Week 32: Changes in Practice

Well here I am at the end of the journey.  As I reflect on the Mind Lab course I can honestly say that I have learnt so much that I have put into my practice already. I also have many more ideas that I will keep pulling out when the opportunity arises.  I began the course because I wanted to increase my knowledge of technology and how I could use this in both my delivery of professional learning for the teachers I work with and for teachers to use with children 5 and under and their families.  I have learnt so much more and been really heartened to see the amazing teachers, working with children of all ages, who are making a significant difference in the lives of these children everyday.  At a Learning Community Cluster meeting with teachers from all sectors I said my dream for children is that they are as enthusiastic about learning when they are fourteen as they are when they are four.  I think there may be a chance of achieving this if we can all inspire a couple of other teachers to grow the way we have over the past 32 weeks.

As a relative digital novice every session in the first part of the course introduced me to new apps that I then had the opportunity to use immediately.  Sometimes we ran out of time to get all the task completed but the learning was really the collaborative way we worked using the app to convey our thoughts and opinions.  I had previously completed a leadership course and provide professional learning in this area for teachers, however having to reflect on my leadership in terms of implementing a digital initiative provided me with an opportunity to step back and look at the big picture and take the time to think of other ways to do things. Although the assessments took up my precious weekends, and made me feel hoha from time to time, each one of them brought a greater depth of learning and practical ideas on how to implement this.  Online learning has been a new experience.  Being able to study in my own time has suited me especially as during this time my work has required that I am working away from home every second week.  I have never blogged before so this has been new and I realise that I reflect more critically in other forums than I do in a blog!  As the only early childhood teacher and provider of professional learning and development in the Christchurch group (not sure if there were any others across the country) meant that many of the assessments and much of the information gained in class I had to go beyond the obvious applications to find ways that it related to the early childhood sector.  I was able to look at both end of the education scale - how to apply to children under 5 years and how to apply to teaching teachers.  This stretched my thinking and deepened my learning.

Criteria 5: Fully registered teachers show leadership that contributes to effective teaching and learning.

Key indicators:

• Actively contribute to the professional learning community.
• Undertake areas of responsibility effectively.

It has been useful completing a course that is about applied practice as each assessment challenged me to implement, design or reflect on digital and collaborative innovations.  I tried at all times to focus on combining both digital and collaboration so that my learning was maximised.  Over the time of the course I have contributed to my professional learning community in the following ways;

• used augmented reality to enhance the delivery of professional development to teaching teams who are situated on the other side of the island
• developed resources that combine augmented reality and information on critically reflective practice to enhance the critical reflection of teaching teams
• combined augmented reality and information on  te Ao Māori to increase the place-based and bicultural understanding of teachers in a way that interests and inspires
• inspired teachers to develop their own augmented reality applications for use with children and parents in their kindergartens
• reflected on the role I took in implementing e-portfolios to 63 kindergartens and used information on this to inform how I then introduced e-portfolios to a further 21 teaching teams
• developed resources using video scribe to inform beginning teachers on the requirements of our performance appraisal system
• used video scribe to develop resources to teach teaching teams about the requirements and next steps to developing effective self-review
• shared appropriate apps with teachers interested in increasing their use of technology in the kindergarten
• trialed webinar software, put a case to my manager to purchase a license for this and introduced this software to four of my colleagues who also work in the area of professional learning and development
• used webinar software to work with teams at a distance on developing their annual plans and self review questions
• facilitated the use of robots in some kindergartens and supported a teacher to present this work at a professional learning conference
• sourced funding and teachers to take 4 children from two kindergartens to sessions at the Mind Lab.

Criteria 12 - Fully registered teachers use critical inquiry and problem-solving effectively in their professional practice.

Key indicators:

• Systematically and critically engage with evidence and professional literature to reflect on and refine practice.
• Respond professionally to feedback from members of their learning community.
• Critically examine their own beliefs, including cultural beliefs, and how they impact on their professional practice and the achievement of ākonga/learners.

