Early Years Pedagogy

101:The Simple Guide

Seven different approaches to Early Years
pedagogy

Trying to get your head around every early years pedagogy out there can be a bit…
messy, can’t it?

Of course, in the UK we have concrete learning frameworks which you must

follow, but the tools you have to use beyond that rely heavily on your knowledge
of early years pedagogy.

After all, every situation that you’re in and every child you look after is different.
The more you know, the more prepared you are to approach different situations
and challenges. Learning about a different early years pedagogy doesn’t mean you
have to adopt it overnight, it just adds new tools to your kit.

So whether you’re in for a bit of a refresh of your own practices, or you want to
start learning another, it’s time for a bit of learning and self-reflection.

What is early years pedagogy?

Before we start, it’s important that we make clear exactly what early years
pedagogy is.

Most simply, pedagogy is about how we educate children and help their
development. It’s the techniques and strategies you can use to provide
opportunities for development and how your relationships and interactions with
children can affect them.

Early years pedagogy can be many things, but it may touch on things like:

 Development – Focusing on how and why children change in terms of their

learning and development over time.
 Behaviour – How a child’s experiences shape their behaviour.
 Relationships – How children change and learn in relation to those around
them.

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  Culture – How family life and culture impact learning and relationships.
 Critique – Inviting you to challenge assumptions and issues around power,
equality, and curriculum expectations.
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Early years pedagogies

Now, you won’t find every early years pedagogue here. There are many earlier
pioneers who didn’t make the list, partly because their work has been followed by
pedagogies that can give you more concrete ideas to evaluate your own provision.

These pedagogies don’t necessarily disagree with one another, and one isn't better
than the other. This is just a simple guide to start you off in your learning journey.

Interestingly enough, research suggests that general pedagogical approaches with

lots of different influences tend to be the most effective. So if you particularly
identify with some of the pedagogies below, weaving them meaningfully in and
out of your practice can be extremely beneficial.

Just be mindful and always think about why you're introducing them into your
practice. If there's an aspect of one of the pedagogies below that really speaks to
you, read and research before you introduce it to your setting. Not only will it

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make it easier for you to adopt, but it ensures that you're choosing an area that
directly benefits the children in your care.

1. Froebel
Friedrich Froebel was a German educator who invented the concept of
kindergarten. The Froebelian approach promotes the importance of play, because it
allows children to understand their world by directly experiencing it.

What are the basic principles?

 Childhood is more than just preparation for adulthood.

 All learning is linked, and so every different area of learning can impact
others.
 Child-initiated play is very important as it means that the child is motivated
and engaged.
 Always start with what children can do, not what they can’t.
How can it affect my provision

 Froebel puts a lot of emphasis on self-discipline. Consider whether you’re

providing an environment in which children can concentrate and remain
focused on the task at hand.
 How well do your practitioners know their children? A key part of Froebel’s
early years pedagogy is that each child is offered play opportunities that are
right for their stage of development. Make sure your practitioners know how
to simplify certain activities so that every child can confidently and happily
play.
 Children need opportunities to make choices, errors, and decisions. This is
how they learn what is right for them as an individual.
 Constructive play forms a large part of the Froebelian approach, as well as
plenty of opportunities to talk, listen and communicate with adults and other
children.
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2. Montessori
Maria Montessori was an Italian physician and educator who developed the
Montessori method based on thousands of scientific observations. It focuses on
each child’s individuality, encouraging curiosity through a carefully designed
environment.

What are the basic principles?

 Crafting a safe, ordered and nurturing environment that encourages self-

directed, hands-on learning.
 Features a range of natural, often open-ended resources that match the five
Montessori curriculum areas.
 These five curriculum areas are: practical life, sensorial, mathematics,
language, and culture.
 Practitioners play a crucial role in providing the right materials for children
to explore at the right point in their development. Every resource has a
specific place and a role to play.
How can it affect my provision

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  If you’re not ready to incorporate Montessori specific resources, consider
providing more open-ended resources that allow children to direct their own
play and make choices for themselves.
 A calm, focused environment is a core feature of a Montessori education.
Could you cut down on some of the clutter in your setting and create a more
ordered space?
 Are you hand-holding children too much? Montessori emphasises
opportunities for independence as early as possible in daily tasks, including
cooking and preparing food or tidying away. This develops life skills and
encourages respect for things.
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3. Steiner/Waldorf
Rudolf Steiner was an Austrian educationalist, who set up his first school for the
workers of the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory in Stuttgart. Steiner believed in an
environment that is calm, peaceful, familiar, predictable and unhurried.

