The childcare industry in the United States is regulated by different rating systems put forth by various agencies. While these rating systems try to adopt a holistic approach in grading early care and education facilities, it largely left the quality of an early learning environment lacking in criterias. So Trust for Learning commissioned ECE experts to come up with a list of principles that all quality learning environments share.

In this blog, we will be listing down the 7 principles that serve as hallmarks of a quality learning environment.

Principle 1: Ensure equity is a priority in every decision made.

A good learning environment must always take into account all of its stakeholders’ needs. Starting from their own staff to parents and children, everyone must be properly supported in order for equitable learning to take place.
This means putting children in a level playing field, providing each child with the right support system addressing their particular needs. Instead of a blanket approach, taking the time to getting to know their background from their parents’ jobs to the household environment, child care providers would be more well-informed into what the child will need to excel.

Principle 2: A priority on diverse experiences from which children can learn and make sense of the world.

Children need to access a wide variety of activities and experiences in order for them to discover the world around them and form meaningful connections about different ranges.
For this to happen, educators and caregivers must provide children with enough opportunities to let children explore their interests daily.
Moreover, teachers must also be able to connect the children’s unique and diverse backgrounds to their experiences.
This lets the child make a meaningful connection and place it in the right context that makes sense for him, and his culture.

Principle 3: Play as a way of learning.

Young children begin to learn as they play. Instead of a lecture where a student is passive, young children learn best by being actively engaged through play. For most of their early years, children gain knowledge through playing, whether on their own or with peers in the playground or classroom or even with adults.

Principle 4: Personalized instruction that recognizes each child is a different individual with a unique path to their development.

While cohorts will generally achieve the same developmental milestones, there may still be those who are ahead of their peers and some who may lag behind a step or two. Considering this reality, early childhood educators must know how to tailor fit their instruction to each child’s own developmental state. A teacher must be able to get down to the level of the child and harness their interests while supporting what they need in order to keep up with their peers developmentally speaking.

Principle 5: The teacher is a guide, and a source of nurturing presence and co-constructor of knowledge.

Warm and positive relationships with children in their care
Teachers become facilitators of learning, seeing an opportunity where children can learn and guiding children to get more knowledge.

Principle 6: Both children and adults learn through their relationships.

Young children seek the adults as a form of a safe space where they can openly express their feelings. As young children begin to encounter more emotions and feelings they are unable to identify and label on their own, adults must be the guide and model on how a child can deal with their big emotions, understand the way they are feeling and express it properly. Most importantly, young children must know how to respond to it and to their peers in a balanced way that resolves the feeling without spreading negative emotions.

Principle 7: The environment is intentionally designed to facilitate learning.

For children to learn and for teachers to be able to teach more effectively, the environment must be conducive to learning. The learning materials curated must not only serve as a point of design but a tool to aid children in their learning. It should be of various types that encourage different types of learning such as sensory, fine and gross motor skills, open-ended, creative, building, loose recycled parts and more.