Findings

The initial questionnaire revealed that most staff had a basic knowledge of Froebel and the Principles that underpin his approach based on current national frameworks created around them. Most staff perceived that their current practice demonstrated Froebelian Principles only a little or sometimes when supporting children’s learning, and 4 stated they didn’t know how beneficial it was to consider Froebelian Principles in practice, despite them underpinning our national framework document Realising the Ambition.  It emerged that almost all staff had not completed any training in Froebel and that time was the main barrier. This showed me the reasons why I had been struggling to effect a change in practice.

Practice observations in December showed many strengths that linked to principles. The weakest area needing development in practice was supporting learning effectively where it was child led, scaffolded and with appropriate challenge and effectively communication used aka being that knowledgeable and nurturing educator encouraging autonomous learning.

Sharing the principles with staff verbally and via the poster and the language used in them led to me hearing it more, sometimes stand alone and sometimes linking it to familiar language of HGIOELC quality indicators.

All staff reflected that the visits to other settings further developed their understanding of the benefits of using that approach and how it can be achieved in the environment quite simply. I found my visit inspired me more to continue the journey and further deepened my insight into the vastness of the approach. Staff created a big book to document with photos what they observed and recorded, what they took from the experience and a full discussion took place, leading to us thinking about uniqueness and discussing where our own first names came from. Staff were beginning to connect with the principles and understand why changes should be made.

After the showcase workshops of clay, sewing, campfires and STEM and the woodwork workshop staff enthusiastically described and discussed what they did and how they felt learning new skills and exploring their own creativity and problem solving as autonomous learners. The link between presentations at the show case and activities experienced deepening their understanding of the impact for the learner being autonomous in a holistic way for wellbeing and also learning. Some of the quotes from the final questionnaire at the end of the project from staff.  ‘I brought in seaweed, shells and pebbles from our local beach for the water tray’. ‘(I will be) encouraging children to explore in their own way’, ‘(I need to ) become more a guider than an instructor’, ‘(I will be) allowing children to problem solve for themselves’, ‘(I learned about)  creativeness with more freedom, no boundaries in how things are created, more about the journey than the end product’.

After the experiences, staff perceived themselves to be more Froebelian stating ‘mostly’ in the final questionnaire, with 4 staff indicating they are interested in doing additional Froebel training / courses which is a breakthrough.

The practice observations conducted after my project input showed a clear improvement of frequency and consistency of staff encouraging autonomy in learning and using communication and more playful behaviours in stepping in and back to scaffold and challenge.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is apparent that our ELC staff do want to learn about and become more Froebelian and that as learners themselves enjoyed what they experienced across the project. It helped them understand being an autonomous learner more deeply by experiencing it regardless of whether that was positive or negative.

The staff are receptive to becoming more Froebelian in many ways and have a range of interests that have been ignited by the project that before had never been explored or highlighted. Staff are willing to be challenged as learners themselves.

I feel able to link practice and environment to Froebel without feeling that they don’t understand.

Going forward it will help us to use the Froebelian Self Evaluation tool as a team to identify our collective strengths and gaps and create a long term plan of who, what and how we can continue to introduce a Froebelian Approach across nursery.