Promoting young children’s learning in practice

Name: Promoting young children’s learning in practice
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Introducing the foundational elements of Finnish ECEC pedagogy

Created byLearning Scoop

Last updated 7/2024

English

What you'll learn

Participants will gain new insights and scientific perspectives on how a child develops and learns.
Participants will learn the what’s and the how’s of quality early childhood education pedagogy.
Participants will be equipped to implement versatile working methods and children’s participation in their location.
Participants will be equipped to implement small group pedagogy in their location.

Course content

5 sections • 11 lectures • 49m total length

Introduction2:11
Welcome to the course!

Developmental psychology7:10
In order to design and implement quality pedagogy in a kindergarten, we need to understand how children mature, learn and adapt.
Learning as a process4:50
Learning is a process of continuous development and refinement and children are active constructors of their own learning. Therefore, knowledge is not transferred as such; children build, or construct, it themselves.
Versatile working methods3:40
Working methods in Finnish Early Childhood Education are action-oriented, creative and engaging. This lecture takes a closer look on why and what the Finnish Working methods are like and prepares you for the next section in this course.

Play and playful learning4:15
For a child, play is a natural way of being, acting, perceiving, and interpreting the world around them. Therefore play and playful learning have a special role in Finnish early childhood.
The value of play and playful activities6:34
Versatile working methods used in Finnish early childhood education and care are based on the principle of a child’s active participation in their own learning. This lecture delves deeper into the importance of play and participation as part of learning.

Environment as the third teacher2:38
Versatile working approaches require versatile learning environments. This lecture introduces the idea of learning environments being a crucial part of learning in addition to working approaches.
Psychological environment for learning2:12
A child needs to develop secure attachment bond with the adults who take care of them and who educate them in order to be able to grow and learn. Psychological learning environment creates the overall climate and atmosphere in a kindergarten.
Social environment for learning7:16
Because learning is a social process, children need to connect, interact, and make friends. This lecture discusses how you can build and maintain favourable social learning environments.
Physical environment for learning6:44
Physical learning environment is a medium in which a child experiences their life, and makes connections, interpretations and meanings. Early childhood spaces and environment need to provide for goal-oriented and purposeful activities, but they can also invite children to create their own content in it.

Requirements

Interest in education.

Description

How to promote learning in early years?

Finnish early childhood education is known for exceptionally stress-free and child-centered approach that seems to produce outstanding learning results as well. How to apply this joyful and play-based pedagogy in practice?

Finnish early childhood education implements child-centered pedagogy. Child-centered pedagogy focuses on children’s needs and interests; the child has the right to learn things according to their own potential. Furthermore, children are seen as active agents who construct their own knowledge. Therefore, knowledge is not transferred as such; children build, or construct, it themselves.

Knowing the child’s development and supporting the child according to their developmental age is a part of child-centered pedagogy. Adults’ role is to support and nurture the learning process.

Children learn things from each other and adults through interaction. Playing, discussing and engaging with others, comparing different views and expressing their own thoughts help children process things more deeply and from multiple perspectives. In addition, children learn social skills and to work constructively with other people.

In Finland play is the most important pedagogical activity with young children. Children learn multiple different abilities through play: they learn a wide range of skills, develop their social abilities, imagination and creativity etc. For the child, play is a natural way of being, acting, perceiving, and interpreting the world around them. In addition, educators have the opportunity to use play as a pedagogical tool: they can intentionally create learning environments which aim at advancing the child’s learning.

This online course introduces the Finnish approach to promoting learning in early years: e.g. diverse working methods, collaboration, physical, social and psychological dimensions of the learning environment, learning through play etc. Examples are mainly from ECEC, but the same principles apply to primary education, too.

Who this course is for:

Anyone who is interested in Education development, particularly early childhood education.

Promoting young children’s learning in practice

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

Introduction1 lecture • 2min

Towards quality pedagogy3 lectures • 16min

Playful learning2 lectures • 11min

The significance of the learning environment4 lectures • 19min

Conclusion1 lecture • 2min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: