Enabling Theory into Practice: Making Sense of the ‘Why’ and the ‘How’ in the Early Years

The authors delivered and facilitated a panel discussion at the London International Conference on Education (LICE-2017) based on a recently published book [1]. It is recognised that high quality early years education is of prime importance in enabling our youngest children to develop and learn to their full potential. To achieve this, they require high quality early years practitioners to support their learning and development. Early years practitioners need to integrate theory, the ‘why’, with practice, the ‘how’, across all areas of the curriculum. This paper provides a discussion on selected curriculum areas: Literacy, Mathematics and Science alongside a discussion on current policy and the importance of play and playfulness. It includes reference to current research and case study material to demonstrate how the integration of ‘why’ and ‘how’ might be achieved during the training of early years students and practitioners. In addition, it reports recent feedback from a short survey undertaken with early years students using the book and these materials in their training. Students reported greater understanding of concepts and theories and how they could incorporate this within their practice as well as feeling they were receiving extra in-class time from having a text written by their tutors.