Course Tile: Early Childhood Care and Education

Name of the Content Writer: Dr. K. Arockia Maraichelvi Module 23

PEDAGOGY IN RELATION TO ECE -

CO-CONSTRUCTING, MODELLING, QUESTIONING
Introduction
The second module of the 8th week deals with three more instructional
practices namely - Co-Constructing, Modelling and Questioning - that can be applied
to a Early Childhood classroom setting

CO-CONSTRUCTING
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the end of this video, you will be able to
 Define co-construction as an instructional strategy
 Enlist the importance of co-construction
 Infer the theoretical inputs concerning areas of co-construction
 Comprehend the process of co-construction and review the same with a
typical example
DEFINITION
It refers to the process of collaborative interaction between the child and the
educator through which knowledge is built on a concept.
Co-construction as a teaching pedagogy is a distinctive approach by which
the educator and the child form meaning through interaction and build on schemas. It
is the strategy that involves thinking of different viewpoints and working
collaboratively to solve a problem by the educator and the child.
BENEFITS OF CO-CONSTRUCTION
The strategy of co-constructing knowledge has its emphasis on collaborative
learning, and the collaboration involves specific interactional process such as
coordination and cooperation. The collaborative effort in co-construction has its own
benefits. Few of them are enlisted below
 Motivates the child to have positive interactions and discussions and solve
issues together
 Helps the child to explore meaning shared by others on a concept
 Expand and build the knowledge along with the educator

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Course Tile: Early Childhood Care and Education
Name of the Content Writer: Dr. K. Arockia Maraichelvi Module 23

 Learn to form relationships with their peers and educators during the initial
stages, which then leads them to relate themselves to the society as a whole
in their later life.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF CO-CONSTRUCTION

Like scaffolding, the teaching strategy – co-construction also is a direct
implication of Vygotsky and Bruner.
Belief – the assumption was that the child learns as a direct result of
meaningful interactions with the environment.
Areas of co-construction
Co-construction is a complex, multi-dimensional approach of learning that
involves three areas namely
1. The individual child
2. The physical and social environment of the child
3. The educator
All three areas work together in unison to construct the child's knowledge and
understanding of the environment around them. The most important way by which a
child learns is the construction of various understandings of a concept that happens
when the child actively try to make sense of their experiences. Though this is a
natural phenomenon, the process of co-construction happens when children work
collaboratively with the educator or with an adult or with his peer group.
AREAS OF CO-CONSTRUCTION

Educator

Physical and social

Environment

Co-construction
Child

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Course Tile: Early Childhood Care and Education
Name of the Content Writer: Dr. K. Arockia Maraichelvi Module 23

For example - While working on a joint project, any two people (the educator and
child here) gets the concept clarified by expressing their viewpoints, and each learns
from it. The viewpoints are expressed as an understanding of the experiences that
both of them had gained from their physical and social environment.
THE PROCESS OF CO-CONSTRUCTION
Co-construction gives effective result when it is used to emphasise meaning
and understanding rather than the acquisition of facts. The following are the steps to
be followed by the educator involved in the process of co-construction with a small
group of learners.
The first step – Analyse prior knowledge/introduce the learners to a concept
A concept is discussed by the educator with the children of the small group, using
strategies that solicit a comprehensive study of their prior knowledge. If the educator
finds a defined concept as a new one, introduce the concept by explicit instruction,
demonstrating etc.
The second step – Provide opportunities to express
The educator should provide the group several opportunities to inquire, explore,
analyse and brainstorm to express each of their viewpoints on the said concept. Jot
down the viewpoints in a chart either as small drawings or as prompt words.
The third step – Allotment of a joint project
Small group work or a project on the analysed concept should be allotted to the
group in which the educator herself is a member. Care should be taken to assign a
project that is age – appropriate and developmentally significant.
The fourth step – Interact, discuss and collaborate
The educator should provide opportunities to interact, discuss and express the
child's understanding of his peer group as well as to the educator and pool resources
needed to complete the project.
The fifth step – Build on the child's understanding
Each child's viewpoint has to be discussed, and the knowledge of other children on
that concept has to be built. The educator also should be open-minded to learn from
children.
The sixth step – Add sufficient rigour
For the child to feel competent and satisfied by completing the project, sufficient
rigour components have to add in the form of praising, acknowledging etc.

