How toddlers really learn: Study shows teacher responsiveness trumps formal lessons
Researchers found that when preschool teachers respond to toddlers' non-verbal cues during play—rather than directing activities—children engage more meaningfully and inclusively. The finding challenges conventional early childhood education models and has implications for teacher training, curriculum design, and how preschools measure developmental outcomes.
Originaltitel: Social sustainability in Early Childhood Education and Care through play, responsiveness and inclusion: teachers’ responses to children’s non-verbal initiatives in play
This paper concerns the social dimension of sustainability and especially how it relates to the context of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). It does so by understanding the care aspect of ECEC in relation to social sustainability and by focusing on younger children (1.5–2.5years) in preschool, paying special attention to how these children communicate non-verbally and how teachers’ responses to children’s non-verbal initiatives matter for including children in play activities. The empirical data consist of video-recordings of children and teachers participating in play activities. The video-recordings were analysed according to the principles of Interaction Analysis. The study is theoretically informed by Play-Responsive Early Childhood Education and Care (PRECEC) which includes concepts for analysing play and teaching activities such as, as if- and as is-practices, meta-communication and intersubjectivity. The findings illustrate how teachers’ responses to children’s non-verbal initiatives were characterised by (i) the teacher asking as if-questions and meta-communicating within the play frame; (ii) the teacher asking as is-questions and meta-communicating outside the play frame; and (iii) the teacher acting as a communicating link between children by meta-communicating through clarifying and posing suggestions. The findings are discussed in relation to how social sustainability can be enacted in ECEC.