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In this paper the author explores how our ideas about early learning have developed over time and proposes a new view of pedagogy, that is not based on the traditional Model of Deprivation, but outlines a new model which goes beyond deprivation. The new model proposes that the child is not deprived of culture, rather the child is deprived of opportunities for creating culture and dealing with culture. In this new perspective the child is not viewed as passive but active. The aim of schools should be to provide an “enabling culture” in which the child is involved in reinventing, refurbishing and refreshing the culture. The paper also identifies and explores

3 antinomies which have emerged as ideas about early learning developed;

• the ‘individual realisation’ versus the ‘culture serving’ antinomy

• the ‘talent centred’ versus the ‘tool centred’ antinomy

• the ‘particularism‘ versus the ‘universalism’ antinomy.

It is argued that an exploration of these 3 antinomies can provide a useful basis for thinking about what we have learned about early learning and where we are moving in current development.

The conclusion of this paper is that children from the start must be accepted as members and as participants in the culture and be given the opportunity to make and remake the culture in each generation. The case is made that we should stop thinking about deprivation of children and start thinking about participation of children.

Introduction. The paper examines the necessity of public urban playgrounds for children. Psychological and pedagogical studies reveal that the quantity and quality of outdoor play areas do not cover the needs of children. The authors monitored playgrounds in different areas of Moscow, Russia in order to explore the actual situation in the urban space from the perspective of well balanced development and spontaneous outdoor learning of children of different ages. They looked into how existing public playgrounds covered the needs of children, and if the outdoor learning was possible.

Methods. The study had two stages. The data was collected by structured non-participant observation with interview elements in which 24 public playgrounds in Moscow were involved, 417 adults were interviewed. The authors carried out an analysis of the equipment of playgrounds, and children activities to determine whether and how far playgrounds were used for communication in mixed age groups.

Analysis and Results. The authors analyzed characteristics of playgrounds, including: location, observation time, age and number of visitors, equipment and its arrangement, presented play areas and infrastructure, surface materials, individual and group activities of children and adults. The observation discovered that children of three different ages (early, preschool and school age) were using public playgrounds at the same time. The vast majority of the playgrounds near apartment blocks (76.9%) and almost a half of the playgrounds in parks (45.5%) had separated play areas for children of different ages, which largely meets the needs of parents. The qualitative analysis revealed that the equipment of the park playgrounds was more diverse, while almost a half of the playgrounds near apartment blocks (53.8%) showed one and the same type of equipment. The authors emphasize that, both playgrounds near apartment blocks and playgrounds in parks, were more focused on active exercises; most components of the equipment were of the same type and had closed character. The authors discovered lack of equipment for experimenting. The infrastructure of the playgrounds of both types showed that the playgrounds were considered as a space for children only, the interests and needs of adults coming with children were not taken into account.

Conclusion. The study indicates the need to create additional conditions for supporting and developing of children’s game, and increasing educational capacity of playgrounds. Among the measures proposed by the authors is increasing the educational capacity of playgrounds, and creating a citywide digital resource with a map and description of psychological and pedagogical characteristics of outdoor areas for children. An important role is given to educational work with families, that will increase the parental competence and responsibility in the field of educational structuring and outdoor learning.

Introduction. The article presents results of a theoretical research in the field of quality control of learning environment of early childhood groups. The purpose of the study is to develop a theory based methodology for quality control of learning environment by employing modern trends in early childhood pedagogy.

Directions and methods of research. The research methods are based on activity and competence approach, the idea of the learning environment as a medium for successful socialization of toddlers, structural components of the learning environment, where the key parameters are: nature of adult - child interaction, content and modes of the interaction, focused on successful mastery of kindergarten programs, designing of stimulating environment for early childhood groups. Theoretical analysis of psychological and pedagogical literature on the subject, design of structural components of learning environment of early childhood groups, determination of the expert indicators for each component of learning environment were used as research methods.

Results. Result of the research was presented in the form of control methods description, that include evaluation of the quality of learning environment, measurement of the quality indicators for each component of the learning environment (the nature of adult interaction with the child, the content and modes of interaction, aimed at the successful mastery of the kindergarten program, design of stimulating environment for early childhood groups). Detailed recommendations to the content of each indicator are given.

Conclusion. The developed control methodology makes it possible to carry out a comprehensive assessment of the quality of learning environment for early childhood groups in accordance with the requirements of the Federal State Educational Standard, and to help an expert to determine ways of further quality improvement of the learning environment.