Early Education and The Use of Worksheets – Problems with The Google Generation
by Early Education is about building the foundations for life long learning. Teachers and practitioners should think twice about their use of worksheets and consider carefully if there is a place for them in their preschool or early years setting.
As an early education consultant I have been privileged to step through the doors as a critical friend and advisor to countless schools, pre-schools, nurseries, children’s centres and a plethora of other early childhood settings. Some have been run by the state and the local council whilst others have been faith settings or privately owned establishments.
I have trained and mentored many practitioners and been fortunate to take part in professional dialogue and discussion about a wide and diverse range of early education issues.
When it comes to observing and making judgements on the quality of early childhood practice, I have been overwhelmed by the high standards and commitment of my Early Years teacher and practitioner colleagues but there is still one burning issue that is still yet to be fully tackled and understood in preschool education.
The debate of the use of worksheets is an ongoing battle when it comes to providing quality early learning experiences for very young children. There are 3 camps I have observed on this issue and I have worked closely as an adviser with all of them.
The first is the early years setting where worksheets are a daily staple diet of the children that attend. Whatever the topic – there is a worksheet to go with it and my goodness, how this has been exploited to its maximum potential. Settings where this is the case rely predominantly on the all too easily downloadable type of worksheet that is in no way personalised to take into account the needs of the children in the setting. The space is awash with A4 tasks ranging from handwriting, number work and phonics to the downright crazy worksheet asking preschoolers to colour in the biggest elephant, the smallest car, and the tallest tree . . . well, you get the picture.
What is striking about this type of worksheet use is the absence of any quality teaching or discussion that goes alongside a child recording. After all, worksheets are really just a form of recording children’s knowledge and wholeheartedly go against what the majority of early educators know and believe is the best practice in early education.
Working with this type of setting has always been a challenge. The staff often think they are doing the right things and are rarely, if ever, challenged by the parents. Teachers and practitioners are not deliberately avoiding best practice but they have fallen into the Google trap of planning ideas for early learning which has invariably led to the download generation amongst our newest early years recruits.
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