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Pedagogical Approaches in Early Years Education

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Pedagogical Approaches in
Early Years Education

South Devon College Inaugural

Research Showcase
15th May 2014
Dr. Francisca Veale
 What is Pedagogy?
Pedagogy (Greek: paidagogos, παιδαγωγός =
to lead the child) is the art or science
of educating children:

 Educational process
 Leading and guiding children
 Supporting learning and development
 Holistic view of children: not just
cognitive, but also PSE development of
children and life skills
 Current views on Pedagogy
Pedagogy is:
… education in the broadest sense of the word where
care and education meet and which concerns
upbringing, child-rearing, nurturing, socialisation,
supporting learning and development.

The key features of pedagogy are described as:

 A focus on the child as a whole person, and support for
the child’s overall development;
 The practitioner seeing herself/himself as a person, in
relationship with the child or young person;
 Children and staff are seen as inhabiting the same life
space, not as existing in separate hierarchical domains.

(Petrie et al, 2009)

Pedagogy

The child is viewed as a complex social being

with rich and extraordinary potential, rather
than as an adult-in-waiting who needs to be
given the right ingredients for optimal
development.

For pedagogues there is no universal solution,

each situation and each individual child
requires a response based on a combination of
information, emotions, self-knowledge,
research and theory.
The pedagogue
The profession of ‘pedagogue’ is often
translated, incorrectly, as ‘teacher’.

Pedagogy is a relational and holistic

approach to working with children and
young people.

The pedagogue sets out to address the

whole child, the child with body, mind,
emotions, creativity, history, cultural, and
social identity.
Key principles of pedagogic practice (1):

 As professionals, pedagogues are encouraged to

constantly reflect on their practice and to apply
both theoretical understandings and self-
knowledge to their work and to the sometimes
challenging demands with which they are
confronted.

 Pedagogues should be both practical and creative;

their training prepares them to share in many
aspects of children’s daily lives, such as preparing
meals and snacks, or making music and building
kites.
(Petrie et al 2009)
Key principles of pedagogic practice (2):
 In group settings, children’s associative life is
seen as an important resource: pedagogues should
foster and make use of the group.

 Pedagogy builds on an understanding of children’s

rights that is not limited to procedural matters or
legislative requirements.

 There is an emphasis on team work and valuing the

contributions of others — family members, other
professionals and members of the local community
— in the task of ‘bringing up’ children.
(Petrie et al 2009)
Pedagogical theories & approaches
 Rousseau  Bandura
 Froebel  Gardner
 McMillan  Goleman
 Montessori  Bronfenbrenner
 Steiner  Reggio Emilia
 Piaget  High/Scope
 Vygotsky  Te Whaariki
 Bruner  Sweden
 Bowlby  Forest schools
 Athey
Pedagogical Direct Inductive Exploratory
Approaches

Purpose Acquire new skills and Develop a concept or Use and consolidate
knowledge process or refine skills

Key features Structured sequence, Structure or directed Testing a hypothesis

starting with steps. Children based on
demonstration to whole collect and examine understanding of a
class, followed by information and they concept and children
individual work and construct or generate decide what
ending with whole class categories. information to collect
review. and analyse.
Examples Developing Generating rules for Exploring the best
communication skills; spelling or method of making a
listening to arguments; mathematics; bridge from
constructing sentences collecting materials newspaper; exploring
or sequences; using a or visual props to what materials are
spreadsheet to follow demonstrate how art waterproof.
and monitor the growth is perceived or how
of plants. something works.

Key Questions How could you…? Can you group these? What might affect…?
Why am I doing this? Can you see any What possible
pattern? reasons are there
for…?
How they do it in Sweden: Preschool
A relaxed, playful start to learning is central
to the Swedish approach: “it's not the child
that we should evaluate, it's processes in
the school“.
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/exa
mining-pre-school-curriculum (27 min)

First 7 mins
14.12-18
23.17-end
 Research into Effective Pedagogy

SPEEL = Study of Pedagogical Effectiveness in

Early years Learning (Moyles et al 2002)

REPEY = Researching Effective Pedagogy in the

Early Years (Siraj-Blatchford et al 2002)

EPPE = Effective Provision of Pre-School Education

(Sylva et al 2010)
The Study of Pedagogical Effectiveness
in Early Learning (SPEEL)

Pedagogy.... connects the relatively self-

contained act of teaching and being an early
years educator, with personal, cultural and
community values (including care), curriculum
structures and external influences.

Pedagogy in the early years operates from a

shared frame of reference (a mutual learning
encounter) between the practitioner, the
young child(ren) and his/her family.
(Moyles et al. 2002)
 Researching Effective Pedagogy in
the Early Years (REPEY)
The study draws on preliminary findings from EPPE and extends
looking at a range of effective Outcomes and Pedagogical
strategies in foundation stage settings.

Community, Parents,
Staff, other
professionals

Pedagogical framing:
planning, assessment,
resources, environment,
routines for play

Pedagogical
Intervention

(Siraj-Blatchford et al 2002)
 Effective Provision of Pre-School
Education (EPPE )
Longitudinal study concluded that

… there is not ‘one’ effective pedagogy, instead the

effective pedagogue orchestrates pedagogy by
making interventions (scaffolding, discussions,
monitoring) which are sensitive to the curriculum
concept or skill being taught taking account of the
child’s ‘zone of proximal development’.