Doing this course has meant that I have read extensively.  Each assessment required me to research how the topic area related to early childhood education or professional learning and development, and find appropriated research that supported this.  Ways that I have been involved in critical inquiry and problem-solving include;

• designing a way to provide collaborative learning to teaching teams I am unable to meet face-to-face more than once a term, implementing this, gathering information from teachers on how they found it, and then reflecting on how to improve this development
• revisiting what is currently regarded as wise practice in the provision of professional development and using this information to underpin future initiatives and use when contributing to team discussions
• used the Lean Canvas approach to identify a problem area and possible solutions that take into account the range of stakeholders involved
• investigated coding and robotics finding some research that is applicable to the early childhood sector and developing an inquiry that would lead to a future research project in this area
• sought research on te Ao Māori and the tikanga that needs to be considered when implementing digital technologies and how to use these to facilitate success for Māori children as Māori.

Planning to progress my learning

Now that this study is over I have time to implement more of the things that I have learnt.  I am organising to put together a series of webinars for beginning teachers and for teachers working in South Canterbury, Westland, Hokitika, Greymouth and Waimate as well as those in Christchurch and Central Otago.  

I am also sourcing funds to implement a research project on coding and robotics in early education with a focus on problem-solving and collaborative learning in free play/ integrated early childhood education.

References:

Ministry of Education (nd). Practising teacher Criteria and e-learning . Retrieved from http://elearning.tki.org.nz/Professional-learning/Registered-Teacher-Criteria-and-e-learning

Week 31:  Crossing boundaries and creating connections

My current and potential interdisciplinary connections

If you would like a model of interdisciplinary teaching and maybe even further into integrative teaching (Matheson & Freeman,1997) in action then I suggest you have a look at a quality early childhood programme.  In early childhood education teachers do more than combine two or more disciplines, an effective teacher integrates a wide variety of disciplines into their teaching.  They combine teacher initiated learning in areas where knowledge and skill development needs to be introduced and also facilitate and encourage child-led initiatives and learning.  This is often through an inquiry-based approach to learning and teaching where teachers aim to encourage higher-level thinking, sustained interactions and learning through collaboration. The early childhood programme privileges ako where all involved are both teachers and learners.  In David Wiley's (2001) TEDx talk he quotes Eric Raymond - 

To solve an interesting problem, start by finding a problem that is interesting.

This could easily be the mantra that underpins teaching in the early years where experiences that the child finds of interest are used as a vehicle to promote learning in all disciplines.  

Benefits of an interdisciplinary/ integrated/ integrative curriculum - The two photos below illustrate learning across disciplines that began outside where some children began observing the differences in the leaves in the playground.  Over a number of days this led to more and more children observing, discussing, hypothesizing, classifying, documenting, and sharing.  They learnt about scientific concepts of; autumn and changing season, varieties of trees and corresponding differences in leaf shape, and hypothesising; mathematics including; counting, one-to-one correspondence, seriation, and classification; literacy in terms of; letter recognition and writing, what type of book provides botanical information and how to make this; oral language skills and social competence required to discuss findings, share with others, put forward ideas, listen to others, take turns, and support and encourage other children to be involved.

Some other photos showing integrated and integrative learning are shown below.  The fish inquiry began from a provocation provided by the teachers while the building was purely child-initiated.  Each grew over time and incorporated learning over many disciplines as children's interests, knowledge, working theories and dispositions developed in depth and breadth.

Challenges of an interdisciplinary/ integrated/ integrative curriculum - While these are good examples of integrative teaching they are not consistent across the early childhood sector.  To be successful with this type of teaching I have found that there are some particular skills or dispositions teachers need; an extensive knowledge of all domain/ discipline areas and how these develop in the early years, a disposition of being a life long learner, and a strong pedagogy of listening so that you can respond to the child's true interests. What does a pedagogy of listening look like?

