professional development

Re-defining
for early childhood
Instruction is not a popular word in early childhood education and care. The term often
carries connotations of direct instruction and formal teaching. And yet, every day we
instruct children when we remind them to wash their hands, pack away the blocks, and
share the fruit. In another sense, we instruct when we explain how a story book works,
demonstrate strategies for conflict resolution or introduce a child to a piece of technology.
The questions become:
How well do we do it? And,
Could we do it better?
Professor Collette Tayler, who holds the
Chair in Early Childhood Education and
Care (ECEC) at Melbourne University,
is the Director of E4Kids (Effective Early
Educational Experiences), a five-year
longitudinal research study. Looking at
the findings so far, Collette suggests
we need to reconsider what quality
instruction looks like.

Aspects of quality
E4Kids aims to track childrens learning and
development over time as they participate,
or not, in approved home and centre-based
ECEC, kinder and preschool programs
and outside-school-hours care. The study
is particularly interested in the cohort of
children two years before they enter school,
in order to develop a complex picture of
how each set of experiences contributes to
their learning outcomes, now and into the
future. The study uses a range of measures
to monitor childrens health, academic

and social achievements and personal

competence, and includes an assessment
of the learning programs on offer.
The study examines dimensions of
pedagogy and measures the process
aspects of quality; that is, it focuses on
interactions between adults and children,
rather than on structural issues such as
staffing arrangements and ratios.
It identifies three variables of quality:
Emotional support from a childs
perspectiveemotional climate,
consistency and sensitivity of response
to childrens needs.
Organisation for learningthe kinds of
experiences offered and productivity
in terms of childrens time on task,
engagement and satisfaction with the
activities.
Instructional supportthe quality of
back-and-forth exchanges through
which educators model language,
introduce maths and literacy concepts,
provide feedback to children and expand
childrens language repertoire to build
communicative competence.

Tentative conclusions
All types of services score relatively well on
emotional support; all come in as solid
on classroom organisation measures;
all are relatively low on the instructional
dimensionthere appears to be a limited
sense of educator intentionality and there
is insufficient adultchild dialogue.
Collette stresses that this does not suggest
that we now focus on rote learning, but
that we should consider how we can
deliberately strengthen conceptual learning
and language in informal, play-based
contexts to ensure the best outcomes for
children.
Having clear educational intentions and a
rich repertoire of pedagogical strategies is
important for high-quality early childhood
practice that adds value for all childrens
development and learning; it is particularly
vital for vulnerable children to receive high
levels of emotional, organisational and
instructional support as they set foot on
their life-long learning pathway.
Jenni Connor
Early Childhood Consultant
www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au