Course Tile: Early Childhood Care and Education

Name of the Content Writer: Dr. K. Arockia Maraichelvi Module 22

PEDAGOGY IN RELATION TO ECE - POSITIONING, EMPOWERING,

SCAFFOLDING

INTRODUCTION
The first module of the 8th week is designed in such a way that the three
pedagogy namely Positioning, Empowering and Scaffolding, is explained to you in
relation to its application in the Early Childhood Education curriculum. Each of the
methods is defined with a detailed description of the process and enlisting of various
strategies of practical application with relevant examples.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the end of this module, you will be able to
 Define, comprehend the process, list and identify strategies of effective
implementation of the pedagogy – Positioning
 Define, comprehend the process, catalogue and identify strategies of
effective implementation of the pedagogy – Empowering
 Define, embrace the process, list and identify strategies of effective
implementation of the pedagogy – Scaffolding

POSITIONING
Definition
Positioning refers to careful logical placement of learning materials in relation
to objects/concepts and in relation to people. Appropriate positioning of the learning
materials facilitates children’s learning.
Process of positioning
Before Positioning
The facilitator/educator should have a close observation of the whole physical
environment where the child is to spend his time. The educator should also decide
how to place materials and equipment that would assist the child's learning at his
best. The following are the aspects that have to be determined by the educator
before adopting positioning as a teaching strategy.

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Course Tile: Early Childhood Care and Education
Name of the Content Writer: Dr. K. Arockia Maraichelvi Module 22

 The inside and the outside play space that is going to be made available for
the children
 The list of equipment and materials to be positioned in the decided space
 The boundaries for each of the area/corners and its distance from the centre
 The grouping of materials with a certain logic that facilitates learning
 The balance between the closed and open spaces or materials
 The positioning of materials to encourage movement and interaction
 The materials (at least a few) to allow quiet handling with reflection
While positioning
The ultimate responsibility of an educator is to create and maintain a safe, secure,
exciting and pleasurable environment for children to learn. To attain this prime
objective, an educator should focus on six key aspects as mentioned below.
1. To meet the child’s health and safety needs
2. To foster the aesthetic appreciation
3. To stimulate curiosity and interests
4. To make the child feel secure and competent
5. To support equity of access and participation by all children
6. To encourage brain development
Role of the educator in positioning
This section would deal with the role of educators while using the pedagogy of
Positioning under each of the aspects mentioned above along with strategies to
improve the pedagogical practice.
1. To meet the child’s health and safety needs
This is the essential objective of any pedagogical practice. For the pedagogy
– Positioning – place equipment/ materials in appropriate places and ensure
the child's health as well as safety needs. For example
 Allot a staff to carry out a safety check every day before the arrival of
children
 Ensure that an adult is always near to a climbing equipment or any
equipment that needs adult supervision for safety.
How to improve?
 Sketch the layout of the outside and indoor space of learning

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Course Tile: Early Childhood Care and Education
Name of the Content Writer: Dr. K. Arockia Maraichelvi Module 22

 Placement of equipment in such a way that an adult can supervise to her

maximum
 Have a safety check with the checklist provided
Checklist to ensure the health and safety needs of children
Statements Yes No Remarks
Playspaces well-lit 
Well ventilated 
Comfortable temperature 
Space for free movement 
Easy access and reach of equipment
a. For the children 
b. For the staff involved 
Any sharp edges that could hurt children 
Any slip surfaces or wet areas 
Secure access/method to clear wastes 

2. To foster the aesthetic appreciation

Position equipment/materials in such a way that the child’s aesthetic
appeal gets enhanced and they enjoy the placing to the fullest without being
bored
How to improve?
The checklist below would enable you to check the extent to which the
placement of equipment/materials enhance the aesthetic appeal of the
learning space
Checklist to ensure aesthetic appeal
Statements Yes No Remarks
Equipment/materials 
a. Deliberately placed 
b. Carefully placed 
c. Properly maintained 
Space has certain soft areas for the child to
relax, rest and even reflect.
Culturally familiar objects/ materials placed 

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Course Tile: Early Childhood Care and Education
Name of the Content Writer: Dr. K. Arockia Maraichelvi Module 22