What are the basic principles?

 Learning should be experienced through the course of regular daily tasks

and activities.
 The environment is central, and shouldn’t overstimulate children. It should
be familiar to them.
 Natural, open-ended resources feature heavily, leaving room for the child’s
imagination.
 A homely environment is preferred in order to make children feel welcome,
and each child should have a place where their things belong.
How can it affect my provision

 To Steiner, ‘doing’ is learning. Therefore you should give children as many

physical activities as possible and opportunities to learn from the real world
in order to ‘grasp’ the world around them.
 Use language to allow all activities to encompass different areas.
Mathematics can be learnt while children prepare food, for instance, as you
give them the language of adding, subtracting, weighing and measuring.
 Routine and repetition are important as they help children to find their place
in the world. It also helps to support good habits and give perspective to the
day. Consider whether your routine could be less chaotic and more
comforting for children.

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4. Reggio Emilia
The Reggio Emilia approach was developed by Loris Malaguzzi alongside parents
after World War II. It is a heavily child-centric approach, with a focus on the many
ways children can express themselves. The practitioner is an observer and
promoter of the child’s interests.

What are the basic principles?

 Every child should be seen as strong, capable and resilient, and ready to
explore.
 Children are natural communicators, and it’s important that we understand
the ‘100 languages of children’ – the many different ways children express
themselves.
 Children can build their own learning, and require adults to help support it,
not instruct.
 The focus on exploratory and child-led play is meant to improve problem-
solving skills in particular.
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How can it affect my provision

 Children should be made to feel like their conversations with adults are an
opportunity to learn and search together. It's a process. For that reason,
practitioners need to have the time and patience to really engage with
children and pay attention to what they’re saying.
 Consider how your practitioners engage with the children by undertaking
peer observations. Ensure that they’re acting as a guide and not interrupting
or quashing children’s interests.
 Emphasise a hands-on approach to learning, as this is what best allows
children to communicate using their hundred languages. This includes
drawing, dancing, painting and pretend play, music, sculpting. Giving
children opportunities to express themselves is key.
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5. Forest schools
The forest school pedagogy focuses on giving children the opportunity to learn
through hands-on experiences in a woodland environment. Originating in Denmark
in the 1950s, the forest school ethos is now seen throughout the world, including at
the UK’s preschool of the year 2017.

What are the basic principles?

 All or almost all learning takes places outside in a woodland or natural

environment.
 Children are trusted to explore and discover, and allowed to engage in risky
play.
 Encouraged to choose their own learning and to develop a close, positive
relationship with nature.
How can it affect my provision

 The increased physical exercise is a huge benefit of forest schooling. Are

you doing enough to develop physical learning opportunities at your setting?
 You don’t need to go all in with forest schooling, but many nurseries now
experiment with part-time forest schooling. See if there are any places you
can pair with in your area.
 Risky play is a huge part of forest schooling. It’s easy to be overprotective
of the little ones, but teaching them to engage with risk and understand their

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 limits is important too. Consider reassessing your balance between risk and
safety.
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6. Bandura
Albert Bandura’s work is mainly focused on something called Social Learning
Theory, which is all about behaviour. In particular, his experiments have shown the
importance of adults as models, whose behaviour children observe, consider, and
then later often copy.

What are the basic principles?

