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

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

3. 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)

4. 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.

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

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

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

8. 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

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

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

11. Builder of relationships:
Partner
Communicator
Collaborator
Mediator
Mentor
Supporter
Networker

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

24. 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

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

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

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

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

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

30. 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)

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

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