Making Learning Visible
What is it?
“Every day, children and adults learn from and with others, encountering new perspectives, strategies, and ways of thinking. Together, groups can achieve greater perspective and understanding than any individual can alone, but we need tools for sharing thinking and making learning visible to others.”
(Harvard Graduate School of Education, 2022)
The ‘Making Learning Visible’ project began as a collaborative project between Harvard University and educators in Reggio Emilia to promote group learning. The approach uses documentation to “make visible” both what and how students learn, “through observation, evidence collection, interpretation, and information sharing… (which) produces a record that students and teachers can use to build self-awareness and guide instruction” (Harvard Graduate School of Education, 2022). Project Zero continues to promote and offer training on making learning visible aligning with the original project.
“Documentation is a tool to make children’s learning visible. It can help practitioners gain greater insight into children’s thinking throughout everyday experiences. It is also used to reflect children’s thinking, to help them generate new ideas, learning, and discoveries. Documentation allows us to gather, share, and discuss evidence of development and learning with parents, children and other practitioners.”
(Algonquin College of Early Childhood Education, 2021)
Documentation can be described as visible records (written observations, mind maps, Floorbooks, photos, videos, audio recordings of children’s work) that enable teachers, families, and children to discuss, interpret and reflect upon what is happening from their various points of view.
Documentation should show evidence of the learning process and the product. It is not just a record of what happened but analysis or interpretation of the learning.
Learning needs to be shared back with the learners. It can involve more than one medium, needs to be analysed by the adult to identify the different facets of learning evident through the interaction, and should inform future planning and revisit previous learning.
Key messages:
- Documentation of the learning provides an analysis or interpretation of the process.
- The learning environments, displays, and documentation (learning journeys, Floorbooks, ”my big idea”, children’s work, photos, etc.) provide opportunities for children to revisit their ideas and extend their thinking.
- Practitioners use displays and documentation to reflect on what and how the children have engaged with the learning process. For example, children’s creativity is clearly displayed on the walls, and where appropriate, contains a written description next to it. This might include the child’s voice describing what they were doing or thinking (a vital element in the learning process) or the practitioner’s interpretation of the learning, e.g. mark-making skills, fine motor, creativity, or a learning disposition.
- In documenting learning experiences, the process is valued over the product.
- Images of children’s achievements are used to reflect their developing competencies back to them. These might be included within observations in learning journeys, Floorbooks, or on display elsewhere in the nursery.
- Learning displays and documentation help children evaluate their play experiences and describe what they are learning.
- Learning displays and documentation such as observations, learning journeys and Floorbooks are used to evidence progression and development of skills in language and literacy, maths and numeracy, health and wellbeing and other curricular areas. Children’s voices are evident throughout the setting, such as in Floorbooks, observations, and learning wall displays.
- Children can tell you about their learning, using displays and documentation as points of reference.
- Approaches to capturing and recording children’s progress and achievements make learning visible, inform future planning, and lead to significant improvements.
Ways we can do this:
Practitioners are mindful about noticing and seeing the learning as it occurs. Without this, practitioners cannot document it. For example, if a photograph is taken, it should be annotated to show why it was significant and what learning it demonstrates.
Children are given regular opportunities to share their ideas and thoughts about their learning by contributing to Floorbooks, interactive learning, and planning walls.
Ensure that all practitioners are confident in talking about and using a language of learning that is developmentally appropriate to the children, such as using the vocabulary of “I Can” statements and learning dispositions.
Mind-maps, Floorbooks and/or learning walls demonstrate thinking together and sustained shared thinking.
Practitioners make explicit to the children what they notice about their learning, for example, “Wow, you are concentrating really hard on that”, “I noticed that you found that tricky at first, but you kept going and persevered”, or “You counted all that way back from 10”.
Practitioners cannot expect children to reflect and discuss their learning if adults have not previously demonstrated and provided the language for them.
Floorbooks:
When creating Floorbooks, practitioners must record children’s voices and ideas for use in intentional planning. For example, instead of adult-initiated activities taking precedence, practitioners should take the learning ideas from the children’s interests and ideas. The Floorbooks can then record the progression of thinking and learning over time and support learning conversations with children and an increased depth of learning.
Practitioners analyse the learning and determine what thinking is going on in children’s heads. Practitioners then ensure progression through the creation of PLODs.
Practitioners can then show action due to those observations; PLOD’s are then ticked and dated to how the adults and children carried them out.
Current Floorbooks are kept within the main room. Remember ”out of sight, out of mind”.
Past Floorbooks are stored in a central place, e.g. the foyer, to enable families and visitors to access them.
Additional information: Highland Literacy “Using Floorbooks”
Mind-maps:
Use mind-maps to identify prior knowledge, find out what the children already know and what they want to find out. These might be questions to be answered or things to do and can be included within the Floorbook or on learning walls.
Summative mind-maps can be used by practitioners to show all the different lines of enquiry that the children have been exploring, the children’s experiences and cross-referenced these with the experiences and outcomes.
Record and display the children’s learning in various ways, including notes, transcripts, photographs, voice recordings, film. The children’s creations and achievements can be added alongside observations to make the learning visible.
Inclusion of social media and using closed pages to share learning and skills of learning with parents.
Use displays and documentation to encourage children to use the language associated with learning and reflect learning back to children. This enables them to understand their learning and see themselves as capable learners.
Ensure that learning displays are accessible to all children, parents and carers, and practitioners to ensure that all contributors feel genuine ownership. Where possible, displays of children’s work should be at child height.
Linked Areas of Practice
Learning Conversations
Learning Dispositions (Learning Powers)
Learning Journeys
Loris Malaguzzi (Reggio Emilia)
Sensitive Interactions
Showbie
Sustained Shared Thinking
Tools
Reflecting on Practice
SBC Guidance to support
National Guidance to support
Further Reading to support
Training to support
SBC Early Years training video Making Learning Visible:
The SBC Early Years training for this page is currently being reviewed and updated.
Making Learning Visible with Showbie
Making Learning Visible with QR codes/videos
