Learning programs are often a sequence of lessons which run over an extended period of time and introduce students to new and in-depth learning within a specific topic. When planning a sequential program of learning, teachers must look at content with room for emotional investment from students in order to ensure that meaningful engagement in activities and experiences can be gained and sustained for entire program (Vartuli & Rohs 2008). Throughout such programs, children should be engaged in learning which builds on existing knowledge, encourages the cycle of enquiry where children ask questions and solve problems and allows for students to interpret and reflect on learning (Vartuli and Rohs 2008)

When on placement, I collaborated with two other pre-service teachers to create sequence of science lessons which would be run with both of our classes each Wednesday afternoon. We were prompted by both of our supervising teachers that our only criteria was that the topic would be ‘On the move’ but aside from this we were given free rein on how we would design the program of learning. As we worked to plan the lessons, we consulted the Australian Curriculum’s (ACARA, 2015) foundation science content descriptors to gain insight on what content from the year level would be relevant in this kind of unit. With support from our supervising teachers, we were informed that students had already been introduced to human movement throughout the year in their physical education lessons and had developed quite a good understanding of the different ways our bodies move and why. With this information along with our understanding of the relevant content descriptors, we decided that we would assign a subtopic to each of the lessons – how people move, how animals move and how objects move. By starting the program with a topic which we knew children were interested in, the aim was for students to become intrinsically motivated to exert their effort and interest into the activities run in the lesson (Vartuli and Rohs 2008). Through observation the classes, we found common ground in the fact that each of our student’s responded well to play based pedagogy in the classroom and decided to utilise this approach when structuring our lessons. This provided students with opportunity for exploration of ideas and concepts in an engaging way whilst still allowing for scaffolding to occur between us and the students (Stacey, 2008). Within the first lesson, children’s previous knowledge on how people move was assessed at the start and reflected on at the end before class discussion occurred which used questioning strategies to link children’s thinking of how people move to how animals move (what else do you know that walks like you do? What else can run?). This same process of assessment and reflection of knowledge was followed in all three lessons of the program in order to solidify children’s understanding and demonstrate how concepts and ideas in learning can be fluid (Stacey 2009).

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) 2015, Australian Curriculum, viewed November 18 2020

Stacey, S 2009, ‘Emergent curriculum and your teaching journey’ in Emergent Curriculum in Early Childhood Settings: From theory to practice, pp. 11-32, Redleaf press, St Paul, Minnesota.

Vartuli, S.A & Rohs, J 2008, ‘Selecting curriculum content that stimulates thought’ in Early Childhood Education Journal, pp. 393-396.