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Course Tile: Early Childhood Care and Education
Name of the Content Writer: Dr. K. Arockia Maraichelvi Module 23

Now, let us understand these six steps with an example.

Learning objective
Devise a tree model in the entrance of the class
How does the teaching strategy - Co-construction be applied to achieve the
stated learning objective?
Step Process How and what to do?
No
1 Introduce a concept Take children for an outdoor visit or to a park
with trees and plants. Allow them to climb (with
caution), feel the texture of leaves, stem and
branch, smell the trees/leaves, listen to the
sound of trees
2 Provide opportunities to Coming back to the classroom, the children
express were seated together, and the educator should
prompt/brainstorm them of what they had seen
or observed in the park. Pose specific
questions that facilitate learning regarding
 Height of trees
 Identification of different trees
 Where do trees grow
 Colour of the stem, branches and
leaves
3 Allotment of a joint Allot the activity of making a model tree in the
project entrance of the classroom. Specify the group
members. Make sure that the educator is a
member of the group.
4 Interact, discuss and Sit together as agroup. Discuss the materials
collaborate needed to do the activity are. Interact and
decide the type of tree to be made, colour of
leaves, branches, trunk portion and root. Also,
determine the height of the tree in line with the
space provided to display the model.

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Course Tile: Early Childhood Care and Education
Name of the Content Writer: Dr. K. Arockia Maraichelvi Module 23

5 Build on the child’s With the collection of resources, start with the
understanding display. On the job, interactions to build on the
child’s understanding has to be facilitated by
asking why not colour the leaf with yellow?
Why are a few leaves in a yellow colour? With
such a question, the child understands that
yellow colour leaves wither off soon.
6 Add sufficient rigour The final touch of the tree display can be given
by the children themselves. But give them
options
Each leaf would bear
 The photograph of the children enrolled
in the class
 The name of the children enrolled in the
class

Hence, at the end of the process of co-construction, the knowledge and

understanding of the children on trees are built with ease and moreover creativity
elements, problem-solving skills, critical thinking ability, enhanced positive
relationships, cooperation, and teamwork were also built within the child.

MODELLING
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the end of this video, you will be able to
 Define modelling as a teaching pedagogy
 Comprehend and apply the theoretical outline of modelling in teaching
 Infer the role of educator in modelling
 Devise strategies to model language among children in ECE setting
DEFINITION
The process by which an educator acts as a model by displaying or
demonstrating a behaviour, skill or attitude, so that the child imitates the same.

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Course Tile: Early Childhood Care and Education
Name of the Content Writer: Dr. K. Arockia Maraichelvi Module 23

Educators have a significant role in acting as a model for children. They are
said to be the powerful models for children, as it is with them the children in their
early years start to build positive relationships.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF MODELLING
The teaching pedagogy – modelling has its base in Bandura’s observational
learning.
“Most human behaviour is learned observationally through modelling: from observing
others, one forms an idea of how new behaviours are performed, and on later
occasions, this coded information serves as a guide for action.” (Albert Bandura)
Belief: Children behave by observing and imitating others
But do remember that children do not perform a behaviour just by watching.
However, their knowledge gets expanded, and they learn the behavioural choices of
others and the consequences of those behaviours, no matter if the child
demonstrates the observed behaviour or not. For a child to just imitate the witnessed
behaviour, reinforcement that the behaviour has received serves as an impetus.
Children are more likely to copy behaviour if there is positive reinforcement. This is
where the modelling as an instructional strategy is covered within the theoretical
framework of operant conditioning put forth by Skinner.
Belief: Behaviour that is followed by the pleasant outcome is likely to be repeated,
and behaviour followed by the unpleasant outcome is less likely to be repeated.
For example, a child overhears another child speak not-so-child-friendly
words, he may learn the new words, but may not use those. However, if the child
who uttered those words receive some sort of positive reinforcement such as, a
smile or any kind of acceptance (may be in a different context), the observing child
may start using those words. At the same time, if the child witnesses a negative
reinforcement such as scolding, copying or imitating those words will not happen.
EDUCATOR’S ROLE AS A ‘ROLE MODEL’
Who is a role model?
Yes, of course, a role model is a person to whom you look up to and want to be like.
Beyond this, a role model is someone with whom you want to connect with.
The relationship between the educator and the children in their early childhood years
is so special as the child looks at them as a ‘role model'. Hence the role of an
educator as a ‘role model' must be executed with care. Imitation is the way through

