1. The Role of the Adult in Caring for Children
ECS Year 3 IPEC
The Role of the Adult in Caring for Children

2. Adults in Children’s Lives
Adults are a part of children’s lives both inside and outside of group care and school.
Teachers
Nursery Nurses
Teaching Assistants
Special Needs Assistants
General Practitioner
Social Worker
Family
Dinner Ladies
Readers

3. What’s the Role of the Adult?

4. Role of the Adult in Learning
To provide a positive atmosphere within the environment
(EYFS- Positive Relationships)
To value children’s play and ‘work’ (Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs)
To form positive relationships
To create a rich and varied environment 4

5. To ensure that there is a balance between adult-directed/initiated and child-initiated activities (EYFS- Learning and Development)
To act as a facilitator of learning
To extend children’s thinking and language
To encourage ‘Sustained Shared Thinking’ (EPPE Project- Sylva et al, 2004).
The adult as companion in play (EYFS- Positive Relationships; Learning and Development)
The adult as learner/observer (EYFS- Learning and Development)

6. To act as a model (Teacher modeling)
The adult as admirer- children welcome the attention of an adult (EYFS- Positive Relationships; Learning and Development)
The adult as mediator
The adult as safety officer (EYFS- Unique Child)
To observe, plan and assess (EYFS- Enabling Environments) 6

7. Interaction v Intervention
When should adults intervene?
to help children who are having difficulty in playing well
when an opportunity arises to extend children’s learning
When the child her/himself indicates that there is a need
When children are aggressive towards each other
When safety rules need to be re-established or addressed 7

8. The Adult’s Role
‘Teachers don’t merely deliver the curriculum. They develop it, define it and reinterpret it too. It is what teachers think, what teachers believe and what teachers do at the level of the classroom that ultimately shapes the learning that young people get. The ways they teach are also grounded in their backgrounds, their biographies, in the kinds of teachers they have become.’
Hargreaves (1994) in ‘Organising Learning In The Primary School Classroom’, Third Edition, Joan Dean.

9. Learning Theories and the Role of the Adult
There are three main theories:
Behaviourist (Pavlov, Skinner, Thorndike)
Constructivist (Piaget)
Social Constructivist (Dewey, Vygotsky, Bruner)
Try to address how each theory has impacted on the roles of adults in caring for children.

10. Behaviourism All adults have a dominant, one-way role. Adult Children
One way process
Pass their knowledge on to the child who is an ‘empty vessel’ ready for everything to be poured in.
Reward
Discipline
Practise makes perfect
Create an environment suited to what, when, where and how they want children to learn knowledge.

11. Constructivism All adults have an important two-way role.
Assimilation and accommodation.
Adults role to create an environment that introduces new but not so unfamiliar ideas, knowledge, concepts and ideas to the children.
Adults role to question children reactions and responses to the knowledge, ideas, concepts and ideas the new learning environments invoke and accommodate the ‘new’ into the ‘existing.’
Adults guide/shape children’s knowledge and understanding.

12. Social Constructivism
All adults have an important two-way role.
Observation.
Structure a variety of activities to stimulate, engage the child(ren) to their full potential.
Facilitate learning.
Adults interact with the children after the exploration stage to enhance their learning potential.
Provide a full sensory stimulating rich environment that encourages children’s natural motivation to learn.
Create an environment that makes children want to learn.
Broaden the child’s understanding and knowledge.
Giving positive correction and constructive criticism

13. Adults are known to be the best catalyst for extending children’s ideas and play, encouraging and developing the use of language by questioning, sharing knowledge to guide children’s thinking and creating an enriched environment with numerous opportunities for children to initiate their own play (Bennett et al, 1997; Tassoni et al, 2000; Moyles, 1989; Wood, 1998; Sylva et al, 2004).

14. The Wider Picture
Adults working with children have different roles and responsibilities depending on the country in which they are based.
Iceland – Schools should endeavour to widen children’s horizons and develop their understanding of their environment, social conditions, the characteristics of Icelandic society and the obligations of the individual to society. (Pollard, 1996)
Norway – To help give the pupils a Christian and moral upbringing. (Pollard, 1996)
Turkey – Enable every child to acquire all the necessary basic knowledge, skills and habits required for effective citizenship and to raise children in a manner commensurate with national ethical concepts. (Pollard, 1996)