Teachers;

· Take time, time to listen, time to be listened to and time to generate listening in others.

· Listen, not to produce answers but to generate questions, allow uncertainty  and encourage differing interpretations .

· Actively listen to children taking the time necessary to interpret and give meaning to the message and to value the person giving it.

· Listen to all languages of the child—words, sounds, actions, expressions, emotions and symbols.

· Are open and sensitive to listen and be listened to—using all their senses.

· Are welcoming  and invite differences as they recognise the value of the child’s point of view or their interpretation of the situation /idea.

· Provide a “listening context” where all learn to listen  and narrate, and have their theories and interpretations legitimised.

The two goals I would have to increase my interdisciplinary approach in the near future are;

1) to incorporate tikanga and te reo Māori throughout the programme so that Māori children

experience success as Māori - For me to achieve this goal, in addition to overcoming the

 challenges above, I will need to increase my proficiency in te reo so that my use of the

 language is authentic and contextual.  Becoming more proficient in te reo will also build on 

my knowledge and understanding of tikanga.  The challenge here is to understand the true 

meaning of words rather than a literal translation.

2) to gain greater understanding of the children's next steps on their education pathway so 

that children's transitions are effective - Achieving this goal would mean that I was able to 

ensure that all integrated disciplines were taught to the appropriate level so that children

were ready to engage successfully with the NZ Curriculum.  The challenge in addition to

those above is to build effective relationships and ongoing dialogue with the new entrant 

teachers so that a clear picture of the child's abilities is passed on to their next teachers.

References:

Dahlberg, G., Moss, P. & Pence, A.  1999     Beyond quality in early childhood education and Care.  Routledge, London.

Mathison,S.. & Freeman, M.(1997). The logic of interdisciplinary studies. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, 1997. Retrieved from http://www.albany.edu/cela/reports/mathisonlogic12004.pdf: 

Wiley, D.  (2001)  An interdisciplinary path to innovation. TEDxBYU Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ytjMDongp4 

Week 30: APC - Professional Online Social Networks

I have been reflecting on the role of social networks in relation to my work for the last couple of weeks.  I am not a big or even medium participator in online social networking.  When I do go online I find that I can use up a lot of time that may be better used in other ways.  Interesting that, if a recent report on the radio is to be believed, 60% of shared posts are not even read by the people who share them.  So are people just 'playing' the social network game rather than truly engaging?

As I work in early childhood education the use of online social networks in teaching children is limited.  However, the e-portfolio system we have introduced to our kindergartens over the last three years is a type of closed online social network.  The participants in this network are the teachers, the parents and the whānau of the children attending the kindergarten. The e-portfolios contain the narrative assessments of children's learning. 

Narrative assessments in the form of learning stories are one of the main tools used by early childhood teachers in New Zealand to communicate learning to parents and children, to invite parents and children to participate in the recognition of learning, co-construct how to progress this learning, and build a learning community.  Engaging parents in this pedagogical documentation is recognised as being critical to sociocultural assessment practices (Carr 1999, Stuart, Aitken, Gould & Meade 2008).  Birbili & Tzioga (2014) note that for assessment to be authentic it should be a dialogue between teachers, children and parents and that parents should be active participants in the documentation not solely consumers of it.  Over the last 20 years, since the introduction of the national curriculum Te Whāriki, teachers have tried many ways to facilitate a partnership with parents in the documentation of children's learning with limited success.  We decided to trial the use of e-portfolios to see if this would engage parents more successfully especially as many parents are now very active users of social networks. A survey of parents at the end of our trial showed that fifty-eight percent of parents thought that the e-portfolio experience had increased their knowledge of learning stories, their child’s learning and how teachers use the learning stories to progress their child’s learning. A number of parents (52%) took the opportunity to add general comments on e-portfolios. 

