BEd122: Planning for Children's Learning: Socio-Cultural Essay

This essay delves into the crucial components of planning for children's learning from a socio-cultural perspective, emphasizing the 'notice, recognize, respond, and evaluate' framework within early childhood education. It references the New Zealand curriculum 'Te Whariki' and developmental theories by Vygotsky and Bronfenbrenner, highlighting the importance of social interaction, cultural context, and the teacher's role in fostering a supportive learning environment. The essay also includes a discussion on creating optimal learning environments for young children, emphasizing safety, responsiveness, cultural diversity, and the integration of children with special needs. The role of the teacher is highlighted in establishing and maintaining these environments to promote holistic child development.

Running head: PLANNING FOR CHILDREN’S LEARNING
PLANNING FOR CHILDREN’S LEARNING
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1PLANNING FOR CHILDREN’S LEARNING
Essay
Introduction
Early childhood is one of the most crucial phases of development as far as holistic
education is considered. As a child, an individual goes through a lot of developmental phases
that strengthens his/her connection with the larger world and the people they come in contact
with. This forms a part of the education they receive that ensures a wholesome development,
not only from the literacy and numeracy perspective but also from the perspective of larger
socio – cultural engagement. There are numerous developmental theories that support the
developmental phases that a child goes through while learning and acquiring new bits of
knowledge along the way. These theories explicitly state in detail the various stages and sub
stages that a child goes through while growing up. In a formal early education context,
monitoring a child’s progress becomes highly crucial as it provides significant data about the
child’s cognitive and social context. As an early education teacher, there are four components
that become significantly useful in connection with early childhood development. They are
namely notice, recognise, respond and evaluate. In this essay, the significance of these four
components while planning for children’s learning will be looked at from a socio cultural
perspective especially in correlation with the developmental theories.
Discussion
Drawing reference from the New Zealand curriculum ‘Te Whariki’, we find that it is
based upon an intricate series of interrelated learning dispositions (Ministry of Education,
1996). The curriculum focuses heavily on the interconnectedness of different early learning
aspects. The dispositions as mentioned earlier, of ‘Te Whariki’ are namely belonging,
contribution, wellbeing, exploring and communicating (Minitry of Education, 1996). These
dispositions are crucial guidelines as well as outcomes that serve as the cornerstone for

2PLANNING FOR CHILDREN’S LEARNING
assessment of a child. They are also supported by a series of booklets and resources titles ‘Ke
Tua o te Pae’ (Ministry of Education, 2004-2009). The document reveals the use of the
framework of ‘notice, recognise and respond’ in order to describe the purpose of assessment
in the context of both early childhood education as well as school curriculum.
The primary aspect of assessment in early childhood context is that of noticing. From
a curriculum perspective, the aspect of noticing indicates towards how the educators can
observe the child’s overall development. This does not limit the developmental parameters to
that of simply literacy and numeracy but extends to include the child’s natural and
unmoderated interactions and experiences with the general immediate environment. Cowie &
Carr state that “We take the view that learning and development, rather than being primarily
about individual achievement, is distributed over, stretched across, people, places and
things” (2009, p. 105). This indicates that while it comes to assessing the child, as an
educator, it is vital to look at how the child is responding to the natural environment. The
whole concept of early childhood development is built upon the assumption that the child will
grow up with certain developmental traits that will help him/her in the long run as an adult.
From a sociological perspective, noticing lies in direct correlation with Vygotsky’s Social
Learning Theory. The theory states the importance of greater social interaction among
children and the society as it serves as a key source of learning for the children. According to
Vygotsky, social and cultural interactions serve as a template for the behavioural
development of the child and the most of children’s learning happens in the phase identified
as the Zone of Proximal Development which is the period between assisted competence and
independent competence in children (Shabani, Khatib & Ebadi, 2010). Notice as assessment
helps identify those specific areas of development from a curriculum as well as socio –
cultural perspective, attempting to promote regions of positive development in children.

