Years Prep to 4
The Victorian Essential Learning Standards include standards at six levels. The levels broadly associated with schooling from Years Prep to 4 are as follows:
Level 1
Level 1 is broadly associated with the Preparatory Year of schooling.
Level 2
Level 2 is broadly associated with Years 1 and 2 of schooling.
Level 3
Level 3 is broadly associated with Years 3 and 4 of schooling.
Laying the foundations
Beginning school is a major upheaval in children's lives, especially those who have spent the majority of their lives at home. The foundation knowledge, skills and behaviours that children must develop in Levels 1 and 2 to become successful learners at school are:
- English (Reading, Writing, Speaking and listening)
- Mathematics
- The Arts (Creating and making)
- Interpersonal Development (with an emphasis on socialisation)
- Health and Physical Education (Movement and physical activity).
Without the knowledge, behaviours and skills that are learned in these domains, children will be restricted in their capacity to succeed in the other domains as they progress through schooling. At Level 3 students begin to respond to information, ideas and beliefs from contexts beyond their immediate experience. Consistent with this development, additional standards across a range of domains in the three strands are introduced.
Domains without standards in Levels 1, 2 and 3 are nevertheless important areas of learning for children. Teachers are encouraged to provide experiences for children in each of these areas, either by teaching relevant subject matter independently or by integrating it with those domains that have measurement standards.
The first challenge at school is for children to socialise and to become engaged behaviourally, emotionally and cognitively. Engagement is a state that remains critical to success throughout schooling. Engagement moves from a minimal level of engagement where children conform, motivated by extrinsic demands, to a higher level of behavioural engagement where their motivation is more intrinsic. The latter includes resilient behaviour that is the capacity to overcome stress and adversity. Resilient children achieve more highly at school and better manage the ups and downs in life. Schools play a significant role in helping children to develop resilience.
Being socially engaged is also critical to the development of cognitive skills. Children build their ability to reason from a context or environment. The environment provides the practices, assumptions and values upon which reasoning is constructed. It follows that if children fail to socialise in a way where they understand the norms and values of a classroom, they will have difficulty understanding the reasoning that flows from those norms and values, and they will be subsequently hindered in their capacity to transfer that skill to more formal applications.
While behaviour is significantly determined by habits, it is also sometimes reactive, being influenced by emotional states and cognitive processes. Emotional engagement may be defined in terms of general wellbeing at school; for example, happiness, safety, calmness and empowerment, as opposed to sadness, worry, helplessness and stress. A key emotional skill that should be developed early and maintained throughout schooling is impulse control. Teachers can help children to develop impulse control by teaching them to recognise the feelings in themselves and others, by implementing behaviour management approaches that encourage children to regulate emotions, and by helping children to reflect on their behaviours.
Another key theme is that knowledge is constructed. We build our brains through experience, both real and perceived. Learning is cumulative, and consequently, the ability to transfer learning is a key skill. Children begin schooling with knowledge and skills. Much of this will be true and accurate, but some of it will not, even though it is believed to be true. One of the fundamental skills successful learners must develop is to reflect on learning, to link new knowledge to existing knowledge, to establish what is true and accurate, important and useful, and to challenge what is untrue and inaccurate. Giving children opportunities to be reflective improves the quality of learning, since learning with understanding is more likely to promote transfer than memory.
