The continua of learning and development assists teachers as they observe, analyse and assess children’s learning, development and wellbeing.
Teachers and educators use the continua to:
- reflect on evidence of learning
- inform ongoing decisions
- share information about children’s learning.
The continua are described using three phases — emerging, exploring and extending. The phases inform teacher planning and learning discussions; therefore, the usefulness of using the terms ‘emerging’, ‘exploring’ and ‘extending’ when sharing information about children’s learning with families should be considered.
Each phase is differentiated by the child’s level of:
- familiarity with the learning situation (familiar situations or new situations)
- support needed to demonstrate learning (explicit support, occasional prompting).
Figure 1 shows the level of familiarity and level of support for each phase in the continua of learning and development.
| Emerging | Exploring | Extending | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Learning situations | familiar situations may include environments, experiences or people that are known, which children frequently return to or seek out for comfort and confidence | new situations may include unfamiliar spaces or areas, new types of interactions or groupings, engaging with new people or materials | ||
| Level of support | explicit support may involve sustained interventions such as modelling, scaffolding or making adjustments | occasional support may involve regular adult or peer assistance supporting children to attempt to use modelled strategies with increasing confidence and independence | occasional prompting may involve releasing responsibility to support children to work toward greater independence and encourage persistence through reminders, visual cues, gestural prompts or positive reinforcement | |
The continua can be used during the learning process and when reviewing learning at a point in time to make informed judgments about a child’s learning, development and wellbeing. When using the continua, teachers and educators:
- document evidence of learning identifying the child’s level of familiarity with the situation in which the learning was demonstrated and the level of support that enabled the child to demonstrate the observed learning
- evaluate and use evidence to inform planning for the next steps in the child’s learning and intentional teaching strategies which will promote that learning
- review evidence over time to make judgments about which phase a child’s learning is more like
- use judgments to reflect on, describe and share information about children’s learning, development and wellbeing.
The continua phases are exemplified in the learning and development areas through observable learnings. The observable learnings describe the significant learning for each phase by the end of kindergarten. The observable learnings are used by teachers to describe learning, monitor children’s learning, development and wellbeing, and make judgments about which phase a child’s learning is ‘more like’ (see Figure 2). In making these judgments, children’s learning may not fit into one phase across all learning and development areas. Learning may also move in and out of phases over time as the situation and level of support may change in response to an individual’s need.
Examples of how children may demonstrate the observable learnings are provided across the three phases in the continua of learning and development to support teachers to make consistent judgments about which phase a child’s learning is ‘more like’. Teachers are encouraged to consider further examples relevant to their context.
The learning occurred:
- Last updated:
- 31 July 2024
