DOWNLOAD PDF TRANSCRIPT

00:00:02

[Vanessa Miranda]

Well, I'm going to talk about a little bit how to inspire wonder in nursery settings, nurture curiosity using enquiry-based learning that sparks curiosity and foster autonomy. It's going to be a lot of fun, but before we start, I want to ask you if you have ever felt the pressure to be innovative, but not given the time, resources or freedom to actually innovate. So you can write on the chat if you want, if you can agree, if you have ever felt this feeling of the pressure of, well, let's be creative and not that much. Yes, right. It's true. Quite often it's our worst enemy.

00:00:53

And it's, it seems that we always have more technology to do things faster, but we never have the time to think about it, right. To process this bunch of information. Right. So welcome to the club. We are not the only ones. We have, we are having a creativity crisis. So since 1998, the creativity has been declining among students. And this study shows that it is because of the lack of time that we spend on deep exploration. So the deep exploration helps us feel more creative. And we need to spend a little bit of more time in each subject. And, but we know that creativity is important. The world economic forum made a list of 10 skills on the rise, the top 10 skills on the rise.

00:02:00

And the first one is creative thinking, but that's not the only one. We also have analytical thinking and curiosity and lifelong, lifelong learning, motivation and self-awareness, service orientation and customer service that requires empathy. So we know those skills are very important. And yet in education, we're still stuck in remembering, right. We are here in this part that of Bloom's taxonomy, that, but we have the level, the, the level of thinking since 1956. And it seems that it's getting hard to go to beyond, beyond remembering and understanding, understanding. Now I want to ask you, this is not a right or wrong question. You can answer one or multiple answers or give your own answer, but is measuring how many colours and shapes a student can remember in English relevant? Is it really relevant?

00:03:13

Yes, it could be right. It is relevant to measure how many colours and shapes students can remember. Agree. Or B, it might be, well, it's a common practise. It's a tradition. It has been working since a long time. So it is relevant. C, not always, but families want to see this in reports, right? Yes, they do want to see in report and how can we ensure families that they are learning, if not measuring how the language, right? Not that much. It's not that relevant. And E, well, you can fill in the blank if you want to. But I think we have a little bit of both and all of them, right? We have, all of them are a little true. We need to measure learning, but we don't have to let go of the content. We can have it all. The goal here is to start at creating and the rest will follow. We can move from delivering content to designing curiosity.

00:04:30

But to do that, teacher needs the resource and the support for exploration. If we have a structure and a curriculum that ties you up to the content delivery only, it's going to be hard to do something different. And the parents still need a visible evidence that their children are learning. So how we can do that? That has been a quite long journey for me in my work. I'm a psychologist and I worked with children with autism and that taught me a lot. And what impressed me the most is that children are unique. With autism or not, we are all unique. We are all different. We have different tastes, different abilities. And when you have therapy one-on-one, you have the opportunity to work on their skills and where they are and where you want them to go. It's easier to work one-on-one. But I don't think it's fair that everybody else is treated the same. So I started searching for who can help me out to take that thought of every child is different and unique to a classroom with 20 kids. So I went to enquiry-based learning and exploratory museum in California to study.

00:06:06

And came back to Brazil, developed curriculum and I wanted to go beyond and start writing. And I wrote this idea of how can we help children go through their curiosity and explore their questions in a classroom settings. And that grant me an Elton's award finalist. And so I'm very happy for this achievement. I'm going to show you a little bit how I got that. First of all, we are born curious, right? So this is a series of pictures of my son. He was eight months old at a time. And he was enquiring about himself in the mirror and a kaleidoscope, right? He started to look in, who is that in the mirror? And somebody else is looking me in the back here. And without saying a word, I didn't say, well, look here, look that. I didn't say a word. And he start looking what was going on around him. And he'll look down at himself and he can communicate.

00:07:26

He can start, can say what he discovered through his actions, not through words. So he look at me through the mirror, not directly as if he was saying, well, I got something here. I got it. Right? So when adults observe children, they learn how to follow curiosity with the same passion as children have. So when teaching, it's a two way. We learn from them so much. And that's what I want to show you today, how fascinating it is. Oops, let me go back a little bit. But before I want to ask you, in your opinion, what is the purpose of education? What are we here? Yes, it's lovely, isn't it? It's very nice. Thank you so much. But tell me a little bit, what's the purpose of education in a word or two? What do you think? Why are we here? Why do we teach?

