QKLG 2024

Active learning: Learning and development area (QKLG 2024)

Active learning helps children to build positive dispositions and approaches toward learning, and encourages increasing confidence, engagement and involvement in learning. It promotes the development of curiosity, creativity and executive function skills for problem-solving, and critical thinking skills and processes to generate, test and reflect on ideas through trial and error while utilising their working memory.

As children engage in learning, reflect on and revisit ideas and practise skills, they deepen their understandings and can begin to transfer learning to new contexts.

As active learners, children are developing understandings of themselves and their world, and creating their ideas through play-based learning opportunities. Children show an interest in technologies and the uses of different technologies to support learning and communication.

Kindergarten children who are becoming confident and involved learners are:

building positive dispositions toward learning
showing confidence and involvement in learning
engaging with technologies for learning and communication.

Critically reflecting on Active learning, teachers and educators may consider:

how to foster children’s positive dispositions and approaches to learning
where regular opportunities to reflect on learning with children could be embedded in the program
the choices they make about technologies to promote children as active producers using technologies for learning.

Key focuses

Significant learnings	Emerging phase in familiar situations with explicit support	Exploring phase in familiar situations with occasional support	Extending phase in new situations with occasional prompting
shows curiosity and enthusiasm for learning	expresses interest in engaging with familiar materials or experiences e.g. smiles as they roll cars repeatedly down a ramp, watching the wheels turn	shows curiosity in building on familiar learning e.g. extends on familiar car and ramp play, with encouragement, by trialling how cars roll and move on different surfaces	shows curiosity and engages in new learning with enthusiasm e.g. reflects on car and ramp play and, with prompting, trials how a range of different objects move on a ramp
responds to the arts creatively and imaginatively	participates in aspects of the arts e.g. copies an adult to move scarves to a familiar rhythm	responds to the arts and attempts to use aspects of the arts imaginatively e.g. uses familiar scarves and body movements to respond to music, with encouragement	responds to and uses the arts in creative and imaginative ways e.g. uses movement and materials to respond to music
creates and communicates through the arts	attempts to use materials to express ideas or feelings e.g. copies ways to use paints in an attempt to make a rainbow like the one they saw outside	explores materials to create and attempts to communicate their ideas or feelings through the arts e.g. uses recycled boxes and craft materials to create a vehicle for their garage play, with scaffolding	creates and communicates meaning through the arts e.g. experiments with charcoal and ochre symbols on stones outside to create a map

Intentional teaching strategies to promote learning include:

encouraging curiosity and creativity
identifying and imagining ways to creatively represent ideas and characters in dramatic play
providing opportunities for children to engage in a range of visual arts, dramatic play, music and dance experiences
explaining new vocabulary in different contexts.

Significant learnings	Emerging phase in familiar situations with explicit support	Exploring phase in familiar situations with occasional support	Extending phase in new situations with occasional prompting
plans and carries out learning projects	engages with familiar spaces, materials and play e.g. returns to the same space each day, choosing two cars to race on a track they have built after planning for play with an adult	attempts to plan and organise resources to carry out projects of interest e.g. identifies a play project and collects materials they will need after guided planning	plans, organises resources and carries out learning projects e.g. plans for construction play, collaboratively organises materials and adapts the plan to see the project through to completion
develops awareness of inquiry processes	shows curiosity about what is happening around them e.g. notices interesting phenomena such as frost melting on the grass	suggests an idea to explore e.g. notices ice melting during water play experiments and suggests they would like to explore ice and water play further	hypothesises and tests ideas e.g. hypothesises that ice will not melt in the fridge. With an adult, organises to test the idea and observes what happens
builds problem-solving strategies	pays attention to modelled thinking to respond to a problem e.g. attends to an adult describing the problem being experienced and responds to direction to solve the problem one step at a time	uses modelled thinking strategies for problem-solving e.g. responds to questioning to consider the problem experienced and what they could do to resolve this	uses a range of thinking strategies for problem-solving e.g. identifies a problem and expresses possible solutions to trial and reflects on the results with adults or peers
reflects on learning	begins to make links to prior learning in teacher-led reflections e.g. uses documentation to reflect on and apply learning from a previous experience to the current play situation, with explicit adult direction	makes links to prior learning in guided reflections e.g. remembers previous learning during adult-guided reflection. Selects and applies a successful strategy from previous learning suited to their current play project	reflects on prior experiences to make links to new learning e.g. reflects on previous learning to consider successful strategies and approaches and applies learnings from their reflection to their current project
shares ideas and discoveries	begins to share thoughts and ideas from play e.g. shares that they found a caterpillar near the obstacle course and, with scaffolding, describes why this was of interest	shares ideas about their learning e.g. explores ideas about why the caterpillar could be near the obstacle course and, with assistance, shares what they know with others	shares ideas and describes learning discoveries e.g. builds on their ideas about why a caterpillar was near the obstacle course through collaborative research and describing what they learnt to others, with prompting

Intentional teaching strategies to promote learning include:

encouraging children to notice, hypothesise, experiment, record and share findings
listening and attending to children’s working theories and perspectives to motivate and challenge their learning and thinking
using questioning to promote deeper thinking about, and communication of, ideas and discoveries
making connections to aspects of problem-solving that children may need to consider
challenging children to make links between ideas and experiences
reflecting with children, identifying their efforts and thinking processes, and promoting self-belief and positive approaches to learning
providing learning opportunities with flexible, uninterrupted time for deep thinking and explorations of ideas.

Significant learnings	Emerging phase in familiar situations with explicit support	Exploring phase in familiar situations with occasional support	Extending phase in new situations with occasional prompting
shows interest in technologies	begins to use real or pretend technologies in play e.g. uses a block as a mobile phone and pretends to talk	uses real or pretend technologies in play and inquiry e.g. notices the moon and, with assistance, creates a telescope to try to see the stars	uses technologies in play and inquiry experiences e.g. uses a camera to document what they notice, or create, to share with others
uses technologies purposefully	attempts to use familiar technologies e.g. uses a magnifying glass to find bugs in the garden	explores ways to use technologies purposefully e.g. uses a digital device to create a photo book with teacher-assisted annotations to share their discovery of bugs in the garden	uses technologies purposefully e.g. uses animation applications with prompting to creatively share information they have collaboratively researched on the bugs in their environment

Intentional teaching strategies to promote learning include:

explaining safe and appropriate use of technologies
researching and communicating with digital technologies and media
collaborating to use technologies to investigate or solve a problem
identifying ways to use technologies for learning
providing choices of everyday technologies for children to use.

Last updated:: 31 July 2024

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QKLG 2024

Active learning: Learning and development area (QKLG 2024)

Key focuses

QKLG 2024

QKLG 2024

Active learning: Learning and development area (QKLG 2024)

Key focuses

Building positive dispositions toward learning

Showing confidence and involvement in learning

Engaging with technologies for learning and communication

QKLG 2024