Closely connected to the playplace we developed exercises that can help professionals (teachers, policy-makers, architects, …) and parents to interpret the video traces of the interactions between children and the outdoor environment. This exercises help to value, read and imagine the outdoors as a learning environment in early childhood.
Background information
"Making reconstructions of experience means: searching intensely for what goes on in children, focusing in children's activities on what is going on in them, on what the environment brings about in them, on the way they see and experience the world... Trying to put oneself in other people's shoes in order to perceive what they perceive. It is seeing and feeling the things that are just below the surface.”Laevers, F.(2019,p12). Ervaringsgericht werken met kleuters in het basisonderwijs. Leuven: Lannoo Campus
Purpose | What can this exercise mean?
With this exercise you can practise taking perspective. It is about the ability to imagine in the most vivid way how the learner constructs 'reality', with attention to the emotional (feelings), the conative (motivation and interest) and the cognitive (perceptions and cognitions). Discussing this with each other can give the opportunity to show something to each other, be inspiring, question something.
Get started | Initiate dialogue
Watch a video carefully. Try to empathise as much as possible with the toddler(s) you see. What does the child say, think, feel, want? Write this down.
What reconstruction of experience do you make? What does the child say, do, think, feel, want? What do you think, feel, want? What would you like to share? Does it set something in motion? What can you contribute from your own experience, expertise? What does the other person's reconstruction of their experience draw your attention to?
download this exercise in pdf