# data[].attributes.body
A learning experience that I had last week with my 3-5yr olds was outside - a few of the children had noticed that one of the plants in the garden had some brown seed pods on them. Some of the pods were completely closed and others were open, so you could see the seeds inside. After the children and I had had a bit of a look and talk about the seeds/seeds pods i asked them what they thought they could do with the seeds. The children suggested planting them and I asked where they wanted to plant them, in the garden or in a pot. They chose the pot, it was an empty pot so i prompted them with questions about what they might need and what they needed to do. Through discussions and answering questions the children were in control of getting what they needed to plant the seeds from around the outdoor play area this included them asking educators for help if they needed it (eg carrying the bag of potting mix from out of the shed). The children were in charge of most decisions, I made some suggestions and I prompted them to think about their decisions through questioning if I thought that the decision they had made might need to be altered (getting them to think about why) eg filling the pot with soil to the very top.
I believe that this experience fits in to the 'Child Initiated, shared decisions with adults' category in the ladder of participation as it was through the children's interest in the seeds that prompted this experience. The children's views and decisions were valued by the educators through allowing the children to voice ideas and then act on them and my views (as the educator) were valued by the children when I made suggestions and asked them questions as this allowed them to think for themselves about my decisions and why I was making them.

# data[].attributes.body
The lowest rung on the ladder. An example was of the classic ‘playground design’ scenario, where the children drew their ideas for a new playground. The teachers would collect their work and give no feedback or insight to how the children’s ideas were going to be used. Hart (1992, pg. 9) states that it may not be manipulative on the adult’s part, but it is certainly misguided use of children’s participation

# data[].attributes.body
This is a step up from manipulation where children’s participation is used for decoration rather than manipulation, but adults don’t pretend that the reasoning behind is inspired by children. An example would be for the children to ‘participate’ in an event by dressing up, singing or dancing about it, but the children have no knowledge of the event itself or a say in the organising of the occasion.

# data[].attributes.body
As explained above, tokenism is where children’s participation is thought to be taken seriously, but it is in fact a façade. An example was given moments ago from my own personal experience, bearing in mind that tokenism differs from decoration as adults believe that they are using participation in a relevant way.

# data[].attributes.body
1. The children understand the intentions of the project
2. They know who made the decisions concerning their involvement and why
3. They have a meaningful (rather than ‘decorative’) role
4. They volunteer for the project after the project was made clear to them.
(Hart, 1992, pg. 11).

# data[].attributes.body
Adults design a run a particular project, but children are informed and understand the process of a project, with their opinions treated seriously.

# data[].attributes.body
Activities where adults are not authority positioned. The purpose is to support the students in a passive aggressive role (Fletcher, 2011, pg. 3)

# data[].attributes.headline
Child initiated, shared decisions with adults

# data[].attributes.subject
Child initiated, shared decisions with adults

# data[].attributes.body
Students and adults have their views valued equally. This responsibility to one party may vary depending on the students age. (Fletcher, 2011, pg. 3).

# data[].attributes.headline
Adult initiated, shared decisions with children

# data[].attributes.subject
Adult initiated, shared decisions with children

# data[].attributes.body
This is what Hart believes is a true form of participation as projects are initiated by adults with the decision making is shared with the children.

# data[].attributes.body
Think back to your last project or activity that you thought allowed your students to participate and have their decisions taken into account.

Where would it fit on the ladder?
Why?  and if it is in the non-participatory area, how could you change it to include your students participation realistically?

# data[].attributes.body
My last activity with my students was with a year two class. We letting the children decide the lesson layout. They had 3 options and had each explained.
I would place my activity in rung 5; consulted and informed as I designed each lesson's activities, but I listened to the children's desires and took their understanding and vote seriously. The children already had an understand of the content and how each lesson would play out.

# data[].attributes.body
At the moment I am providing my 3-5yr early childhood group with a range of outdoor challenges/tasks for them to solve. Each task is given to them eg "Can we build a river in the sandpit?" and they can then choose to be part of it or not. They are offered a range of loose parts and materials to work with and assign their own roles to complete the task. Teacher input is limited to guiding questions to extend on the learning and ideas put forward by the children and also intervention when the activity poses risk of injury. The initial idea to complete the challenges has stemmed from close observation of the children at play which highlighted their want to have their voices heard as well as their desire to engage in natural spaces. I would place this in the Adult initiated, shared decisions with children category, although I could improve on the choice of the initial challenge given by making it something based on the children's ideas.