I love the instant nature and being able to go back to the stories in my own time (while the book is mainly at Kindy)

I have really enjoyed and appreciated having this tool to keep communication open and keep me involved while I also work and cannot always be involved with kindergarten and my daughter’s day and learning.
The great thing about this online network has been the involvement of the extended whānau.  Below is a comment from a grandmother who lives in the North Island so gets limited opportunites to engage with her grand-daughters kindergarten in Christchurch;

"Wow - Go Keva!  You love the monkey bars and now look what you have learned to do on them.  Our Monkey Bar Girl swinging upside down with your feet tucked into the handle - that's really awesome, well done!  We're so proud of you. Tracey [teacher], what a neat story you've written here and I think the photos are brilliant with what they have captured! To me they show concentration as Keva is focused on doing what has been explained to her, and the smile as she swings off the landing indicates she is enjoying it. (I also saw this smile recently when Keva was doing what her swimming teacher was asking her to do.)  I recognise the expression she has in the arm resting on the handle photo - her 'look' when she appears to have enjoyed stretching herself and is seeming to be proud of what she has achieved.   Thank you, Lynn (Nan)." 

If you are interested in reading more about this way of connecting with parents and families you could read my article, E-portfolios: connecting parents, whānau and teachers in kindergarten communities, published in the journal Early Education, volume 56, Spring/Summer 2014.

Being involved with this course has caused me to explore a broader range of ways to both deliver and engage in professional development.  I have started to look at what opportunities social networks may give me to broaden my professional networks and to be part of ongoing discussions on early childhood education and research internationally.  At this stage I have found some groups through LinkedIn to join; The Teacher Leadership Network and NZEALS, Research in Early Childhood, and Nursery World.  I have chosen these groups to join as they will address the range of knowledge areas involved in my work, leadership in education, current research in early childhood education and early childhood education thinking internationally.  I look forward to putting aside some time regularly to participate in these forums.  I do already engage in Twitter, kind of, and was pleased to find a link to a You Tube clip the other day on Prof Christine Rubie-Davies' High Teacher Expectation Project that I then used as a provocation with a group of provisionally certificated teachers I was meeting with last week. I would not have known about this research if I had not been on Twitter. I often search You Tube for relevant clips of researchers, theorists and best practice examples of early childhood education that I then use as part of the professional development I run for teachers.

References:

Birbili, M. & Tzioga, K. (2014)       Involving parents in children’s assessment: lessons from the Greek context. Early Years: An International Research Journal, 34:2, 161-174.

Carr, M. (1999)                Some thoughts about effective assessment.  Early Education, 21, 11-21.

Penman, R. (2014)    E-Portfolios: connectiong parents, whānau and teachers in kindergarten communities.  Early Education, v.56, Spring/Summer, 10-13

Stuart, D., Aitken, H. Gould, K. & Meade, A. (2008)           Evaluation of the implementation of Kei Tua o te Pae Assessment for Learning: Early Childhood Exemplars: Impact evaluation of the Kei Tua o te Pae 2006 professional development. Wellington: Ministry of Education.

Stuart, D., Aitken, H. Gould, K. & Meade, A. (2008)           Evaluation of the implementation of Kei Tua o te Pae Assessment for Learning: Early Childhood Exemplars: Impact evaluation of the Kei Tua o te Pae 2006 professional development. Wellington: Ministry of Education.

Week 29: Influence of Law and Ethics on Professional Practice

Three years ago some teachers in our organisation wanted to create blogs on the learning that was happening in their kindergarten and share these with parents.  As a large organisation, 70 kindergartens, our leadership was rightfully cautious of increasing the online presence and aware of the potential harm that could be caused for children, teachers and the organisation as a whole if an online presence was not handled in the safest possible way.  Understanding the teaching and learning reasons that teachers behind the teachers desire I put a proposal to the Chief Executive that we trial e-portfolio systems.  This was accepted and I began a trial with 6 kindergartens of three different platforms.  Aware of our ethical commitments particularly the principle of responsible care (Education Council, 2015), protection of the confidentiality of information about learners, and to involve parents on the decision-making about children's education the trial included a review of the organisations cyber-safety policies and procedures and attendance at cyber-safety training.

