Glossary
Pedagogical terms briefly explained from A to Z
Glossary of important pedagogical terms
In the education and orientation plans for child daycare in all federal states, daycare providers are recommended to establish a practice of observation and documentation of children's education and development processes in their facilities. Since the introduction of the education and orientation plans, observation and documentation have become an important quality feature of educational work in child daycare. In North Rhine-Westphalia, observation and documentation are enshrined in law in the Child Education Act (§ 18 KiBiz).
In the educational principles for North Rhine-Westphalia, observation and the associated recording of individual requirements and the assessment of the abilities and skills of each individual child are regarded as an indispensable basis for educational planning in order to provide the child with continuous, individual and optimal support. It forms one of the foundations for the educational, upbringing and care mandate of the educational professionals as well as for informing and advising parents.
The educational documentation should primarily be aimed at the child and support the child's participation in their own educational biography. The development documentation provides information about the child's stage of development (e.g. language development) and age-appropriate development and the overcoming of developmental milestones. The documentation is used for preventative health care, information and advice for parents.
These observation and documentation processes take place regularly, integrated into everyday life and in a perceptive manner in childcare facilities and daycare centers. This means that the educational professionals observe the individual children in their educational and learning processes and document what they observe.
There are various observation methods and instruments that are used in practice. Many of them are based on a so-called resource-oriented approach, which focuses on the child's strengths. Basically, the observation procedures aim to gain insights into what the child is currently interested in thematically, whether they feel comfortable, how they are getting involved and how they interact with others.
Hopping, jumping, climbing, swinging, running: Children really enjoy movement. This is how they get to know themselves and their environment, develop their personality and promote their ability to learn cognitively. The NRW State Sports Association certifies daycare facilities whose educational focus is on promoting movement with the "Recognized Movement Kindergarten" seal of approval. The clearest distinguishing feature from other daycare facilities is that the promotion of physical activity is at the heart of the educational work. It runs like a red thread through all areas of the kindergarten's daily routine and thus not only meets children's needs for movement and play, but also opens the door to learning for the children. Every "recognized movement kindergarten" cooperates with a child-friendly sports club.
In NRW, it is stipulated by law (§ 17 KiBiz) that an educational concept must be available in child daycare. This concept, which is specific to the provider or facility, describes, among other things, the understanding of education. This "image of the child" and what children need for their development influences the thoughts and actions of educational professionals. The associated basic pedagogical attitude and the resulting attitudes and actions place the child with their individual development and the development of their skills at the center of pedagogical work.
The following basic ideas can be named for the image of the child:
- The active, creative child
"I want to discover and explore my environment. I analyze my surroundings and draw conclusions - that's how I educate myself.
- The competent child
"Through my perception, my feelings and my actions, I gain experience in order to learn something."
- The independent, strong child
"Through security, protection and support, I gain enough self-confidence and learn how to deal with difficult situations."
- The social child
"I want to get in touch with other people and need emotional security, attention and appreciation."
- The constructing child
"Through my personal experiences and interaction processes with the environment, I construct my subjective world."
- The unique child
"From birth, I am different from other children - an opportunity to learn with and from each other."
In current daycare pedagogy, approaches that view children primarily as beings to be protected and taught have given way to attitudes that emphasize the rights and strengths of children.
Source: Ministry for Children, Family, Refugees and Integration of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (2018): Bildungskoffer NRW. Practical materials on the educational principles. Freiburg i. B.: Verlag Herder.
A reading version of the educational principles for NRW can be found at KiTa.NRW
A bilingual facility integrates another language alongside German into everyday life. The method is called "immersion", i.e. the children experience a so-called "language bath". The immersion method is currently regarded as a very successful language teaching method. Here, the new language is spoken by one or more educational professionals in all everyday situations. These professionals are native speakers or have acquired a very high level of foreign language competence. The new language is therefore not taught, but is a colloquial language.
