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

1. 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

2. 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.

3. Belonging, Being & Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia South Australian Teaching for Effective Learning (TfEL)

4. Why?Why now?

5. NATIONAL REFORM AGENDA • Goal 1: Australian schooling promotes equity and excellence • Goal 2: All young Australians become: • successful learners • confident and creative individuals • active and informed citizens Early Years Development Strategy… EYLF Universal Access …National Quality Standard • Australian Curriculum… • National Assessment…My School • 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

7. 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.

8. 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?

9. 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

10.  Process – 10 minutes Think, Pair, Share • How do we design our teaching and learning plans? • What influences your decisions …and my decisions…?

11. ‘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.

12. The ‘what’ – curriculum & frameworks What do we want them to learn? How will we know if they got it? So how will we get there? The ‘how’ – pedagogy

13. Learning Design

14. ‘Intentional teaching involves educators being deliberate, purposeful and thoughtfulin their decisions and action.’ Belonging, Being & Becoming, Educators’ Guide, p 47 Am I clear about what I want them to learnand 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

15. The Early Years planning cycle Educators 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.

18. Exploring the ‘What?’

19. 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

20. 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 Learning Design What do they bring ? • Children develop dispositions for learning suchas 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

22. By the end of Year 2students describechanges 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 Reception students describe the properties and behaviour of familiar objects. They suggest how the environment affects them andother living things Students share observations of familiar objects and events. By the end of Year 1 students describeobjects 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 recordand sorttheir observationsand share their observations withothers. AUSTRALIAN CURRICULUM: SCIENCE— ACHIEVEMENT STANDARDS Children develop dispositions 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 throughconnecting with people, place, technologies and natural & processed materials

23. Exploring the ‘How?’

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

25. 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

27. Process – 10 minutes Secure, respectful and reciprocal relationships Democratic relationships What is it that teachers think, feel, say and INTENTIONALLYdoin order to develop these?

28. 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? Saying Thinking Feeling Doing EYLF page 12: TfEL Framework Guide Page 29 Key Actions

29. 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 D1 D1 & PLCs Identify individual & group strengths interests & goals Assess & evaluate teaching & learning Clarify specific objectives, learning environment / role of educator /assessment methods and evidence Implement Plans Design Learning Experiences Learning Design What could the intended learning look like at this level? What is the intended learning & why is it important? How will we engage, challenge and support their learning ? What evidence will enable us to assess the intended learning? What do they bring? Design the Teaching and Learning Plan

30. 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!

31. 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.

32. 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 Western regions, 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).

33. 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/