00:08:31

Why do we want to share our experience? If you want to share a little bit with me, in your opinion, changes to cultivate people, right? To grow development, knowledge, skills, mm hmm. To show how they can thrive. Wow, that's really nice. Solve problem, adapt. That's really nice. Love future to learn. Yes. Yeah, confidence, motivation. True. I have here a sentence that might say a little bit about this. Well, the purpose of the education, my point of view is to provide experience that helps children develop skills to live a healthy, meaningful and a connected life. To take care of themselves, to take care of others and the world around them. And that requires curiosity, critical thinking, empathy, communication and creativity. And how can we do that? Well, first of all, we don't need to separate one thing and the other. We can combine Maslow with Bloom, right?

00:10:04

Especially in this early age, children need to understand their physiological needs to drink water, to eat, to party. And they need to understand their body and themselves and what are the signs of their body, right? But you don't have to teach word by word. You can start creating opportunity here so they can develop creativity. In this eating section, we show the sign language, which is inclusive for not only for late speakers, but for English as a second language, because to eat, the sign to eat is common across culture. So it becomes a visual support. And we also give the support so they can express their needs. They are aware of their needs. And creativity comes with content, okay? You can talk about different shapes. We can talk about different colours, smell and taste. It depends on what the child is interested in.

00:11:13

So you open up, yes, physiological and psychology needs. So you open up possibilities to learn and get to know more your students. What are they interested in? What are their preferences? It's very interesting when you open up this possibility. And you can go beyond. And after all the mess with the food, they have to clean up. And why? Sometimes it's easier if the adult clean up. It's faster. But it's important if they do. It builds self-esteem, a sense of belonging. And when you offer a team task, they learn how to cooperate. And they learn about kindness. And they share purpose.

00:12:07

It's very important so they can do this task. It develops autonomy and intrinsic motivation. And they love it. They really do. And the content, again, will follow the name of the object, function, action. And this strengthens the cognitive skill with a purposeful action. And here in Mini Makers Macmillan Education book, we give them options of what part, what task you want to take. It can be like a game. You can throw a dice with different colours to see if you're going to clean the table or you're going to clean the floor.

00:12:52

But it can also be a choice. Today, I want to clean the table. Tomorrow, I want to clean the floor. Giving options, it helps develop the decision making as well. And compromising. Well, everybody wants to swipe with the broom. But let's learn how to share and how to take turns. This is a very important lesson. So take time to do that. And representation and play, it's so important. Children feel seen and safe when they recognise themselves in stories. It goes through belonging and self-esteem. They know what's there. And we have many stories. Many stories are important.

00:13:44

But if they can see what the character is going through, it's the same thing that they are going through, like learning how to ask to potty. And this is such important information for teachers to know if the student is comfortable, if it's clean. It's such important information. It doesn't have to be in English only. It has to be communicated. And when you practise with the sign language, with the visual, with the action, everything makes sense. With the role play, it becomes meaningful and hands-on. It's really nice when you have a toy to mimic what they go through. It's really nice. And McMillan also is a part of Springer Nature. And they do great research on best practise in classroom. And this research shows that integrating movement in the classroom supports children's self-regulation and boosts academic learning.

00:14:57

So when the child is moving around, they can understand themselves and can regulate. And again, content follows. Content of pushing and pulling and inside and out, hide and seek. The story is about this girl. She's moving away. And she's building cars to represent the situation that she's living through. So the situation in this book provokes this kind of action. And they have a lot of fun while they're learning. And here you can see that the parents at home also have a sense that, well, I see my child is learning. I can colour in one colour what's up, another colour what's down. And the parents feel comfortable. Well, I see that there is a progress.

00:16:00

There is a learning. So that's why you need to pay attention on the needs, not only of the child, but of the parents, making sure that they understand that this process is helpful for them. And if you want to deepen exploration in any subject, I suggest you look for NGSS, Next Generation Sciences Standards. It's where I base all my books or lesson plan. Because for psychology and behaviour analysis, you have to go through the scientific process to analyse your emotions. And it's easier when you go through this process when you look at something outside of you.

