The bald answer has to be yes, of course. Not everything in a good quality Early Years centre is going to be sustained shared thinking; even the logistics of space and ratio would tend to prevent it.
Similarly – and crucially, in the context of this argument – Siraj-Blatchford et al make a telling point about staff expertise in this paragraph:
While ‘sustained shared thinking’ may be considered a necessary pre-requisite for excellent pedagogy in the early years; our analysis also shows that on its own it may be insufficient. We found examples of practitioners whose knowledge and understanding of the particular curriculum area being addressed was inadequate and this led to missed opportunities or uncertain outcomes, and this was particularly the case for the direct teaching of phonics. (p66).
Where does this insufficiency stem from? Perhaps – I almost hesitate to say – from the reverential approach to childhood that is more protective than challenging. There is a real need for practitioners and people who train them to sort out a coherent model, an ethic, perhaps, of Early Childhood Education, coupled with a need, as the report states, “to identify the pedagogic models being applied by the most effective settings and to find out how these are realised in practice.” (p40) The REPEY project report is quite clear, for example, that, while formal programmes of instruction can be “counterproductive” (p30), “participation in excellent, cognitively oriented pre-school programmes was associated with later school competence”, (p30) . If programmes are not the way – and perhaps my disquiet is around whether sustained shared thinking might not become a programme – then how do we distinguish quality practice from poor?
Time to revisit Barbara Jordan’s chapter on co-construction in Anning et al (2004) Early Childhood Education: Society and Culture and ask What are the implications (of time and space) for this approach, not so that children are followed round by quizzical “metacognitive practitioners” (a bizarre notion of the teacher/EY practitioner) but so that a balance of time and effort is given to effective instructive activity in which the child is listened to, as well as time set aside for activities in which the adult, as a competent partner, shares their enthusiasm and experetise…
nicktomjoe 