In the revised EYFS, 'knowledge and understanding of the world' remains similar to what it was in the original EYFS, although its title has changed slightly to Understanding the World (UW). Most practitioners will feel comfortable with the shift in emphasis in this area, concentrating as it now does on 'guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology and the environment' (Statutory Framework for the EYFS, page 5).
Anybody who spends even the shortest amount of time with young children can't fail to notice their interest in the physical world. Whether they are focusing on the movement and shapes of the clouds, observing a train going by, or looking at shop signs, children are constantly absorbing information and trying to make sense of everything they see. So, Understanding the World is an area of learning that is perfect for inspiring young children's interests because it builds on their natural curiosity and exploratory drive.
In the revised EYFS, these learning dispositions are referred to as the Characteristics of Effective Learning: 'Playing and exploring', 'Active learning' and 'Creating and thinking critically'. The early learning goals within UW are set out in three distinct aspects, which need to be considered carefully because they each contribute to children's overall understanding. These are:
- People and communities: this aspect is intended to support children's sense of identity, as a member of a family which is part of a bigger community. It also helps children to develop a sense of time through hearing stories and seeing pictures and objects which have meaning for them and their families and which connect them to significant events as well as to people and places.
- The World: this aspect focuses on the natural and built environment and the things within these such as plants and animals, artefacts and buildings.
- Technology: this is about children being aware of (and selecting for a specific purpose, where appropriate) everyday objects with functions created by technology - these might include interactive pet toys, games, whiteboards, sound recorders and so on.
AGES AND STAGES
Like every other area of learning and development, Understanding the World will be different for children at different ages and stages. A good way of planning for this area is to try to reflect the extent of a child's world relative to their age/stage of development, beginning with people, places and events that are near for the youngest children, then widening out to encompass those that are more extended for five-year-olds.
Birth-11 months
A baby's world is made up of the experiences and people they encounter:
Familiar people - primary caregivers, including parents, siblings, grandparents and key person. This involves familiarity with the way people interact and their appearance. It will also involve noticing other sensory information such as smells or textures connected with people, places, food, flowers or animals.
Other people - family friends, peers in the setting; and new people encountered from time to time. These interactions will often be more focused on learning what to expect from other people - a family friend might show the baby a book; or a doctor or nurse might examine them and so on.
Familiar places - home: living room, kitchen, bed and bathrooms, back yard or garden; the early years setting: outdoor area, sleeping and changing and play areas. Familiarity with these includes feeling confident within them, knowing the function of different spaces, and negotiating routes from one to the other.
Other places - park, shops, buses and other transport, places of worship, health centres. These become more familiar as children make short visits to them, such as to attend a play-and-stay session.
8-20 months and 16-26 months: a toddler's world
In addition to the things experienced as babies, toddlers and young children will experience a world that widens as they learn to crawl and walk. Children in this age group investigate their worlds vigorously - experiencing nature by finding out about things such as the properties of fallen leaves, through looking, touching, throwing, mouthing or squeezing them. They will also be very interested in things that make sounds and things that move when they manipulate them. The world is greatly extended because of their ability to master more of it so visits to a swimming pool, a tumbling session or an urban beach might be added to a toddler's experiences.
22-36 months and 30-50 months: a young child's world
The years from around two years and beyond lead to more experiences for young children. So, a three-year-old may be taken to see a short production of 'The Tiger Who Came to Tea' or a similar show, while a four-year-old who is ready to join in a parachute game may enjoy the challenge of avoiding being 'caught' by an imaginary shark 'swimming' beneath a parachute.
As children mature, their worlds are often filled with real and imaginary experiences which they are trying to understand - and it is through having discussions about what is and what might be that they learn about caring for themselves, others, the environment and living things.
30-50 months and 40-60+ months
At this stage, children are extremely curious about everything they come across from a spider's web to a snail trail, and it is the practitioner's role to expand the child's world so that they can explore it fully.
Ownership of a pet or going on a visit to see livestock in a local park can help generate many discussions that develop children's understanding of the seasons and the life cycle. Following children's interests can lead into activities and experiences that support enquiry learning, helping them to develop broad skills connected with scientific, geographical, technological and historical enquiry. Enquiry learning is developed when children have opportunities for extended exploration through continuous provision in and out of doors and when practitioners sensitively engage with them in sustained shared thinking.
ASPECTS
People and communities
Through developing a sense of connection with others, as part of a family, children can begin to understand similarity - this may relate to 'being like Nana' because of hair colour, for example, or it may be through being told that they have a similar character to a family member. Whatever similarities are identified, between themselves and others, this connection helps a child feel part of a group and gives them a sense of belonging because they can identify with other group members.
