2.8: Effective Teaching Strategies

When working with young children, early childhood professionals use a variety of strategies to prepare the environment, encourage and engage the children, facilitate understanding, and prompt further learning. With experience, early childhood teachers can quickly choose strategies to match the needs of the children and their own goals. Beginning teachers and those in training often need time to consider the most effective strategies in various situations. Your field experiences and observations enable you to observe seasoned teachers in action and practice selecting and implementing various approaches. This section provides an overview of some common and effective teaching strategies.

Strategies for Preparing the Learning Environment

Early childhood teachers are often responsible for creating an environment that fosters children's development and learning. Elements of effective environments can also serve as teaching strategies. An intentional teacher uses information about the program, the children, and their goals to capitalize on the learning opportunities within the environment. An intentional teacher doesn't just randomly arrange a classroom; many decisions happen before children enter the learning space. After the environment is arranged, an intentional teacher isn't passive; they observe and interact with the children to document children's development and learning. When an intentional teacher notices that something in the environment isn't helping the children reach learning or developmental goals, they make modifications, often in the moment.

Here are some common strategies used in preparing the learning environment:

• Sensory engagement involves activities that stimulate the senses—touch, sight, sound, smell, and taste—to help young children explore and learn. It supports brain development and builds connections through hands-on experiences. How can a teacher set up sensory engagement experiences within a classroom environment?
• Environmental clues, such as labeled bins or color-coded areas, are visual or physical elements in the classroom that guide behavior and learning. These cues help children navigate routines and make independent choices. What are some environmental clues that you have observed in classrooms?
• Task analysis breaks down a complex skill or activity into smaller, manageable steps. This helps educators teach each step gradually, making learning more accessible for young children. When might a teacher choose to use task analysis?

Strategies to Encourage and Enhance Participation

Intentional teachers must capture children's attention and encourage their participation in exploring the environment and engaging in learning activities. When teachers develop relationships with the children in their programs, they are better able to tailor strategies to fit children's individual preferences and needs. It isn't enough that children initially engage in a learning opportunity; they must also be encouraged to continue exploring and learning.

Here are common strategies used to encourage and enhance children's participation:

Invitations are thoughtfully arranged materials or setups that invite children to explore and engage in play or learning. They encourage curiosity and open-ended discovery based on the child’s interests. An invitation can also be another individual's verbal or nonverbal gesture inviting a child to engage in a conversation or activity. In your field experiences, can you recall a time when a teacher created an invitation?

Behavior reflections involve commenting on or describing a child's actions to help them become aware of their choices. This strategy supports self-regulation and social-emotional development. How could a teacher use a behavior reflection when observing a child painting at an easel?

Paraphrase reflections restate a child's words in slightly different language to show understanding and expand vocabulary. This encourages communication and validates the child's thoughts. How could a paraphrase reflection promote a child's participation in exploring worms?

Do-it signals are nonverbal or verbal cues that prompt children to begin or continue a task, such as a hand motion or a phrase like “Now it’s your turn.” These signals support transitions and independence. Often, adults ask a child a question when they want the child to do something, which implies there is a choice; a "do-it" signal works better in such situations. Think of times when you have asked a child to do something instead of signaling them to do it. How might it have worked if you had used a "do-it" signal instead?

Challenges involve presenting a slightly more difficult task or problem to encourage critical thinking and persistence. This strategy motivates children to stretch their abilities in a supportive setting. For example, how could you make a ramp with the blocks to move the balls faster?

Effective praise is specific and focused on effort, strategies, or behavior rather than general compliments. It helps build confidence and reinforces positive actions and learning habits. How can your specific praise encourage a child to continue participating in an activity?

Strategies to Facilitate Understanding and Prompt Further Learning

As children are engaged in learning experiences, teachers must plan how to help them deepen their understanding and provoke further investigation and learning.

Here are some common strategies that facilitate understanding and prompt further learning:

Providing information involves clearly sharing facts, concepts, or explanations with children in a way they can understand. This strategy helps build knowledge, supports vocabulary development, and encourages curiosity by connecting new ideas to what children already know. Teachers often use this strategy to help children learn facts or concepts that cannot be discovered through direct observation or active exploration. For example, a child cannot investigate and discover their birthdate or address, which we help them learn or memorize.

Scaffolding provides temporary support tailored to a child’s needs and gradually removes it as they gain independence. It helps children build new skills just beyond their current level. Think about holding on to a bike as a child learns to ride without training wheels: You hold on, you let go, and then you sometimes hold on again to offer stability and support.

Chaining and successive approximation. Chaining teaches a complex task step-by-step, linking each part in a sequence, while successive approximation rewards close attempts toward the correct behavior. Together, they help children develop skills progressively. For example, as children learn to follow a classroom routine or sequence, a teacher gradually provides more details as they reward children's attempts to follow the routine.

Modeling and demonstrating involve showing children how to do something through actions or examples. It clearly outlines what is expected and supports imitation learning. Think of a time when you introduced something new to the children and demonstrated how to use it.

Guided practice allows children to try new skills with support from an adult. It helps reinforce learning while offering immediate feedback and encouragement. Where do you see opportunities for guided practice?

Repetition involves giving children multiple opportunities to practice a skill or concept over time. This strengthens memory, builds mastery, and fosters confidence. A good example of using repetition as a strategy is when a small group activity is taught and then placed in a learning center where children can continue to practice the skills from the lesson.

Plan-do-review is a method in which children plan an activity, carry it out, and then reflect on what they did. It encourages independence, intentionality, and self-assessment. This strategy comes from the HighScope curriculum. In early childhood classrooms, children are often asked what they plan to engage in during learning center time. They are released to "do," and then they review what they engaged in with a teacher or a group of children.

Questioning involves asking open-ended or guiding questions to spark thinking, problem-solving, and conversation. It encourages children to explore ideas and express their understanding of them. What kinds of questions could you ask that help children focus their learning?

Effective Questioning

What is effective questioning? Questions should be used decisively, and the number should be limited. Open-ended questions are preferred as they allow children to provide their ideas. Children should be given ample time to answer questions. Adults should listen and reflect on children's answers. Follow-up questions may help children process information. Adults should address children's misconceptions.

Questions may help children

• observe
• reconstruct an experience
• relate cause and effect
• make predictions
• provide evaluation
• make generalizations
• offer reasoning
• make comparisons
• quantify
• propose solutions
• use factual knowledge
• apply information
• make decisions