Amanda Thomas

Dr Amanda Thomas is currently a senior lecturer in Early Years Education at the University of South Wales delivering on a range of education modules. In 1997, she began teaching in a Primary school and successfully led the Early Years provision for over 10 years.  Amanda also taught in FE for four years training childcare practitioners. Amanda was awarded her PhD in researching schemas in the Foundation Phase in 2019.

Schemas, loose parts and the outdoors-an affordance of possibilities

The aims and objectives of this research were to explore the affordance of loose parts in the outdoors in supporting children’s schemas. The research took place in early years settings in South Wales with children aged between 3-5 years. Piaget (1953) stated that schemas are a key cognitive process through…

Transition: Voices from across the bridge

In our first blog post from the wider community, Dr Amanda Thomas & Dr Rhiannon Packer provide researcher perspectives on a variety of transitions within education. With the work gathering learner voice from nursery to further education settings, a common theme of fear and anxiety emerges; juxtaposed with the need…

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