Attachment theory was founded at the end of the 1950s by the English child psychiatrist John Bowlby. In early childhood, i.e. up to the age of 3, child development is primarily concerned with building a secure attachment. If the child has experienced that the caregiver responds sensitively and delicately to their expressions and that they can rely on their caregiver, this supports the development of a secure attachment. Deep attachment relationships give the child security and are the basis for the child to actively explore the world. A secure attachment is considered the best prerequisite for the development of cognitive, emotional and social skills, which also acts as a protective factor throughout life.
In addition to secure attachment, there are three other attachment types:
- A child with an insecure-avoidant attachment has repeatedly experienced that their (attachment) needs are not understood or accepted, and often experiences rejection by the attachment figure.
- In an insecure-ambivalent attachment type, the child has experienced their attachment figure as unpredictable. Their attachment behavior is therefore constantly activated. These children often have strong separation anxiety and cling to the attachment figure.
- A child with an insecure-disorganized attachment type is characterized by emotionally contradictory and inconsistent attachment behaviour. On the one hand, it seeks the care of the attachment figure, but is simultaneously afraid of them (often as a result of experiences of violence, traumatic experiences).
The internalized attachment type regulates the child's behaviour towards the attachment figure and later structures the behaviour and experience in all emotionally relevant relationships, including those with themselves. In this way, the attachment type influences the extent to which someone expects closeness and security in relationships and the extent to which they themselves can allow closeness.
The relationships between parent and child and professional and child are similar in that both caregivers offer the child security and can encourage exploration. Expanding the network of relationships by attending daycare thus provides the child with the opportunity to form (further) secure relationships with a bond-like character. However, it takes time to expand a young child's network of relationships. At the same time, it is important to organize the transition well, which should always be based on the child's existing caregivers. This applies to the first transition from the family to the crèche as well as to further transitions, such as the transition from the crèche to the kindergarten group (see also Familiarization). If the professional can build up a relationship with the toddler, this forms a positive basis for the child to take advantage of the care and education on offer.
Family Handbook. Karen Strohband, Attachment at kindergarten age
Ahnert, L. (ed.) (2004): Early attachment. Emergence and development. Munich: Ernst Reinhardt.
Susanne Stegmaier: Grundlagen der Bindungstheorie
In the meantime, it is undisputed in early childhood education that a slow, gradual settling-in phase, accompanied by a parent or other close caregiver, is important for the well-being of younger children in particular. During the settling-in phase, the first priority is to establish a relationship, for which parents and professionals are jointly responsible. The transition from the family to the first non-family or institutional care requires the development of a secure and trusting bond with a professional or childminder.
There are currently different models of acclimatization in Germany. The oldest and most widespread concept is the Berlin familiarization model developed in the 1980s by the infans Institute (Laewen, Andres & Hédérvari-Heller, 2011), which is based on findings from attachment and brain research. Another variant for acclimatization is the Munich acclimatization model. In comparison to the Berlin model, findings from transition research are also included here.
Childcare facilities that are also family centers form the center of a network of different services for children and parents. They link childcare services with leisure, counseling or therapy options for families in the district and can be a place where generations can meet. Family centers have the task of increasing the quality of early childhood education and support, strengthening parents in the performance of their educational and child-raising duties and ensuring the compatibility of family and career. In North Rhine-Westphalia, the expansion of daycare centers into family centers has been funded since 2006. Around a third of daycare centers in the state have developed into family centers.
Célestin and Elise Freinet, both school teachers, developed the so-called Freinet pedagogy. The four main features of this pedagogical approach are the child's personal responsibility, the free development of the personality, a critical examination of the environment as well as cooperation and mutual responsibility. In 1979, the first daycare center adopted this approach and applied it to kindergarten education. In dialogue with the children, the educational specialist supports each child individually in recognizing their own interests and needs and expressing these according to their wishes. This takes place in workshops and studios such as artists' studios, wood workshops, pottery workshops, research or technology studios. There they can experiment freely, following their own needs and their own rhythm. "Mistakes" are allies in the learning process and provide impetus for development. Educational professionals are responsible for the external framework, trust the children and discover what the boys and girls are capable of (see resource orientation). In children's conferences and through children's councils, the children have a say and influence. Freinet pedagogy has many points of contact with other child-centered pedagogical approaches, especially with 'open work' and Reggio pedagogy.
