Teaching explicitly

Explicit teaching involves the systematic planning and use of curriculum time for children to learn and internalise VSLD, while providing opportunities for their application. Here’s how you can explicitly teach VSLD:

Raising awareness and understanding

• Introduce each VSLD by name with child-friendly definitions

• Use stories, images, or videos to explain their meanings

• Seize teachable moments to reinforce these concepts after relevant incidents

Engaging children to recognise VSLD in action

• Help children recognise instances of VSLD in various situations

• Reinforce the understanding of these concepts through stories about fictional characters, real-life personalities, and people in the children's lives

Encouraging children’s appreciation of VSLD

• Explain the importance of VSLD to encourage children's appreciation of these aspects

Providing opportunities for application

• Create a variety of situations for children to adopt and exhibit VSLD in their words and actions

When engaging in explicit teaching, you can use the following strategies to create engaging and effective learning experiences for children:

• Eliciting Responses to Stimuli: Encourage children to respond to carefully chosen stimuli such as artwork, stories, songs, and newspaper articles which bring out the VSLD. 

• Collaborative Learning: Use collaborative learning strategies to create real-life contexts for children to learn and play together. This fosters teamwork and social skills.

• Learning Through Games: Use games to provide children with hands-on experiences related to values, social and emotional competencies, and learning dispositions. This makes learning enjoyable and practical.

• Exploring Issues through dramatisation and role play: Engage children in exploring various issues, attitudes, and behaviours through dramatisation and role play. This allows them to understand and empathize with different perspectives.