Most early years practitioners would agree with the definition of teaching given on page 17 of the Early Years Foundation Stage document, which includes the planning of the learning environment; organising time and materials; interacting, working with and observing children; and assessing and recording children's progress and sharing this information with others.
However, contexts such as '...do some direct teaching of letter/sound correspondence (phonics)', make it sound like instructing.
'Instructing' is not in the definition of teaching given on page 23. This makes it important that we address the issue of direct teaching/ instructing in our responses to the EYFS consultation.
It is heartening to see reference to the benefits of play in the document.
Unfortunately, this is weakened because there is no clear definition of play as a freely chosen, child-initiated and child-led activity. The benefits of play, such as the opportunity to take risks and make mistakes, are unlikely to spring from play 'that must be planned (by adults) for children' (page 8).
The use of 'adult-led' and 'child-initiated' in a subtle way pushes the balance further towards adult control and away from genuine play. Finally, the Glossary suggests under 'Assessment' that practitioners 'can make professional judgements about children's achievement and decide on the next steps in learning.'
Direct teaching, play that must be planned by adults, adult-led activities and adult decisions about the next steps in children's learning all create a picture of a world in which it might be difficult to sustain feelings of fun and discovery in learning.
I'm sure this was not the intention of those who put the EYFS framework together. We must use the consultation process to ensure this interpretation of the framework is eliminated.