The establishment of an identity helps a child to feel self-confident, and through this, they gain self-acceptance and can begin to understand and celebrate 'difference', seeing it as something positive, rather than negative.
As well as helping children develop a sense of personal identity, this aspect also relates to children's understanding of their own and/or their family's experiences, current and past, and the things that are important to them, such as celebrations that they share in, with other family or community members. Examples might be birthdays, weddings, carnival or other events.
The early learning goal for this aspect is: 'Children talk about past and present events in their own lives and in the lives of family members. They know that other children don't always enjoy the same things, and are sensitive to this. They know about similarities and differences between themselves and others, and among families, communities and traditions.'
Practice points
We can guide children on this learning journey by:
- Helping them find reasons to feel good about themselves: you could talk with them about things they have done or tried to do, such as putting on their own shoes, or helping another child do something.
- Modelling explanations of why we appreciate other people: you could encourage them to talk about what friends are like and what they do and why children enjoy playing with them.
- Helping them understand that their own family and community are made up of different people with their own traditions: you could discuss the different ways families welcome babies into the world through naming ceremonies such as Namkaran, a Hindu naming ceremony, or baptism in Christianity.
- Teaching them to understand that families and communities are different but have the same needs and are equally important: you could look at photographs and tell stories that reflect this, or link up electronically with a setting outside your own local area.
- Leading them to recognise that other children may not enjoy the same things as they do and to respect their choices: you could provide an interactive display showing things children like to do and let children change this every couple of weeks - this would show that preferences vary over time.
- Talking to them about diversity and helping them to understand that difference makes the world a more interesting place.
The world
Through developing an awareness of the world around them, children begin to understand it changes because of influences from the weather, climate, people, vegetation and animals. This helps them to understand the key concepts of cause and effect, and change. This understanding is established as children find out about the environment near their home, whether that's a city street, on a housing estate or in a rural area.
The features of the immediate local environment that most young children are familiar with are shops, post offices, transport and gardens and nearby play spaces. They then become more interested in particular features of the environment - noticing post boxes, or the button at a pedestrian crossing, as well as things of personal interest such as a petrol station, a pet shop or a building site.
All this noticing and discussions with others, leads young children to compare and contrast different things that they see and to make decisions about what they like, or dislike. The younger the child, the more this is likely to be developed through routine walks and frequent outings where a child may see the same things at different times of the day or the year. In the case of older children, they will notice things of interest to them at different times and in different places: tyre marks made in the mud by tipper trucks going in and out of a works entrance might inspire an interest in the properties of soil or a farm visit may ignite a child's interest in tractors, corn and hay.
The differences between environments can be identified through discussing and comparing the various habitats necessary for people, animals and plants to survive, leading young children to a basic understanding of differences between places and ways the environment can be cared for
The early learning goal for this aspect is: 'Children know about similarities and differences in relation to places, objects, materials and living things. They talk about the features of their own immediate environment and how environments might vary from one another. They make observations of animals and plants and explain why some things occur, and talk about changes.'
Practice points
We can help children on this learning journey by:
- Labelling what they see, hear, touch, smell and taste
- Developing their unique interests by talking with them about what interests them
- Pointing out features of the environment, such as patterns, shadows, vegetation and buildings
- Identifying cause and effect, for example, a puddle that disappears as the sun dries it up or a window that steams up on a damp day
- Discussing their pets and talking about ways they care for them or for other living things such as seedlings they have planted
- Enabling them to explore the natural environment to find out how it changes through the seasons
- Enabling them to become familiar with the built environment through visits, photographs and programmes such as Google Earth
- Introducing books and pictures that show features of the built and natural environment. These might include things that they see every day as well as those they might never see, such as volcanoes, waterfalls and snakes.
Technology
The potential of some media for learning is phenomenal and the ownership of technology across all socioeconomic groups appears to be rising.
Recent research in this area indicated that children as young as three and four years of age were conversant with the use of DVD players, mobile phones, computers, games consoles, and some control technology such as on-screen menus on televisions, as well as several interactive toys.
A good starting point in supporting this aspect is to identify which items in a setting contain some sort of micro-processor - whether that is a toy 'radio' in the baby room that a ten-month-old can activate, a 'microwave' cooker in the home corner, or a camera that children use to photograph something they have made. Itemising these different resources will enable you to consider the range and uses of each and to monitor children's use and understanding of different items.
A further dimension to consider is that different children will have a range of experiences of technology both in the home and out and about, for example, using a lift or a two-way entry system.
The early learning goal for this aspect is: 'Children recognise that a range of technology is used in places such as homes and schools. They select and use technology for particular purposes.'
