This is the first in a series of four articles about the Characteristics of Effective Learning (CoEL), which describe how children learn. Early years teaching is not a transmission process, feeding knowledge into children’s minds with children as passive receivers. Children must do the learning work, and the educator’s role is to work with the process of learning itself.
Therefore, being a successful early years practitioner involves being a partner with children, enjoying with them their curiosity and the ‘skill’, ‘will’ and ‘thrill’ of finding out what they can do.
The ‘skill, will and thrill’ represent the characteristics of effective early learning:
- Playing and exploring – the skill to get engaged.
- Active learning – the will to keep going.
- Thinking creatively and critically – the thrill of discovery.
Readers in England will recognise these characteristics as Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) terminology. The Statutory framework (DfE, 2023; 1.13 [childminders], 1.15 [all other settings]) requires practitioners to reflect them in their practice and explains them as:
- playing and exploring – children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’
- active learning – children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements
- creating and thinking critically – children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things.
These CoEL are not new nor specifically English, they are universal lifelong learning skills. We can see all three of them in action every day in every early years setting where children are encouraged to be independent learners. Here is an example from Young Friends Kindergarten in Hove.
Alex (3 years) started to gouge a long line in the mud down a bank … ‘This is my river,’ she exclaimed proudly. Some of her sticks snapped so she started to experiment with different types to find the right size and strength for her needs. She passed one to her key person and invited her to join in with her. The next day she was joined by her friends and they made a larger ‘river’. They found worms which one of the children decided were river worms. On day three, Alex added rocks in a line which she said were ‘stepping stones, bridges and cliffs’. Her friends were happy to help her realise her vision. (Adapted from Featherbe et al., 2023).
TUNING IN TO HOW CHILDREN LEARN
It is important that all early years practitioners understand and can recognise these learning behaviours in action as well as being familiar with the areas of learning which outline elements of what children may learn. The CoEL ‘run through and underpin all seven areas of learning and development. As enduring characteristics, pertaining to lifelong learning, they need to be continuously observed and fostered but cannot be described in a developmental sequence’ (Tickell, 2012).
As MacTavish (2013) puts it, ‘Generally we can see the what of children’s learning, or the content, as being like the bricks of a building, with the how children learn and their social and emotional development as the cement and foundations – without which everything would topple over.’
The CoEL have been part of the EYFS since its first iteration in 2008. Some readers will remember the poster below. It deliberately placed the areas of learning where they would be read last.
The poster was based on this simple formula.
What it means is that young children left to their own devices will learn through playing, exploring and interaction with people and the environment, but it is through the active guidance and support of skilled adults that children make the most progress in their learning.
The adult role within positive relationships and enabling environments is key for emotional development and wellbeing and for how and what a child learns. What we now know is the CoEL were positioned before the areas of learning in 2008 because they are how the areas are learned and, if practitioners don’t understand and tune into how children learn, the curriculum they offer will be inappropriate.
Of course, the CoEL were not ‘invented’ for the EYFS of 2008. They were already present in both the Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage (2000) (three to five) in sections on learning and teaching and on play; and in Birth to Three Matters (2002) under ‘A Competent Learner’. These two frameworks were brought together (along with the national standards for daycare) to form the EYFS (birth to five).
Moreover, these insights into how children learn were not discovered in the 21st Century. Many famous learning theorists and pioneers such as Froebel, Dewey, the MacMillans, Susan Isaacs, Montessori, Steiner, Piaget and Vygotsky, for instance, talked about the need for children to be active learners, playing, exploring their own ideas and interacting with adults who supported their interests.
Many practitioners and settings in the UK have been influenced by the pre-schools of Reggio Emilia, set up after the Second World War and based on an image of the child as a strong independent learner with ‘100 languages’; and by Te Whariki, the New Zealand framework which includes principles and strands which, woven together, describe a holistic curriculum.
The Tickell review of the EYFS (2012) tackled the problem of the CoEL often being ignored in favour of ticking off children’s progress towards the Early Learning Goals at the end of the Reception year.
