Early Childhood Professionals' experience of time to facilitate children's thinking

SUMMARY This paper reports on the second phase of the Froebel Research Fellowship project ‘Ownership and Autonomy in Early Childhood’ (2003–5). Based on the first phase of the project (Robson and Hargreaves, 2005), a questionnaire survey of 80 professionals working in the Foundation Stage (age 3 – 5) in England was conducted to obtain an overview of their experiences of facilitating children's thinking. The results show important differences in the way respondents experience time. Although approximately 71% of respondents reported that they feel they have enough time to enhance children's thinking, fewer of them reported that they have enough opportunity to play with the children, and enough time to ‘stand back’ and reflect upon what they are doing (66% and 55% respectively). Drawing on the ecological perspective of human development (Bronfenbrenner, 1979) and the notion of the importance of capturing learners' momentum towards learning (Fumoto, Hargreaves and Maxwell, 2004), the paper highlights the diversity of the ways in which children's thinking is being facilitated in nursery settings (age 3 – 4) and in reception classes (age 4 – 5).