Abstract
The continuum of teaching strategies is an essential aspect of the existing educational system. It can be related to the ethical practice and promoting the child’s ability to act ethically and promote justice. Additionally, the continuums are related to NQS, the EYLF, and the major regulations within the education sphere. Nevertheless, when using these methods and practices, an educator should remember that specific advantages and disadvantages should be considered when selecting an intervention for interaction with a child. Finally, all continuums are supported with psychological principles that ensure their efficacy and ability to meet children’s primary needs.
Analysis of the Continuum of Teaching Strategies
Low mediation implies interaction with children at specific levels that impact their behavior. The paradigm can be applied regarding ethical practice and helps teach children the basics of favored models. Acknowledging, as part of low mediation, means accepting prosocial acts demonstrated by a child (Arthur et al., 2018). It encourages specific patterns that might be required in the future.
Furthermore, modelling can be a potent teaching tool for building children’s well-being and establishing specific skills and ideas (MacNaughton & Williams, 2009). It requires educators to show behaviors that children should copy. From an ethical practice perspective, it cultivates specific patterns in children, which will impact their future actions. It explains the importance of the continuum and how it might be applied from an ethical perspective. Acknowledging desired features, professionals establish the environment necessary for achieving the existing goals.
Co-constructing is another example of how a continuum of teaching strategies can be applied in terms of ethical practice. This teaching strategy implies that children and teachers build meaning and knowledge about the world together (MacNaughton & Williams, 2009). This collaborative effort is crucial for the teaching process, as a specialist has the opportunity to interact with a child to form their worldview together and guarantee that ethical thinking and behavior play a vital role in this model.
Interpreting the world in a particular way, a child will acquire the fundamental understanding of what it means to be ethical. Being supported by an educator, the student can come to realize the importance of ethics and the impossibility of certain behaviors. Additionally, co-constructing teaches children how to create new meanings. From this perspective, this continuum is necessary for establishing the thinking and cognitive patterns that a child will use in the future.
Finally, educators can promote children’s ability to act and think ethically by empowering them. This explicit strategy means that a specialist provides a student with knowledge and skills as part of learning and care. However, the central idea is that a teacher can select content compatible with existing educational goals and necessary for cultivating and empowering ideas of justice and ethical behavior (MacNaughton & Williams, 2009).
Being committed to positive social change and the ideals of tolerance, educators can also empower these ideas in children and provide them with the opportunity to challenge unfair practices that exist in the world. Empowering is also closely associated with motivation, meaning that specialists should introduce attainable goals for children and reward them accordingly (O’Donnell et al., 2019). It means that acting and thinking ethically should be an achievable task for a child, which will motivate him and support this incentive.
Use in Relation to NQS, EYLF, and Regulations
The continuum of teaching strategies is also important because its use can help to attain the current goals in various areas and spheres. For instance, the low interaction continuum can be related to the National Quality Standard (NQS) established by the Australian Children’s Education & Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) (n.d.), specifically to element 1.1.3 Program learning opportunities. Acknowledging the child’s progress and efforts makes learning more accessible to him.
The continuum is also related to the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF), established by the Australian Government Department of Education (AGDE) (2022), and its outcomes, such as having a strong sense of well-being. Acknowledgement leads to reduced stress, and by combining it with the EYLF principle of secure, respectful, and reciprocal relationships, educators can achieve better results (AGDE, 2022).
The low continuum can also be related to the practice of responsiveness to children (AGDE, 2022). It means that the teacher responds to the behaviors and efforts in ways that encourage students’ further learning and ensure that success will be attained in the future (AGDE, 2022). Regarding the regulations, staffing arrangements require a specialist to be responsible and educated, while the physical environment and safety demand the absence of potential harm within the existing environment (Education and Care Services National Law, 2023). The continuum outlines the methods that are accepted within these regulations and promote desired results.
The mediating continuum can also be discussed in terms of NQS principles. For instance, element 1.2.2, Responsive teaching and scaffolding, interacts with the ideas of co-constructing (ACECQA, n.d.). By responding to children’s play, educators can form bonds and create new ideas and visions. As for the ELYF, outcome 4, stating that children should be confident and involved learners, is applicable (AGDE, 2022). The principle of partnerships, both with other specialists and children, combined with the practice of play-based learning, might be a part of the continuum focused on promoting the desired results (AGDE, 2022).