Practice points
We can help children on this learning journey by:
- Talking about which of the resources, equipment and/or toys that they see, use or play with contains a micro-processor which helps it to function.
- Considering with them which item would be most suitable for recording a message to a friend who is ill by selecting from items such as a sound box, a talking card or a talking photo album.
- Enabling them to understand that different items can be used to achieve a similar outcome. So, you might discuss at the appropriate moment the fact that DVDs can be played on a PC, a mobile DVD player or an in-built player on an entertainment system.
- Discussing why a particular item has been selected to achieve an outcome - this may be using a microwave, rather than a hob to make play dough.
- Talking to their parents about how they use technology in the setting, and inviting parents to share information about which items children use at home, such as a door bell, a stop watch, or 'app' on a mobile phone.
LINKS TO OTHER PRIME AND SPECIFIC AREAS
Understanding the World links to all of the other areas of learning, because the environment plays such a large part in young children's lives. Consider, for example, their paintings as they painstakingly map out a 'world' on paper in the form of a blue line at the top of the page for the sky and a green stripe representing grass; then a house often emerges - with a triangular roof, rectangles for doors and windows and circles on top of rectangles to represent trees. Which of the areas of learning is most prevalent in this process?
The answer is that none of them happens in isolation, and children will often be thinking mathematically at the same time as they are making decisions about colours and texture, while perhaps reflecting on a story they know based on a house in the woods. Links with PSED are also obvious since like Understanding the World, it is focused on ways of getting along with other people.
DAY-TO-DAY PRACTICE AND CULTURE
The revised EYFS is based on the original EYFS principles, so little will change in practice in terms of approaches to teaching and learning. Through this area of learning, children should be enabled to explore similarity and difference. The different foods that families eat and the special events they celebrate are good starting points for discussion. As children learn more about the lives of people they know they learn to respect, understand and welcome differences whether these are physical or cultural or related to gender, disablity, religion, sexuality race, ethnicity, class or age.
Attitudes to others begin very early. Through their learning in Understanding the World, children should feel confident of their own identity, which will help them to value and respect themselves, the families and communities that they are part of and the traditions they adhere to, as well as respecting other people and their families and traditions.
It should also help them to value the place they live in and to understand that other places are equally important. Finally, it should help them to understand that living things are interdependent and that each of us can help to make the world a better place by caring for ourselves and one another.
HOW CHILDREN'S INTERESTS CAN LEAD TO ENQUIRY-BASED LEARNING
Water play
The child may be interested in pirates, boats and sailing - their interests may lead them to investigate any aspect. This may include one of the following:
- ENQUIRY Buoyancy - ships that sink or float; buried treasure - weighting objects to submerge them
- ENQUIRY Water and weather - investigating clouds to decide if a storm is blowing up; shipwrecks: the force of water on objects; water in the environment - waste and ice
- ENQUIRY How to get water out of a boat by suction and pumping
- ENQUIRY Finding out about pirates in stories
Role play
The child may have a new sibling and be interested in role playing: 'When I was a baby.' Their interests may lead them to investigate any aspect. This may include one of the following:
- ENQUIRY Mixing feeds; pureeing foods to consider textures
- ENQUIRY The day the baby was born; the day I was born - season, day of the week, the weather
- ENQUIRY Using scales to weigh themselves, or a doll
- ENQUIRY Developing an ebook with pictures of self or other babies showing: 'What I can do now and what I could do as a baby'
Play with transport or cars
The child may be interested in naming cars, lining them up or racing them. Their interests may lead them to investigate any aspect. This may include one of the following:
- ENQUIRY Using ramps at different angles to find out which is safest and which is fastest
- ENQUIRY Finding out which cars are more environmentally friendly and why
- ENQUIRY Using a programmable car to go from A to B; making a car from found materials - big or small scale
- ENQUIRY Observing models of cars they are interested in and comparing new and old and shape
Some of the skills developed through enquiry learning and sustained shared thinking: observing, questioning, investigating, recording, predicting, experimenting, hypothesising, communicating.
Ann Langston is director of Early Years Matters consultancy Early Years Matters, http://earlyyearsmatters.co.uk/index.php/about-us/
References
- DfE (2012) Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/AllPublications/Page1 /DFE-00023-2012
- Always Connected: The new digital media habits of young children, A Gutnick, M Robb, L Takeuchi and J Kotler. The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, New York (2010)
- The Early Years Curriculum: Science, M Robinson et al. Harcourt Brace Jovanich Limited (1990)
Further Reading
- The Revised EYFS in Practice: Thinking, Reflecting and Doing,
- A Langston, & J Doherty. Featherstone/Bloomsbury Press, London (2012)
Photographs at Clover Court Day Nursery, Crawley, By Justin Thomas.