At the end of the trial it was decided that the organisation would implement e-portfolios and specifically the educa platform.  Parents are given information about the system and signed permissions are required before their child is put on the system.  The system is a secure password protected one with only the parent and any whānau they invite able to see the written assessments on the child's page.  There are pages available that all parents and whānau with site rights can see that contain community posts, newsletters and the organisation's policies.

Whilst we have done everything we can to ensure the safety of the children there is always the possibility that parents may take a photo from their child's assessment and put this up in another digital space.  Children's assessments have a number of photos in them and as children learn collaboratively with and alongside their peers there are sometimes other children in some of the photos.  So how do we minimise or better still eliminate the occurrence of this?  This is a question teachers ask when they are undertaking training to implement the system in their kindergarten, and rightly so.  Each story has a reminder at the bottom of that photos are not to be shared elsewhere and the form parents sign when they join the system has this on it to.  Teachers have to be vigilant and if it comes to their attention that a photo has gone up on a social networking site such as facebook they are to immediately approach the parent and request this is taken down.  I am pleased to say that over the last three years and with seventy kindergartens now on the system we have not had one instance of this happening.  It has, however, happened on a couple of occasions when parents have taken photos at their child's birthday celebration at kindergarten and posted these on facebook.  Although it is an uncomfortable conversation teachers have requested that the photos be removed and parents have complied with these requests.

It is never too early to begin teaching children about safety in the digital world.  This certainly fits in with our ethical commitment to promoting emotional and social well-being of learners (Educational Council, 2015).  In kindergartens we have cameras that children can use and a good practice to teach the children is to ask permission from a person before you take their photo.  Reciprocally as teachers we should also model this.  Young children are accessing the internet through computers, tablets and smart phones so beginning to show them the cartoons that are part of the Hector's World programme will begin to teach them about cyber-safety in a fun and understandable way (Netsafe, 2016).

References:

Education Council, 2015  Code of ethics for certified teachers.

Netsafe, 2016  Hector's world safety information island. Sourced from: http://hectorsworld.netsafe.org.nz/teachers/hectors-world-safety-button/, 12/06/16

Week 28:  Indigenous Knowledge & Cultural Responsiveness

I have grown up in what I consider to be a privileged position in that I am a pakeha New Zealander with Māori brothers and sister.  As they had families I then became an aunt and great aunt to Māori and Tongan  nephews and Cook Island and Māori great nephews and neice.  Being part of this whānau  has given me an insight into our society and our education system from a perspective not experienced by most pakeha.  As you could imagine I am highly committed to equality of opportunities for Māori throughout our society and have been in situations where I have seen blatant differences in treatment of Māori in everyday situations such as shopping.  Being followed around a store by a security guard for no other reason that you fit some racial stereotype for example.  Yes, this is in New Zealand!

Being an educator I have also been called upon by my brothers and sister to attend school interviews for their children as they did not feel comfortable to do this.  At one interview it became apparent that the intermediate school teacher had low expectations for my nephew stating that he would be in the work force in 3 years.  My nephew was only 11 at the time! Where were the high expectations Bishop, Berryman, Cavanagh & Teddy (2009) talk about that underpin success for Māori as Māori in this case?  More recently I have questioned a local secondary school about the reason a student who used racist gestures and language to my great-nephew was not reprimanded for this whereas my great-nephew, who responded by hitting him, was rightly suspended.  Apparently racism is OK in our schools.  I was interested in the research carried out in 2011 by Savage, Hindle, Meyer, Penitito & Sleeter on culturally responsive pedagogies in the classroom.  One thing they commented on was some examples of racism in the schools participating in the research and deficit theorising.  This deficit theorising is reflected in the thinking of teachers where they see that the Māori student is where remediation is required rather than in the practices of the teachers that can lead to under achievement of Māori in schools.  