Finally, the regulations for educators, including early childhood teachers, and those for educational leaders may be applicable (Education and Care, 2023). They require a specialist to be ready to work with children in ways that promote their well-being and ability to interact at different levels. The mediating continuum is closely linked to the existing goals and principles of teaching and professionals’ work. By employing these strategies, it is possible to ensure that children receive the necessary knowledge and skills.
Finally, the explicit continuum helps to focus on aspects important for every child and outlined in the existing education goals. For instance, NQS element 5.2.2 self-regulation can be related to employing the discussed framework (ACECQA, n.d.). Philosophising teaches children how to think, which helps them to regulate their behaviors and respond to others’ behaviors by analyzing their values and applying them. It is a core of current teaching strategies aimed at preparing a child for the future.
Regarding the ELYF, the explicit continuum is related to Outcome 1, specifically a strong sense of identity in every child (AGDE, 2022). The practice of cultural responsiveness, employed through philosophising and other techniques, combined with the principle of sustainability, is essential for modern educators who focus on cultivating specific values in children (AGDE, 2022). Educational program regulations require a strong sense of identity, which is linked to the explicit continuum (Education and Care, 2023). Regarding the quality improvement regulations, they also require a specific philosophy for the services provided to ensure the comprehensive development of a child (Education and Care, 2023). In this way, the discussed continuums of teaching are closely related to the significant aspects of teaching and how it should be organized.
Critique of Implications for Practice
Using the continuum of reaching in interactions with children is one possible way to attain the desired outcomes and ensure the child receives the necessary support and training. At the same time, the choice of methods always depends on the context, meaning there are both positives and negatives. For instance, when analyzing the low continuum using a structured approach, specific limitations should be taken into account.
The framework implies a highly adult-directed continuum, with the teacher exerting strict control over all activities and the child’s learning (McMonagle, 2012). The need to attain specific milestones and ensure the acquisition of a minimum set of skills and knowledge explains the existence of this approach. Thus, it aligns with the methods of positioning when a child is placed in a particular situation or at a specific time to ensure the best possible outcome (MacNaughton & Williams, 2009). From this perspective, the continuum offers educators a method to support structured learning.
However, there are also some drawbacks associated with the nature of the discussed framework. Its interventions, such as acknowledging, modelling, or facilitating, might imply a comparatively high level of a child’s autonomy, which is necessary for their investigation of the world and the ability to form new knowledge. In terms of the structured approach, children’s independence is minimal, with the critical importance of a teacher regulating the process and ensuring that students perform the required actions at the moment.
Under these conditions, the low continuum might be less effective in terms of the structured approach due to a shift in priorities toward other aspects. In this way, the application of the low-interaction continuum in practice has its advantages and disadvantages. An educator is provided with a set of approaches for cultivating the desired results in children; however, at the same time, their use depends on the framework selected for organizing the process and teaching a child.
The mediating teaching continuum also has its advantages and disadvantages, and might also impact the way educators work. For instance, the paradigm might apply to an open framework approach, which is less structured compared to the previous one. A child has the opportunity to make choices among various activities, possessing higher levels of flexibility and interacting with an adult in different ways (McMonagle, 2012). This idea relates to co-constructing methods when a teacher builds knowledge with children by emphasizing the study of meaning (MacNaughton & Williams, 2009). From this perspective, the mediating continuum offers an opportunity to step away from traditional and strictly regulated interventions and select new ones that are more oriented towards interaction and play.
At the same time, there are some weak points in the curriculum regarding the open framework approach. It implies that a child constructs their own understanding within the existing environment (McMonagle, 2012). It means that the educator’s role should be reduced to ensure that students can make decisions independently and avoid external influences. A teacher can only prepare the environment that might influence the formation of various understandings and how they impact the development of a child. The continuum offers a limited number of tools for controlling this process, as it focuses on cooperation and interaction with a child to respect their freedom.
In this way, the mediating continuum is a potent tool that educators can utilize in various situations; however, it also has its limitations that should be taken into consideration. Its impact on the open framework approach implies selecting practices that might help regulate cooperation between children in ways that establish the framework for their interaction and cultivate understandings essential for the curriculum and the further development of qualities that may be helpful in the future.
Ultimately, the explicit teaching continuum has a distinct impact on pedagogical practice. For instance, the child-led approach might be organized using methods belonging to this paradigm. The framework emphasizes that an educator should respond to the child’s interests and activities (McMonagle, 2012). The development of a student’s independence is a central aspect that deserves considerable attention. In this regard, empowerment becomes a potent technique, ensuring that a child is encouraged to explore the world and develop their own understanding of how various aspects function and how to navigate the world.
