Presentation - ECV2022-205

What makes intentional teaching intentional? Intentionality and the active decision-making process in intentional teaching

Mia Yue Chen, Deakin University, Australia (cmia@deakin.edu.au)

Background: The uptake of intentional teaching in global early childhood contexts has contributed to the shift in understanding of pedagogical play to a more socio-cultural perspective that advocates for educators’ proactive and engaged roles in children’s play. Including a stronger emphasis on intentionality and the planning cycle has been advocated by Hadley and colleagues (2021) in a discussion paper about the Early Years Learning Framework in Australia. Meanwhile, recent studies highlighted educators’ struggles in conceptualising their roles as intentional teachers, and there is limited pedagogical guidance on how to intentionally teach in play-based programs.

Aim: To present a rapid literature review to conceptualise intentional teaching through examining the nature of children’s and adults’ intentionality and the decision-making process in intentional teaching.

Method: A rapid literature review was undertaken to examine studies related to intentional teaching in early childhood contexts published in English between 2010–2022. Sixty-four papers were identified through searching in online education research databases, including EBSCO Host and ProQuest Education Database.

Results: Educators’ actions qualify as intentional teaching because of the decision-making process regarding their intentionality. By considering both children’s and adults’ intentionality, educators create a teacher/learner nexus that positions the adult as one who promotes children’s intrinsic drives for independent learning and the child as an active constructor of knowledge.

Conclusions: This presentation advocates for a broader understanding of intentional teaching that focuses on the intentionality behind decisions and actions, rather than limiting the roles to certain actions. Intentional teaching can thus be conceptualised as part of educators’ professional identity, allowing them to have ongoing teaching intentionality in the learning environment and to create an intentional curriculum that balances child-initiated, guided and adult-directed learning.

Implications for children and families: Quality early childhood education plays a critical role in children’s development. With growing understanding and capacity of intentional teaching, educators will be more confident and skilful in implementing intentional teaching in play-based programs, which leads to better child outcomes.

Implications for practitioners: What makes your decisions and actions intentional is the intentionality and your active decision-making in the process. By focusing on the intentionality rather than a fixed set of teaching strategies, you will be able to plan and adapt your intentional teaching practices based on children’s strengths, needs, content and contexts, and to embed intentional teaching across time, such as in planning, responding in the moment, and reflection afterwards.

Key words: education, intentional teaching, pedagogies

This presentation relates to the following United Nations Sustainable Development Goals:

- SDG 4: Quality Education