3PLANNING FOR CHILDREN’S LEARNING
The second aspect in consideration is that of ‘recognise’, a more nuanced
advancement from ‘noticing’. It involves identifying areas of educational development from
the overall observation of the child and his / her interactions with the society and culture
(Ministry of Education, 2004-2009). As teachers work with children, they come in contact
with a lot of elements that show evidence of the child’s engagement with the society. All of
those elements are not relevant when it comes to learning. ‘Recognising’ helps the teachers
identify some of what they observe as learning. According to Mary Jane Drummond, “[the]
ways in which, in our everyday practice, we [children, families, teachers, and others] observe
children’s learning [notice], strive to understand it [recognise], and then put our
understanding to good use [respond]” (Drummond, 2011, p. 13). According to
Bronfenbrenner, the development of a child is divided into spaces instead of stages, which
indicates that all of the child’s interactions and experiences do not form substantial bases for
equitable development. The exosystem according to Bronfenbrenner, incorporates aspects of
microsystem that indirectly affects the child, but the microsystem, being the more pedantic
one, is usually responsible for a more intricate development. Therefore, even though the child
in the course of learning interacts with the environment in depth, there are very limited
aspects from the entire observation that would count as learning. The role of the teacher is to
recognise what those specific aspects are.
The third aspect according to the booklet is that of ‘responding’. It indicates the
teacher’s responsibilities after recognising areas from learning from the observation and
responding accurately to build upon those aspects in order to promote the learning in an
active fashion. Children’s learning is also dependent upon how effectively the curriculum
manages the development of the strong areas of the child. Responding forms that part of the
teacher’s responsibilities where they look at how effectively the child engages with learning
when their areas of interest are triggered through activities.

4PLANNING FOR CHILDREN’S LEARNING
The final component identified here is that of ‘evaluate’. Evaluation forms a
significant base for development of the child as it provides a reference for what needs to be
developed and what needs to be removed. Evaluation helps the teacher identify areas of
strength and weakness in children wherefrom the teacher, in connection with relevant and
responsible authorities, are able to modify the curriculum as well as teaching and learning
strategies to fit the requirement of all students concerned and build appropriate assessment
instruments (Gullo, 2005, p. 4). Evaluation is the last gateway in the framework where the
child’s development is monitored to identify two very specific goals. Firstly, evaluation
allows the teacher to understand the child’s strengths and weaknesses and secondly, it allows
the educator to assess where the strengths and weaknesses lie within the curriculum.
Conclusion
Noticing, recognising, responding and evaluating are four highly organised and
structured elements that are crucial in an early learning framework, not only for the educators
but also for the children concerned. Complete unmoderated learning can be a recipe for
disaster and therefore the entailment of educators in the early learning context requires them
to focus, not on objective achievement of grades and subject matter knowledge but rather on
the complete development of the child overall which includes aspects of socio – cultural
achievements, cognitive and linguistic developments, communication skills and active
learning through play. Thus, the documents referred to above as well as the curriculum
frameworks that identify the four components as being crucial for early childhood
development, are relevant for discussion as well as implementation in this context.

5PLANNING FOR CHILDREN’S LEARNING
Short essay
Introduction
When it comes to learning in an early childhood context, the importance of a learning
environment cannot be disputed against. A learning environment is the primary environment
for the child’s communication, non - verbal interactions and other active engagements.
Therefore, not only is it crucial that the learning environment be friendly and safe, but also
possess elements of learning opportunities. The role of the early education teacher therefore
becomes vital in this case as, being the immediate accessible resource for the children, they
are responsible for ensuring that not only the child is able to learn but also do so in a safe,
responsive and nurturing environment.
Discussion
A safe, responsive and nurturing learning environment is a crucial aspect that needs to
be considered when supporting the education and development of infants, toddlers as well as
pre schoolers. Not only are these environments relevant in learning, but are also important as
far as controlling and managing challenging behaviour is concerned. As the Division for
Early Childhood Recommended Practices (DEC-RP) states, “Environmental practices refer
to aspects of the space, materials, equipment, routines, and activities that practitioners and
families can intentionally alter to support each child’s learning across developmental
domains” (DEC-RP, 2009).
As early education teachers, it is important to realise the relevance and utility of a
fostering learning environment in the early education context. An ideal learning environment
does not only promote learning and positive behaviour (Dunlap et al., 2013) but also ensures
the achievement of a series of other outcomes that foster feelings of independence and
competence in children while also taking care of cognitive and linguistic development of the

