Tickell Review: The Early Years: Foundations
for life, health and learning. HMSO, London. Available from:
http://www.education.gov.uk/tickellreview
• Training resources on a CD-Rom designed to explain
the approach to others
• Adaptable resources to encourage sustained shared
thinking in the setting
Marianne Sargent is an early education specialist and writer,
having written several books for Featherstone Education,
as well as regular articles for Nursery World and Early Years
Educator. Marianne holds an MA in Early Years Education
and has worked as a lecturer in primary and early years
education. She is also a qualified teacher, having taught in
a range of nurseries and reception classes.
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© MA Education Ltd 2011
Front cover image © MA Education Ltd.
Photo taken by Ben Suri
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5 Using projects to promote sustained shared thinking by Marianne Sargent - Author of The Project Approach in Early Years Provision