 Children were shown by Bandura to copy aggressive actions made by those

they trust unless those actions were criticised. This led to the theory of
adults as models for behaviour.
 The Bandura approach includes modelling calm, respectful behaviour, as
well as the way we interact with one another.
 Bandura also emphasises the importance of displaying thinking out loud to
show thought process, and for adults to have problem-solving discussions
between themselves to demonstrate co-operation.
How can it affect my provision

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  Adults need to carefully consider their actions, knowing that their behaviour
can and will be copied by children. For example, are your practitioners
eating with and displaying good eating habits around the children?
 Don’t be afraid to have discussions together to solve problems in front of
children. You are modelling good co-operative behaviour.
 Consider talking through your thought processes out loud in front of
children to model conscious thinking and consideration.
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7. The Curiosity Approach

The Curiosity Approach is a pedagogy developed by Lydnsey Hellyn and
Stephanie Bennett. It takes ideas from Steiner, Reggio, Montessori and Te
Whāriki, but most importantly it’s about providing a safe and comfortable
environment for children to be curious.

What are the basic principles?

 As we found out in our interview with Lyndsey and Stephanie, one of the
key principles is using natural materials and neutral backgrounds that
prevent overstimulation.
 Children should become independent thinkers who can explore their
environment with curiosity.
 A homely environment is the key to making children feel comfortable and
safe.
How can it affect my provision

 Real-life resources rather than indestructible plastic teach children risks and
consequences. Could you add a few more fragile, real-world resources to
your setting?
 Is your setting full of bright colours? They might be overstimulating your
children, leading to behavioural problems. Consider a lick of paint and some
more natural display backings.
 Items that spark curiosity are important. Think about recycling or reclaiming
things from charity shops and car boot sales that will spark children's
interests.
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8. Athey and Schemas

Chris Athey built on the early work of Piaget to popularise the idea of schemas -
the fascinations that children obsess over during different stages in their
development. Understanding and encouraging children to develop within these
schemas is key to this early years pedagogy.

What are the basic principles?

 The main thread of Athey’s thinking was about identifying and encouraging
these patterns of repeated behaviour that we call schemas.
 Athey’s schemas are: dynamic vertical, dynamic back and forth, dynamic
circular, going over and under, going round a boundary, going through a
boundary, containing and enveloping space.
 The adult has an incredibly important role to play in the schema framework.
They must observe, understand and then provide opportunities for the child
to explore their schema further.
How can it affect my provision

 Education of your practitioners is key. Like all observations, the skill comes
from being able to recognise different schemas at work, so that we can both
assess a child’s development and provide more opportunities for them to
learn in a way that engages them.

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  Schemas can be very helpful in understanding what might look like ‘bad
behaviour’. Is the child throwing objects around, or are they experimenting
with trajectories? Are they obsessed with ruining your carefully curated play
space, or are they fascinated by transporting? Understanding schemas can
help clarify these questions.
 We cover schemas pretty widely in our free guide on next steps. Take a look
and pass it onto your practitioners.
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Wait there’s more…

This has only been an introduction to give you a little taster of a few of the ways
UK settings and practitioners approach pedagogy. If you want to explore more
pedagogies, here’s a list of some other philosophies and thinkers that you can look
into and research:

 Piaget – Helped us understand how a child constructs a mental model of the

world and brought in many theories on assessment.
 Vygotsky – Focused on the value of play and how children learn based on
their environment.
 Te Whāriki – The New Zealand curriculum that focuses on a homely
environment and strong personal relationships.
 Watson – Developed behaviourism – that learning is developed through
how we connect things.
 Bowlby – Focused on attachment and how these close relationships aid
development.
 Freud – Had many groundbreaking and controversial ideas, connecting
relationships with development of a unique personality.
 Bruner – Coined the term scaffolding and expanded the idea of children as
active learners.
 Gardner – Encouraged respect for different forms of ‘intelligence’, with
none seen as better than the others.
 Goleman – Worked particularly in developing emotional intelligence in
young people.
 Mcmillan – Had a key role in influencing positive early years practice after
the war.
 Bronfenbrenner – Gave us a better understanding of the effect of the
environment on the child.

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  Erikson – Developed various stages of development with positive vs
negative potential results at each stage.
 HighScope – Advocates for daily routine and daily plan-do-review.

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