6PLANNING FOR CHILDREN’S LEARNING
children (Barton & Smith, 2015) as well as promoting multicultural inclusivity and
interaction (Allen & Cowdery, 2014). Furthermore, the learning environment should also
have elements that are easily accessible by children with disabilities or special needs. For
instance, using visual aids as assistive technology service to help children with cognitive
developmental issues should mean that the learning environment is inclusive of children with
varied requirements and is therefore a suitable environment for development (Gauvreau &
Schwartz, 2013).
Promoting cultural diversity is another outcome that is highly crucial in an early
educational context. Not only does it help the child to grow by positively respecting the
diversity of cultures and individuals, it also allows for the development of a collective
cultural competence amongst children (Santora & Anti Defamation League staff, 2012).
There are quite a number of things that the teacher can do to promote inclusivity and diversity
in early education learning environment. For instance keeping photos of the children along
with their family, community and general photographs/pictures of the indigenous Australians
or New Zealanders highlighting their cultural nuances like choice of dressing, food and
shelter etc., can help the child grow up learning to respect diversity (Santora & Anti
Defamation League staff, 2012).
Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be rightfully asserted that the teacher in an early education
context plays significant roles when it comes to developing and establishing a learning
environment. First of all, the teacher is required to identify the learning environment as an
irreplaceable part of early childhood development and education. Secondly, the teacher must
ensure that the learning environment incorporates all the learner’s needs and requirements by
incorporating elements that resonate with the children’s individual learning style preferences.
Thirdly, the learning environment should be developmentally appropriate. Fourthly, the

7PLANNING FOR CHILDREN’S LEARNING
environment should incorporate elements that promote deeper understanding of cultural and
interpersonal diversity. And finally, the learning environment should be safe, responsive and
nourishing for the children. These are the specific elements with which the teacher can
provide an optimal learning environment for the children across various ages.

8PLANNING FOR CHILDREN’S LEARNING
References
Allen, K. E., & Cowdery, G. E. (2014). The exceptional child: Inclusion in early childhood
education. Independence, KY: Wadsworth Publishing.
Barton, E. E., & Smith, B. J. (2015). The preschool inclusion toolbox: How to build and lead
a high-quality program. Baltimore, MD: Brookes.
Cowie, B., & Carr, M. (2009). The consequences of sociocultural assessment. In A. Anning,
J. Cullen, & M. Fleer (Eds.), Early childhood education: Society and culture (pp. 95–
106). London: Sage.
Drummond, M. J. (2011). Assessing Children's Learning (Classic Edition). Routledge.
Dunlap, G., Wilson, K., Strain, P., & Lee, J. K. (2013). Prevent, teach, reinforce for young
children: The early childhood model of individualized positive behavior support.
Baltimore, MD: Brookes.
Gauvreau, A. N., & Schwartz, I. S. (2013). Using visual supports to promote appropriate
behavior in young children with Autism and related disorders. Young Exceptional
Children Monograph Series, 15, 29–44.
Gullo, D. F. (2005). Understanding assessment and evaluation in early childhood
education (Vol. 95). Teachers College Press.
Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki matauranga mo nga mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early
childhood curriculum. Wellington, NZ: Learning Media.
Ministry of Education. (2004-2009). Kei tua o te pai: Assessment for learning. Early
childhood exemplars. Wellington, NZ: Learning Media. Retrieved from
http://www.educate.ece.govt.nz/learning/curriculumAndLearning/Assessmentforlearn
ing/KeiTuaotePae/Background.aspx
Santora, L., & Anti-Defamation League staff. (2012). How can you create a learning
environment that respects diversity? Retrieved

9PLANNING FOR CHILDREN’S LEARNING
from: http://www.adl.org/assets/pdf/education-outreach/How-Can-You-Create-a-
Learning-Environment-That-Respects-Diversity.pdf
Shabani, K., Khatib, M., & Ebadi, S. (2010). Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development:
Instructional Implications and Teachers' Professional Development. English language
teaching, 3(4), 237-248.
The Division of Early Childhood (DEC), & the National Association for the Education of
Young Children (NAEYC). (2009, April). Early childhood inclusion. Position
statement. Retrieved on December 9, 2015,
from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/DEC_NAEYC_EC_updatedKS.
pdf