In Australia, the Early Childhood Education & Care (ECEC) sector educates children in according to the 'approved learning frameworks'. These approved frameworks are The Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) for before school-age children, and My Time, Our Place for school-age children.
As ECEC professionals, it's essential that we familiarise ourselves with the relevant learning frameworks to ensure we are providing the best education to the children in our care.
Table of Contents
EYLF Principles Secure, respectful and reciprocal relationships Partnerships Respect for diversity Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives Equity, inclusion and high expectations Sustainability Critical reflection and ongoing professional learning Collaborative leadership and teamwork
EYLF Practices Holistic, integrated and interconnected approaches
What is the EYLF?
The EYLF is a framework that sets a vision for children's learning, development and wellbeing. This vision can be explained through Belonging, Being & Becoming:
Belonging: knowing where and with whom you belong. By acknowledging children's interdependence with others and the basis of relationships in defining identities, Belonging focuses on helping children build trusting relationships and affirming experiences that are essential to belonging.
Being: seeking and making meaning of the world around you by being in the here and now. Being puts focus onto children knowing themselves, developing their identity, building and maintaining relationships with others, engaging with life's joys and complexities, and meeting challenges in everyday life.
Becoming: recognising the significant changes that occur as children learn and grow. Becoming "emphasises the collaboration of educators, families and children to support and enhance children's connection and capabilities, and for children to actively participate as citizens."
Beyond the vision of the EYLF are the 3 elements of the framework: Principles, Practices & Learning Outcomes.
EYLF Principles:
Secure, respectful and reciprocal relationships
Partnerships
Respect for diversity
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives
Equity, inclusion and high expectations
Sustainability
Critical reflection and ongoing professional learning
Collaborative leadership and teamwork
EYLF Practices:
Holistic, integrated and interconnected approaches
Responsiveness to children
Play-based learning and intentionality
Learning environments
Cultural responsiveness
Continuity of learning and transitions
Assessment and evaluation for learning, development and wellbeing
Learning Outcomes:
Children have a strong sense of identity
Children are connected with and contribute to their world
Children have a strong sense of wellbeing
Children are confident and involved learners
Children are effective communicators
EYLF Principles
The EYLF Principles are developed to underpin the practice of educators in the early years. They are
Secure, respectful and reciprocal relationships
By focusing on helping children experience positive relationships, educators can provide a secure base for exploring a child's environment and building new relationships. Research has also shown that this is essential for learning, development and wellbeing.
Partnerships
Children, families, educators, other professionals and communities should work in partnership to help children achieve learning outcomes.
These partnerships should:
Value and respect each other's knowledge of each child
Value and respect each other's contributions to and roles in each child's life
Build trust in each other
Act with empathy and sensitivity when children are experiencing adversity
Learn about other ways of knowing, being, doing and thinking
Communicate and share information safely and respectfully with each other
Share insights and perspectives about each child with families
Acknowledge the diversity of families and their aspirations for their children
Engage in shared decision-making to support children's learning, development and wellbeing
Respect for diversity
Educators should value children's unique and diverse capacities and capabilities and respect families' home lives. By acknowledging the histories, cultures, languages, traditions, religions, spiritual beliefs, child-rearing practices and lifestyle choices of families, services can build a culturally safe and secure environment for all children.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives
Embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives in your practice is key to helping children know about Australia's First Nations histories, Closing the Gap, and Reconciliation. This is a shared responsibility of providers, educators and other professionals.
Equity, inclusion and High Expectations
Educators should create inclusive environments, making reasonable adjustments to improve access, participation and engagement in learning. Viewing all children as competent and capable, educators have high expectations for children's learning. They will engage in critical reflection, challenge practices that contribute to inequities or discrimination, and make curriculum decisions that promote participation and inclusion.
Sustainability
Educators and children should play active roles in promoting environmental, social and economic sustainability:
Environmental: Caring for the natural world, and protecting, preserving and improving the environment.
Social: living peacefully, fairly and respectfully together in resilient local and global communities.
Economic: supporting economic development without negatively impacting the other dimensions.
Critical reflection and ongoing professional development
Educators are co-learners with children, families and communities, and look to continuously build their professional knowledge and skills, and develop learning communities. They engage in critical reflection - a meaning-making process that involves a deep level of thinking and evaluation - to inform future practice in ways that demonstrate an understanding of each child's learning, development and wellbeing.
Collaborative leadership and teamwork
Collaborative leadership and teamwork are built on a sense of shared responsibility, where educators empower each other to do the best they can for children families and colleagues. Educators should engage with different ways of thinking and work to critically reflect on their practice both individually and as a team, and contribute to curriculum decisions and quality improvement.
EYLF Practices
Holistic, integrated and interconnected approaches
Educators pay attention to children's physical, personal, social, emotional and spiritual wellbeing, and cognitive aspects of learning by taking an holistic approach. They see the child's learning as integrated and connected, recognising connections between children, families and communities.
Responsiveness to children
Educators respond to:
Each child's strengths, capabilities and curiosity
Strategies used by children with additional needs to negotiate their everyday lives
Children's expertise, cultural traditions and ways of knowing, and multiple languages spoken by some children (including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children)
Children's knowledge, ideas, sociality and playfulness
Play-based learning and intentionality
Educators are intentional, deliberate, thoughtful and purposeful in supporting children's learning through play. They allow children to act intentionally and with agency in play, and recognise that joint attention, interactions, conversations and shared thinking are vital for learning.
