Standard 1.2 (Practice): Educators facilitate and extend each child’s learning and development. It has 3 elements:
For each element below: what it means in practice, what an assessor looks for, the common gaps, and a model short answer for “briefly explain” questions in certificate III and diploma assessments.
“Educators are deliberate, purposeful, and thoughtful in their decisions and actions.”
What it means: Educators know why they are doing what they do. They choose a strategy, such as modelling, questioning, demonstrating or stepping back, on purpose and for a reason linked to a child’s learning. Intentional teaching happens inside play, not instead of it. In EYLF V2.0 it sits within the practice play-based learning and intentionality.
What an assessor looks for:
Common gaps: Educators supervising rather than teaching; activities chosen to fill time; “intentional teaching” written on templates with no visible purpose.
Element 1.2.1 means educators are deliberate and thoughtful in what they do: they choose teaching strategies on purpose, based on what they know about each child, to extend learning, including during play.
“Educators respond to children’s ideas and play and extend children’s learning through open-ended questions, interactions and feedback.”
What it means: Educators tune in to what children are doing and saying and build on it in the moment: asking open-ended questions, adding a resource, offering a challenge or giving feedback, so the child reaches a little further than they would alone.
What an assessor looks for:
Common gaps: Closed questions and praise like “good job”; educators redirecting play to their own agenda; missed moments to extend an idea.
Element 1.2.2 means educators respond to children’s ideas and play and extend their learning by scaffolding: asking open-ended questions, interacting and giving feedback that helps children go further than they could on their own.
“Each child’s agency is promoted, enabling them to make choices and decisions that influence events and their world.”
What it means: Children have real choices: what to play, who with, how long, and a say in decisions about the room and the program. Agency means their choices actually change things, not a token pick between two adult options.
What an assessor looks for:
Common gaps: Highly structured days with little choice; children’s suggestions recorded but never acted on.
Element 1.2.3 promotes each child’s agency: children are given genuine opportunities to make choices and decisions that affect what happens to them and around them, and educators act on those choices.
See the whole quality area in Quality Area 1: Educational program and practice, or all 40 elements on one page.
Standard 1.2 (Practice): educators facilitate and extend each child's learning and development. It has three elements: 1.2.1 Intentional teaching, 1.2.2 Responsive teaching and scaffolding, and 1.2.3 Child directed learning.
Educators are deliberate, purposeful and thoughtful in their decisions and actions, choosing teaching strategies on purpose to extend each child's learning, including within play.
Responding to children's ideas and play and extending their learning through open-ended questions, interactions and feedback, so a child can go further than they would alone.
Children have genuine opportunities to make choices and decisions that influence events and their world, and educators act on them.
WIDEN Law answers National Quality Framework questions with inline citations to the National Law, the Regulations and the NQS, so you can check the source provision yourself.
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