AGE-

APPROPRIATE
PEDAGOGIES

Characteristics of
age-appropriate pedagogies
Teacher and child behaviours unpacked
The characteristics of age-appropriate pedagogies listed below, represent a set of desirable qualities that educators can
consider when designing learning experiences for children in the early years of school. Here, they have been unpacked into
some of the teacher and child behaviours that may be observable in classroom settings.

Characteristics Teacher behaviours Child behaviours

Active Teachers may: Children may:

• provide opportunities for children to engage in physical and • move, do and interact appropriately in a range of learning
embodied learning situations to engage in higher order thinking and build on
• timetable regular opportunities for children to access the current learning
curriculum in both indoor and outdoor learning spaces • engage in a range of learning spaces, both indoors
• provide a range of open-ended materials, including realistic, and outdoors
symbolic and unstructured resources that encourage • engage with a range of open-ended, realistic, symbolic, and
problem solving and activate children’s full potential unstructured resources that encourage problem solving
• scaffold children’s focus, concentration, motivation and self- • participate with increasing focus, concentration, motivation
regulation during independent, small group and whole class and self-regulation.
learning experiences.

Agentic Teachers may: Children may:

• provide opportunities for children to make decisions about • make decisions about their own learning
their own learning • contribute their ideas and interests to learning conversations
• respond to children by incorporating their ideas and and environments
interests into classroom planning and practice • recognise that their real-world understandings and
• build on children’s real-world understandings experiences are acknowledged and valued
and experiences • work in partnership with the teacher to plan for, co-construct
• provide opportunities for children to collaboratively plan for, and reflect on their learning.
co-construct and reflect on their learning.

Collaborative Teachers may: Children may:

• engage children in purposeful, relevant shared • negotiate the rights, roles and responsibilities of their
decision making learning community
• model ways to share ideas and listen to others • contribute ideas, actively listen and encourage others to join
• ensure that children have opportunities to participate in learning experiences
learning experiences that are social and co-constructed • cooperate positively with others in group
• collaborate with children using processes that encourage learning experiences
sustained shared thinking. • seek to be involved in choosing and negotiating
learning experiences.

Creative Teachers may: Children may:

• initiate wondering moments, inviting children to • engage in and elaborate on wondering moments based on
consider “What if?” prior experiences, e.g. ‘What if…?’
• provide opportunities for children to explore new • explore new possibilities and ways of thinking including
possibilities and ways of thinking hypothesising
• plan opportunities that encourage investigation, inquiry • engage in opportunities that encourage investigation,
and artistry inquiry and artistry
• use a range of questions to extend and encourage new • access open-ended materials, resources and spaces to
possibilities and ways of thinking. explore, discover and inquire.
Characteristics Teacher behaviours Child behaviours

Explicit Teachers may: Children may:

• plan for and understand the curriculum intent that underpins each • have a clear understanding about the curriculum intent of each
learning experience learning experience
• clearly articulate the curriculum intent that underpins each • understand that child-initiated/negotiated learning experiences
learning experience for the children have a clear learning purpose
• respond to children by clearly linking curriculum intent to child- • receive feedback about their learning connecting them with their
initiated/negotiated learning experiences strengths
• provide feedback to children to connect them with the strengths of • have clear learning goals.
their current learning and then co-construct future learning goals.

Language rich Teachers may: Children may:

and dialogic • model and teach the kind of language that they want children • understand the skills that are required to engage in rich
to use classroom talk
• plan for and take the time to engage in meaningful conversations • engage in meaningful conversations with their peers and teacher
with children • work alongside their teacher to listen actively and speak
• work alongside children within a range of pedagogical approaches thoughtfully
to support the development of dialogue • express their thinking, learning, views and ideas.
• ask questions that will cognitively challenge children and
encourage them to extend their views and ideas, and open
opportunities for dialogue.

Learner Teachers may: Children may:

focused • ask questions to discover links between children’s emerging • have a sense of who they are and show pride in being part of their
interests, ideas views and their wider family, community and family, community and cultural group
cultural experiences • engage in, and be challenged by, a range of differentiated
• provide a range and balance of pedagogical approaches, practices pedagogical approaches, practices and strategies
and strategies to cater for individual development and ways • engage in a range of supportive, differentiated
of learning learning environments
• adapt the physical, social and temporal environment of • receive, understand and apply feedback to future learning.
the classroom in response to children’s individual learning
and development
• provide encouragement and feedback, celebrating children’s
attempts to try and retry new and challenging tasks.

Narrative Teachers may: Children may:

• share their experiences, modelling personal oral narratives • share their experiences, developing personal oral narratives
• include opportunities for children to produce and comprehend • explore links between prior and current learning by asking
personal written, oral and digital stories questions, listening, and talking to peers and their teacher
• read, recite and retell literature to children as an everyday, • engage with a variety a texts, as an everyday, pleasurable, shared
pleasurable, shared experience experience with their peers and teacher
• encourage children to share their experiences through • explore, comprehend and create multi-modal texts.
personal narratives.

Playful Teachers may: Children may:

• provide extended periods of time, appropriate spaces and • engage socially, emotionally, physically and cognitively within
imaginative resources for children to engage in playful learning intentional spaces and with intentional resources
• clearly articulate the curriculum intent that underpins each playful • interact with their teacher in meaningful playful
learning experience learning opportunities
• encourage children, through their playfulness, to explore alternate • participate in playful learning experiences across a range of
worlds and ways of thinking curriculum areas and within a balance of pedagogical approaches,
• create a classroom that becomes a place where children have the practices and strategies
freedom to innovate and enact new possibilities. • understand the learning intent of their play.

Responsive Teachers may: Children may:

• openly discuss classroom decision-making with children • understand that they are part of the classroom decision-making
• provide opportunities for children to engage in learning process
experiences that they have initiated • take responsibility for their learning: planning, doing and
• provide a program that balances opportunities for structure and reflecting
spontaneity • feel safe and respected
• promote co-construction of the learning environment • develop ownership of, and responsibility for, the classroom
with children. environment.

Scaffolded Teachers may: Children may:

• ensure that children know how to seek help and from whom • recognise when they require help and are able to independently
• model, encourage, question, add challenges and give feedback to access that help
support and extend children’s learning • accept and incorporate feedback into future learning
• establish a problem-solving climate, encouraging children to • act with resilience in a challenging, but supportive environment
experiment and take risks, withdrawing support as children’s • participate in learning experiences of growing complexity, while
mastery increases receiving differentiated support from their teacher.
• provide learning experiences of growing complexity, differentiating
the level of support according to children’s strengths, motivations
and interests.