This NCFE Child Development Critical Thinking Booklet Series provides a complete set of high-challenge learning resources, with one booklet for each part of the NCFE Child Development specification. Designed by an outstanding UK classroom teacher, these booklets develop students’ ability to reason, evaluate evidence, challenge assumptions, and justify decisions within realistic childcare and early years contexts.
Each booklet moves beyond simple recall and focuses on structured critical thinking, helping students strengthen the higher-order skills required for extended responses, applied questions, and coursework-style tasks. All booklets include a full answer sheet, making them suitable for independent work, homework, cover lessons, intervention, and exam preparation.
Each Critical Thinking Booklet includes activities such as:
Claim–Evidence–Reasoning (CER) tasks linked to childcare practice
Spot the fallacy activities to identify weak or flawed reasoning
Causation vs correlation questions using realistic early years scenarios
Assumption hunts to uncover hidden premises in statements
Counterargument and rebuttal writing tasks
Decision matrices to weigh options and justify professional choices
“If this is the answer, what’s the question?” challenges
Reduction tasks (30–3–2–1) to summarise complex ideas
Mini retrieval quizzes in mixed formats
Extension tasks that push evaluation and judgement skills
The series covers all areas of the NCFE Child Development specification, including planning cycles, observation and assessment, child development, partnership working, safeguarding, and professional practice.
These booklets are fully printable, clearly structured, and require no preparation, making them ideal for teachers seeking meaningful, specification-linked activities that promote deep thinking rather than surface learning.
A highly effective resource for developing confident, analytical learners in NCFE Child Development.
Child Development and Early Years Summary
Development and Influences Covers holistic growth, including physical, cognitive, communication, and social/emotional aspects. It examines nature versus nurture, biological and environmental factors, and the impact of life transitions on a child’s progress.
Care, Play, and Provision Focuses on meeting basic care needs through routines and play. It details the practitioner’s role in facilitating activities and explores the different types, purposes, and settings of early years provision.
Legislation and Professionalism Outlines legal frameworks for safeguarding, health and safety, and equality. It also covers professional expectations—such as behavior and attendance—and the importance of partnership working with specialists.
Observation and Planning Explores objective and subjective observation methods used to track development. It emphasizes the child-centered planning cycle to observe, assess, and plan for a child’s individual needs.
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