Threads of Thinking. Young Children Learning and the Role of Early Education

Threads of Thinking is a book for teachers in nursery and early education, and for other professional educators who wish to support and develop children’s thinking. The author presents evidence of continuity and progression in young children’s thinking and shows, with detailed observations, that young children are able and active learners. She considers aspects of children’s patterns of learning and thinking - or schemas - and demonstrates clearly how children learn in an active, dynamic and creative way.

Numerous examples of young children ‘in action’ are used, which illustrate their learning in the areas of literacy, mathematics and science. Implications for the roles and responsibilities of educators, work with parents, and curriculum development are discussed.

Professor Cathy Nutbrown is Head of the School of Education at the University of Sheffield, where she teaches and researches in the field of early childhood education.

Cathy began her career as a teacher of young children and has since worked in a range of settings and roles with children, parents, teachers, and other early childhood educators. Cathy is committed to finding ways of working ‘with respect’ with young children, and sees the concept of quality in the context of what it means to develop curriculum and pedagogy in the early years with the ambition of working in a climate of ‘respectful education’.

She established the University of Sheffield MA in Early Childhood Education in 1998 and a Doctoral Programme in Early Childhood Education in 2008. In 2010 she contributed to the Tickell Review of the Early Years Foundation In June 2012 she reported on her year-long independent review for government on early years and childcare qualifications (The Nutbrown Review). She is Editor-in-Chief of the SAGE Journal of Early Childhood Research and author of over fifty publications on aspects of early childhood education.