CONTEXT

INTERNATIONAL AND AUSTRALIAN CONTEXT

(Hathaway Brown School, 2016).

It is a school that develops the project approach to their early childhood setting. It is amazing to see how the project flows according to children's interests, which enhances children's learning for a range of other things inside the project. The biggest countries that have implemented the approach are the United State of America and England there are schools and early years setting that has the Project Approach as part of their curriculum. The project approach does not have big recognition globally but is found in other countries in Europe in small implementation in the early years (Beneke, Ostrosky &Katz, 2019). Beneke, Ostrosky, and Katz (2019) from Illinois created a book with real case studies and experiences of children. It is a supportive guide for educators to implement the project approach into their curriculum to understand how to scaffold children's learning using project-based learning. The aim of this book is also to show that during the project, educators have easy opportunities to make their classroom inclusive because children will lead their learning according to their interests in the project (Beneke, Ostrosky & Katz, 2019). As was shown in the video about teaching strategies and goals from this website children, have different perspectives and interests about one topic, and that can be explored in different situations and provoke different skills and knowledge.

The Project Approach is also known as Project-Based Learning. In New South Wales implemented in the early years. The New South Wales Government supports project-based learning in early learning because children would have a supportive knowledge gain for developing their disposition of learning; problem-solving, investigation, high order thinking with open-ended questions and challenges (NSW Government, 2020). Hodgekiss (2018) discuss the differences between traditional teaching and project-based learning. Hodgekiss (2018) mentions about project-based learning is child-centered, which means children are leading the learning with their ideas and interests, and the traditional approach might be planned for educators and teachers to provoke children’s learning. In Australia, the Early Years Learning Framework (AGDE, 2022) supports children to lead and construct their learning through play, and that is an essential characteristic of the project approach. Queensland Government (2019) defends the project approach in early learning in a way child can be involved in real experiences, provoking their knowledge with previous experiences, or scaffolding their learning.

PROJECT MODEL IN AUSTRALIAN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

The project approach is considered one of the important program models in the field of early childhood education and care. In early childhood education, learning is always an active process. The project approach is always an active process of learning for children where children can participate in group activities by sharing each other’s ideas and knowledge. More importantly, the project approach emphasizes the interest of children. The project approach always encourages children’s agency of play, interest, and participation in decision-making. Likewise, the project approach focuses on the curriculum focus areas and requirements. On the other hand, this approach not only provides rich learning opportunities but also encourages children to use their prior knowledge before beginning the project. Which leads to children's knowledge about the topic or content.