12 Pillars - Education & Pedagogy

"Children must be taught HOW to think, not what to think." Margaret Mead

Education...an enlightening experience. The process of facilitating learning or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, valiues,morals, beliefs, habits and personal development.

Pedagogy....is defined as the method and practice of teaching. It is about how we educate children and help their development. It is based around the various techniques and strategies that can be used to provide opportunities for development and how relationships and interactions with children can affect them.

Early Childhood Education and Pedagogy is vast and continuously evolving but it does focus on things like:

DEVELOPMENT- Focusing on the how and why children change in respect to their learning and development over time. As educators the child's rooms and educational programs need to be reflective and responsive to each child's current developmental level as well as set challenges to help their development grow and move forward.
BEHAVIOUR- How children's experiences shape their behaviour. How can educators provide relationships and a learning space that is responsive, engaging and respectful. How can educators guide positive behaviour and redirect challenging behaviours.
RELATIONSHIPS- How children change and learn in relation to those around them. How can educators grow, support and nourish positive, reciprocal relationships.
CULTURE- How family life and culture impact learning and relationships.
REFLECTION- How can we as educators challenge our own personal assumptions and issues around power, equality and cultural differences.

Our centre programs place a strong focus on Play based learning.

Play allows children to learn problem solving skills, make choices, develop skills and learn new concepts. Play inspires children to explore, discover, negotiate, take risks, create meaning and solve problems-all valuable foundations for the development of literacy, numeracy and social skills.
Play based learning stimulates children's natural sense of inquiry and discovery through hands on investigations of their world.
Play based learning enables children to have choices in how and where they would like to play. The types of toys and materials offered can encourage children to make more meaningful decisions. This is why Open ended materials are a great choice.
The impulse to play stems from children's natural fascination to understand the world. It's this inherent motivation to that supports a child to regulate their own feelings and desires in order to continue playing.
In play children become immersed in the moment and have the safety and security the require to experiment, try new ideas and investigate.

Each room program is a careful balance of free play and guided play. This enables educators to provide prompts, extensions and alternatives to children's play that will help children naturally delve deeper into their own child directed learning. The focus on play based learning is for the children to have fun, find joy and inspire their curiosity.

Play essentially forms the foundation of each of our rooms programs.
Each day's experiences are carefully reflected on and planned to extend on the children's interests and developmental needs. Each day is an opportunity for our educators to observe, collaborate and connect with the children through play and positive interactions.
We focus on open ended play across the centre. This is play without boundaries.
Open ended play:
-encourages experimentation and
perseverance.
-challenges children to use their imaginations as they naturally investigate and problem solve.
-develops confidence and inquisitiveness, patience and resilience.
-lasts for extended periods of times and can be revisited repeatedly.
These are all crucial skills to help children thrive in every aspect of their schooling and their life beyond.

Our centre programs are also rich in sensory based play. Children are provided with limitless opportunities to engage their 7 senses each and every day. Our educators support their sensory development as they interact, converse, question and play alongside. Exploring their world through sensory play is crucial to children's play and development. Sensory play actively stimulates a child's sense of taste, touch, smell, sound and sight and can also provide opportunities to engage the vestibular and proprioception senses.