Visual images hung to foster creativity 

Texture/shape and colour of the materials 
provide enjoyment and foster stimulation
3. To stimulate curiosity and interests
To promote curiosity and interests in a child, the materials that are to
be positioned should be
 Flexible
 Open-ended (e.g. Building blocks, wherein a child can create a
number of buildings)
 Easily movable

How to improve?
 Place one or two materials ‘out of place’. For example, place a book in
the block corner, so that the child might use the book with the blocks
to create a new building
 Place some unfamiliar materials so that the child starts to explore it
and questions to know more about it
 Place things in surprising places
4. To make the child feel secure and competent
The child should feel secure, confident and competent in using the play
spaces to enhance their learning potential.
How to improve?
 Allot a personal storage space for all children to keep their belongings
 Keep the most commonly used materials such as glue, scissors,
pencils, crayons in its home places labelled with symbols for easy
identification and access
 Ensure that the regular materials are kept in the same place
 Provide lightweight furniture so that the child can move it to another
place without help
 Confirm easy access to safe cleaning materials
 Provide materials to share with others, but not many as the child would
lose interest and the sense of belongingness.
5. To support equity of access and participation by all children

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Course Tile: Early Childhood Care and Education
Name of the Content Writer: Dr. K. Arockia Maraichelvi Module 22

The educator should provide a range of experiences to ensure equal

aces and participation by every child in the centre
How to improve?
 Provide few materials reflecting the cultural backgrounds of every child
 Ensure access to materials by all children differing in their
abilities/potentials based on their interests and needs
 Check if the positioning is comfortable for a child with special needs.
For example, a child with physical disability has enough space to move
within the positioned environment.
6. To stimulate brain development
The importance of brain development during the early years is realised
in many places of this course. So, an educator should focus on fostering
brain development by proper positioning of the equipment/materials.
How to improve?
 Position activities that encourage the child to play, explore and learn
 Place materials’ to stimulate curiosity and allow the discovery of new
things
 Foster questioning to further their knowledge.
The general role of an educator
Apart from the responsibilities of an educator specified under the six aspects
in positioning, the general role of the educators are defined below
 Provide access to drink plenty of water as dehydration makes the child
inactive
 Introduce aromas to the learning space as it can stimulate a child's learning.
Experiences and researches suggest that
 Floral odours increase the ability to learn, create or think
 Lemon and peppermint odours can make the mind alert
 Lavender, orange aromas helps to relax and calm down

EMPOWERING
Definition
Empowering is the technique that guides and helps children to gain a sense of
inner confidence and courage by making them believe that they are powerful.

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Course Tile: Early Childhood Care and Education
Name of the Content Writer: Dr. K. Arockia Maraichelvi Module 22

The method of empowering facilitates young children to develop stable personal

learning dispositions by
 Gaining self-confidence and identity
 Developing self-image
 Encouraging courage and independence
 Cultivating resilience
 Improving special talents and interests
 Enriching creativity
 Augmenting personal responsibility.
The process of empowering in its more straightforward form is expressed as
an example, wherein a child who is timid and shy is empowered to build
relationships.
Empowering in practice
The primary objectives of using empowering as a pedagogy in the Early
Childhood Education curriculum are to
 Make the child feel good about himself
 Build the innate capacity of the child
 Cultivate the climate of positive relationships with others
 Solve day-to-day problems
 Inculcate appreciation and respect for the whole environment
 Make the children learn to be independent by standing up for himself
Strategies to empower
Following are a few strategies that can be used by a facilitator to empower
young minds
1. Allow the children to choose
2. Encourage children to reflect
3. Let children act as teachers
4. Assist in self-assessment
5. Inspire children to voice-out
Now let us see each of the strategies in detail
1. Allow the children to choose

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Course Tile: Early Childhood Care and Education
Name of the Content Writer: Dr. K. Arockia Maraichelvi Module 22

Allowing children to choose their everyday goals, materials, and

resources and providing liberty to select their play-mate, place of work and the
path of accomplishing the goal is empowering.
So, the educator, after careful analysis, should provide a basket of
choices in every area, as mentioned above and give complete freedom for the
child to choose based on his interests and needs. Certain time, misfortune
may occur, but do remember that active learning takes place by learning
through mistakes. Allow them to be their guides.
2. Encourage children to reflect
Active learning is measurable only when the child can reflect upon
his/her learning. So, as a facilitator set aside a particular time for the children
to reflect upon their knowledge and connect it to reality. By providing
opportunities to reflect the thought process, a child gets empowered and at
the same time could make sense of their learning experiences.
A reflection is a powerful tool for retention of knowledge or skill learnt by a
child. So, make it a part of the daily routine without pushing it wayside, even
when you run out of time.

