Preamble

The Australian Government is committed to the development of a national Early Years Learning Framework, and is planning a process of consultation with the early childhood sector about the nature and content of the Framework. This Discussion Paper is designed to provide policy makers and practitioners with an orientation to the issues involved. Definitions Within the early childhood sector, there is some variation in the use of key terms, such as curriculum, curriculum framework, pedagogy, early learning standards, and quality assurance standards. Below is a sampling of definitions of these key concepts. • Curriculum. The simplest definition come from Kagan and Kauerz (2006) who define curriculum as the content of what is taught and what is learned. Other definitions broaden this to include everything children do, see, hear or feel in their setting, bot