The Government accepted the recommendation that the CoEL be made statutory, and the EYFS’s Statutory framework (2012) section 1.10 said, ‘In planning and guiding children’s activities, practitioners must reflect on the different ways that children learn and reflect these in their practice. Three characteristics of effective teaching and learning are:
- playing and exploring
- active learning
- creating and thinking critically.’
They included the same short explanations for each CoEL seen in the current statutory framework (see above).
The practice guidance known as Development Matters (2012) explained how the CoEL and the prime and specific areas of learning are interconnected. It also set out ideas for what one might observe children doing when they are playing and exploring, being active learners and creating and thinking critically. Alongside these pointers were suggestions for what adults could do and provide through positive relationships and enabling environments. The original EYFS, the Tickell review and Development Matters were the result of huge amounts of consultation across the sector.
RECENT HISTORY OF CoEL
History is important, and we live in times when our early years heritage (including the CoEL) is under threat.
If you doubt this is happening, let’s have a look at some recent history of the CoEL. The Department for Education (DfE) claimed a mandate to ‘reform’ the EYFS based on the 2017 DfE Primary Assessment Consultation, not on any form of birth to five sector consultation. Nobody responding to that consultation, which included questions on the EYFS Profile and Reception Baseline Assessment, asked for changes to all the Early Learning Goals (ELGs) or a rewrite of all the educational programmes for children from birth to five; but the Government went ahead anyway.
We now have something the DfE claims is ‘reformed’ but which is arguably actually a limited and limiting document that fulfils the DfE’s objective of making ELGs align with Year 1, rather than one which builds the framework on development pathways from birth informed by the EYFS principles and recent relevant research.
DOWNGRADING OF CoEL?
As regards the CoEL, the wording describing them changed very slightly in the ‘reformed’ Statutory framework.
Previously
In planning and guiding children’s activities, practitioners must reflect on the different ways that children learn and reflect these in their practice.
2021-23
In planning and guiding what children learn, practitioners must reflect on the different rates at which children are developing and adjust their practice appropriately.
This may be a small change, but it reflects a misunderstanding of what the CoEL actually are. Clearly all early years practitioners recognise that children develop at different rates. However, the CoEL are a rich tapestry of ways of learning, not a sequence of progression which may be delayed. It has, therefore, never been considered appropriate to specify particular ages or stages for their development.
Alongside this change we have seen a statutory downgrading of the status of the CoEL on children’s transition to Year 1.
Previously
Year 1 teachers must be given a copy of the Profile report together with a short commentary on each child’s skills and abilities in relation to the three key characteristics of effective learning.
2021-23
Reception teachers……may choose to provide a short commentary on each child’s skills and abilities in relation to the three key characteristics of effective teaching and learning.
If we look at the rest of the current Statutory framework, we also see a downgrading of play – itself one of the CoEL. ‘Each area of learning and development must be implemented through planned, purposeful play and through a mix of adult-led and child-initiated activity’ has been replaced by ‘This framework does not prescribe a particular teaching approach’. So play is no longer compulsory even though it is still described as ‘essential’.
The current Statutory framework also suggests a misunderstanding of how self-regulation relates to the CoEL. Self-regulation is not something children can do by themselves, it grows out of responsive co-regulating relationships with caregivers. There is no single definition but it involves children’s developing ability to regulate their emotions, thoughts and behaviour to enable them to function as successful social beings and competent and creative learners.
‘Annex 8’ of the Tickell review in 2012 explained the place of self-regulation in areas of learning – particularly the prime areas – and in the CoEL. Since then, research has unpacked more aspects of self-regulation and its relationship to brain maturation through to adulthood.
Nonetheless, in 2024 we have an English early years framework that refers to self-regulation only in an Early Learning Goal which focuses mainly on behaviour, impulse control and listening to the teacher! This is not good enough when we know that some of the most significant determinants of children’s success as learners are their positive emotional feelings about themselves as people and as learners (emotional self-regulation) and their awareness and control of their own thinking (cognitive self-regulation).