3. Let children act as teachers

The learning potential of the child gets widened when the child teaches
or demonstrates his understanding of others. So a facilitator should provide
ample opportunities for the children
 To articulate their knowledge
 To help others or guide others in understanding a concept
 To demonstrate their skill
 To assist other children in demonstrating the skill
When the children are allowed to be the teachers, to display and share
knowledge, skills and practice, they feel empowered, and their learning
platform gets enlarged with a higher learning potential
4. Assist in self-assessment
As an empowerment strategy choice of goals, materials and resources
are all of the child's decision. But a facilitator needs to closely supervise the
child and provide ways to assess himself/herself with specific criteria

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Course Tile: Early Childhood Care and Education
Name of the Content Writer: Dr. K. Arockia Maraichelvi Module 22

depending on the goal set. As a facilitator, how can you facilitate self-
assessment in them?
 Provide opportunities for peer conversation, so that the child can
understand what his friends know about a concept and how much he
differs in his understanding
 Provide a chance for the child to offer feedback to others and at the
same time, receive feedback to strengthen his learning potential.
By proper and effective self-assessment, a child can clearly understand
his strengths and challenges. Knowing one's potential is nothing but
empowerment
5. Inspire children to voice-out
The children should be given enough chances to voice-out their opinion
and feelings. The voice of the child is the most valuable voice in the ECE
learning environment. Hence create opportunities for the child to interact and
voice-out on a regular basis regarding daily routine, family, roles,
responsibilities, activities in the classroom, friends, teachers etc. while the
child voice-out, take a note of all the feedback and try to incorporate in the
curriculum design and pedagogical strategy, so that their demands and needs
are met. When a child realises that their word is heard and honoured, they
feel empowered, which later builds trust and enhance their critical thinking
and problem-solving ability.
These five essential strategies of empowering children in the ECE setting can
be effectively incorporated within the pedagogy as it is just built on interactions,
discussions and conversations. Hence, this pedagogy can be used to provide a great
learning environment for the children by engaging and supporting them in every
aspect.
The pedagogy of empowering can further be empowered by using simple
tactics within the five major strategies as mentioned below
1. Practice positive reinforcement
2. Facilitate creative expression
3. Provide more discussion time
4. Offer interesting prompts
5. Recognise those who voice out

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Course Tile: Early Childhood Care and Education
Name of the Content Writer: Dr. K. Arockia Maraichelvi Module 22

6. Make activities personally relevant

7. Let children disagree with you
8. Give second chance
9. Encourage feedback
10. Be a good listener.
SCAFFOLDING
Definition
It is a vital pedagogical strategy coined by Vygotsky and developed by Bruner.
It is the process by which a child is temporarily guided or supported by an adult in
accomplishing a task, which otherwise the child would not have achieved.
The temporary guidance is to enable the child to move from a level of
competence to the next higher level in the process of learning. The pedagogy –
Scaffolding can be applied in all areas of learning and development.
Why scaffolding?
It is a known fact that children vary in their aptitude, interests, attention span,
personality traits, competence, talents, cultural backgrounds, temperament, and so
on and so forth. No child is unique. With such wide variations, posing a more
significant challenge, how can an educator achieve a common goal of the
curriculum? Here the pedagogy – scaffolding gains significance. Scaffolding is
considered to be an effective strategy when compared to others as it is highly
individualistic.

Process of scaffolding
Scaffolding is a metaphor/temporary structure that provides the right amount
of support that a child needs complete a task or to solve a problem, which otherwise
would not have been completed or solved by the child himself.
The process of scaffolding is assisting a child to work within her ZPD (Zone of
Proximal Development) as illustrated by you in the 7th module of this course
(Vygotsky’s Socio-cultural theory). Just as a recap, look into the illustration.

