Okay, so what is a schema?

A schema is simply a pattern of behaviour. When you watch children's natural actions and investigations you notice that their behaviour is not random. There is a pattern to each indivdual child's behaviour. This pattern is called a 'schema'.

'Schemas are repeated behaviours that babies and young children use to explore and understand the world.' (Nutbrown 1994).

Some children have one very clear schema; others have a number of schemas called a cluster. In knowing which schema a child is following we can begin to make sense of what children are doing?

10 Common Schemas

• Trajectory
• Rotation
• Connection
• Transporting
• Heaping and Scattering
• On Top
• Containment
• Envelopment
• Enclosure
• Going Through A Boundary