Module 1: The Principles of Early Learning
Bridging Early Years to Primary Years
This Early Learning Framework
- inspires educators working with children from birth to age eight
- Sees every child as being capable
- Promotes inclusive pedagogies through discovery and inquiry
- Considers families, culture, place, and history
- Supports children and families as they move from early care and learning programs to primary education
- Connects with B.C.’s New Curriculum and Core Competencies. Concepts in the framework can be interwoven with the B.C. Curriculum to inspire both early childhood educators and educators working with children in Kindergarten to Grade 3
How does the Early Learning Framework connect with B.C.’s New Curriculum and Core Competencies?
The Early Learning Framework and B.C.’s Curriculum and Core Competencies share philosophies of learning. They encourage educators to design environments that are flexible, responsive, and relevant to their local community. They provide opportunities for children and adults to think and learn together.
As an educator, you may be inspired by combining ideas from the framework with the B.C. Curriculum.
The B.C. Curriculum Core Competencies:
- Communication: Encompasses the set of abilities that students use to impart and exchange information, experiences, and ideas to explore the world around them, and to understand and effectively engage in the use of digital media.
- Thinking: Encompasses the knowledge, skills, and processes we associate with intellectual development.
- Personal and Social: The set of abilities that relate to students’ identity in the world, both as individuals and as members of their community and society. Personal and social competency encompasses the abilities students need to thrive as individuals, to understand and care about themselves and others, and to find and achieve their purposes in the world.
The Early Learning Framework Living Inquiries:
- Well-being and belonging
- Engagement with others, materials, and the world
- Communication and literacies
- Identities, social responsibility, and diversity
Reflective Questions
How can you include both the B.C. Curriculum Core Competencies and the concepts from the Early Learning Framework in your practice?
What shared philosophies do you see when comparing the B.C. Curriculum Core Competencies with the Early Learning Framework Inquires?
See pages 28-29 in the
Early Learning Framework.
The Primary Program:
A Framework for Teaching (2000) gives primary teachers a structure for fostering the continuing growth of children’s knowledge of themselves, others, and the world.
The B.C. Primary Teachers’ Association recommends updates to the Primary Program to ensure it
- supports the need for a safe, caring, stimulating environment where learning flourishes in the primary years, beyond the early learning years of ages birth to five years
- is closely aligned with, and builds upon, the B.C. Early Learning Framework