Birth to three matters - Communities and Local Government

developed by Bereiter and Engelmannin the 1960s, which still have echoes today.As a result of such approaches takinga largely transmission model of learning(ie. the adults know something theydecide they will teach to the children andimpose upon them),they do not take intoaccount the rich,natural experiencesavailable, such as those that arise duringplay alongside children,and using thechildren’s interests to help them learn(Marchant 2001; Wall forthcoming).Social learning theoryAl be rt Ba n d u ra (1973; 1982 ; 1992) is thekey pro po n e nt of this theore t i ca lpe r s pe ct i ve. This theory argues that muche a rly learning comes from the childa ct i ve ly i m i t a t i n g or observing m od e l l i n gby others in the family or gro u p. Soc i a ll e a rning theorists would argue with theBe h av i o u ri s t s, by saying that childre nl e a rn when they do not get a dire ctrewa rd, for ex a m p l e, s ay i n g ‘thank yo u’be cause this has been modelled by keypeople in their live s. One of the essent i a lmessages to come out of this theory fo rthe early years is that Ba n d u ra suggestsbabies and young children can learn fro mus as m od e l s of actions but also oft h i n king – if we talk out loud as we ares o lving a pro b l e m , we are modelling ourt h i n ki n g. Si n ce being able to pay closeat te ntion to the mod e l’s be h aviour and/orlanguage is impo rt a nt for this theory toa p p ly, Ba n d u ra (1992: 19) says :-Adults alter the behaviour they model tocompensate for the attentional limitationsof children…parents gain their attentionand give salience to the behaviour theywant to encourage by selectively imitatingthem. Parents tend to perform thereciprocated imitations in an exaggeratedanimated fashion that is well designed tosustain the child’s attentiveness at a highlevel during the mutual modellingsequences…’Further aspects of this theory that areimportant are concerned with:- children’smemory skills, the ability to convertconceptions into appropriate actions(these are thought of as transformationalskills);and motivation – having incentivesfor wanting to imitate modelled behaviour.Ba n d u ra co m m e nts part i c u l a rly on genderroledeve l o p m e nt and his theory can beseen to be re l eva nt to the ways in whichve ry young children notice verbal labe l l i n g,the cate g o ri s ation of males and females inthe wo rld around them, and the mod e l l i n gof gendered ro l e s.Th u s, a c co rding to thist h e o ry, adults will influence childre n’so u t l ook and be h aviour through their ow nm od e l l i n g. Engaging in po s i t i ve,‘out loud’t h i n king and problem solv i n g, t h ey ca nhelp children develop these be h av i o u r sand attitudes too, as Sa l ly Lu be c k’s (19 86 )re s e a rch demonstrated in two diffe re ntn u r s e ry settings, w h e re the children we rere s pe ct i ve ly indepe n d e nt and co m pe t i t i veor inte rd e pe n d e nt and coo pe rat i ve, inline with the values embedded in eachs e t t i n g’s pra ct i ce s.29