Outdorable brings to you our first episode of the ‘Power of Play’ series with Nathan Wallis, Dispositions of Play.

A focus on assessing learning outcomes can miss the crucial fact that learning is as much about the process as it is about the outcome.  In fact, the early years is when the processes used for learning for the rest of your life are established, so they are more important in EC than focusing on outcomes. Collectively, we call these processes dispositions.

Include things like persevering through failure, not just giving up after the first try

• How long can you focus your attention for
• Knowing when to ask for assistance
• Risk taking
• Perspective changing

These underpin not just learning, but also resilience in general.

Under age 7, it is the development of these dispositions that is the greatest predictor of future success, not outcomes or cognitive skills like reading and counting.  Cognitive skills plateau at 8 – so, if you learn to read at age 4 or age 7, you generally reach the same reading age by age 8. But the dispositions you develop under 7 tend to stay with you for a lifetime.