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Course Tile: Early Childhood Care and Education
Name of the Content Writer: Dr. K. Arockia Maraichelvi Module 23

which a young child learns to interact with others and behaves within society. So the
educator should take up a crucial role by considering modelling as second nature to
mould and develop positive behaviours in children.
General tips for the educator towards positive modelling
As it is the responsibility of the educator to ensure that every child is provided
opportunities to experience modelling positively, the following tips would help you as
an educator to practice modelling in the ECE setting
Surround children with positive models
Take care of the surroundings of the child. Provide only constructive and
positive situations that allow them to copy positive behaviours.
Encourage positive behaviours
When you happen to notice a positive behaviour in a child, don’t forget to
acknowledge, encourage and praise the child as it serves as the positive reinforce
strengthening the desired behaviour.
Eliminate negative influences
Eliminate or at least limit the negative experiences that the child is exposed.
This should be in practice even when the child is out of the campus. So work along
with the parents to achieve the goal. For example, caution parents in not permitting
the child to watch aggressive TV shows as the child imitating the violent behaviours
learns to be aggressive.
Convert negative modelling as a teachable moment
Apart from taking care of eliminating negative influences, and if a child witnesses
negative modelling, take it as a teachable moment. Talk to the child about it and
make them understand what is acceptable and what is not.
Do as you say
As an educator, you are the child’s first role model. They watch and learn from
you every day. So do, behave and perform as you want the child to do, behave and
perform.
LANGUAGE MODELLING
Modelling is one of the most effective instructional strategies to foster
language development among the children in their early childhood years and
referred to as language modelling. Researches had proved that constructive
language modelling has a strong positive relationship with the achievement of

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Course Tile: Early Childhood Care and Education
Name of the Content Writer: Dr. K. Arockia Maraichelvi Module 23

children in every domain of learning and development. Following are the ways by
which an educator can provide effective language modelling
 Engage children in a frequent, extended one-to-one conversation. For
example, the educator and the children can take turns in giving feedback on
what the other has said.
 Carefully listen, prompt with questions (but minimise the number of
questions), and wait for the response
 The questions posed should be open-ended so that it stimulates discussions.
For example, ask the child - Why did the tall tower built by you with the
building blocks fell?
 Try to repeat what the children say, at the same time expand their
conversation
 Regularly use advanced or new words that the child doesn’t apply to converse
 Observe the communication between children and provide support for the
same.
For example, in a pretend play session, the child pretends to cook and serve
vegetable soup to the educator. The educator should use this opportunity to model
language for the child to learn something new.
Listen to the conversation
Child: Here is the vegetable soup I made for you.
Educator: Thank you so much, dear! So nice of you.
Child: It is hot.
Educator: Is it! Yes, I can see the steam rising from the cup. I will sip it slowly so
that it will not scald my lips.
Child: Scald…..
Educator: Yes, I don’t want to burn my lips.
In this one minute, one-to-one conversation between the educator and the
child, the educator had advanced the vocabulary of the child by introducing new
words like steam, rising, sip and scald. At the same time, certain science concepts
were introduced. Also, the educator had expanded the meaning of a new word.

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Course Tile: Early Childhood Care and Education
Name of the Content Writer: Dr. K. Arockia Maraichelvi Module 23

QUESTIONING
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
 Define questioning as a teaching pedagogy
 List the strategies to carry out questioning as a pedagogy in the ECE
curriculum
 Infer the role of educator in questioning
DEFINITION
Questioning is a pedagogical technique used as a pathway for children in their
early years to elicit responses that promote the learning and development potential
in them.
It is an effective instructional practice in early childhood education if it leads to
meaningful discussions and deeper relationships between the child and the
facilitator. It is one of the most frequently used pedagogy in the ECE classroom that
could elicit various responses by promoting different types of thinking among
children. Moreover, as children in their early years use questions as a way of
interacting with others, the pedagogy – Questioning, no doubt, would promote
learning and development potential in them.
TYPES OF QUESTIONS
Two types of questions are generally used to elicit responses from children.
they are
1. Open questions
2. Closed questions
Though both these types of questions make various demands on cognitive and
language skills, the open questions were found to be more effective. But why? Let us
understand the types of questions and the responses that it could elicit with an
example.
Open questions
In this form of questions, there are no right or wrong answers. The answers or
responses from the children depict their level of understanding. It also gives them an
opportunity to express what they know, feel and think. At times, open questions can
predict the outcomes of a particular activity or an event.

