Duration: 2:48
The Early Years Learning Framework Planning Cycle by the Australian Children’s Education & Care Quality Authority is reproduced under a CC BY 4.0 licence.
Transcript
Social and emotional learning includes skills such as children learning to recognise and separate their own needs from others, learning to identify and manage emotions, and building and maintaining positive relationships.
The Social and emotional learning trajectory contains 4 sub-domains. Self-awareness is where a child becomes aware of their uniqueness, individual emotions, perspectives and capabilities. Self-management is the ability to manage emotions and triggers, including regulating responses to challenging situations. Social awareness is the ability to understand other people's feelings, preferences and perspectives, and to care for other people, animals and non-living things. Social management is where children interact effectively and respectfully with others, using social strategies to collaborate and build positive relationships.
Within each sub-domain, there are strands and indicators. Strands describe the capabilities that change as children learn and develop, and indicators describe the progress you may observe. Educators and teachers can use the learning trajectories to inform their practice.
Let's look at how the learning trajectory for Social and emotional learning can be used alongside the Early Years Learning Framework Version 2 Planning Cycle. An educator or teacher observes a child's emotional responses during play over the course of a week. They observe that the child shows a wide range of emotions, and is starting to describe and express their feelings with words. The educator or teacher refers to the learning trajectories to assess the learning, and to identify the indicator that best describes the child's skill. They recognise that a child is demonstrating a growing sense of self-awareness. The educator or teacher sees an opportunity to build on the child's developing self-awareness skills, and plans to support the child's learning by sharing a story that acknowledges emotions. The educator or teacher implements the learning experience to support the child to recognise and understand emotions. The educator or teacher evaluates the implementation of their plan, and considers learning possibilities to support the child's developing self-awareness.
A child's development is influenced by their community, culture and everyday experiences. The learning trajectories are not designed to be used as a checklist, as each child's development is unique. Rather, they serve as a guide to identifying and extending on children's abilities, knowledge and understandings.
Learn more about the Early Childhood Learning Trajectories and how you can use them to strengthen your practice with children and families. Visit the Australian Education Research Organisation's website at edresearch.edu.au.
For more information about this Early Childhood Learning Trajectory, read our Social and emotional learning practice resource.
Keywords: early childhood education and care, ECEC, EYLF