Learning teaching and assessment p41 – Planning and assessment

Our planning for children’s learning is both responsive and intentional to ensure an appropriate balance of child-led, adult-initiated and adult-directed experiences.

We are highly skilled in observing and documenting children’s significant learning and achievements. Together this robust assessment information provides reliable evidence about children. We use this to form a holistic picture of the child and make accurate judgements about children’s progress and future learning.

 

Playing learning and developing p29 – Child centred planning and assessment

We use observations of individual children’s patterns of play to plan, support, challenge and extend their learning. This enables children to make progress at their own pace.

Experiences reflect children’s ideas, aspirations, curiosities and meaningful next steps in their learning.

 

Playing learning and developing p28 – Quality of interactions

Responsive and caring interactions support the development of communication, language, movement and social development through effective modelling of these skills. We support children through approaches such as sustained shared thinking, wondering aloud and balancing comments with developmentally appropriate questions to extend and expand their thinking.

 

Slide 7

What is the balance of child initiated, adult initiated and adult directed play in your setting?

How can this be adapted to ensure better experiences for children?

 

Section 6 – p62-79  Putting Pedagogy into Practice  

Section 7 – p80-87  Ensuring quality through critically reflective practice

 

p82 High quality practice

Quality settings have…. practitioners with an understanding of child development and how young children learn

Practitioners who …

• Understand that children learn best when engaged in meaningful first hand experiences that interest them,
• Recognise that young children learn through play with responsive adults who plan experiences which extend learning and understanding, and,
• Notice and understand behaviours that underpin early development, such as schematic play, and provide the right kinds of experiences which build on this learning

Quality settings have… rich adult-child interactions

Practitioners who …

• Attune the interactions to the developmental stages of children, so that children are supported and also challenged,
• Use a range of communication and interaction strategies including describing and commenting on learning and handing over conversational control to children,
• Use skillful questions to extend learning, for example, “i wonder why..” I wonder if…”, and,
• Work together with children to solve problems, clarify concepts, develop thinking. This is known as sustained shared thinking

p83

Practitioners in high quality provision

• Highly value and promote child initiated experiences and provide spaces to capitalise on children’s interests and motivation,
• Tune in to child initiated activity and sensitively intervene to extend children’s inquiry, problem solving and thinking skills,
• Extend learning based on an understanding of developmental stage and interests, rather than providing adult directed activities that have little meaning for children,
• Enable children to lead their own learning, including planning projects and solving their own problems

Quality settings understand… the importance of curriculum and pedagogy

• Understand the learning possibilities afforded by the interactions, experiences and spaces we facilitate for the children so that their learning can be both responsively and intentionally planned for, supported and extended,
• Have a good knowledge of what the early level of curriculum for excellence provides, and facilitate developmentally appropriate experiences that build on what children already know and can do
• Provide breadth, depth, space and time for children to be creative and curious