Findings

Froebel “emphasised the importance of beginning where the learner is, rather than where the practitioner thinks the learner ought to be” (Bruce, 2019, p. 89). This statement poses a stark resemblance to Scottish education polices such as “Getting it right for every child” (Scottish Government, 2022, para. 1); yet, in my experience, teachers are constantly pressurised to rush through teaching the GPCs to “raise attainment” (Education Scotland, 2023, para. 8). Thus, I decided to apply principles of slow pedagogy (Clark, 2022; 2023) to my planning for my P1 children through consciously slowing down the pace of teaching the GPCs and compare my observations and assessment data with a previous cohort.

Table 2: P1 Cohorts

Observation (October):

After the October holidays the children in the 2021-2022 cohort were only able to recognise an average of 2/12 GPCs whereas both children in the 2023-2024 cohort were able to recognise 4/4. Additionally, the children in the 2023-2024 cohort were able to decode/read ‘satp’ words e.g., sat, pat, tap etc.

Observation (January):

After the Christmas holidays the children in the 2021-2022 cohort were able to recognise an average of 9/26 sounds. As the class teacher, I felt very stressed as despite my efforts the learners were not retaining the GPCs. However, both learners the 2023-2024 cohort were able to recognise 11/12 and were able to decode/read the first set of decodable books (Jolly Phonics, 2024).

Observation (April):

The submission of the project was due at the end of February 2024 and therefore the observations and data for after the Easter holidays were not available at the time of submission.

Discussion:

The initial observations support the view that a “Slow Pedagogical approach can greatly benefit both the child and the practitioners” (McNair, 2023, para. 2), as the children in the 2023-2024 were able to retain more GPCs after the Christmas holidays than the 2021-2022 cohort; plus I felt far less stressed in my role as class teacher. However, these findings are based on a very small sample size thus further research is required before any definitive conclusions are drawn.

Additionally, there are several potential confounding factors that could have impacted on the results. Firstly, there was a difference in class size between the two cohorts. The children in 2021-2022 cohort were part of a P1-4 multi-composite class with 12 pupils whereas the children in 2023-2024 cohort were part of a P1-3 multi-composite class with 8 pupils. This is significant as previous research has shown smaller classes are correlated with higher academic performance (Finn, Gerber and Boyd-Zaharias, 2005; Nye, Hedges and Konstantopoulos, 2000). Additionally, the COVID 19 pandemic has been shown to have a negative impact on academic performance (Crummey, 2022; Lundie and Law, 2020) and the children in the 2021-2022 cohort experienced significant disruption to both their time in early years settings and in their transition to primary school. All of which may have impacted on the results.

Conclusion

This practitioner inquiry explored the impact of applying the principles of slow pedagogy in P1 (Clark, 2022; Clark et al., 2023) with a specific focus on slowing down the pace of teaching the GPCs. The findings show that slowing down the pace of teaching the GPCs in P1 can improve overall literacy attainment however due to the small sample size further research is required.

Overall, the findings support the view that a “Slow Pedagogical approach can greatly benefit both the child and the practitioners” (McNair, 2023, para. 2) as the children retained more GPCs than a previous cohort, plus, I felt far less stressed in the role of class teacher. Thus, I will continue with the changes I have made to the planning documentation for the remainder of the academic year and use it again with future P1 cohorts.

References:

Bruce, T. (2019). Educating Young Children: A Lifetime Journey into a Froebelian Approach. Routledge.

Clark, A. (2022). Slow Knowledge and the Unhurried Child: Time for Slow Pedagogies in Early Childhood Education. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis.

Clark, A. (2023). Alison Clark’s Slow Pedagogy: How to be ‘slow’ outdoors. Nursery World. https://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/features/article/alison-clark-s-slow-pedagogy-how-to-be-slow-outdoors#:~:text=Froebel%20emphasised%20importance%20of%20contact,not%20about%20lethargy%20but%20attentiveness.

Clark, A., Dickinson, B., Smith, K. & Taylor, L. (2023, March 1). Slow Knowledge and the Unhurried Child [Video]. Froebel Trust. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nEfsRBsESc

Crummey, C. (2022). Lockdown, Learning Loss and Rural Locations: a Review of the Literature on the Effects of COVID-19 on the Poverty Related Attainment Gap and Rural Scotland.

Education Scotland. (2017). Benchmarks Literacy and English. https://education.gov.scot/nih/Documents/LiteracyEnglishBenchmarks.pdf

Education Scotland. (2023). Education Scotland publishes third National Summary Report for the Scottish Attainment Challenge 2022 – 2023. https://education.gov.scot/news/education-scotland-publishes-third-national-summary-report-for-the-scottish-attainment-challenge-2022-2023/

Finn, J. D., Gerber, S. B., & Boyd-Zaharias, J. (2005). Small classes in the early grades, academic achievement, and graduating from high school. Journal of Educational Psychology, 97(2), pp.214.

Froebel Trust. (2021). Slow pedagogies in early childhood education. https://www.froebel.org.uk/training/films/slow-pedagogies-in-early-childhood-education

Froebel Trust. (Undated). Froebelian principles. https://www.froebel.org.uk/uploads/documents/Froebelian-Principles-Poster-A4.pdf

Highland Council. (2023). Highland Literacy Framework. https://highlandliteracy.files.wordpress.com/2023/03/highland-literacy-framework-march-2023-2.pdf

Highland Literacy. (2024). Slow Writing. https://highlandliteracy.com/writing-2/slow-writing/

Jolly Phonics. (2024). Jolly Phonics Orange Level E-Readers Set 1. https://www.jollylearning.co.uk/shop/uk-shop/phonics-resources/jolly-phonics-orange-level-e-readers-set-1/

Lloyd, S. (1998). The phonics handbook. Chigwell: Jolly Learning.

Lundie, D., & Law, J. (2020). Teachers’ responses and expectations in the COVID-19 school shutdown period in the UK.

McNair, L. (2023). Time, pace and rhythm. Community Playthings. https://www.communityplaythings.co.uk/learning-library/articles/slow-pedagogy

Nye, B., Hedges, L.V. and Konstantopoulos, S. (2000). The effects of small classes on academic achievement: The results of the Tennessee class size experiment. American Educational Research Journal, 37(1), pp.123-151.

Scottish Government. (2022). Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC). https://www.gov.scot/policies/girfec/

Scottish Government. (2023). Can my child defer starting school. Parent Club. https://www.parentclub.scot/articles/can-my-child-defer-starting-school

Smith, E. (2023). Scottish English through the ears of a native. https://www.ericpsmith.scot/scottish-english-through-the-ears-of-a-native

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