Researchers In Action - Children With Agency

At Rachel Keeling we are always reflecting on the dispositions we want children to develop.
We ensure our environment, provision and interactions support the effective development of independence, confidence, communication, resilience, empathy and joy for learning. Over the past two weeks one practitioner has led a small group of children on a journey to develop these dispositions on their own research projects. I have shared two examples above but others were also involved in their own projects and indeed other children were inspired to set about designing and making without any adult support!
Children were supported in the workshop area to think about what they would like to make: they were given stimuli and time. Once they had a few ideas, they used books and the internet to research further. They gathered images and vocabulary and then planned their creations: drawing and mark making their ideas. Children resourced themselves for the process and 
Children returned to this on a daily basis as they chose to and really took the lead in their learning. A practitioner was on hand to be co-collaborator and support the children's thinking. What was incredible was the process-led learning that took place. The children had a vision but they remained open-minded as they worked alone and alongside others. They really included other children in the process, asking them to help paint and fix parts. 
On days when some adults can lack agency, our children really demonstrated they had bags of it!