SOME THINGS DON’T CHANGE
Early years has always suffered from downward pressure to become more like primary school. There is always a danger that the EYFS is not seen as a significant key stage in its own right but as a waiting room for school and insufficiently compliant with the future requirements of the National Curriculum.
Emphasising the areas of learning and downgrading the CoEL is seen by many as part of that agenda. Ofsted produces reports such as ‘Bold Beginnings’ and ‘research reviews’ which are launched with great fanfare. One of the most recent ones, Best start in life part 1: setting the scene (Ofsted 2022), was so concerning that a number of well-known early childhood specialists challenged aspects of it in an open letter to the chief inspector, pointing out, among other things, that the section ‘How children learn and cognitive science’ made ‘no mention of the CoEL’.
The DfE may have moved backwards since 2012, but children are still learning in the same ways. The CoEL belong to them and it is important to take note of changes of wording and emphasis in descriptions of how children learn – words matter! Children have a right to learn through play, active learning and thinking creatively and critically. Adults have a responsibility to guard against adopting an emphasis solely on steps to early learning goals and remember that the CoEL represent processes rather than outcomes. This has implications for assessment.
The case study (below) illustrates the dangers of becoming too focused on adult ‘learning intentions’.
‘Children are powerful learners from birth. They can develop strong habits of mind and behaviours that will continue to support them to discover, think, create, solve problems and self-regulate their learning’ (Birth to 5 Matters).
Adults are also powerful learners. When they develop the habits of really watching and listening to children, they can find out a lot about how they are learning as well as what they are learning. We cannot predict what challenges today’s young children will face in the future, but the best preparation we can give them in the early years is to promote positive dispositions and a love of learning.
The next article in this series will focus on learning through playing and exploring.
CASE STUDY: how they are learning
We may be so busy ‘observing’ how children are ordering numbers from zero to ten, as they peg number cards they have made onto a washing line as part of an adult-planned experience, that we fail to observe how they are approaching the process. We may miss:
Flavia: Piling the number cards up, then collecting another set from the maths learning zone and matching the numerals – putting a ‘2’ with a ‘2’ and a ‘3’ with a ‘3’. Then shuffling all the cards and dealing them out to friends.
Serge: Sorting the cards into piles of ‘even’ and ‘odd’ numbers – counting in twos out loud. Walking away, still chanting ‘two, four, six, eight, who do we appreciate?’.
Charlotte: Singing ‘Ten in a Bed’ as she fixes the cards to the line, and calling to Charlene ‘come and play 10 in a bed with me, bring the babies’. Spending over 20 minutes pegging up the cards, laying them in a row and matching one toy to each, singing and laughing.
Rifat: Struggling with using the pegs to fix the cards onto the washing line. Looking hard at the pegs, practising opening and closing them with two hands, and watching other children. Then having another go and beaming as the card remains fixed to the line.
Milo: Refusing to join in with the activity when invited by the practitioner, but later returning when the adult and group of children leave. Looking at the cards, and fixing the ‘4’ to the line – between the ‘7’ and ‘8’, saying ‘Four, I four’.
So in focusing so narrowly on the planned learning intentions, a practitioner could miss significant learning in other areas of learning and development – Rifat’s physical development, Charlotte’s development in the expressive arts, Serge’s personal, social and emotional development. What’s more, really important information about how children learn could be missed too.
If we look harder, we can see that we could make comments about the children’s approaches to learning:
Flavia: How she is thinking and learning – ‘having her own ideas’ about how to use the resource and putting them into practice (creating and thinking critically).
Serge: The way Serge is thinking and ‘making links’ in his learning – how he is thinking about the oral ‘counting in twos’ activity earlier in the week (creating and thinking critically).
Charlotte: The way Charlotte continues to be motivated by a task she sets herself – how she is ‘involved and concentrating’ for a prolonged period (active learning).
Rifat: The way Rifat exhibits his motivation – how he ‘keeps on trying’ and ‘enjoys achieving what he sets out to do’ (active learning).
Milo: The way he becomes engaged in the experience, after initial reluctance – being willing to ‘have a go’ away from the group (playing and exploring).
From Dancer & Moylett (2022)