Learning and Teaching in the Early Years

Abstract

Learning is vital to each child's sense of well-being and development, and yet, talking about learning in any context - at home, among professional colleagues or peers, with children, in early years centres, or through formal studies - reveals a wide range of understandings of the term and its meaning, and the relevance and significance of learning in the first phase of life. Learning is the bedrock of education and, in the early childhood years from birth to age eight, is both a personal and social enterprise that occurs within all the formal and informal contexts inhabited by the child. In this chapter, we argue that learning about learning is essential prerequisite knowledge for any adult..