Inquiry and Critical Thinking

Journal: Critical Thinking

Context

Cow Hollow School teachers create opportunities for community and critical thinking among simple play scenarios.  This journal shows how one teacher created such opportunities amongst our youngest students, the two year olds. 

November 15, 2013 – Critical thinking and problem solving with tools: Playdough play!

Austin: [hands me one hammer] Hold the handle. [presses his own hammer into the playdough]

What a lovely way to invite me to play together! I imitated Austin's strategy with the hammer. He showed me how it made an imprint in the playdough. Austin was diligent in testing out different parts of the hammer, different colored rollers, noting the different print each made.

Some of the rollers were covered in fine sand...

Austin: [hands me a bumpy sandy roller] Its dirty.

Bryn: What do you mean - what do you see that tells you its dirty?

Austin: [no response, continues working with playdough]

Bryn: Hmm, its dirty, you say! Let's touch it [I touch it with my fingers, now there's sand on my fingers. I rub my fingers back and forth together] 

Bryn: That feels interesting. Here, feel it! What's this on the roller?

Austin: [looks at the roller but does not touch the roller]

Bryn: Hey guys, Austin says this roller is dirty! Check it out! What do you think? What's on it?

[I model touching it again and hold it out towards Ingrid and Sabrina.]

I think Austin's observation is astute and interesting, and want to explore it further. As he is reluctant to touch something that he deems 'dirty,' I am hoping that Ingrid and Sabrina can play that role (I know that these two are seldom reluctant to touch stuff!). This supports Austin in thinking further.

In turn, bringing Ingrid and Sabrina into the "problem solving" could prompt their critical thinking! Ingrid accepts my invitation to examine the "dirty" roller by looking close, then touching it. 

Ingrid: Its got sand.

Bryn: Oh! Its got sand, you think? How can you tell?

Ingrid: [rubs her fingers more, looking at me - demonstrating] Feels sandy.

Additionally, when you solve problems/think critically in a group, it becomes neccesary to represent and communicate your thinking to others - either with words, or actions, or both. By asking Ingrid to explain what she noticed and why, I'm asking her to think about her thinking - ie., metacognition!

Yes, this is an awful lot of jargon and analysis about just playing with a dirty old playdough roller... but this is the good stuff!! There are incredible opportunities for learning in early childhood, if we choose to think critically about the activities we're doing. 

Bryn: Hmm! Yea, it does. Sabrina, Ingrid says this feels sandy. Do you want to feel? What do you think is on this roller?

Sabrina: [looks up from her playdough work, examines the roller] Yea, its sandy.

Bryn: Austin, Ingrid and Sabrina checked out the roller and they think it has sand on it. What do you think? [I again hold it close to Austin]

Austin: [takes the roller from me and this time touches the sand with his fingers, looking closely and rubbing his fingers together] Wash it off [hands it back to me and returns his focus to his work]

Bryn: You think we should wash it off? I don't know, I think it would be ok for sand to be on our playdough. I think its okay to keep using this roller... what do you think will happen if we roll this sandy roller on the playdough?

Austin: Will come off.

Bryn: What will come off?

Austin: The sand. 

Bryn: Oh yea? Huh! Let's try it out! [I hold the roller out to him]

Austin takes the roller from me, rolls it slowly through the playdough. He seems pleased (smiling, looking closely) when the sand does indeed come off!

------

Later, Austin and I co-constructed a representation that's important in his life: a bridge. He began by handing me another hammer:

Austin: Make a road. [drags the wide edge of his hammer head through the playdough - creating a wide smooth ditch]

Austin repeated his own very competent way of extending his own learning: testing one strategy (dragging) with a variety of tools:

Austin: A railroad track!! [dragging a bumpy roller through playdough - this time the ditch has stripes!]

Austin: I'm making it stop. I'm making a tunnel. [drags his fingers through the playdough]

Austin: A bridge. Bridge! [looks up at me, smiling]

Bryn: Ooh! I'd like to drive on your bridge. [I walk my fingers over the hill of playdough, and drag one finger down to extend the "road."]

Bryn: Is this a bridge to Marin? [thinking about Austin's new home]

Austin: Yea. [smiles]

Bryn: Ah! Okay, this side can be Marin. Is your side San Francisco?

Austin: Cow Hollow! 

------

A little later on, Sabrina brought over some cutting tools and started poking them in Austin's playdough. At first he asked her to stop.

Bryn: Well, it looks like you're wanting to work with Austin, Sabrina?

Sabrina: Yea.

Bryn: You can ask him, 'can I help you?’

Sabrina: Can I help you?

Austin: No.

Bryn: Can you tell her about what you're doing? 

Austin: [answers by demonstrating - cutting deep into the playdough]

Bryn: Ahh, looks like Austin wants to make big deep cuts. Sabrina, before, you were making little cuts. Do you want to try a big, deep cut?

Sabrina inserts her cutter into the laceration that Austin has made. This time, he doesn't object, he pushes his cutter in deeper, and so does she. They smile and are delighted with what a big crevice they can make together!

They smoos the playdough back together, and repeat the action. This time their playdough ends up on top of a roller, so when they cut deep enough, they uncover a treasure.

Austin: We're finding red!! [smiling at Sabrina] 

About their research with infants and toddlers' collaborative learning, Musatti and Mayer wrote

The prejudice that sees young children as always competing with peers for possession of objects ignores two very important elements. The first is that competition arises when the immediate possession of a particular object is crucial for children in order to go ahead with their activity. [Austin's first reaction might be that, if Sabrina uses the playdough, he cannot continue his activity of interest: cutting] 

...The second element overlooked in the traditional view of toddlers is the source of interest, sometimes absolutely passionate, for the object used by a peer. Often an object seems to be desired not in competition with the other child but precisely because it holds her or his attention: The interest of the other child, for whom the first child feels empathy, indicates that the object must be interesting.
Bambini: The Italian Approach to Infant/Toddler Care (2001)

In other words, perhaps Sabrina is interested in playdough precisely because Austin is so interested in it! And she is so interested in Austin!

Taking this view of toddlers, we can respond in kind. I did my best to address Austin's concerns over losing his playdough activity, by showing him that he can continue cutting with Sabrina - that it can even be super fun. And while I could have responded to Sabrina's "violation" of Austin's space, instead I chose to respond to her interest in collaborating with him, by offering her some language and strategies she could use to start working together.

It was indeed a fine day at the playdough table.

I notice – I wonder

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