Adults can help children to think about what they already know, activating their prior knowledge, supporting application to new contexts and further schema building.

For example, when one child in nursery (age 3-4) found a beetle in the outdoor play area, they wanted to care for it. The practitioner asked questions to support the child, and the others who joined, to discuss what they already knew about beetles and what they would need to survive, collaboratively building ideas together about how to care for invertebrates (for further detail see Learning Story).

Filton Avenue Nursery School and Children’s Centre, Bristol