Characteristics of effective learning

The characteristics of effective teaching and learning underpin the curriculum. Effective teaching will enable children to engage in learning and become confident and enthusiastic learners for life.

In planning and guiding what children learn, practitioners must reflect on the different rates at which children are developing and adjust their practice appropriately. They also need to reflect on how they deliver the curriculum in a way that engages and motivates young children to learn.

Three characteristics of effective teaching and learning are:

• playing and exploring - children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’
• active learning - children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties and enjoy their achievements
• creating and thinking critically - children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things

The characteristics of effective learning and teaching are not developmental. Children are born with a desire to explore the world around them and learn new skills. Adults can support children to use these skills to extend their learning and to develop a zest for, and a life-long love of, learning.

Risk taking is important in supporting children to learn. Children learn to keep themselves safe through self-led learning and appropriate risk tasking in a safe environment, rather than adults trying to eliminate risk.

Risk taking may be a physical risk, such as walking on a balance beam, or an emotional risk, such as trying a task that they have never done before. Children often learn from the process of carrying out a task, even if they do not achieve their goal.

Adults can support children to try new activities and prepare resources and experiences that give children an element of managed risk. They can also support children to understand that it is okay not to achieve their goal, building their resilience and confidence to try new experiences.

Although the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework does not prescribe a particular teaching approach, research shows that children learn most effectively when supported by skilled practitioners. The characteristics of effective teaching and learning underpin the most effective teaching and learning.

For access to a range of tools that support practitioners to deliver the curriculum in a way that supports children’s learning, view the online characteristics of effective teaching guide.