Nevertheless, certain limits should be considered. Empowering implies selecting content compatible with the goals outlined in the curriculum and promoting equity and justice (MacNaughton & Williams, 2009). For a child-led approach, it can be a challenging task due to the need to consider children’s interests and their desire to accept the offered content, as well as play an active role in its investigation and analysis. An educator faces the complex task of analyzing the knowledge and facts that might be attractive to children and their current interests. In many cases, it may require organizing the process in ways that are not immediately accepted by children, which limits the use of the explicit continuum in practice.
Altogether, the discussed continuums of teaching are practical tools for organizing the teaching process and ensuring children acquire all necessary knowledge. However, they might also have their limits linked to the different approaches to managing the interaction between a child and an educator, as well as the variance in goals that should be achieved. For practice, it means that a specialist should be ready to adapt their style to the current situation, which may require increased flexibility levels and the ability to select other methods available at the moment. In general, all continuums play a central role in the professional context and should be used as the primary guide for interacting with children.
Educational Psychology
Teaching is closely connected to psychology, as being a good educator means understanding a child’s current needs and being able to meet them. It means that continuums of teaching are also linked to specific psychological theories and concepts that should be used in practice. For instance, the low interaction framework might be associated with the principles of extrinsic motivation.
A child’s desire to engage in the process is critical for achieving the desired goals, as it guarantees better results. Thus, extrinsic motivation implies that a person performs certain activities because of the specific rewards, praise, and approval (Ackerman, 2018). For children, it is an essential factor that can increase their sense of success and readiness to perform new tasks, which in turn will give them additional positive emotions.
Additionally, Dewey’s theory might support teaching strategies selected within this paradigm. It states that children learn during their interaction with the world (Pappas, 2023). For this reason, every session should be organized in ways that give children the maximum number of opportunities to interact with the environment and acquire the necessary skills. Using modeling, an educator can combine the principles of extrinsic motivation and Dewey’s theory to create situations where a child can learn from observing required behaviors and receive rewards and praise after successfully replicating these patterns. It would help to cultivate the desired skills and guarantee that progress is attained.
The mediating teaching continuum might be associated with the pedagogical principle of scaffolding. Following this idea, educators offer temporary support to students who learn new skills or attempt to acquire additional knowledge. It enables a child to solve a problem that is usually beyond their efforts, which are not supported by a teacher (Cavallari, 2023). It means that the psychological principle of scaffolding can help improve a child’s intrinsic motivation by facilitating the achievement of complex goals and enabling them to progress to new, more sophisticated tasks. Supporting teaching strategy is the best method that aligns with this principle, as it means that an educator is always prepared to help a child and avoid being stuck or unable to find a desired solution.
The scaffolding principle might also be linked to the ideas offered by Vygotsky. He emphasized the role of caregivers, peers, and parents in contributing to the development of higher-order functions in a child (Cavallari, 2023). From this perspective, scaffolding and supporting might be viewed as methods that help a child socialize and become part of their surroundings. An educator’s role is to present during the student’s attempts to cognize the world and generate new understandings; otherwise, there is a high risk of failure and a critical reduction in the level of motivation to learn.
Finally, the explicit teaching continuum focuses on promoting the behavioral and cognitive engagement of a child. This means that the primary psychological principles are also applicable to the given domains. For instance, behavioral engagement is closely associated with the intrinsic motivation of a learner (Hospel et al., 2018). The degree to which a person is ready to perform an activity depends on the feelings associated with it and the results that will be achieved when the goal is achieved. The same idea applies to cognitive engagement, which might be attained by directing and decolonizing. By combining these methods, an educator creates an environment that stimulates learners to move forward and develop new skills critical to their future growth and evolution.
Skinner’s behavioral theory can also be related to the explicit continuum and the psychological principles within it. The framework assumes that a person’s behavior can be primarily reinforced by specific stimuli (McLeod, 2023). In this way, the theory of operant conditioning may be part of the continuum, and the actions performed by an educator to cultivate the behaviors necessary for coping with current tasks (McLeod, 2023). In other words, cognitive engagement can be achieved by using methods that align with the principles of operant conditioning and their practical application. Furthermore, each of the discussed continuums rests on specific psychological principles that help to organize a teaching process and create the basis for better goal achievement.
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