00:16:50

Like when you're pushing a car, it's going to fall. So you understand the concept. So asking questions and making an investigation, argue from evidence and communication is very important in any subject like in life science. If you are going to investigate about the patterns of the leaves, what happens if I put water or don't put water in the plant? What is about the scale, a small leaf and a big leaf? The system, how does the plant know to drink water? What is the energy that they need, the structure and function so they can move around and do not break? Stability and change, like the growing part. And you can reply that to engineering and psychology and technology, earth and space, physical sciences. So it's a very, we have the cross cutting concept here, the core ideas. And what I added in my books is this emotional intelligence. So we can focus on on what's really important, the basics of education, which is learning and investigating of self-management.

00:18:24

How do I persist on something that did not quite work out? How can I be aware of myself, my own strength, limitation? How can I ask for help? How do I feel when I ask for help? So you can make this investigation. And that's the basic of applying cognitive skills and scientific practise. Relationship skills, how to collaborate effectively, listening and to each other, negotiating through conflict, making a responsible decision. So those are important
fundamentals for learning anything in life. And what I'm asking you guys to do in this from now on, keep curious, get to know your student, learn from them.

00:19:32

The facilitator's primary task is to create opportunity for student expression, right? In a way to do that is to offer choices so they can practise decision making. So what colour do you want to do your experiment? What animal do you want? And ask them to justify. Yes, we're going to answer in Q&A, okay? We ask them to justify their choices so they can process that information. Even if you already know, you ask them to justify their choices. Allow multiple ways to express, draw, build, act, talk, making sign language. Focus on observation. Ask them what do they notice? What do they see, right? Encourage peer-to-peer responses. This is so important so they can learn from each other, they can observe each other. Celebrate different answers.

00:20:50

That's so important so the children feel seen. And create sharing routines. Either in the beginning or the end, it's sharing what happened during the class or how they're feeling. This is so important so they create this habit of speaking out about their needs, about what they're going through, about their emotion. This is a way they can process this information. And it's very important for teachers to know what's going on and deal with this emotion, deal with this situation, and then go further and learn about any content that is coming up, right?

00:21:45

And this is so important, so important, because there is a dark consequence of not listening, of not creating this environment where children can share what's going on. So, this is a study from UNICEF which says that one in five girls, women alive today, has been subject to sexual violence as children. And that's similar to men. It's one in every seven boys and men alive today has been subject to sexual violence. And this part, what I took, is just about sexual violence, but there are many other types of violence. And it's so alarming. We need to be there. We need to be there for our kids. It's our responsibility to create safety, a safe environment so children can share their emotion and protect them.

00:22:49

This is very important for educators. We are the adults that can be the ones that help them. So, practise conversation, practise listening to kids. It's very important. So, the purpose of education in an overview is to facilitate the discovery of ourselves through the experience with the world around us. So, as a teacher, as an adult, and as a mother, I discover more about me when I'm teaching, when I'm interacting with my child, my reaction, my emotions. I learn about myself when I'm sharing this experience. So, we are learning and teaching all the time, right? And I'm going to show you a little bit another resources to support meaningful learning from Minimakers.

00:23:56

And if you could share with me on the chat, what are some things that you observe? What are some things that you can take from this video? And what are some things that we can learn beyond, you know, with the main message and a little beyond? Let's try to see. What do you want them to learn? What's the intention? I have a snack to share with you. There's just one, but I'll break it in two. Oh, a little for you and a little for me. Let's be the best friends we can be. Yes. Cooperation.

00:25:14

Acceptance, cooperation, generosity, caring, friendship. Great. Problem solving. Yes. Making friends, sharing. Yes. It's so important to do that, right? And the main character is the first one to let go. And that's really hard for the child to be the first one to let go of the toy, the favourite toy, right? So, it's really hard, but it's good to know that after somebody plays, you can play as well. And we can also learn about music, rhythm, math, language. You can learn so many things with this video.

00:26:04

So, the focus here, it's not the language, it's the message. It's what you want to go across. It's the value. It's a technique of how do I deal with this problem, right? And this is just one technique that we can deal with that problem, like a little bit for you, a little bit for me. It could be time. It could be objects. It could be so many different things. Attention, right? So, this is from Mini Makers, and it's going to be due early next year, and I hope you like it. And what I want to share with you is that to approach every challenge with a curious mind and a kind heart, and the answer will start to appear. If you are angry, or if you see somebody that is angry or sad, start with a curious mind.

