Exploring the connections between Belonging, Being, Becoming and SA TfEL

bringing together the‘what’ and ‘how’

of teaching and learning for improved learner engagement and achievement

South Australian DECD Teaching and Learning Services

User notes

This PowerPoint can be used in a one hour staff meeting to begin exploration of the connections between Belonging, Being Becoming and the SA Teaching for Effective Learning (TfEL) to deliver the Australian Curriculum through Learning Design.

Preparation: Using large butchers’ paper, create a chart as it appears in slide 23.

In addition, you will need copies of:•Belonging Being & Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia•Educators Belonging Being & Becoming: Educators’ Guide to The Early Years Learning Framework

for Australia•South Australian Teaching for Effective Learning Framework guide•Appendix 1:The Early Years Planning Cycle•Appendix 2:The Learning Design (LD) model

Additional resources, which are not essential but may support your delivery, are included as the last slide in this presentation.

Belonging, Being & Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia

South Australian Teaching for Effective Learning (TfEL)

Why?Why now?

5

Goal 1: Australian schooling promotes equity and excellenceGoal 2: All young Australians become:• successful learners• confident and creative individuals• active and informed citizens

Australian Curriculum…National Assessment…My School

Early Years Development Strategy… EYLF Universal Access …National Quality Standard

NATIONAL REFORM AGENDA

DECD.. same first day

6

Children and young people are at the centre of everything that we do and we will work to ensure positive outcomes for all young South Australians.

The Strategic Plan 2012 – 2016 for SA Public Education and Care www.decs.sa.gov.au/strategicplan

What does the research tell us?

TRANSITION from prior to school settings into school, is now the first point of major curriculum change for very young South Australians and their families.

Successful adjustment to school is important for long term success in school.

Research suggests that 10%–20% of children may experience significant concerns, adjustment difficulties and distress during the transition period.

Process – 5 minutes

‘Transitions are about movement, change, continuity or discontinuity. Transitions are points of vulnerability and possibility. They can be stressful or calming, points for positive growth or for setbacks. If children...are to feel secure, it is essential that transitions are given careful consideration in order for them to be positive.’

NSW Dept of Community Services (2002), p.143

Talk to a partner about a personal transition you have experienced. What helped/ hindered this process?

Major sources of discontinuity...differences between curriculum and teaching approaches

‘…nothing magical happens to children's brains or learning styles … between finishing early years education and starting school…

there is a strong rationale for seeking greater alignment between early years services and school curricula, with a more gradual introduction to structured learning.’

The Royal Children’s Hospital Centre for Community Child Health p2

Process – 10 minutes

Think, Pair, Share

How do we design our teaching and learning plans?

What influences your decisions …and my decisions…?

‘Educators’ beliefs about children’s learning and what motivates children to learn very much determine the learning environment that educators establish and maintain and the role they take in children’s learning processes.’

DECS (2008) Reflect Respect Relate, p.47

So, if we believe PLAY is a context through which children learn and make sense of their world, our learning environments and planning will provide space and time for this to occur.

How will we know if they

got it?

What do we want them to learn?

So how will we

get there?

The ‘how’ – pedagogy

The ‘what’ – curriculum & frameworks

Learning Design

‘Intentional teaching involves educators being deliberate, purposeful and thoughtful in their decisions and action.’

Belonging, Being & Becoming,

Educators’ Guide, p 47

Am I clear about what I want them to learn and how to help them learn it? Have approaches and strategies been designed purposefully with the learners and their context in mind?

SA TfEL Review Tools Handbook, p.5

The Early Years planning cycleEducators using the Early Years Learning Framework are guided in their decision making by the Early Years Planning Cycle…

...an ongoing cycle of information gathering, questioning, planning, acting and reflection.

16

In our schools, the Learning Design process brings together SA pedagogy (TfEL) with the Australian Curriculum

Learning Design

17

‘Reflection is an important human activity in which people recapture their experience, think about it, mull it over and evaluate. It is this working with experience that is important in learning.’

Boud D et al, 1985, p.19

Reflect Respect Relate and the SA TfEL Review Tools handbook provide educators with reference points for quality reflective practice.

Exploring the ‘What?’

How will you help me reach my full potential?

The 5 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

The 5 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

• Children develop dispositions for learning such as curiosity, cooperation, confidence and creativity…

• Children use a range of skills and processes such as problem solving, inquiry, experimentation…

• 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

Learning Design

What do they

bring ?

By the end of

Year 2 students

describe changes to objects, materials and living things. They identify that certain materials and resources have different uses and describe examples of where science is used in people’s daily lives. Students pose questions about their experiences and predict outcomes of investigations. They use informal measurements to make and compare observations. They follow instructions to record and represent their observations and communicate their ideas to others.

By the end of

Year 1 students

describe objects and events that they encounter in their everyday lives, and the effects of interacting with materials and objects They identify a range of habitats. They describe changes to things in their local environment and suggest how science helps people care for environments. Students make predictions, and investigate everyday phenomena. They follow instructions to record and sort their observations and share their observations with others.

By the end of

Reception students describe the properties and behaviour of familiar objects. They suggest how the environment affects them and other living things Students share observations of familiar objects and events.

Children develop dispositions such ascuriosity, cooperation, confidence and creativity…

Children use a range of skills and processes such as problem solving, inquiry, experimentation…

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 & processed materials

AUSTRALIAN CURRICULUM: SCIENCE — ACHIEVEMENT STANDARDS

Exploring the ‘How?’

How will you improve my outcomes through quality teaching and learning?

