ABSTRACT
I was first introduced to the idea of using schemas in early-years education while retraining as a nursery teacher at the Froebel Institute where Chris Athey (1990) undertook her initial research. Going back to the nursery I began to look at children’s play with new eyes. What had previously appeared to me to be random aimless behaviour now emerged as a part of the child’s exploration of a particular form or ‘schema’. Quyen walked around with books up her jumper; she buried animals in the sand; she built boxes from polyhedrons and put dinosaurs in them; she did beautiful drawings then folded them up and put them in her coat pocket; at story time she always sat under the table. Instead of seeing this as pointless and slightly frustrating behaviour, I could now see it as a part of an enveloping schema.
