It looks at teaching without really considering whether children are actually learning. Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage has a section on Learning and Teaching, and these two parts of the education process must be looked at together.
Inspectors who have little experience of early learning are in a weak position to make judgements about it. They are also more likely to highly rate teaching approaches that are familiar to them, but are not appropriate for young learners.
I cringed when I read some of the examples of so-called good teaching practice. Using puppets with young children can be rewarding, but the literacy and numeracy strategies' formulaic approach, such as the repetitive use of a 'silly' puppet who can't get the right answer, threatens to kill the joy for both children and adults.
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