Principles

• Secure, respectful and reciprocal relationships

• Partnerships with families

• High expectations and equity

• Respect for diversity

• Ongoing learning and reflective practice

Practice

• Holistic approaches

• Responsiveness to children

• Learning through play

• Intentional teaching

• Learning environments

• Cultural competence

• Continuity of learning and transitions

• Assessment for learning

Process – 10 minutes

Secure, respectful and reciprocal relationships

Democratic relationships

What is it that teachers think, feel, say and INTENTIONALLY do in order to develop these?

Process – 10 minutes (continued)

What is it that teachers think, feel, say and INTENTIONALLY do in order to develop…Secure, respectful and reciprocal / democratic relationships?

Thinking Saying

Feeling Doing

EYLF page 12: TfEL Framework Guide Page 29 Key Actions

Clarify specific objectives, learning environment / role of educator /assessment methods and evidence

What evidence will enable us to assess the intended learning?

Assess & evaluate teaching & learning

Identify individual & group strengths interests & goals

What do they bring?

What is the intended learning & why is it important?

What could the intended learning look like at this level?

Design the Teaching and Learning Plan

How will we engage, challenge and support their learning ?

Design Learning Experiences

Implement Plans

Learning Design

Early Years Planning Cycle Have approaches and strategies been designed purposefully, with the learners and their context in mind to achieve the desired learning outcomes?

TfEL Review Tools Handbook

Personal & site

philosophy D1D1 &PLCs

The art of teaching involves clarity about the desired learning outcomes and learning activities to achieve these as well as a thoughtful response to the context, to learner prior knowledge and needs, and to the teachable moment—and even to the weather!

References

Bogard K & Takanishi R (2005) ‘PK-3; An aligned & coordinated approach to education for children 3 to 8 years old’ Social Policy Report XIX (III), Society for Research in Child Development, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Boud D, Keogh R and Walker D (1985) Reflection, Turning Experience into Learning, Routledge, p.19.

DECS (2008) Respect reflect relate, DECS Publishing, Adelaide.

DECS (2010) South Australian Teaching for Effective Learning Framework guide, Government of South Australia.

DECS Children and young people at the centre of everything we do: The Strategic Plan 2012 - 2016 for Public Education and Care, available at www.decd.sa.gov.au/aboutdept/files/links/DECS2012StratPlanPoster.pdf (accessed 6 August 2012).

DEEWR (2009) Belonging being & becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia, Commonwealth of Australia, available at www.deewr.gov.au/Earlychildhood/Policy_Agenda/Quality/Documents/Final%20EYLF%20Framework%20Report%20-%20WEB.pdf (accessed 27-7-12).

DEEWR (2010) Educators Belonging, Being & Becoming: Educators’ Guide to the Early Years Learning Framework for Australia, Commonwealth of Australia, available at www.deewr.gov.au/Earlychildhood/Policy_Agenda/Quality/Documents/EYLF_Ed_Guide.pdf (accessed 27-7-12).

Fabian H (2002) Contextualised Learning for 5-8 year olds, Learning and teaching Scotland, Dundee, Scotland.

Hausken EG & Rathbun, A ‘Adjustment to Kindergarten: Child, Family & Kindergarten Program Factors ’, paper presented to the annual meeting of the American Research Association (New Orleans April (2002).

Kauerz, K (2006) Ladders of Learning: Fighting Fade-Out by Advancing PK-3 Alignment. NAF Issue Brief No 2, (January 2006) New American Foundation: early education Initiative, Washington, DC.

References (continued)

MCEETYA (2008) Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians, Curriculum Corporation, available at http://www.mceecdya.edu.au/verve/_resources/National_Declaration_on_the_Educational_Goals_for_Young_Australians.pdf (accessed 3 August 2012).

NSW Dept of Community Services (2002) The Practice of Relationships, Office of Childcare, p.143 available at www.community.nsw.gov.au/docswr/_assets/main/documents/childcare_framework.pdf (accessed 27-7-12).

OECD (2009) Creating Effective Teaching and Learning Environments: First Results from TALIS, OECD Publishing, avail at http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/17/51/43023606.pdf (accessed 3 August 2012).

O’Kane M & Hayes N (2006) The Transition To School In Ireland: Views of Preschool and Primary School Teachers, International Journal of Transitions in Childhood, Vol.2, 2006, Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland.

Peters S (2010) Literature Review: Transition from Early Childhood Education to School: Report to the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Education New Zealand.Petriwskyj, A., Thorpe, K. & Taylor, C. (2005). Trends in construction of transition to school in three Westernregions, 1990-2004. International Journal of Early Years Education, 13, 1, 55-69, available at http://eprints.qut.edu.au/14248/1/14248.pdf (accessed 9-8-12)

Royal Children’s Hospital’s Centre for Community Child Health (2008) ‘Rethinking the transition to school’, Curriculum leadership, vol 6, issue 34, available at http://www.curriculum.edu.au/leader/rethinking_the_transition_to_school,25605.html?issueID=11622 (accessed 27-7-12).

Schulting A, Malone P & Dodge K (2005) ‘The Effect of School-Based Kindergarten Transition Policies and Practices on Child Academic Outcomes’, Developmental Psychology, Vol 41(6), Nov, 860-871, available at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2757260/pdf/nihms-143120.pdf (accessed 6 August 2012).

Additional useful resources:

The Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians, available at http://www.mceecdya.edu.au/mceecdya/melbourne_declaration,25979.html

Foundations for learning: Relationships between The Early Years Learning Framework & the Australian Curriculum, available at: http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/pdf/ECA_ACARA_Foundations_Paper/ECA_ACARA_Foundations_Paper_FINAL.pdf

DECD (2012) Every chance for every child, Policy discussion paper 4, available at:http://www.decd.sa.gov.au/docs/documents/1/EveryChanceforEveryChild.pdf

The TfEL Review Tools Handbook

Same First Day- http://www.earlyyears.sa.edu.au/