Strand five - Exploration
Mana Aotūroa

Goals

Children experience an environment where:

• their play is valued as meaningful learning and the importance of spontaneous play is recognised;
• they gain confidence in and control of their bodies;
• they learn strategies for active exploration, thinking, and reasoning;
• they develop working theories for making sense of the natural, social, physical, and material worlds.

All aspects of the environment – the natural, social, physical, and material worlds – are part of the context of learning. This strand incorporates some of the strategies which enable infants, toddlers, and young children to explore, learn from, and make sense of the world. Implicit in the concept of the child as explorer is the importance of respect for the environment. Children learn through play – by doing, by asking questions, by interacting with others, by setting up theories or ideas about how things work and trying them out, and by the purposeful use of resources. They also learn by making links with their previous experiences. The attitudes and expectations that are formed at an early age will continue to influence a child’s learning throughout life. In early childhood education, as in later learning and development, exploration will be guided, supported, and challenged by adults and other children.

There should be a recognition of Māori ways of knowing and making sense of the world and of respecting and appreciating the natural environment.

Relationships of the Strand of Exploration to the Curriculum Principles

This strand is founded particularly in the principles of Holistic Development and Empowerment. The child will experience open-ended exploration and play in an environment where the consistent, warm relationships help to connect the child’s experiences and where the tasks, activities, and contexts all have meaning for the child. Through exploration, children learn useful and appropriate ways to find out what they want to know and begin to understand their own individual ways of learning and being creative. These experiences enhance the child’s sense of self-worth, identity, confidence, and enjoyment. Because strategies and experiences in exploration build both on what children bring to them and on their own initiatives and reasoning, the links between Exploration and the principle of Family and Community are fundamental and valuable. Exploration involves actively learning with others as well as independently and helps to extend children’s purposeful and enjoyable Relationships.

Adults’ Responsibilities in Management, Organisation, and Practice

The environment should offer a wide variety of possibilities for exploring, planning, reasoning, and learning, with space arranged to encourage active exploration, providing both new challenges and familiar settings so that children develop confidence. Both indoor and outdoor environments, including the neighbourhood, should be used as learning resources.

Adults should understand the progression and variations of children’s development and should provide time for gradual growth of independent skills such as feeding, toileting, and dressing.

Adults need to know how to support and extend children’s play without interrupting or dominating the activity and should avoid unnecessary intervention.

Adults should plan the daily programme to provide resources and equipment which encourage spontaneous play, activities, and practising of skills for individuals or in small groups. The materials and tools for children should be appropriate for the age group, work properly, be accessible, be stored at the right height, and be easy to clean and put away.

Adults should plan activities, resources, and events which build upon and extend children’s interests.

Equipment should be provided for scientific, mathematical, and technological learning. This includes such diverse resources as tape recorders, cooking utensils, and seashells, which may help children develop concepts.

Adults should respond to children’s questions, assist them to articulate and extend ideas, take advantage of opportunities for exploration, problem solving, remembering, predicting, and making comparisons, and be enthusiastic about finding answers together. They should encourage children to know what is happening and why.

Procedures should be in place for the safe and hygienic housing of pets and for conservation, recycling, and waste disposal.

A reference library should be available for both children and adults as well as information for parents on children’s physical growth and the value of play in learning and development.

Continuity Between Early Childhood Education and School

Children moving from early childhood settings to the early years of school are likely to:

• have extensive prior learning and experiences which provide starting points for further learning;
• enjoy and be able to participate in adventurous and creative thinking through role-play, film-making, projects, and investigations;
• have experience in making choices and decisions, setting their own goals, and using their initiative;
• continue to develop their locomotor, nonlocomotor, and manipulative skills in a variety of settings;
• have some skills in using a range of equipment safely;
• be able to share responsibility for the class and school environment;
• be able to use discovery, invention, innovation, imagination, experimentation, and exploration as means of learning;
• demonstrate flexibility and creativity in applying mathematical ideas and techniques to new problems;
• be able to observe, compare, classify, and group objects;
• have developed some initial strategies of active exploration in the wider context of the biological, physical, and technological worlds;
• have begun to make sense of the living world by observing, identifying, and describing animals and plants and by investigating changes over time;
• be ready to make sense of the physical world, for instance, by describing the properties of everyday materials and by investigating changes in different physical conditions;
• have initial strategies for exploring observable features of Earth and beyond and appreciate their environment and its changes over time.