SEK Early Childhood Education Learning Model

At SEK International Schools, we believe that children are naturally inquisitive. From birth, they have the ability to learn about the world around them, interpret it, and interact with it. They are curious, capable and independent.

Our aim is to foster and celebrate these natural qualities through an innovative and creative curriculum that ensures the best learning and teaching practices in Early Childhood.

The values and beliefs that sustain our learning and teaching practices in Early Childhood at SEK Schools have socio-constructivist and socio-cultural influences. We draw on the theories such as those by Vygotsky, Bronfenbrenner, Rogoff, Montessori, Steiner and Malaguzzi.

One of the ideas of socio-constructivism is that boys and girls build their ideas through interaction with peers and adults who have more knowledge or skills than they do. With this scaffolding, the child’s learning is transformed and deeper ways of understanding the world are built. This is called the Zone of Proximate Development (ZPD).

Childhood experiences are the foundation for all future learning. Supporting children in their cognitive, social, emotional and physical development implies that all members of the community give importance to this stage and take into account the importance of play as the main catalyst for inquiry.

SEK Early Childhood Learning Core Ideas take into consideration the best practices for teaching and learning and are based on the theories that are at the basis of our educational vision. These ideas include appropriate inquiry for the stage, play, evidence for learning, relationships, exploration and symbolic expression (language, literacy, mathematics and other forms of communication), the profile of the student, spaces and time for learning.

Each of these elements support each other and work together to offer students balanced experiences, to enhance their learning and development.

From the sociocultural perspective, we understand that children develop as they participate in cultural communities. Their ideas and ways of understanding the world are built on relationships: conversations, social interactions and experiences with collective meaning. From this perspective, learning emerges from relationships and participation with others. Learning and development are cultural processes.

Learning at SEK schools is based on inquiry. In early childhood, this means that children observe, explore, experiment, check, handle and use all their senses, when interacting with the world and predicting what is going to happen around them. They gather information and form their conclusions using their senses.

Play is at the base of this process of inquiry: as children interact with the world around them through play and free exploration, they reflect on and extend their understanding of it, their knowledge, and their abilities.

From 0 to 3 years of age, the senses are the primary vehicle for inquiry. Children use all of their senses to explore their own bodies, and then the world around them. With them, they initiate increasingly complex games and interactions, thereby developing their understanding and skills.

What implications does this have in practice?

• Children are encouraged to use their senses at all times. They are allowed to explore and interact with the environment, without interruptions, freely and spontaneously.
• They participate in experiences and activities in which they can physically interact with objects and the environment.
• Children play in prepared and planned spaces, where they have access to safe and interesting resources and objects, which they can freely explore with all their senses.
• They have opportunities to explore indoor and outdoor spaces.
• They have varied opportunities to practice observation and manipulation skills.
• Their curiosity is motivated through questions.
• Teachers document children’s inquiries through photographs, videos, and observation records.
• Children have the opportunity to reflect and recall their inquiries by interacting with this documentation.

Inquiry and learning take place when children play. During play, children build, test, confirm, and review their ideas about how the world works. By playing, children make decisions, take initiative and the opportunity to inquire. During the game, they build and confirm their ideas and ways of understanding things. They adapt these ideas about how the world works, within a safe context, in which they are willing to take risks.

Play allows children to feel safe. Through it, they express themselves freely and develop cognitively, socially, emotionally and physically.

What implications does this have in practice?

• Children have uninterrupted time for free and open play.
• They have various opportunities for socio-dramatic play, role play, and “make believe …”.
• They become interested in games with rules as they grow.
• Learning in the different areas takes place through play: literacy, mathematics, science and social studies, all are learned through socio-dramatic play and open-ended opportunities to play and explore different resources, check their ideas, and practice skills, in a context where they feel safe and want to take risks.
• Teachers step in to facilitate and provide scaffolding for learning, mediate conflict resolution, and extend children’s ideas.
• The teachers observe play closely, to identify the development and learning in different areas. They document this through the use of photographs, videos, and observation records, as well as through children’s works and productions.
• Children have the opportunity to remember and reflect on their learning by observing and interacting with this documentation.

Through close observation of children’s inquiries and play, teachers document and monitor children’s learning and development, including:

• The inquiry they undertake and how it changes over time.
• Their cognitive, social, emotional and physical development.
• Their learning in literacy and language, mathematics, and symbolic expression.
• Their understanding of how the world works.
• The development of skills, competencies and attitudes.

With the aim of making learning deep and meaningful, improving their school experience, and ultimately improving their performance, SEK Schools are implementing an Evidence for Learning (E4L) model. It is a model based on the systematic, continuous and consistent implementation of collecting learning evidence, and giving students feedback on their next steps in their learning.

