Early Years Practitioner Guidance

Active learning is a process that puts children at its centre. It is a highly effective approach across all stages of learning from early childhood through to adulthood. Children are engaged in their learning rather than passively listening and receiving information. Children take part in a variety of activities that involve thinking hard. Active learning can take place inside or outside the classroom, and by working individually, in pairs, in small groups or as a whole class. It can be done with or without the use of special resources. It may involve moving, but it does not need to. The important thing is that children are engaged in their own learning and have some responsibility for their own progress. Active learning encourages metacognition in children, or to think about their thinking, through opportunities to plan, monitor, evaluate and make changes to progress their learning. In early years, play is an important element of active learning. The information below will help you understand how to promote active learning in your centre.

How to promote active learning in early years

An important part of your role as an early years practitioner is to direct and scaffold learning, enabling each child to become an active participant in their own learning rather than a passive receiver of instruction and information. This involves facilitating learning that engages and challenges children’s thinking, and adopting responsive approaches that promote the feelings of: 

• competence – being confident that they are able to do things successfully
• agency – being able to make their own choices and decisions to influence events
• emotional attachment – having emotional bonds with key adults that help them feel secure
• self-worth – having pride in themselves.

Ways to achieve this include:

• Using a play-based approach

Provide opportunities for child-initiated play, so children have control over their own learning. You can do this by allowing children to choose their own resources, area of play and whether to play alone or with others. (Please see the section “ A play-based approach” for more information.)

• Providing appropriate challenge

Providing appropriate challenge is not just about providing age-appropriate activities which facilitate progress towards learning statements. It also includes providing opportunities for new challenges which take children from the known to the unknown. A trusting adult-child relationship and a positive learning environment will encourage children to rise to challenges confidently. The video below shows an example of adults supporting and encouraging children to tackle challenges:

• Building on children’s experiences

Supporting children to make links between their experiences (both in your setting and at home) makes learning more meaningful. When reading a picturebook, for example, talk about the similarities and differences to the child’s own world in the text and illustrations. (“Look, she’s carrying a red backpack just like yours. / He’s feeling frightened. Can you remember a time you felt frightened?”). Another example of how you can do this is if you know of a new experience they have had (like going to the zoo or a wedding), encourage related roleplay that extends their learning. So, teach the curriculum areas in a holistic way, and take time to find out about and respond to children’s home experiences and personal interests.

• Providing choice

Everyone learns better when they are interested in what they are doing, so it is important that you give children a choice about the activities they do, where they do them (e.g. inside or outside), and the resources they use. This gives children some ownership over what to learn, how to learn it and how deep to take their learning, and puts them at the centre of their own learning.

• Facilitating learning through exploration

Exciting and accessible hands-on opportunities for exploration support children’s development into capable, independent learners. The video below shows the important role you have in supporting children in their explorations:

• Providing variety in groupings

Opportunities to work in groups of different sizes are invaluable in progressing children’s thinking as well as their social learning. Exploring and discussing ideas in pairs or small groups helps children to clarify and develop their ideas. You can have a look at the Speaking and Listening page for more information.

• Encouraging reflection

Simply asking children what they liked about an activity and what went well will help to develop reflective learners who can take pride in their achievements and can begin to identify next steps for their learning. Self- and peer-assessment is also beneficial to active learning because it gives children the opportunity to practice this type of thinking.

Principles of active learning

Active learning plays an important role in learners developing the Cambridge learner attributes which will inspire them to love learning and help them to lead fulfilled and successful lives:

You can find more information about active learning in the Cambridge International resource Getting started with Active Learning.