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Course Tile: Early Childhood Care and Education
Name of the Content Writer: Dr. K. Arockia Maraichelvi Module 22

ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT

.

What does the child

A child with a
know on his own?
puzzle (picture)

Educator sitting beside the

child and helping him to
solve the puzzle (PICTURE)

What can the child do

with help?

Beyond the reach of the child

Educator’s role in scaffolding

The educator should assess
 What does the child know on his own?
Carefully observe the child's competencies, abilities and skills. Ask yourself
can the child do it alone, or can he do only with assistance. Analyse if the
child has tried this before. Identify the activity that would provide an
appropriate challenge to the child so that he can move on to the next level of
learning by accomplishing the previous one.

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Course Tile: Early Childhood Care and Education
Name of the Content Writer: Dr. K. Arockia Maraichelvi Module 22

 What can the child do, if supported?

Spend enough time with the child to support and guide him to accomplish a
set goal. Provide necessary resources, verbal and non-verbal guidance and
needed equipment. Proper guiding can facilitate the child to move from one
level to the next higher level of competency.
 What is beyond the reach of the child?
Analyse the competency level that is beyond the reach of the child by
continuously observing the child's progress. At the same time, try to extend
the understanding, competency and skill through other teaching strategies
such as acknowledging, questioning, demonstrating or modelling.
For effective scaffolding – The educator should provide the right amount of
challenge or goal so that the child doesn’t give up or fail.
Though the educator takes up a more significant role in the initial stage of
scaffolding, the responsibility has to be gradually released to the leaner, the child,
and at the end of the process, the child assumes the whole responsibility of
mastering a task.

Responsibility in Scaffolding

High level of High level of

support responsibility

E
d
u C
c h
a il Increases
Decreases t A child with a
d over time
over time o puzzle (picture)
’
r’ s
s r
r o
o l
l e
e

Low level of Low level of

support responsibility

Scaffolding 11
in action
Educator scaffolds a child over time
Course Tile: Early Childhood Care and Education
Name of the Content Writer: Dr. K. Arockia Maraichelvi Module 22

The educator, after witnessing the mastery of a task by the child without
assistance, has to provide a new challenge or a new Zone of Proximal Development
(in terms of scaffolding) and the process continues. For example
If a child masters the skill of drawing a straight vertical line, the next challenge
can be drawing a straight horizontal line. After the mastery of both the skills the next
ZPD can be to write the alphabet ‘L.'
Methods of providing Scaffolds
The teaching pedagogy – Scaffolding is effective when the educator employs
one or the other techniques or even a combination of methods in providing scaffolds
to young children. Some of the methods are detailed below with a typical example of
building towers with blocks.
Provide hints
When a child is seen to have trouble in completing the task of building a
tower, and it keeps falling, the educator can suggest cues or partial solution for the
child to master the task. For example – Provide them with a hint of having bigger
blocks at the bottom
Ask questions
Questioning the child based on the task of building a tower, encourages the
child to think and explore the alternatives. For example, ask the child ‘What will
happen if the block tower is very tall?
Provide multiple answers
When the child finds it difficult to answer the questions asked, the educator
can provide scaffolds in the form of multiple answers, wherein the child can pick up
one as the best. This strategy allows them to answer independently.
Demonstrate
Some children are good at imitating. For such children, an educator can
provide scaffolds by demonstrating a similar version of the building tower along with
the child.
Introduce property

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Course Tile: Early Childhood Care and Education
Name of the Content Writer: Dr. K. Arockia Maraichelvi Module 22

Apart from the material- the building blocks – provided to the child, the
educator can offer liberty to use any resource within the classroom setting to build
the tower tall without falling. The child would examine the resources and might come
out with an idea of using books at the bottom of the tower.
Offer encouragement
Acknowledge the child for even a small attempt and praise him for every
completion. For example – By saying ‘Good Job’, the educator enhances the self-
confidence and competence to further the learning potential of the child.
CONCLUSION
To recap, the three teaching pedagogy namely positioning, empowering and
scaffolding as a strategy in early childhood education when comprehended and
effectively implemented the child development and learning potential can be
enhanced with ease.

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