Nursery World - The Adult Role, Part 4

Organisation of the learning day is key to offering children an appropriate balance between child-led and adult-led learning, explains author and adviser Julie Fisher in the final article in this series

Download the PDF of this article

There is huge value in both child-led and adult-led experiences, and how to achieve an appropriate balance between the two is a concern for all early years providers – but particularly Reception staff facing ever-increasing pressure to tip the balance towards more formal ways of learning.

This pressure comes from people who neither have experience of young children and how they learn, nor appreciate the damage that can be done to the hearts and minds of young learners when experiences are inappropriate. The result is that ‘adult-led’ becomes ‘adult-insisted’, causing some children to resist learning that an adult deems more important than the learning that children would choose for themselves. This article will consider how to manage the learning day particularly in schools and settings where adult-led learning takes precedence.

Register now to continue reading

Thank you for visiting Nursery World and making use of our archive of more than 35,000 expert features, subject guides, case studies and policy updates. Why not register today and enjoy the following great benefits:

What's included