Evidence also suggests that the achievements of

settings against the cognitive outcomes appear to
be directly related to the quantity and quality of
the teacher/adult planned and initiated focussed
group work that is provided.
(Sylva et al 2010)
 Sustained Shared Thinking
 Tuning in: Listening carefully to what is being said and what the child is doing.
 Showing genuine interest: Giving their whole attention to the child.
 Respecting children’s own decisions and choices by inviting children to
elaborate: ‘I really want to know more about this’ and engaging in the response.
 Re-capping: ‘So you think that …’
 Offering the adult’s own experience: ‘I like to listen to music when I ….’
 Clarifying ideas: ‘Right, so you think that this stone will melt if I boil it?’
 Suggesting: ‘You might like to try doing it this way.’
 Using encouragement to further thinking: ‘You have really thought hard about
where to put this door in the palace – where will you put the windows?’
 Offering an alternative viewpoint: ‘Maybe Goldilocks wasn’t naughty when she
ate the porridge?’
 Speculating: ‘Do you think the three bears would have liked Goldilocks to come to
live with them as their friend?’
 Asking open questions: ‘How did you … ?’ ‘Why does this ... ?’ ‘What happens
next?’ ‘What do you think?’ ‘I wonder what would happen if … ?’
 Using positive questioning: ‘I don’t know, what do you think?’ ‘That’s an
interesting idea.’ ‘I like what you have done there.’ ‘What would happen if we
did?’
 Making sense words: ‘I think’, ‘I agree’, ‘I imagine’, ‘I disagree’, ‘I like’, ‘I don’t
like’, ‘I wonder’.
(adapted from Siraj-Blatchford, 2007)
Possibility thinking
 Craft (2008) suggests to engage in possibility thinking
by going beyond the ‘what is’, to the possible, or to the
‘what could be’, or ‘what if’. This can be applied to all
areas of learning and experiences from imaginative to
scientific enquiries and experimentation.

Possibility thinking facilitates:

 being imaginative in order to find a way around a
problem.
 practical as it ties all domains of life – the ethical,
social and conceptual – to each other in everyday
contexts
 overcoming of obstacles such as poverty and the taking
up of new opportunities.
Collaborative learning
Collaborative learning between pedagogues and children
focuses on how children learn more than the what or
how much they learn by asking questions:

 How did you do that?

 How else could you have done that?
 Who did that a different way?
 What was hard about doing that?
 What could you do when you are stuck on that?
 How could you help someone else do that?
 What would have made that easier for you?
 How could you make that harder for yourself?
 How could I have taught that better?
(Claxton 2008)
Knowledge-creation process
Claxton (2008) encourages teachers to go further
and not just engage children in knowledge
implementation, but in knowledge-creation
processes by getting them interested and actively
involved in extending their own learning capacity. He
suggests that learning opportunities should be:

 rich: there is much to be explored

 challenging: the topic contains real difficulty
 extended: there is time and opportunity to go into it in depth
 relevant: the topic connects with learners’ own interests and
concerns
 responsible: learners have some genuine control over what, why,
how and when they organise their learning
 real: solving the problem or making progress genuinely matters to
someone
 unknown: the teacher does not already know the ‘answer’
 collaborative: most learners enjoy the opportunity to work
together.
Forest Schools
Claxton (2002 cited Knight 2009) states that

‘to thrive in the twenty-first century, it is not

enough to leave school with a clutch of
examination certificates. You have to have
learnt how to be tenacious and resourceful,
imaginative and logical, self-disciplined and
self-aware, collaborative and inquisitive.’

Knight (2009) suggests that Forest Schools

develop all of the above skills.
 References and Reading Suggestions:
Berthelsen, D. Brownlee J. and Johansson E. (eds) 2009, Participatory learning in the early years. Research and pedagogy. Routledge:
London.

Bruce ,T. 2011 Early Childhood Education. 4th edition. Oxon. Hodder Education

Claxton, G. 2008. What’s the Point of School? Rediscovering the Heart of Education , Oneworld

Craft, A. (2008) Creativity and Possibility in the Early Years. Online: ww.tactyc.org.uk/pdfs/Reflection-craft.pdf

Hedges, H. and Cullen, J. 2005. Subject knowledge in early childhood curriculum and pedagogy: beliefs and practices. Contemporary
Issues in Early Childhood 6 (1) pp. 66-79

Knight, S. 2009. Forest Schools and Outdoor learning in the Early Years. London. Sage Publication

Leach and Moon 2008 The Power of Pedagogy . London. Sage Publications

Moyles, J., Adams, S. and Musgrove, A. (2002) SPEEL: The Study of Pedagogical Effectiveness in Early Learning Research Report
363, London: DfES

Petrie, P , Boddy, J ,Cameron C, Heptinstall E, McQuail S, Simon A and Wigfall V. 2009. Pedagogy – a holistic,personal approach to
work with children and young people. across services. University of London Thomas Coram Research Unit, Institute of Education.
Available online: http://eprints.ioe.ac.uk/58/1/may_18_09_Ped_BRIEFING__PAPER_JB_PP_.pdf.

Siraj-Blatchford, I., Sylva, K., Muttock, S., Gilden, R. and Bell, D. 2002. Researching Effective Pedagogy in the Early Years (REPEY).
DfES Research Report 356. London, DfES, HMSO

Siraj-Blatchford, I. 2007. Creativity, Communication and Collaboration: The Identification of Pedagogic Progression in Sustained
Shared Thinking, Asia-Pacific Journal of Research in Early Childhood Education, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 3-23

Sylva, K., Melhuish, E., Sammons, P., Siraj-Blatchford, I. and Taggart, B. (eds) 2010. Early Childhood Matters: Evidence from the
effective pre-school and primary education project (EPPE). London: Routledge.

Taylor ,J. and Woods, M. 2005. Early childhood Studies. An Holistic Introduction. London. HodderArnold

Veale, F. 2013. Early Years for level 4 & 5, London: Hodders

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