Key Understandings for Learning and Teaching in the Early Years

Key Understandings for Learning and Teaching in the Early Years Karen Noble

View of Children and Childhood • Perspectives on children, learning and teaching: then and now • Little adults • Innocents/ blank slates • Capable, competent and able

Children have agency Children are strong, rich and capable. All children have preparedness, potential, curiosity, and interest in constructing their learning, negotiating with everything their environment brings to them. Gandini (1993)

Children are viewed as capable young people who have been learning since birth. They are • able to take part purposefully in, and contribute to, their learning. Their ideas and diverse experiences enrich learning programs.

Transition and connectedness • the importance of building continuities between children’s prior experiences and their future learning in school contexts.

Participation in high quality early childhood education • Effect on future educational success • Citizenship

Learning dispositions “Enduring habits of mind and action and tendencies to respond to situations in characteristic ways” (QSA, 2006, p. 11)

Key assumptions inherent in key curriculum documents • Initiation and engagement in learning across a range of contexts • Importance of partnerships • Lifelong learning • Equity and diversity: social and cultural responsiveness • Importance of taking account of stages of development

View of teacher in early phase of learning • Teacher as a transmitter of knowledge versus teacher as educator

Roles of Educator • Builder of relationships • Scaffolder of children’s learning • Planner for learning • Teacher as learner

Builder of relationships: • Partner • Communicator • Collaborator • Mediator • Mentor • Supporter • Networker

Scaffolder of children’s learning: • Researcher • Strategist • Listener • Interactionist • Problem solver • Modeller • Facilitator • Questioner • Prompter • Provoker

Planner for learning: • Co-constructor • Negotiator • Practitioner • Creator • Action • researcher • Observer • Recorder • Documenter • Interpreter • Reflector • Evaluator • Collaborator

Teacher as learner: • Theorist • Investigator • Researcher • Critic • Life long learner • Professional • partner • Reflector

Principles of practice • provide a foundation for thinking about children and learning, teachers and teaching, and the social and cultural construction of knowledge.

Competent learners • Children are capable and competent and have been learning since birth.

Sensory development Children build deep understandings when they learn through all senses and are offered choice in their learning experiences

Modes of learning Children learn best through interactions, active exploration, experimentation and by representing their learning through a variety of modes

Dispositions Children’s positive dispositions to learning, and to themselves as learners, are essential for success in school and beyond

Relationships Children learn best in environments where there are supportive relationships among all partners in the learning community

Experiences teaching and learning is most effective when there is a recognition, valuing and building upon the cultural and social experiences of children

Continuity Building continuity of learning as children move to and through school provides foundations for their future success

Assessment Assessment of young children is an integral part of the learning-teaching process and is not a separate activity

Key organisers for teaching and learning in the early years (QSA, 2006) • Early learning areas • Contexts for learning • Interactive processes for curriculum decision making • Key components • Phases that describe children’s learning and development

Five early learning areas • Social & personal learning • Health & physical learning • Language learning & communication • Early mathematical understandings • Active learning processes

Contexts for learning • Play • Real-life situations • Investigations • Routines and transitions • Focused learning and teaching

Four interactive processes for curriculum decision making • Planning • Interacting • Monitoring & assessing • Reflecting

Five key components • Understanding children • Building partnerships • Flexible learning environments • Contexts for learning • What children learn

Four phases that describe children’s learning and development • Becoming aware • Exploring • Making connections • Applying

Play is the work of the child In their play children project themselves into the adult activities of their culture and rehearse their future roles and values. This play is in advance of development … In play a child is always above his actual age, above his daily behaviour; in play it is as though he were a head taller than himself (Vygotsky)

Fingerprints • Challenge: to develop capacity within the profession • Passion and commitment for working with children and their families

Understanding and managing self • The notion of ‘knowing what to do when you don’t know what to do’

Key Understandings for Learning and Teaching in the Early Years