Kindergarten pedagogy, online handbook
Website on Freinet pedagogy
Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel (1782-1852) is considered the inventor of the kindergarten and the founder of play education (free play). The term kindergarten, which he coined as a "school of play", has been adopted untranslated into more than 20 languages. He opened the first play circle in 1837. He considered children's play to be the "purest spiritual product of man". Toys - the so-called "Fröbel gifts" - should contribute to the child's gain in knowledge. The task of adults is to stimulate the child to develop its powers. Fröbel developed an extremely modern view of the child for his time and recognized childhood as a particularly important stage in life for education and upbringing: Education cannot be imposed from the outside. The educational process takes place as self-education, as an interaction process controlled by the child of "expressing the inner" and "internalizing the outer". According to Fröbel, education creates suitable framework conditions for this and supports the educational process of the individual in the respective society. Today, the self-education of the child is the subject of educational science discussions. The International Froebel Society Germany, founded in 2002, is committed to researching, communicating and updating Froebel's work in theory and practice.
Essays on Froebel pedagogy in: Kindergartenpädagogik, Online-Handbuch
International Froebel Society Germany
By signing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Germany has committed to implementing an inclusive education system that includes everyone. Separate daycare centers and schools for people with disabilities and impairments are to become superfluous. Inclusion should not only apply to children with disabilities, but to all children who are at risk of disadvantage due to other factors such as their cultural or social background. The concept of inclusion differs from the term integration, which is often used synonymously. Integration means that a new group of people is brought into an existing education system (integrated). Inclusion requires a change in educational institutions so that they offer equally good opportunities for a more diverse group of people. This requires a pedagogical attitude that values diversity and consciously brings it about. The right to joint support for all children is enshrined in law in the NRW Child Education Act (Section 8).
Sozialgesetzbuch (SGB) VIII, Section 22 a
The pedagogue, geneticist and psychologist Prof. Dr. mult. Wassilios E. Fthenakis coined the concept of co-construction - learning through collaboration. He emphasizes that education is a social process. Children have to construct the world and give it meaning in order to understand it (constructivism). This happens in exchange with others (children with each other or with adults). Adults encourage the process by emphasizing the exploration of meaning more than the acquisition of knowledge. In order to be able to enter into co-constructive learning processes with children, adults are required to observe the children's forms of expression closely. Only then can they respond appropriately. This view has become established in German pedagogy. The methodical approach with which the child controls its educational process is the so-called "self-education concept": the child educates itself. This approach is also anchored in the educational principles of NRW.
Prof. Dr. mult. Wassilios E. Fthenakis, Redefining education and ensuring high educational quality from the very beginning.
The daycare manual - three forms of education
You can find a reading version of the educational principles for NRW at KiTa.NRW
The Italian doctor and educator Maria Montessori (1870-1952) was the founder of Montessori education. She founded the first Montessori children's home in Rome in 1907. Today, Montessori education is offered in many children's homes and schools in almost every country in the world. "Help me to do it myself!" - according to this motto, educational professionals have the task of helping children to become active themselves. Maria Montessori assumed that children carry their own "blueprint" within them. She drew attention to the so-called sensitive phases, in which children are particularly receptive to learning certain things - for example language, movement or social behavior. Through support and encouragement, the child is able to develop its innate strengths. Free work is at the heart of Montessori education. The children decide for themselves what they want to do. Maria Montessori developed special play and learning materials to support the child on this developmental path. This material, the child-friendly presentation of the activities and the good observation skills of the educational staff help the child to decide which activities to choose. The child largely determines the work rhythm and the duration of the activity themselves and also whether they want to work, play or learn alone or with a partner.
