David Whitebread
Position/Status
Senior Lecturer in Psychology of Education
E-mail Address
dgw1004@cam.ac.uk
Phone
01223 767564
Qualifications
BA, PGCE, MEd, PhD
Membership of Professional Bodies/Associations
- British Psychological Society (Cognitive, Developmental and Education sections)
- European Association for Research in Learning and Instruction (Metacognition Special Interest Group)
- British Educational Research Association (Early Years and Neuroscience SIGs)
- National Executive of TACTYC (Tutors of Advanced Courses for Teachers of Young Children)
- European Society of Developmental Psychology
- Reviews Editor, Early Years journal
- Editorial Board Member: Metacognition and Learning, Educational Research Review, International Journal of Early Years Education
- School Governor: Homerton Children's Centre, Cambridge
Profile
David Whitebread is a developmental cognitive psychologist and early years specialist. Before joining the Faculty he taught in Primary schools, mainly in Leicestershire, for 12 years. His research interests are concerned with children's cognitive development and implications for early years and primary education. A particular focus has been the development of metacognitive awareness and strategic control in relation to a number of areas of learning. These have included children's problem solving and reasoning, mathematical strategies and road safety skills. Other interests include children learning through play, early years ICT, the education of the gifted and talented, children's drawings, and the the application of cognitive neuroscience to education. His current particular focus is concerned with the early development of metacognition and self-regulation in very young children.
Academic Area/Links
Psychology; cognitive development; early years education
Research Topics
- Children's metacognitive development
- Development of cognitive and emotional self-regulation in young children
- Executive functioning and early metacognitive development
- Early years pedagogy
Current Research Projects
Independent Learning in the Foundation Stage (C.Ind.Le): project funded by Cambs Early Years Partnership; with Holly Anderson and Penny Coltman; to develop model and pedagogy of independent learning in the Foundation stage and produce Professional Development guidance and training materials. Analysis continuing of verbal and non-verbal indicators of metacognition in young children; pedagogical elements encouraging development of cognitive and emotional self-regulation in the 3-5 age group.
Re.C.Ind.Le: this project aims to validate the CHILD 3-5 observational instrument developed within the C.Ind.Le project in 4 European countries (Germany, Israel, Cyprus and the UK). This instrument is an observational checklist for use by teachers of 3-5 year olds which assessess their emotional, prosocial, cognitive and motivational self-regulation. In each country 60 children in the 4/5 age range are being assessed on two occasions during this academic year, by their teachers using the CHILD instrument. At the same time points, the children are also being assessed for their metacognitive skillfulness using a range of established problem-solving tasks.
ChAT: an internally funded project commencing March 09 which aims to examine the role of classroom talk in the development of Year 1 children's metacognition and self-regulation.
Course Involvement
Postgraduate Teaching
- PhD supervisor, M.Phil/MEd: Psychology and Education
Primary PGCE course
- Lectures and workshops concerned with children as learners, learning through play, and developing children as self-regulating learners
Undergraduate course
- Lectures on children's cognitive development
CPD Early Years, CFPD and Adv Dip courses, C.Ind.Le training
Selected Publications
Bingham, S. and Whitebread, D. (2008) Teachers supporting children's self-regulation in conflict situations within an early years setting. In Papatheodorou T. and Moyles J. (eds) Learning Together in the Early Years: Exploring Relational Pedagogy. London: Routledge.
