The Core Beliefs of the New York State CBK, which also serve as the guiding principles of this document, state that:
- Children construct their own knowledge based on their curiosity and driven by their interests. This active construction is facilitated by interaction with adults and other children.
- Children’s learning is active and follows a recurring path: awareness, exploration, inquiry, and application.
The “Approaches to Learning” section of the Early Learning Guidelines describes what active learning looks like in early childhood. In this section, you can see how children construct their own knowledge through exploration and inquiry at each age. This domain provides guidance for how to support children in developing the characteristics of an active learner: curiosity, creativity, initiative, and persistence.
Fostering these approaches to learning in early childhood prepares children to become independent learners who are able to engage in complex thinking and analytical reasoning. When educators create learning environments and engage in interactions that build these approaches to learning, children develop the cognitive processes they will need to be successful in most schools. These cognitive processes include the ability to set their own goals, focus on a task, look at it from multiple perspectives, describe their thinking, and persevere.
In using the “What the Educator Might Observe” sections of this domain, be sure to account for the individual and cultural variations of the learner. For example, curiosity looks very different in different people. For one child, curiosity might look like telling the educator that they need a screwdriver to take apart an old radio and then energetically pulling it to pieces. For another child, it might look like reading a book about radios. And, for still another child, it might look like quietly observing an adult taking apart a radio. It is important that educators reflect on their own preferences, assumptions, and cultural expectations before deciding how to extend children’s approaches to learning.
The “Ways the Educator Might Support the Child’s Learning” sections include ideas that may be a cultural mismatch for some educators and families. For example, it suggests that in order to develop a child’s ability to take initiative, the educator should follow the child’s lead, notice what they are interested in, and then join their interests. Educators who were brought up to demonstrate ultimate respect to their elders may not feel that following a young child’s lead or giving them choices is valuable. Educators are encouraged to reflect with colleagues and families about the approaches to learning that prepare children to be successful in their cultures. What would these be called? What might educators observe at each age to see that the child was developing these approaches to learning?