ELEMENT

PERFORMANCE CRITERIA

Elements define the essential outcomes.

Performance criteria specify the level of performance needed to demonstrate achievement of the element.

1. Foster physical development

1.1 Assess and monitor children’s physical skills and development

1.2 Plan and provide appropriate experiences and opportunities to foster each child’s fine and gross motor skills, and fundamental movement skills through play

1.3 Plan and provide experiences which challenge the physical skills and abilities of children and promote physical fitness

2. Foster social development

2.1 Assess and monitor children’s social skills and development

2.2 Plan and provide opportunities for different forms of social interaction between children during play with respect for each child’s interests, goals and development stage

2.3 Create opportunities for children to participate in meaningful ways in group discussions and shared decision-making

2.4 Structure experiences in a way that promotes cooperation and conflict resolution

2.5 Promote a sense of community within the service

2.6 Arrange the environment to encourage interactions between children as well as accommodating a child’s need for privacy, solitude or quiet

2.7 Provide opportunities for children to investigate ethical issues relevant to their lives and their communities

3. Foster emotional development

3.1 Assess and monitor children’s emotional development

3.2 Create opportunities for children to experience individual strengths and successes during play

3.3 Plan and provide opportunities through play that challenge children’s emerging skills and capabilities

3.4 Provide opportunities for children to engage independently with tasks

3.5 Create opportunities for children to explore self-image and identity through play

3.6 Provide opportunities for children to release feelings and express emotions through suitable experiences

4. Foster cognitive development

4.1 Assess and monitor children’s cognitive skills and development

4.2 Engineer and provide opportunities for children to participate in science, mathematics and technology experiences

4.3 Plan and provide opportunities through play for children to experience the consequences of their choices, actions and ideas

4.4 Create learning environments with appropriate levels of challenge where children are encouraged to explore, experiment and take appropriate risks in their learning

4.5 Build opportunities for involvement in experiences that support the investigation of ideas, complex concepts and thinking, reasoning and hypothesising

4.6 Provide opportunities through play for children to explore concept development

4.7 Make opportunities for children to both construct and take apart, as a strategy for learning

4.8 Provide children with a wide range of everyday materials that they can use to create patterns and to sort, categorise, order and compare

5. Foster communication development

5.1 Assess and monitor children’s language skills and development

5.2 Plan and provide developmentally appropriate experiences and opportunities to foster language and literacy development through play

5.3 Create opportunities for children to listen and respond to language

5.4 Value the child’s linguistic heritage and encourage the use and acquisition of home languages

5.5 Provide opportunities for children to engage with familiar and unfamiliar culturally constructed text

5.6 Create a literacy-enriched environment including displaying home languages and Standard Australian English

5.7 Provide resources that encourage children to experiment with images and print

6. Foster an environment for holistic learning and development

6.1 Support and initiate inquiry processes, try new ideas and take on challenges

6.2 Provide resources and materials that offer challenge, intrigue and surprise

6.3 Assist to promote children’s sense of belonging and connectedness

6.4 Engage children in sustained shared conversations to extend their thinking

6.5 Provide the opportunity for scaffolding learning and development

6.6 Assist children to see their mistakes as opportunities to learn and grow

6.7 Facilitate families’ diverse contributions to the learning community

6.8 Share information with colleagues about child development and wellbeing

6.9 Create learning environments where children are able to immerse themselves in self-directed play

6.10 Recognise spontaneous teachable moments as they occur and use them to build on children’s learning

6.11 Ensure a balance between child-initiated and educator- supported learning

6.12 Provide learning environments with appropriate levels of challenge where children are encouraged to explore, experiment and take risks in their learning

6.13 Facilitate team collaboration of assessments and evaluation in relation to child development and wellbeing

The Foundation Skills describe those required skills (language, literacy, numeracy and employment skills) that are essential to performance.

Oral Communication – in order to facilitate collaborative discussions with children, families and other educators.

Reading – in order to access and apply relevant pedagogical principles from an approved learning framework.

The remaining foundation skills essential to performance are explicit in the performance criteria of this unit.