Overview of teaching and learning approaches

Teachers need to employ a variety of teaching and learning strategies within their setting. This will normally include carefully designed: individual learning activities group work activities that involve all, or a large number of, children in the setting.

The key element is the quality of the engagement from the children and the opportunities that the activities provide for feedback between the child and the teacher. This feedback will guide the next steps in either individual or collective learning.

The design of the Cambridge Early Years Curriculum supports the following overlapping teaching and learning approaches:

• a holistic approach, which builds connections between different curriculum areas 
  
• active learning, which puts the child at the centre of their learning so they are engaged in their learning rather than passively listening and receiving information
• a play-based approach, which involves children learning through playful activities that are either child-initiated or adult-led
• a focus on developing speaking and listening skills, which enable children to communicate, make sense of the world and to develop through social interactions
• a multilingual approach, which supports the learning of bilingual and multilingual children, and celebrates home languages
• a focus on developing self-regulation, which develops children’s awareness and control of their own thinking, learning and emotions.