Continua of learning and development in action

The continua of learning and development

The continua:

• is a companion document to the Queensland kindergarten learning guideline (QKLG)

• supports teachers to make informed judgments about a child’s learning and development in the five areas:

– Identity

– Connectedness

– Wellbeing

– Active learning

– Communicating

• assists teachers to assess and reflect on evidence of learning to inform their decisions.

The continua of learning and development

In the continua, there is:

• one continuum for the Identity, Connectedness, Wellbeing and Active learning areas

• one continuum for each key focus in the Communicating area — language, early literacy and early numeracy

• a collection of teacher-contributed examples of observable behaviours to help teachers to make consistent judgments about learning.

The continua of learning and development

The examples of observable behaviours:

• are not for use as a checklist

• do not represent the full richness of children’s learning and the range of diverse ways children may demonstrate learning

• can be added to by teachers.

The continua of learning and development

Each child’s journey along the continua may:

• start at different points in each learning area

• continue along different pathways.

At the end of the Kindergarten Year, individual children may demonstrate learning described in any of the phases on the continua.

Using the continua

Teachers follow six steps (listed below) when using the continua to make judgments.

1.Review a collection of evidence of a child’s learning alongside the relevant continua

2.Identify whether the learning occurred in familiar or new situations

3.Identify the level of support the child required

4.Judge whether the child’s learning is more like the learning in one phase or the other

5.Review the examples of observable behaviours to confirm that their judgment is consistent

6.Record the judgment (to track learning progress).

Using the continua

Step 1: Teachers review a collection of evidence of a child’s learning alongside the relevant continua.

Using the continuaExample:

The continuum relevant to the collection of evidence: Active learning

Using the continua

Step 2: Teachers identify whether the learning occurred in familiar or new situations.

Step 3: Teachers identify the level of support the child required.

Example:05/08/09: ScalesHui independently investigated a new resource. He placed one object at a time on each side to make the scales balance. He said, “It’s like a see-saw. One goes up. One goes down. Then I make it the same”.

Using the continua

Step 4: Teachers judge whether the child’s learning is more like the learning in one phase or the other.

Example:

Using the continua

Step 5: Teachers review the examples of observable behaviours to confirm that their judgment is consistent with those of other teachers.

Note: View the examples as a whole. The child’s learning is more like a child in the extending phase than a child in the exploring phase examples (p. 27).

Using the continuaStep 6: Teachers record the judgment (to track learning progress).

Collected evidence

Using the continuaStep 6 (cont’d): Teachers record the judgment (to track learning progress).

Key points: Using the continua

Teachers complete the below steps.

1. Review a collection of evidence of a child’s learning alongside the relevant continua

2. Identify whether the learning occurred in familiar or new situations

3. Identify the level of support the child required

4. Judge whether the child’s learning is more like the learning in one phase or the other

5. Review the examples of observable behaviours to confirm that their judgment is consistent

6. Record the judgment (to track learning progress).