The Characteristics of Effective Learning: How Children Learn Best in the Early Years
Dec 3, 2025
One of the most powerful elements of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is the emphasis not just on what children learn, but on how they learn. The Characteristics of Effective Learning (CoEL) are the beating heart of early years practice, guiding us to understand children’s behaviours, motivations, and learning styles.
These characteristics help practitioners tune into the processes children use as they explore, investigate, and make sense of the world. When we nurture them, we create confident, capable learners who love discovering new things.
What Are the Characteristics of Effective Learning?
The EYFS identifies three key Characteristics of Effective Learning, each with its own role in supporting children to become successful lifelong learners:
- Playing and Exploring – engagement
- Active Learning – motivation
- Creating and Thinking Critically – thinking
Together, these characteristics describe how children approach learning—not just the outcomes they achieve.
Playing and Exploring (Engagement)
Young children learn best when they feel free to follow their ideas. Playing and Exploring captures the joy, curiosity, and confidence children show when engaging with new experiences.
Children who demonstrate this characteristic will often:
- Explore materials independently
- Show curiosity about objects, people, and events
- Choose activities that interest them
- “Have a go” even if something feels unfamiliar
This is the foundation of learning. When practitioners create rich environments full of open-ended possibilities—blocks, natural objects, sensory play, loose parts—children become willing explorers.
Slowing down, observing, and following children’s cues helps us recognise moments of deep engagement that lead to meaningful learning.
Active Learning (Motivation)
Active Learning is all about children’s persistence, resilience, and sense of accomplishment. It focuses on their motivation—the internal drive that keeps them involved and determined.
Children display Active Learning when they:
- Stick with tasks, even when challenges arise
- Show pride in their achievements
- Concentrate for increasing periods
- Bounce back after setbacks
When practitioners celebrate effort over outcomes, children learn that mistakes are part of the learning journey. Encouragement, well-timed support, and environments that allow children to revisit skills all strengthen this characteristic.
Creating and Thinking Critically (Thinking)
This characteristic highlights children’s growing ability to think for themselves, solve problems, plan, test ideas, and reflect on outcomes.
Children demonstrate this when they:
- Make links between ideas
- Find new ways to do things
- Develop strategies and adjust them
- Ask questions and investigate
- Express their thinking through play
This is where deep-level learning happens. When children are given time, space, and open-ended resources, they naturally become thinkers, problem-solvers, and innovators.
Why the Characteristics Matter So Much
The Characteristics of Effective Learning underpin every aspect of a child’s development. They influence how children approach new challenges throughout their lives—not just in the early years.
They matter because they:
- Build confident, independent learners
- Support emotional resilience
- Encourage curiosity and joy in learning
- Help practitioners plan meaningful experiences
- Inform assessments based on process, not pressure
When the focus remains on how children learn, provision becomes more responsive, child-led, and empowering.
How Practitioners Can Support the Characteristics
Here are simple ways to nurture these characteristics daily:
Provide uninterrupted time for play
Deep learning happens when children are given space to explore.
Offer open-ended resources
Objects that can be used in multiple ways stimulate creativity and problem-solving.
Observe before intervening
Watch, wait, and notice how children approach challenges.
Celebrate children’s effort
Highlight persistence, curiosity, and resilience.
Create a calm, inviting environment
Clutter-free spaces with natural materials encourage thoughtful exploration.
Ask open-ended questions
“What do you think will happen next?”
“How could we solve this?”
This extends thinking without leading children.
Bringing It All Together
The Characteristics of Effective Learning remind us that early years education is not simply about teaching facts or skills—it is about nurturing explorers, thinkers, problem-solvers, and joyful learners.
When we honour these characteristics, we honour childhood itself:
curious, creative, capable, and full of potential.