Whitebread, D. with Dawkins, R., Bingham, S., Aguda, A. & Hemming, K. (2008) Organising the early years classroom to encourage independent learning. In Whitebread, D. & Coltman, P. (eds) (2008) Teaching and Learning in the Early Years, 3rd ed., Routledge
Whitebread, D. & Coltman, P. (eds) (2008) Teaching and Learning in the Early Years, 3rd ed., Routledge
Whitebread, D., Bingham, S., Grau, V., Pino Pasternak, D. & Sangster, C. (2007) Development of Metacognition and Self-Regulated Learning in Young Children: the role of collaborative and peer-assisted learning, Journal of Cognitive Education and Psychology, 3, 433-55
Whitebread, D. & Coltman, P. (2007) 'Developing Young Children as Self-Regulating Learners'. In J. Moyles (ed) Beginning Teaching: Beginning Learning in Primary Education, 3rd Ed., Open University Press
Pino Pasternak, D. & Whitebread, D. (2007) 'Developing Frameworks and Tools for the Analysis of Parent-Child Interactions and their Impact on Children's Self-Regulation', Transylvanian Journal of Educational Psychology, Special Issue No.2 on Inclusive and Cognitive Education, Supplement Part 2, 335-356
Cooper, P. & Whitebread, D. (2007) 'The Effectiveness of Nurture Groups: evidence from a National Research Study', Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties, 12, 3, 171-90
Whitebread, D. (2007) 'Developing Independence in Learning'. In J. Moyles (ed) Challenges and Issues in Early Childhood, Open University Press
Hayes, M. & Whitebread, D. (2006) (ed) ICT in the Early Years, Open University Press
Whitebread, D. (2006) 'Creativity, problem-solving and playful uses of technology: games and simulations in the early years classroom'. In M. Hayes, and D. Whitebread (ed) ICT in the Early Years, Open University Press
Whitebread, D. (2005) 'A response to Goswami: Neuroscience and education: the brain in the classroom', The Psychology of Education Review, 29,2, 17-18
Whitebread, D. & Jameson, H. (2005) 'Play, Storytelling and Creative Writing'. In Moyles, J. (ed) The Excellence of Play, 2nd Ed, Open University Press
Whitebread, D., Anderson, H., Coltman, P., Page, C. , Pino Pasternak, D. & Mehta, S. (2005) 'Developing Independent Learning in the Early Years', Education 3-13, 33, 40-50
Whitebread, D. & Chiu, M. (2004) 'Patterns of Children's Emotional Responses to Mathematical Problem-Solving in McNamara', O. and Barwell, R. (eds) Research in Mathematics, Vol. 6, British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics
Whitebread, D. & Neilson, K. (2000) 'The contribution of visual search strategies to the development of pedestrian skills by 4-11 year old children', British Journal of Educational Psychology, 70, 4, 539-57
Hendy, L. & Whitebread D. (2000) 'Interpretations of Independent Learning in the Early Years', International Journal of Early Years Education, 8, 3, 243-52
Whitebread, D. (ed) (2000) The Psychology of Teaching and Learning in the Primary School, London: RoutledgeFalmer
Whitebread, D. (1999) 'Interactions between children's metacognitive processes, working memory, choice of strategies and performance during problem-solving', European Journal of Psychology of Education, 14, 4, 489-507
Whitebread, D. (1996) 'The Development of Children's Strategies on an Inductive Reasoning Task', British J. of Educational Psychology, 66, 1, 1-21
Whitebread, D. (1995) 'Emergent Mathematics or How to Help Young Children become Confident Mathematicians', in J. Anghileri (ed) Children's Thinking in Primary Mathematics: Perspectives on Children's Learning, London: Cassell
In Press:
Whitebread, D., Coltman, P., Pino Pasternak, D., Sangster, C., Grau, V., Bingham, S., Almeqdad, Q. & Demetriou, D. (in press) The development of two observational tools for assessing metacognition and self-regulated learning in young children, Metacognition and Learning
Szűcs, D., Soltész, F., Bryce, D. & Whitebread, D. (in press) Real-time tracking of motor response activation and response competition in a Stroop task in young children: A lateralized readiness potential study, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
Whitebread, D. & Pino Pasternak, D. (in press) Metacognition, Self-Regulation & Meta-Knowing. In Littleton, K., Wood, C. & Kleine Staarman, J. (eds) Elsevier Handbook of Education: New Perspectives on Learning & Teaching: Elsevier Press
Whitebread, D., Coltman, P., Jameson, H. & Lander, R. (in press) Play, cognition and self-regulation: what exactly are children learning when they learn through play? Journal of Educational and Child Psychology