Early Childhood Education: Theory, Curriculum, and Pedagogy

Posted on Jun 29, 2026 in Primary Education

Theory, Curriculum, and Pedagogy

Core Concepts

  • Theory: A model of interconnected ideas explaining observations and predicting future events. It guides observation, interpretation, planning, and evaluation.
  • Curriculum: All learning experiences in an ECE setting, including planned and spontaneous experiences created with children and families.
  • Pedagogy: How learning happens and how educators support that learning. It is the application of theory into practice.

The Difference: Curriculum is what children learn; Pedagogy is how children learn.

How Does Learning Happen? (HDLH)

  • Image of Child: Competent, capable of complex thinking, curious, and rich in potential.
  • Image of Family: Experts on their children; the first and most powerful influence.
  • Image of Educator: Competent, caring, reflective, resourceful, and knowledgeable.

HDLH Foundations

  • Belonging: Relationships, connection, community.
  • Well-Being: Health, safety, self-regulation.
  • Engagement: Play, inquiry, exploration, problem-solving.
  • Expression: Communication, creativity, representation.

Play-Based Curriculum

Play is freely chosen, intrinsically motivated, active, non-literal, meaningful, and enjoyable. It benefits cognitive, social, emotional, physical, language, and self-regulation development.

Educator Role: Observe, participate, guide, extend, and challenge. Avoid worksheets and academic drills.

Emergent Curriculum

Curriculum emerges from interests, questions, experiences, and play—not pre-set themes.

The Emergent Process

  1. Observation
  2. Provision (provide materials)
  3. Sustain (maintain interest)
  4. Enrich (deepen learning)
  5. Representation (show learning through art, building, stories, music, dramatic play)
  6. Documentation

Observation and Interpretation

Observation: Must be objective (facts only). Avoid assumptions, opinions, and judgments.

Anecdotal Observation: Include who, what, where, when, sequence, quotes, facial expressions, and body language. Use past tense and initials only.

Social and Cognitive Play Levels

Parten’s Social Play Levels

  1. Unoccupied
  2. Solitary
  3. Onlooker
  4. Parallel
  5. Associative
  6. Cooperative (Highest level)

Smilansky’s Cognitive Play

  1. Functional
  2. Constructive
  3. Dramatic
  4. Sociodramatic (Pretend + Others)
  5. Games with Rules

Self-Regulation

Managing emotions, behaviour, and attention. It develops through maturation, experience, and responsive relationships.

ELECT and Development

ELECT (Early Learning for Every Child Today): The foundation document for HDLH, providing a continuum of development and a shared language.

Continuum of Development (CoD)

Physical

Gross motor Fine motor

Cognitive

Memory Problem solving Cause and effect

Language

Communication Vocabulary Literacy

Social

Relationships Cooperation Turn taking

Emotional

Self-awareness Self-regulation

INTERPRETATION

Identify:

1 Social Play Level

2 Cognitive Play Level

3 Self-Regulation

4 Developmental Skill

5 Evidence

6 Next Step

THEREFORE STATEMENT

Group:

Children are demonstrating ______ because ______.

Educators can support learning by ______.

Individual:

The child is demonstrating ______ because ______.

Learning can be extended by ______.

MEANING MAKING

Learning is strongest when:

RELEVANT

Connected to prior knowledge

EMOTIONAL

Positive feelings support learning

CONTEXTUAL

Connected to real experiences

Evidence:

Repetition

Exploration

Engagement

Questions

Storytelling

Problem Solving

PEDAGOGICAL STRATEGIES

MATERIALS

Add resources

ARRANGEMENT

Change environment

VERBAL

Open-ended questions

Examples:

What do you notice?

What do you think?

Tell me about it.

BEHAVIOURAL

Modelling Scaffolding Demonstrating

PEDAGOGICAL DOCUMENTATION

Documentation = Record learning

Examples:

Notes

Photos

Videos

Children’s work

Pedagogical Documentation =

Observation + Interpretation + Reflection + Planning

Purpose:

Makes learning visible

Communicates with families

Supports curriculum

Supports inclusion

DEFINITIONS TO MEMORIZE

Theory = explains learning

Curriculum = all experiences

Pedagogy = how learning happens

Play = children’s way of learning

Observation = what happened

Interpretation = what it means

Documentation = record of learning

Pedagogical Documentation = record + reflection

Self-Regulation = managing emotions, behaviour and attention

Emergent Curriculum = curriculum from children’s interests

ELECT = development framework

HDLH = pedagogy framework

MOST LIKELY SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS

What is emergent curriculum?

Difference between observation and interpretation?

Difference between curriculum and pedagogy?

What is self-regulation?

Explain Parten’s play levels.

Explain Smilansky’s play levels.

What is pedagogical documentation?

Explain HDLH.

What is the educator’s role in play?

Why do educators observe children?