Are we underestimating 2-yearolds? Recognising the links between schema and mark making, implications for future pedagogy by Julie Brierley

Journal of Early Childhood Research
2018, Vol. 16(2) 136–147
DOI: 10.1177/1476718X17690194
journals.sagepub.com/home/ecr

Fredrich Froebel (1782–1852) and Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi
(1746–1827) advocated a philosophy of education that was based on a return to nature and argued
that any form of instruction should be based on children’s own experiences

play and learning

Field (2010) clearly identified a direct relationship between the growth and development of the
brain and the quality of experiences a young child gains.

Historically, Piaget and Inhelder (1969)
also paid great attention to the links between sensory activity and learning, naming them the sensory-motor phase, emphasising the embodied and active nature of learning.   (p. 137) 

Body thinking (Greenland, 2000) - interesting concept (p. 137)

Gardner:  only when we value and listen to a young child’s whole body are we fully able to recognise how
young children learn.

the relationship between a child's motor actions and sensory feedback is central to the learning process

young children need SENSORY and MOVEMENT to support their development. 

continued necessity for greater pedagogical understanding and discussion about the specific needs of 0-2

Understanding and interpretation of drawings, completed by 2-yearold children remains polarised, being positioned either as emergent physical and prewriting skills or within the artistic range. Misinterpretations of young children’s mark making is
further encouraged by the DfE and Early Education (2012), who infer young children (birth to
26 months) only achieve ‘sensory and physical’ (p. 30) experiences from their mark making
exploits. Such pedagogical beliefs will continually de-value and underestimate the efforts of
2-year-old children. 

pictures’ reflect the form of thought, the schematic interest, that the child is representing rather than the object.

access and attendance within early year’s
provision will not improve every 2-year-olds child’s development and future life chances. Only
experiences gained within high quality early year educational settings, are linked to improvements
in children’s development,

NARRATIVE INQUIRY (interesting)

studies experience, using narrative to reconstruct the experiences in relation both to others, and the
environment (Pinnegar and Daynes, 2007).


A schematic pedagogy


Knowledge of schema enables practitioners to tune into children’s
forms of thinking (Nutbrown, 2011)

warning that present educational and development discourse frequently position drawing ‘as an emergent or pre writing skill’ (p. 269) rather
than recognising its cognitive value.