00:27:03

Maybe they are going through some problems, and a child does not want to do a task or activity. Be curious. Wonder what's going on. Maybe they want something else. Maybe you can share what is it that they like, that they want to share. So, with a kind heart and a curious mind, you can start digging for answers, right? And you can find me. Thank you so much. You can find me at vanessamiranda.com.br, LinkedIn, or Instagram at Vanessa Miranda Palestra. I'll be glad to talk to you. I'm really happy to be with you. I'm going to stop sharing now so I can see everybody better.

00:27:57

Thank you so much. So many hearts. I loved it. All right. It's good to hear you all.

[Will]

Thank you very much, Vanessa.

[Vanessa Miranda]

Thank you so much. I wonder, I didn't see those questions. Maybe there is some question?

00:28:17

[Will]

Yeah, well, we've got one in the chat. If anyone else has a question for Vanessa, we've got a couple of minutes now if you want to. No problem. So, we have one question for you from Malika, who's asking, how can teachers encourage students who have experienced trauma or bullying or sexual abuse to share their emotions? What strategies can teachers incorporate to help them learn actively and effectively collaborate with their peers?

[Vanessa Miranda]

Wow, that's such an amazing question and it's so hard. Well, we learn, we are very effective at judging. We know how to judge. Our first instinct is to judge. And knowing that, we have to make an effort to let that go, let the judgement go away away and start looking at any problem, especially this one, without judgement, pity or negative emotions.

00:29:28

So, we can address this as softly as possible, right? And we can address the problem and find a way to get the child in a safety, security place. And as for how to deal with it, with a child, well, when we speak about a problem, the problem is have, you know, you can process that information. So, whenever you… you help the child express themselves in different ways. Through drawing, through, um… talking or expressing in a play. It's… it helps the child. Um, tell what is going on. What they're thinking, and what… Uh, we can do, and maybe that's a hint of what… how we can go from there. How we can go and help the child.

00:30:30

Another way we can do this is to make puppets, to make puppets so. The… the child can… express what happened. Through the puppets, so it doesn't… it's not happening with them again. It's happening with a puppet, that's a way that they can protect themselves through that, uh… play, and play out different outcomes, right? You can, okay, what happens if we do something different? And at this time, what else can we do. To… to change this outcome. So there are many possibilities, and thank you for your question. That's amazing. We all should be together.

00:31:16

Looking for ways. to help children cope with trauma and. And especially… Prevent those trauma to happen, and that's why it's so important. To have this culture of all sharing, all, uh… Communication in a safe place.

[Will]

Mm-hmm. Thanks, Vanessa. So, one more question from Charmaine. Um, how can you encourage parents to get involved more in their child's education? Um, especially when they're… when social problems are involved, or even a lack of education skills from home. Um, the child will. perhaps carry these problems through their scholastic years and their education. If it's not tackled.

00:31:59

[Vanessa]

Yes, find what's interesting to the parents. Find what they loved in their childhood. Maybe, uh, again, with a curious mind and a kind heart, you can try to find. Answers and… to see what's going on with that parent. It's so easy for us to judge parents, and we are all going through an overwhelming time that we don't know how to deal with. It's, uh, so many information that we're going to. And if we ask parents, uh, what are their favorite things, what they do, what are their hobbies. to find common grounds, to find things that are… they… they… you can… find things that are interesting to both of them. And then King Joy, you know, maybe soccer, maybe, is, um.

[Will]

Mm-hmm.

00:32:52

[Vanessa Miranda]

Pokemon. You know, my kids love Pokemon, so that's why I bring that up. But you have to find a common ground between the adult and the child.

[Will]

Wonderful. Thank you, Vanessa. I think we're gonna call it a day there, if you don't mind. We're going to move on to our next talk. Thank you so much. Let you take a bit of a longer break. We've got another session to go. Much later tonight. So, um, see you later, have a nice break, and thanks again for the wonderful talk.

00:33:17

[Vanessa Miranda]

Thank you so much, it was a pleasure.