Who is chris athey

She was ahead of her time in wanting to understand the learning process in young children. Many of us are proud to know and work with her. Who is Chris Athey? What has Chris Athey contributed to the field of early childhood education and care?

What are Chris Athey's key messages? Chris consistently communicates the same messages: Early education is important in its own right and not just as a preparation for later learning. Children bring their cognitive concerns or current schematic concerns to the learning situation. It is the task of the teacher to 'seriously consider what the child brings to the learning situation, as well as what he or she wishes to transmit' Extending Thought in Young Children, p The constructivist approach is 'bottom up'.

It provides a 'can do' approach to early learning. Parents and professionals need shared experiences in order to work together for the benefit of children 'Nothing gets under a parent's skin more quickly and more permanently than the illumination of his or her own child's behaviour' Extending Thought, p How does Chris Athey's work influence practice in early years settings?

Paul Chapman, London. In east London, for example, she taught a class of 60 5-year-olds - "seemingly seasoned thugs", she called them - with almost no resources. However, she resolved not to bully her pupils into submission: she wanted to observe them and meet their needs. Working with parents, she believed, was a vital part of early-years education. She wanted to help parents to understand learning as it happened before them. Indeed, she had an immediate rapport with the families she worked with, and could explain complicated ideas without patronising them.

Consistently, she knew what she wanted and went for it. During the s, she rented a room in a house owned by a prostitute. On one occasion, her landlady called her up, saying that she had been trapped by a client. Miss Athey revved up her scooter and carried the woman, pillion, to safety.

She was later invited to join the staff of Ibstock Place, the school linked to the Froebel Educational Institute, in Roehampton. After completing the Froebel training diploma, she took a master's of education degree at the University of Leicester. In , when Froebel set up an early-education research project, Miss Athey was appointed its director.

The aim was to look at the ways in which young children acquire knowledge, both at home and in school, and to develop projects to help those from disadvantaged backgrounds. The accepted idea was that children flitted randomly from one activity to another. He was furthering his understanding of a range of concepts, including variation in size one end of the carrot is fat and one end is thin , width the carrot will only fit through the gap in the oven length-ways and not sideways , length the carrot increases in size along its length and orientation the carrot will only fit through the gap if I turn it around and put the thin end in first.

The challenge for practitioners and parents is to take heed and recognise what is contained in the fine detail of what children do, what they make or what they say. These likenesses, patterns or resembling actions become visible if we pay close attention to what children are doing in their play. If we take time to observe with meticulous focus and attend to children with genuine regard, then our understanding of their particular interests can be further secured.

Several patterns of behaviour schemas were identified by Chris Athey as part of the Froebel Early Education Project, which analysed over 5, observations of 20 children aged two to five years, taken over a period of two years.

I will look at a number of schemas over the course of this series, but it is on the latter we will focus this time. What follow are observations of them immersed in their play showing developments in, and revealing the holistic nature of, their thinking as they pursued their containing and enveloping schema…. I observed Annie engaged in a series of actions: from climbing inside spaces, placing her hands under water and into yoghurt pots, to placing a ball into an egg cup and emptying slices of banana from snack bowls and dropping them back in again.

At eight months old she investigated a basket, examining it carefully, turning it over and fixing her gaze on her hand as it explored inside. At 11 months she picked up a tissue box and looked inside the hole, then picked up a metal lid and posted it through the hole in the top of the box, before pushing her hand inside the box.

Finally, she took her hand out, tipped the box upside down and shook it until the lid fell out. At the painting table, I saw her dip a paint brush into some paint and paint the palm of her hand. Bick E Notes on infant observation in psychoanalytic training. International Journal of Psychoanalysis — Leuven: Centre for Experiential Education. London: Sage Publishing. Department for Education. Available at: www. Open access See all. Celebrating and supporting the voices and actions of children and young people November Can we help improve wider school outcomes through youth social action?

November Youth social action: What are the benefits for careers education? CPD Packs Themed article collections. Popular Now Week Month. Formative assessment and effective feedback 0 Comments 9 min read. Children put objects inside other objects containers as well as putting themselves inside, e. Children make themselves or objects go through a boundary, e. Children scatter objects and are intrigued by how they land, e. Children move in lines as well as placing objects in lines, e.