The Wheel of Learning – Part 2: The Essential Pieces of “Active Learning”
In Part 1, we yet explored Adult-Child Interaction—the core element of the Wheel of Learning. For the Active Learning approach to be truly effective, the remaining three factors are essential pieces that complete the circle, maximizing children’s engagement, love for learning, and creativity during their critical developmental years. Let’s take a closer look!
1. Learning Environment
A HighScope learning environment isn’t limited to the classroom; it includes all open spaces within the school, designed to align with children’s abilities and natural curiosity. Classrooms are divided into learning centers, each equipped with a variety of materials that are systematically categorized and labeled. This setup helps children independently explore, use, and clean up their resources, fostering independence, responsibility, and an active learning mindset.
Each area promotes different skills and developmental goals. Instead of fixed toys, children are given open-ended materials that are updated or replaced based on the teacher’s evolving lesson plans. HighScope doesn’t require expensive educational tools but encourages the use of everyday materials, allowing children to simulate the real world, develop essential skills, and enabling schools to scale their classrooms without financial barriers.
2. Daily Routine
A consistent daily routine not only provides stability and helps establish structured habits in both play and learning but also fosters independence and intrinsic motivation as children adjust to a new environment. The HighScope daily schedule incorporates a variety of key components, including:
– Plan-Do-Review: A sequence of child-initiated activities that encourage decision-making, problem-solving, and reflection.
– Small-Group Time: Focused, hands-on learning experiences where teachers engage in one-on-one interactions with children to support individualized development and deeper understanding.
– Large-Group Time: Interactive activities that promote social-emotional growth, collaboration, and peer learning, providing opportunities for children to express their ideas and learn from one another.
This structured yet flexible approach ensures a balance between child-initiated and teacher-supported learning, nurturing both autonomy and cooperative engagement.
A balanced schedule accommodates different personality types. Introverted children gain confidence and learn teamwork skills, while extroverted and energetic children experience focused individual activities that require deep concentration. This structure naturally nurtures strengths and helps develop areas that need improvement.
3. Assessment Tools
Based on Key Developmental Indicators (KDIs) and the global early childhood competency framework, HighScope has developed COR Advantage—a child development assessment system with seven levels of progress. This system provides clear guidelines for teachers to track children’s growth and create support plans tailored to each child’s abilities.
In the U.S., COR Advantage (Child Observation Record) is widely used in early childhood programs that do not yet have a learner competency assessment system. For schools, HighScope also offers teacher assessment tools (PQA – Program Quality Assessment), allowing school administrators to objectively evaluate and improve teacher quality based on research-based assessments, rather than subjective opinions.
In conclusion, the HighScope’s Wheel of Learning is designed as a circle because each component is interconnected—ensuring the model runs smoothly and effectively. If any element is missing—such as budget constraints for equipping classrooms, teachers lacking the patience and training required (which takes at least 6 months to a year), or school leaders not meeting the qualifications to become Certified Trainers—the wheel becomes incomplete and less effective. This challenge is one of the biggest barriers to HighScope’s expansion, not only in Vietnam but also in other regions, compared to less structured educational models with fewer implementation requirements.
Another important aspect of the Wheel of Learning is its continuous cycle—there’s no clear beginning or end. It requires ongoing effort, much like the Plan-Do-Review process that every participant in the system must embrace in order to deliver high-quality early childhood education based on HighScope’s philosophy.
That’s it for today’s 5 minutes! Next time, we’ll explore the heart of HighScope, which is the Plan-Do-Review process. See you later!
