HISTORICAL AND INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES OF EARLY YEARS

By Linda Fuller

The purpose of this assignment is to critique and evaluate the chosen article in terms of strengths and weakness and to demonstrate an understanding of an international educational approach to Early Years education. In addition it will explore the similarities and differences of the international approach to the current Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) working within my setting. Furthermore it will critically reflect upon the strategies within the approaches to identify possible issues and limitations of systems.

The article I have chosen is called ‘The struggle for Early Childhood Curricula: A comparison of the English Foundation Stage …show more content…

This is because, as practitioners we have a clear view of what is expected of us; we have a greater understanding of children’s needs and what we need to do, to develop those needs. The Early Years Foundation Stage, also known as the EYFS promotes teaching and learning to ensure children’s ‘school readiness’ and gives children the broad range of knowledge and skills that will provide the right foundations for good progress throughout school and adult life. (Hutchin,2012)
I believe that learning goals can be useful as it can guide a practitioner when they are observing the child and planning for the child’s future development. I also think that the statement is over exaggerated as there are currently seventeen early learning goals and over three hundred development statements that could be chosen to highlight where a child could be within their development stage.

The Reggio Emilia approach is unlike the EYFS as it does not follow a set agenda ‘It represents a localised, learner-centred approach as an alternative to national centralised, uniform curricula’ (Soler and Miller 2010, p.60).Their education is based on relationships and the environment. Reggio Emilia teachers and parents are seen as partners in learning. Teachers are trained to recognise a child’s interests and create on-going projects that stimulate their curiosity. (Thorton and Brunton, 2005).

From reading further into what ‘relationships’ and ‘environment’ mean within the