Mediation

What is mediation?

Mediation is when an adult works with a child to improve their performance on a learning activity. Children can – and do – learn a lot by playing or doing homework on their own, but they also need adults to interact with them and shape their learning. This helps to develop their language, knowledge and thinking and also promotes good learning behaviours. It makes their play and learning more purposeful, as they think about WHAT they’re doing and WHY, rather than just trying to give an answer – the better the interactions, the better their learning.

Specifically, when working on a learning activity with a child, the adult:

• Shows their interest in understanding how the child approaches the task
• Thinks about what the child needs in order to improve their performance
• Explores the task together, rather than providing the child with the ‘correct answers’
• Helps the child to make links with previous and future learning
• Provides feedback related to the learning task

Five fab facts about mediation – mediation can help a learner to:

It is a dynamic process that can improve learning for all, regardless of their ‘start’ point.

Anyone can mediate learning?

The mediator can be a parent, older (or more able) child, TA, teacher, sports coach. The important thing is that the mediator responds to how the child is doing and adjusts the level of help they give, depending on what the child can do at that moment.

Mediation is different from direct teaching in the following three ways:

1. Intentionality: The adult consciously uses the interaction     1. WHAT are we going to learn?
with the child to help them think about the goal

2. Communicating the meaning and purpose of the task          2. WHY is this useful and important?

3. Generalising to other tasks                                                    3. WHERE else can we use this skill?

Early mediation

Mediation can start at home, with children as young as three, for example:

Comparison:

• Talk with your child about how they’re sorting their toys – “Are you putting all the blue cars together? How else could we sort them?”
• Ask an older child to help sort clean washing for different members of the family.

Categorisation:

• Talk with your child about tidying their toys up – “Let’s put all the dolls in this box and all the teddies on the shelf”
• Talk with an older child while you put the shopping away e.g. how and why we put different foods in different places in the kitchen.

Sequencing:

• Engage a small child in a play sequence of making tea for dolls.
• Make cakes together, following a simple recipe.

Planning:

• When getting ready for a journey, what do we need to take with us?

One-to-one correspondence:

• Set the table together, ensuring each person has a chair, plate, cutlery etc.

Challenge:

• Give the child praise for not giving up or for asking for help to finish a difficult task.
• Make tasks harder when you can see they are ready – e.g. removing stabilisers from a bike when they are confident.

Task persistence:

• Small children learn from watching you and following your example.
• Model how you finish a task before moving on to the next one.

Intrinsic motivation:

• Encourage the child to be pleased with their performance rather than responding to material rewards. For example “I am proud of you because you…” will have a longer lasting effect than rewarding with sweets.

Top tips to help children and young people

The type and amount of mediation you give depends on the task and what the child needs. There is no one size fits all approach. You should only give as much help as they need to do the next step successfully. If you give too much help, they may become dependent on support and not develop their own problem-solving skills.

Specifically, when working on a learning activity with a child, the adult:

Examples of mediation include:

• Demonstrating helpful ways to undertake a task
• Focussing the child’s attention on particular details (shapes, colours, patterns)
• Breaking tasks down into smaller parts (“Let’s make a plan”)
• Providing support and reassurance
• Completing the task in turns
• Giving specific praise (“That was good because you checked your answer”)
• Helping the child to become aware of barriers (e.g., ‘I notice you’re struggling to… Can you think of another way to do it?”)
• Prompting the child to search the task for similarities with previous activities undertaken (“When have you done something like this before?” or “Yes that’s right, but how did you know it was right?”)
• Drawing attention to the learners’ strengths as an individual.