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Course Tile: Early Childhood Care and Education
Name of the Content Writer: Dr. K. Arockia Maraichelvi Module 23

Closed questions
These questions generally have only one right answer. It requires the child to
recall the information already acquired. Closed questions are effective in assessing
what a child knows, but do not propel further learning. It generally closes off the
options of expression and does not allow the further elaboration of thoughts and
ideas.
To better understand how the two types of question elicit different types of
answers, compare the two questions asked by the facilitator after narrating a story –
‘Controlling anger’.
Question 1 – Do you get angry?
Question 2 – What would you do if you are angry?
Question 1 has only one answer – either ‘yes' or ‘no'. It does not allow the child to
think further or generate interaction.
Question 2 would evoke various responses from the children like
‘I throw my toy.'
‘I shout and scream.'
‘I beat my mom.'
‘I cry.'
These responses, in a way, allow the child to promote their vocabulary as well
as to emote their feelings. Further, these responses provide an opportunity to extend
the conversation and thereby to elicit a host of responses by asking
Why do you get angry?
What will you do if your toy is broken?
What will your mom do when you shout, scream or cry?
By elaborating on the responses through questioning, the child will learn what
one should do by connecting the story to his/her own experience.

NORMS TO USE OPEN QUESTIONING TECHNIQUE

Knowing that open questions are effective than the closed form of questions,
the facilitator should follow certain norms to apply the questioning pedagogy
efficiently. They are
 Pose questions with what, when, where, why and how, Instead of questions
that require ‘yes' or ‘no' answer

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Course Tile: Early Childhood Care and Education
Name of the Content Writer: Dr. K. Arockia Maraichelvi Module 23

 Make sure that the question posed is pertinent to the context and are
developmentally - appropriate and age relevant
 Do not ask questions of long sentences. Keep it as short as possible as the
child will have difficulty in comprehending long sentences
 Ask one question at a time, wait for the response and give feedback and then
continue with the next question
 Avoid double-barrelled questions like ‘What did you have for breakfast and
who dropped you to school? These two questions asked at the same time
depicts two different contexts,
 Question asked to a large group will not be effective. So carry it out in small
groups or on a one-to-one basis
 Provide adequate time for the children to answer. This is called a wait time –
‘the length of the time that the facilitator waits for a response after asking a
question. Wait time can extend from 5-10 seconds and even go up to 15
seconds for children with speech difficulties
 Acknowledge and value the child’s responses. Motivate them to respond by
showing interest and warmth.
 Scaffolding can be used along with questioning to rephrase, summarise,
simplify the question posed.

QUESTIONING IN PRACTICE
The two basic purposes of using questioning as an instructional practice in the
ECE classroom are
a. Enhance the child’s communication and language skills
b. Extend the child’s thinking and learning potential
To accomplish the above-said purposes, questioning can be adopted in the
following contexts

 Share ideas and understanding

The sharing of ideas happened when the child encouraged to question
themselves, others and their environment. For example, when the educator
is holding a group discussion on eating habits, she can ask open-ended
questions like

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Course Tile: Early Childhood Care and Education
Name of the Content Writer: Dr. K. Arockia Maraichelvi Module 23

Why should we wash our hands before and after eating?

What will happen if you don’t do it?
 Emote feelings
For an activity to encourage the development of empathy among the
children, the educator can ask ‘What will you do when you see a child
crying?’
 Guess and predict
Questions can be used to promote the child’s learning potential by engaging
them in active learning. While narrating a familiar story – The Hare and the
Tortoise – the educator could stop in between and ask them specific
questions like ‘Where is the hare going? Who runs fast? Why? So that the
child guesses and predicts the right answer.
 Recall experiences
Reflecting on any information already acquired, the feelings or events
experienced marks the learning potential of a child. The educator, while
asking the children, ‘What did you have for breakfast in the morning? Whom
did you play with yesterday?'-Provides opportunities to recall. This method
can be even used to recall a story narrated one week before to check their
memory

CONCLUSION
Hope this module had given you a clear picture of the three pedagogical
approaches namely - Co-Constructing, Modelling and Questioning - throwing
highlight on the process and the responsibilities of the educator in adopting the
same.

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