Appendix C: ECIPs – Approaches to Learning

“My friends and I decided to build a house on the floor at our preschool. We had some small wooden blocks, some magnetic blocks, and some Legos that we stacked up to make walls. Lydia said, “We need a roof.” I said, “Good idea, Lydia! We could make it out of magnet blocks.” She agreed and together with our friend, Kylee, we started laying the magnet blocks across the walls we had built. But the roof kept falling down. Kylee said, “I think our walls are too far apart.” We all helped to move them closer and rebuild the roof for our house. It worked! We continued to build more rooms and put roofs on them for the next twenty minutes.”

In the early years, children are learning so many things. Their brains are rapidly developing and multitudes of cognitive connections are being created. They’re learning to use their bodies. They’re learning the ins and outs of relationships and to express their feelings. Communicating with others and processing language is a big step. Skills and concepts are acquired rapidly during early childhood if children are given the opportunity to explore.
But most importantly, young children are learning how to learn and manage their learning. The domain of Approaches to Learning focuses on the very traits that children must develop so that they can be successful as learners in later schooling and throughout their lives:

• Curiosity
• Engagement
• Persistence
• Inventiveness
• Organizing information

There is research to support the importance of children’s approaches to learning and success in school. One study found that children with higher levels of attentiveness, task persistence, eagerness to learn, learning independence, flexibility, and organization, generally did better in literacy and math at the end of the kindergarten school year and the beginning of their first-grade year. In addition, children who approach learning tasks or novel situations with these positive approaches to learning are better able to regulate their learning experiences, and more quickly acquire general knowledge and cognitive skills. (Conn-Power 2006, 2)
The expectations that are set out in the Approaches to Learning domain of the Minnesota Early Childhood Indicators of Progress (ECIPs) show the ways that children demonstrate these approaches at different ages. There is no alignment with the indicators in this domain with the Minnesota Academic Standards for Kindergarten because there is no similar domain in K-12 Standards. Instead, early childhood professionals can turn to other resources for kindergarten expectations.
The Approaches to Learning Domain includes four components:

• AL 1-2 Initiative and Curiosity – Showing an active interest in surroundings, people, and objects. Demonstrating an eagerness to learn.
• AL 3-6 Attentiveness, Engagement and Persistence – Focusing and maintaining attention, makes constructive choices, plans to achieve a goal.
• AL 7-9 Creativity – Demonstrating originality and inventiveness in a variety of ways. Appropriately expressing one’s unique ideas.
• AL 10-13 Processing and Utilizing Information – Gathering, storing, and organizing information that is perceived through the senses in order to use or apply in new situations. Constructing and using knowledge.

The sub-components and indicators identified for the ages of birth through kindergarten entry address the specific expectations across the developmental spectrum.

• For infants, indicators focus on the ways that infants show interest in their environment, interact with others and objects for short periods of time, begin to manage frustration, begin to generalize experiences, and recognize cause and effect relationships.
• The indicators for toddlers include how they are beginning to examine the characteristics of objects, make some independent choices, handle transitions, seek out others to play and carry out play plans, pretend, and identify and communicate about problems.
• The indicators for preschoolers focus on how children show their eagerness to investigate new things, engage in play with peers for extended periods of time, persist, experiment with new ways to combine materials, and contribute relevant information to discussions.

The skills and concepts in the Approaches to Learning Domain are highly interrelated to children’s development in other domains. Teachers and providers of young children must remain attentive to this important area so they build practice in these skills throughout the curriculum and children develop this important foundation.

Children’s ability to stay focused, interested, and engaged in activities supports a range of positive outcomes, including cognitive, language, and social and emotional development. It allows children to acquire new knowledge, learn new skills, and set and achieve goals for themselves. Many early learning experts view approaches to learning as one of the most important domains of early childhood development. (Head Start 2015)

Resources:
Conn-Powers, Michael. 2006. All Children Ready for School: Approaches to Learning. Early Childhood Briefing Paper Series. Bloomington: Indiana Institute on Disability and Community.
Head Start. 2015. Approaches to Learning. https://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/hslc/hs/sr/approach/elof/a2_learning.html

Source: https://education.mn.gov/MDE/dse/early/highqualel/ind/domain/