In Early Childhood Education, the practice of documenting learning through evidence gathering is common.

In the E4L approach at SEK Early Childhood Education, children participate in different experiences based on play and inquiry, where they develop cognitively, socially, emotionally and physically, and whose learning stories are documented by the teachers in some of the following ways:

• Writing learning stories.
• The collection of samples of children’s work or productions (drawings, artistic creations …).
• Taking videos or photographs that show children during inquiry, play and learning.

Children also participate in documenting their learning when:

• They tell stories.
• They express themselves.
• They participate in group discussions, assemblies or meetings.

Children and teachers reflect on these evidences of learning to identify ideas, learnings, needs and interests. They collaborate to identify the next steps in their learning, and thus advance their learning and development, using the feedback from teachers, their peers and themselves.

At SEK Schools we motivate and nurture positive relationships between home, family and school, to offer a solid foundation for learning, behaviour, health and general well-being.

Children experience the world as an environment of relationships, these relationships affect all aspects of their development. The importance of relationships in childhood is a fundamental part of developing important skills, and dispositions that focus on trust and a sense of belonging. When the importance of relationships is reinforced, the foundations for creating an effective learning community are consolidated.

Teachers support the development of relationships through:

• Regular conversations with the child’;s parents or guardians.
• Recognition and respect for the individuality of each child.
• Establishing personal connections with each child throughout the day, through conversations, attentive listening, and documenting their questions, as well as acknowledging their efforts and accomplishments.
• Recognising opportunities for children to learn self-regulation during play, and offering support and timely feedback when necessary.
• The planning of time without interruptions for free play, in spaces and with interesting materials.

As children inquire and play, they develop attitudes and attributes, along with skills and understanding. Children become:

• Thinkers: They have time to think and reflect, assess situations, compare, create …
• Open minded: They learn from each other, develop an understanding of who they are, who others are, their similarities and differences.
• Solidarity: They show empathy and respect for others and the environment.
• Good communicators: Use different languages to express themselves and develop skills and understandings for symbolic expression.
• Risk takers: In an environment of safety and trust, they are motivated to take risks, inquire, and learn.
• Inquirers: learning is inquiry-based and children have a variety of opportunities to develop age-appropriate inquiry.
• Balanced: they develop cognitively, socially, emotionally and physically.
• Knowledgeable: They access different resources and objects with which to expand their knowledge and ideas.
• Principled: they learn respect and coexistence.
• Reflective: they go back to the evidence for their learning to reflect and make decisions.

A learning environment is the context in which learning occurs. Learning occurs in settings that promote collaboration and a shared sense of purpose and belonging. An environment respects the agency of “rich and powerful learners” (Edwards, Gandini, and Forman 2012), inspires creativity and innovation, and recognises experimentation and failure as an integral part of the learning process.

Engaging learning environments inspire students’ imagination and creativity and encourage the process of inquiry, action, and reflection. These environments provide opportunities for emerging inquiries.

• Learning environments include multiple learning spaces.
• They can be artificially built and natural; physical and virtual; indoors and outdoors.
• Learning spaces are flexible, allowing planned and spontaneous opportunities for quiet and independent learning, interactive group learning and spaces for students to create.
• Learning spaces are designed with play in mind.
• Learning spaces also offer opportunities for symbolic exploration and expression, with teachers adapting space and materials to support the changing needs of young learners, developing interests and theories.
• Spaces support learning and well-being by identifying areas for socialising, reflection and planned and incidental learning.
• Learning spaces welcome the learning community. They reflect the culture of the school, the types of learning and thinking that are valued and celebrated and help to foster the development of the attributes of the learner profile.
• The layout of the exhibits and materials invite engagement, the creation of meaning, exploration, and reflection.

Spaces should provide opportunities to play independently and in groups. To develop a sense of ownership both inside and out, shared routines, rituals, and understanding are developed to support being and learning together. Learning spaces reflect the sociocultural worlds of young students where family, identity and languages are represented through the use of images, artefacts and exhibits.

At this age, children depend on sensory information to make sense of the world. Materials and resources for young learners lead to play to give them multiple opportunities to manipulate objects, build and test theories to construct meaning both indoors and outdoors.

Time spent outdoors is considered an important time for authentic inquiry, learning and play, social interaction, movement, and relaxation. The different stimuli provided by the open air and the availability, arrangement and rearrangement of materials are taken into account. Outdoor observations, such as seasonal changes or local bird migration patterns, can be integrated indoors for further investigation and creation of meaning.

Outdoor spaces also have the potential to expand inquiry, risk-taking, and wellness support through socialization, negotiation, and communication in both planned and incidental learning activities.