1. Learning Frameworks in a Nutshell
Presented by Children’s Services Central

3. About Children’s Services Central
Children’s Services Central is the Professional Support Coordinator  in New South Wales and is an initiative funded by the Australian Government under the Inclusion and Professional Support Program.
Children’s Services Central is managed by a consortium of  key organisations that resource and support the sectors of children’s services in New South Wales.

4. About Children’s Services Central
We offer professional development and support through:
A comprehensive website and online forum
A free call number (1800) to answer any of your questions
Professional development sessions and training
Individual Service Support
Accreditation Support

5. About Children’s Services Central
Mentoring and coaching
Support for rural and remote services
Bicultural Support Pool
General Resource Library
Specialist Equipment Pool
Publications

6. About Children’s Services Central
Further information about all of these services can be found at:
ccc.cscentral.org.au
or by calling:

7. Learning Outcomes
Participants will develop an understanding of the frameworks in practice and gather ideas about methods of documenting children’s learning and development.
Participants will have the opportunity to reflect on:
The Early Years Learning Framework
(For Pre-school aged children)
My Time, Our Place
(The framework for school aged children)

8. Considerations How we reflect
What we believe is important for children to learn
How we believe children learn
The type of environments we resource for children
How we communicate with children
How we communicate with families
How we document

9. Belonging, Being And Becoming

10. Holistic Approaches

11. Play Remember your own childhood and the type of games that you played
Write down your favourite experiences
Where did they take place?
Who did you play with?(neighbours children, siblings)
What materials did you use?
What was it about the play that you enjoyed?

12. Reflect Reflect on the play experiences you engaged in as a child
What type of play did you engage in (solitary, parallel, cooperative)?
How imaginative were you?
What sort of skills were developed such as problem solving & investigating?
How did you develop these skills?

13. Play and Learning
What do you consider to be the difference between play and work?
What do you base your ideas on?
Did you consider school classroom activities to be play and/or work?
Did different teachers have an impact on this perception?
Consider cultural ideas relating to work and play
Do all children, from all cultures, play the same way?

14. Characteristics of ‘true’ play

15. Play based learning

16. Principles, Practices and Learning Outcomes work together

17. Documenting should reflect the Practice and the Principles
We can only achieve our aims if we believe in what we are doing. Practice should reflect the Principles of EYLF and MTOP.
The Principles, Practices and Learning Outcomes work together.
Identifying your personal values and beliefs is the first step in building knowledge based on professional judgments.
Making decisions based on professional judgments enables educators to be equitable.

18. Working together
Working with the Early Years Learning Framework and My Time, Our place

19. Why document? To meet legislative requirements
To gather information from variety of sources
Provide documentary evidence if required
Keep a record of events not reliant on memory
To provide opportunities to revisit over time
To see patterns emerging
To assess growth over time

20. Assessment for learning
To many people the word assessment has negative overtones. However in the context of children’s learning the EYLF tells us that assessment is;
“...the process of gathering and analysing information as evidence about what children know, can do and understand. It is part of an ongoing cycle that includes planning, documenting and evaluating children’s learning.” (EYLF 2009, p.17)

21. Evaluation for wellbeing and learning
‘Educators gather knowledge about children’s wellbeing and learning as they reflect and engage in processes such as scanning, monitoring, gathering and analysing information about how children feel and what children know, can do and understand.’
(My Time our Place, p16)

22. How to document

23. How to document

24. Video Clip Observe the video clip
Using the ‘when?’ ‘where?’ ‘who?’ ‘what?’ & ‘how?’ describe what you see
Using the terminology from the Learning Outcomes handout, identify with the video clip the learning that is occurring.
Reflect on how you would change or extend upon this experience

26. Learning Stories (One method of writing)
One method of documenting
Place the writer in the picture
Provide an opportunity to describe the scene in more detail
Learning is lifelong and the learning journey is the most important part to document. In the past we had focussed more on the destination.
Each persons journey is unique

27. The environment Resources that show a respect for diversity.
Natural materials
Open ended materials
Thoughtful planning of the spaces provided
Place for children to be solitary
Music used thoughtfully and not just constant noise
Outdoor spaces valued as much as the indoors

28. The Communication Educators using open ended questions
Educators and children ‘attuned’
Conversations that provide opportunities for children to extend their thinking
Educators supporting children to express their feelings and relate to their peers
Educators assisting children to problem solve

29. The Relationships Respectful and warm relationships with families
Educators respectful of diversity in parenting styles
Educators supporting families and sharing information about their child’s day

30. Intentional Teaching
‘Intentional teaching is deliberate, purposeful and thoughtful.’ (EYLF, p15)
Intentional teachers use strategies that support children to solve their own problems.
Intentional teaching requires educators to ‘document and monitor children’s learning’ (EYLF, p15)

31. Intentionality
Educators ‘ actively promote children’s learning through worthwhile and challenging experiences and interactions that foster high-level thinking skills and they seize opportunities in activities and conversations to extend or affirm children’s learning.’ (My time our place, p14)

32. Learning Frameworks in action
Look at the physical environment. What do you see? Are there open ended materials, representative of cultural diversity? Is the environment thoughtfully planned?
Listen to your communication. How many open ended questions have you asked?
Document what is meaningful.

33. Documenting Learning stories Anecdotal records Running records
Photographs
Jottings and ‘post it’ notes
Mind maps
Narratives

34. Outcome 5: Children are effective communicators Children engage with a range of texts and gain meaning from these texts

35. Group discussion
In small groups discuss the examples given relating to outcome 5 in relation to your service.
How do you facilitate learning in this outcome?
Reflecting on these examples are there any ideas that you may use or are currently using?
Are there aspects you would like to improve?
Question time

36. References
MacNaughton, G Shaping Early Childhood. Library of Congress. London
Penn, H. (2000). Early childhood services theory, policy and practice. Philadelphia, Open University Press.
Siraj-Blatchford, I., K. Sylva, et al. (2002). Researching Effective Pedagogy in the Early Years (REPEY): DfES Research Report 356. London, DfES, HMSO.
The Early Years Learning Framework. Belonging, Being & Becoming. Australian Government, Department Education, Employment and Workplace Realtions. ACT