The idea of "open work" in daycare centers spread at the end of the 1970s. The concept dissolves the familiar regular group structure. The traditional division of space into group rooms with functional areas (construction corner, doll's corner, etc.) gives way to a functional room concept. For example, there is a workshop, a construction room, a movement room and a role-play room. This gives children the opportunity to choose an activity area with like-minded people, regardless of group affiliation. The concept is based on the assumption that children have a better chance of learning in contexts that they can determine themselves to a greater extent. Professionals have observed, for example, that children play with more commitment and concentration in the context of "open work" with functional spaces because they are less distracted. One point of criticism is that younger children can be overwhelmed by an open concept that deprives them of the security offered by the group structure. Many facilities therefore work according to a partially open concept that seeks to combine the advantages of both models. Others offer group rooms for the youngest children as well as permanent caregivers who also serve as a secure base for the older children, from which they can explore the possibilities of the rooms step by step.
Forms of opening up daycare groups: Advantages and disadvantages
Works, photos, written child statements and other documents are collected together in a folder and document the child's individual development and educational path. In the portfolio, the child primarily expresses itself. This is done, among other things, by the specialist staff discussing with the child what should be included in the portfolio and why. The children can comment on their pictures and photos and give them titles, for example. Most children love leafing through their portfolios and bringing the past back to life.
Portfolio work is educational work. In it, children engage intellectually, emotionally and practically with
- their own person, their distinctiveness and identity,
- their interests,
- their skills,
- what they have created themselves,
- what they have experienced,
- what is beautiful and special.
The portfolio presented by the child is a good basis for discussions with parents about their child's educational and developmental processes.
Britta Dehn, Das Portfolio bzw. das ICH-Buch des Kindes, eine stärkenorientierte Entwicklungsdokumentation, in: Online-Handbuch Inklusion als Menschenrecht
Tassilo Knauf: Kindern im Portfolio das Wort geben
Reggio pedagogy comes from the northern Italian town of Reggio Emilia. Prof. Loris Malaguzzi (1920-1994) is considered one of its most important representatives. Reggio pedagogy can be described as an educational philosophy that promotes the idea of the child as an exploratory being who is able to express himself in "a hundred languages", for example in words, pictures or play. The educational professional acts as a developmental guide with an optimistic and open attitude. In Reggio pedagogy, projects for acquiring everyday skills and, above all, an understanding of the self and the world play a special role. Above all, children have materials and tools at their disposal with which they can become creatively active. The daycare center rooms and the materials offered there are considered the "third educator". Rooms should have a high "stimulating character" and encourage activities. At the same time, it is their task to offer places of retreat. For this reason, the rooms are predominantly designed with focal functions such as a children's restaurant, studio, construction room, role-play or research room.
Lingenauber, Sabine (2016): Hand dictionary of Reggio pedagogy. Bochum: Projektverlag.
Tassilo Knauf: Reggio-Pädagogik: kind- und bildungsorientiert
In Germany, Reggio pedagogy has been promoted by Dialog Reggio e. V. since 1995.
Resilience is the human ability to deal well and constructively with stressful situations. Many children today grow up under difficult conditions. They are affected by a wide variety of stresses (poverty due to their parents' unemployment, parental divorce, etc.). These stresses represent a risk and have an impact on the child's development. Some children are barely able to cope with these stresses, while others develop very well. Children who develop well despite these risk factors are referred to as "resilient"
Whether people have this ability depends on various factors. Pedagogy in daycare centers can help to strengthen such factors. For example, if children learn that their opinions count and that they can discover and contribute their strengths and abilities, they develop the conviction that they can shape, influence and change their environment. This feeling of "self-efficacy" is an important basis for successfully overcoming challenges. Other resilience factors include: a positive self-perception, the ability to manage oneself well, social skills, appropriate stress management and problem-solving skills.
"What is resilience?", information on the website on resilience of the Center for Child and Youth Research at the Protestant University of Applied Sciences Freiburg
Rönnau-Böse, M. & Fröhlich-Gildhoff, K. (2010): Promoting resilience in everyday daycare. What makes children strong and resilient. Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder.
