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Core Competencies for Early Childhood Professionals:
Teaching and Learning

Early childhood professionals understand that the substance of teaching and learning is in the combination of interactions, routines and experiences in children’s daily lives. Teaching and learning with young children is complex. It includes a variety of strategies that are designed to match the child’s unique approach to learning, depends on a thorough knowledge of the content of early childhood education, and is dependent on observation and reflection to plan and develop curriculum and to assess children's learning.

Level One Competencies

A. Interactions

  1. Demonstrates warm, positive, nurturing and respectful interactions with children and families
  2. Builds a trusting relationship with children and families so that they will feel safe, secure, and valued
  3. Appropriately supervises children and uses positive guidance strategies
  4. Encourages and supports children to actively participate in a variety of activities
  5. Facilitates and participates in children’s play without taking over the activity
  6. Models good communication skills

B. Learning Environment

  1. Recognizes the elements of a welcoming, supportive, healthy and enriching learning environment
  2. Maintains a predictable daily schedule that can be flexible
  3. Offers children a choice of learning activities based on their interests
  4. Implements appropriate procedures and practices for good hygiene, nutrition, physical activity, and rest
  5. Limits use of television, videos, computers, video games, and other technologies

C. Curriculum & Content

  1. Recognizes how children’s concrete experiences and play contribute to their learning across all domains
  2. Recognizes the value of various sensory experiences for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers
  3. Demonstrates knowledge of the Vermont Early Learning Standards
  4. Recognizes dramatic play, songs, games, and books as activities that support children’s emergent literacy
  5. Selects and reads aloud quality fictional and non-fictional literature that represents different cultures and ethnicities, and facilitates discussions of the story’s central themes and ideas
  6. Encourages, supports, and respects children’s creative expressions
  7. Focuses on the creative process rather than the end product
  8. Observes and integrates children’s interests when planning learning opportunities

 

D. Assessment

  1. Recognizes the importance of observing and documenting children’s behavior and interests
  2. Recognizes that children’s work samples provide evidence of their development
  3. Understands and maintains confidentiality regarding child assessments

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Level Two Competencies

A. Interactions

  1. Uses positive guidance strategies that respect children and teach appropriate social skills
  2. Provides opportunities for children to listen, interact, and communicate freely with other children and adults
  3. Responds to children in ways that show reasonable expectations about children’s attention spans, social and physical abilities, needs, and interests
  4. Promotes positive, pro-social relationships among children and helps each child feel accepted in the group
  5. Models the recognition and expression of feelings, and encourages children’s development of empathy and mutual respect for adults and other children
  6. Responds appropriately to the variety of ways children experience grief and loss
  7. Guides children to resolve interpersonal conflicts and solve problems with others
  8. Asks open-ended questions and encourages children to ask questions

B. Learning Environment

  1. Uses space, relationships, materials, and routines as resources for constructing an environment that encourages play, exploration, and learning
  2. Creates a learning environment that balances individual, large and small group activities, child-directed and teacher-directed activities, and indoor and outdoor activities
  3. Provides materials that reflect children’s diverse backgrounds and that are appropriate for the children’s developmental levels
  4. Creates a print-rich environment and promotes the development of children’s writing by providing various media (e.g., crayons, pencils, chalkboards)
  5. Creates a daily schedule that includes time for spontaneous and extended play
  6. Uses technology (eg. television, videos, computers, video games) and adaptive technologies in appropriate and meaningful ways
  7. Develops strategies for facilitating transitions during the day

C. Curriculum & Content

  1. Describes how children acquire content knowledge through play, interactions, and inquiry
  2. Provides various sensory experiences for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers
  3. Plans appropriate learning experiences based on observations and analyses of children’s behaviors and activities
  4. Uses Vermont’s Early Learning Standards in planning and evaluating curricula, learning environments, and materials
  5. Adapts curricula, environments, and materials to meet the needs of individual children
  6. Makes a wide variety of engaging, age-appropriate books easily accessible to children
  7. Provides various opportunities for the development of children’s oral language and emerging literacy
  8. Uses a range of activities and materials to support the development of early numeracy concepts (e.g., quantity, shape) and to illustrate the application of mathematics in everyday life
  9. Provides opportunities for children to learn about their communities, experience various cultures, and explore the relationship between people and their environments
  10. Plans activities that encourage children to explore nature and the physical world
  11. Provides opportunities for children’s physical development, including small and large muscle coordination, strengthening, and control
  12. Provides open-ended opportunities for children to express their creativity through language, music, dramatic play, and art media (clay, paint, wire, etc.)
  13. Provides opportunities for children to learn and practice self help skills such as dressing, feeding, toileting, etc.

D. Assessment

  1. Collects and organizes information about each child’s development from parent information and direct observation
  2. Collects, interprets, and presents documentation of child observations and samples of children’s work
  3. Maintains accurate records of observations and assessments
  4. Communicates observations and interpretations in written and oral form with parents and, with parental consent, with colleagues and other professionals

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Level Three Competencies

A. Interactions

  1. Designs the learning environment and curriculum in ways that will promote positive behaviors and cooperative interactions
  2. Encourages children to develop independence and self-esteem by providing physical and emotional security and opportunities for children to master new skills, experience success, and safely take risks

B. Learning Environment

  1. Plans indoor and outdoor environments that are safe, stimulating, engaging, and intentionally designed to support curricular goals
  2. Analyzes learning environments to ensure that they foster children’s communication, competence, problem solving skills, and creativity
  3. Evaluates the quality and safety of the physical environment and recommends and/or makes needed modifications
  4. Uses transitions during the day as learning opportunities

C. Curriculum & Content

  1. Differentiates instruction based on children’s developmental accomplishments and needs
  2. Creates and implements an integrated curriculum that incorporates skills and concepts from various content areas (i.e., language arts, science, mathematics, social studies, the arts) and is based on children’s interests and abilities
  3. Analyzes children’s sensory play and makes modifications based on children’s individual needs and interests
  4. Provides opportunities for children to raise questions about the world around them and to investigate their questions using the scientific method
  5. Provides open-ended activities that foster curiosity, exploration, and problem solving appropriate to the children’s developmental levels
  6. Participates with other professionals in developing and implementing individualized service and educational plans for young children with disabilities
  7. Plans and implements accommodations in order to include all children
  8. Describes specific curriculum models along with their rationales and limitations
  9. Evaluates the effectiveness of methods and materials used for achieving curricular goals and addressing children’s individual differences

D. Assessment

  1. Uses a variety of methods to systematically observe, record, monitor, and document young children’s development, behaviors and wellness
  2. Develops a plan for tracking children’s progress and communicating conclusions with families
  3. Recognizes and responds to the warning signs of delays and suspected disorders for children of various ages
  4. Identifies individually appropriate expectations for children’s behavior through observation and collaboration with families
  5. Demonstrates knowledge of the eligibility guidelines and referral process to the Family, Infant and Toddler Program or Essential Early Education

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© Vermont Northern Lights Career Development Center
Last modified September 26, 2005