Learning environments
Educators plan and provide individual and group spaces that are active and calming, and times in the schedule for active and quiet play. They invite children and families to contribute their ideas, interests and questions to create unique and familiar environments.
Cultural responsiveness
Cultural responsiveness encompasses:
Awareness of one's own world view and biases
Respect for diverse cultures
Respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures as the nation's custodians of the land
Gaining knowledge of cultural practices and world views
Communicating effectively and sensitively with people, recognising diverse ways of communicating and interacting across cultures
Everyday practices, including routines and rituals
Decisions and actions that are responsive to children and families' context
Culturally responsible educators are:
Knowledgeable of each child and family's context
Active in embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives in all aspects of the curriculum
Implementing anti-bias approaches, including social justice approaches to address racism or bias in the setting or community.
Embedding democratic and fair practices in their setting, including the importance of being a responsible citizen
Supporting children to take culturally responsive actions in the face of unfairness or discrimination
Collaborating with colleagues, children, families and their communities to build culturally safe learning spaces
Continuity of learning and transitions
Educators help children feel secure, confident and connected to familiar people, places, events and understandings - reinforcing their sense of belonging. Educators also assist children to negotiate changes in their status of identities (e.g. moving to a new room).
For transitions, educators commit to sharing information about each child's knowledge and skills so learning can build on the foundations of earlier learning. They also work in partnership with children and families to assist transitions by helping children understand the transitions, routines and practices of the new setting, to play an active role in the transition, and to feel comfortable with the transition.
For continuity, educators work with families to promote this, knowing about how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children's kinship connections, parenting practices and other aspects of cultural life can inform positive transitions.
Assessment and evaluation for learning, development and wellbeing
Educators utilise 3 broad types of assessment:
Formative assessment: What children know, can do and understand informs pedagogy and planning. Educators collect information that depicts children's learning, describes their progress and identifies strengths, learning dispositions, skills and understanding. This strategy captures different pathways that children take in their learning journeys and make the process of learning visible to children and their families, educators and other professionals.
Summative Assessment: Reviewing children's achievements and capabilities at specified timepoints (e.g. mid-year or in transition). Educators make judgements on children's learning, and critically reflect on how children have engaged with increasingly complex ideas and participated in increasingly sophisticated learning experiences. Summative assessments can also be linked to developmental milestones.
Assessment 'as learning': Children's voices and contributions to assessment can be captured using child portfolios to involve children in documenting learning, allowing children to reflect on their learning and understand themselves as learners.
Evaluations involves educators' critical reflection on the effectiveness of their planning and implementation of children's learning as part of the planning cycle. In terms of practice, they critically reflect on:
The experiences, resources, strategies and environments they provide and how these link to the intended Learning Outcomes.
The effectiveness of learning opportunities, environments and experiences offered, and the approaches taken to enable children's learning.
The extent to which they know and value the culturally specific knowledge about children and learning that is embedded within the community in which they are working.
Each child's learning in the context of their families and children’s funds of knowledge so that the learning opportunities and experiences offered build on what children already know and bring to the early childhood setting
Questioning assumptions and unacknowledged biases about children’s learning and expectations for children
Incorporating pedagogical practices that reflect knowledge of diverse perspectives and contribute to children’s wellbeing and successful learning and is inclusive and appropriate for each child or small groups of children.
EYLF Outcomes
Outcome 1: Children have a strong sense of identity
The elements of Outcome 1 are that:
Children feel safe, secure and supported
Children develop their emerging autonomy, inter-dependence, resilience and agency
Children develop knowledgeable, confident self-identities and a positive sense of self-worth
Children learn to interact in relation to others with care, empathy and respect
Outcome 2: Children are connected with and contribute to their world
The elements of Outcome 2 are that:
Children develop a sense of connectedness to groups and communities and an understanding of their reciprocal rights and responsibilities as active and informed citizens
Children respond to diversity with respect
Children become aware of fairness
Children become socially responsible and show respect for the environment
Outcome 3: Children have a strong sense of wellbeing
The elements of Outcome 3 are that:
Children become strong in their social, emotional and mental wellbeing
Children become strong in their physical learning and wellbeing
Children are aware of and develop strategies to support their own mental and physical health and personal safety
Outcome 4: Children are confident and involved learners
The elements of Outcome 4 are that:
Children develop a growth mindset and learning dispositions such as curiosity, cooperation, confidence, creativity, commitment, enthusiasm, persistence, imagination and reflexivity
Children develop a range of learning and thinking skills and processes such as problem solving, inquiry, experimentation, hypothesising, researching and investigating
Children transfer and adapt what they have learned from one context to another
Children resource their own learning through connecting with people, place, technologies and natural and processed materials
Outcome 5: Children are effective communicators
The elements of Outcome 5 are that:
Children interact verbally and non-verbally with others for a range of purposes
Children engage with a range of texts and gain meaning from these texts
Children express ideas and make meaning using a range of media
Children begin to understand how symbols and pattern systems work
Children use digital technologies and media to access information, investigate ideas and represent their thinking
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