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"What does a child still need to learn?" For a long time, this question was the main focus when observing children in educational institutions. Today, this deficit-oriented approach is increasingly giving way to a resource-oriented approach that focuses on children's skills and abilities with the question "What can the child already do?". In this way, the focus is shifting to the educational progress of the children, who no longer have to be measured against an ideal-typical standard. Educational professionals thus have the opportunity to introduce children to developmental tasks based on their strengths and special talents. If the focus is on the child and his or her abilities, a positive attitude towards the child is created as opposed to a one-sided focus on deficits. If the pedagogical specialist or teacher allows the children to experience where their resources lie, it makes it easier for the children to draw on their resources in certain situations and make use of them. Strengthening their strengths and the self-confidence that comes with it can then also allow weaker skills to develop positively. The term resource orientation is also used in other contexts. In daycare centres, it can also mean that professionals recognize the children's family or social contexts or the opportunities offered by the social environment as resources and use them for daycare work.
The situational approach developed in the 1970s has shaped the self-image of many early childhood educators in Germany for around 30 years and forms the basis for many educational concepts. It is based on the idea that everyday topics as "key situations" in children's lives hold particular learning potential and prepare them for their future lives in a special way. Such topics and situations, which the children bring with them from their everyday lives, are taken up in the daycare center and worked on in projects. The situational approach aims to support children from different social and cultural backgrounds and with different life experiences in understanding and shaping their living environment. Important principles are the co-determination of children in everyday educational activities, the creation of a stimulating learning culture and the cultivation of relationships with the social environment. The approach is particularly suitable for creating an inclusive pedagogy that deals sensitively with diversity and excludes no one.
The situation-oriented approach is similar to the situational approach. The difference is that Armin Krenz, the founder of this approach, assumes that children process experiences and events that they have experienced in the past in their behavior, play and other forms of expression. Educational professionals pick up on the themes expressed therein and the children process and understand them in a variety of ways in projects. Due to this different derivation, the situation-oriented approach is individually oriented, while the situational approach is a group educational concept.
Bianca McGuire, Cindy Benkel and Armin Krenz: The situation-oriented approach
Language is one of the most important key skills for lifelong learning and later success in school and education. Early language education and support for language skills are particularly important for children at the beginning of their language development and for children who grow up multilingual. The promotion of language development is therefore rightly given high priority as a central educational task in primary education. The scientific findings and practical experience gained in recent years show that it is above all systematic language education integrated into everyday life that promotes children's language development. A language-stimulating environment in the day-to-day pedagogical routine of child daycare offers many opportunities for this. Language education should begin as early as possible and reach all children right from the start. In this process, the creation of a successful educational partnership between parents and educational staff is of crucial importance. The family environment is still the first place where language acquisition takes place. The exchange of ideas, knowledge, experiences and resources helps to develop a common understanding of education and upbringing.
Flyer for parents provides information on "Everyday integrated language education and observation for children in daycare facilities in NRW"
Federal program "Sprach-Kitas: Weil Sprache der Schlüssel zur Welt ist" Information on the website of the "Frühe Chancen" initiative
The idea for forest kindergartens originated in Denmark, where the first kindergarten of this kind was founded in 1954. The first forest kindergarten in Germany was established in 1968. The main difference between forest kindergartens and other facilities is that the children spend almost all their time in the forest in (almost) any weather. There are no prefabricated toys in forest kindergartens - apart from a few tools. The natural environment constantly creates opportunities for movement, play and learning that do not have to be created artificially. It promotes creativity, imagination, free play and social interaction. So-called nature kindergartens use forests, meadows and fields as well as other natural areas such as the sea, beach or dunes. In extreme weather, the groups can usually use a retreat (for example a forest hut or a construction trailer).
Waldorf education was founded by Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) and is based on the anthroposophy he developed. The first Waldorf kindergarten was established in Stuttgart in 1926. It was attached to the Waldorf School opened there in 1919. Steiner assumed that the first seven years of life are primarily the time when the human body and internal organs are formed. In this phase of life, children primarily absorb the world through imitation. Kindergarten education in Waldorf facilities is characterized by regularity and repetition, which gives children a sense of security. The focus is on artistic and manual activities. Children show their personality through free play. Relationships, joy and movement are important foundations for learning. The task of the teachers is to help the child to discover their own individuality.
Association of Waldorf Kindergartens North Rhine-Westphalia Region