So, for me, it is essential that there is a whole school culture of high expectations and care for Māori students, that caring and learning relationships are developed with the students and their whānau so that the individual identity and strengths that each student brings to the school or early childhood centre are built on.  

From: Tataiako - Cultural competencies for teachers of Māori learners

According to the ERO (2010) 76% of Māori children participating in early childhood education are in mainstream early childhood centres and the majority of these children are attending kindergartens.  It is therefore extremely important that those of us teaching in this area provide culturally responsive programmes.  While we have a responsibility to provide this for all children we teach our obligations as partners to Te Tiriti o Waitangi mean that our top priority should be Māori.

So how are we doing in the 70 kindergartens in our organisation?  We have a mixed level of achievement and I will reflect on two areas that illustrate this.

Bicultural practice in our kindergarten programmes - 

Teachers throughout the organisation have been working hard for the past four years to their bicultural pedagogy.  In 2012 we began an organisation wide professional development on the core tikanga principles as illustrated in the work of Williams & Broadley (2012).  Each teacher attended workshops on the tikanga principles and reflected on how to incorporate these into their practices.  The core tikanga principles that underpin our teaching are;

• Manaakitanga -  can be likened to noticing, recognising and responding (Carr, 1996) to the other in a positive manner. It is about looking for the best in a person, and finding opportunities to acknowledge that person in all different ways
• Ringitiratanga - the strength of one’s own ability to lead or become a leader.
• Whanaungatanga - Whanaungatanga is about being part of a larger whole of the collective. Mäori are related to all living things and thus express whanaungatanga with their surroundings
• Wairuatanga - is about understanding and believing that there is a spiritual existence in addition to the physical.
• Ako - Ako is grounded in the principle of reciprocity and also recognises that the learner and whänau cannot be separated.
• Whakapapa - Whakapapa is to lay one generation upon the other. Therefore we are only the eyes and ears of those gone before us (past). As we live our daily lives (present) we are aiming to sustain and provide viable opportunities for our future generations.
• Kotahitanga - This is developing and maintaining a unity of purpose and direction and avoiding approaches and decisions that lead to division and disharmony.
• Taha tinana - A two-pronged principle which firstly deals with one’s own physical well being, i.e. healthy food and drink, exercise, rest/sleep. The second is about respecting the environments in which we all engage.
• Ūkaipōtanga - The importance of this principle is being able to ground yourself to your true home. As a whole person with your identity intact, you can make your contribution.  (Williams & Broadley, 2012).

The result of this professional development along with ongoing sessions with leaders in Māori education such as Angus and Sonja Macfarlane, Richard Manning and Melanie Riwai-Couch, and the appointment of first Māori Advisors and then a kaitautoko has resulted in a dramatic improvement to the bicultural practices in our kindergartens. The following comment from a ERO review in 2015 illustrates this;

The environment is welcoming and supportive of children from different cultural backgrounds. Teachers meaningfully incorporate tikanga Māori in the environment and many aspects of the programme. Te reo Māori is becoming more widely used by teachers in their conversations with children, in children’s assessments and in teachers’ planning.  (ERO, 2015).

When reflecting on the competencies outlined in Tataiako (NZ Teachers Council, 2011) we have further work to do in the area of tangata whenuatanga.  Teachers are beginning to gain greater connections and relationships with local iwi which is essential to better understand plce based knowledge and incorporate this in their teaching.

Cultural identitiy and indigenous knowledge in our organisations vision, mission and core values

This is an area where our organisation has room for further development.  Over the last three years we have incorporated more biculturalism into our values.  At this time the vision and mission of the organisation does not reflect the partnership inherent in the Treaty and we have identified this as an area for improvement.  The appointment of a Māori elder in an education consultant position two years ago has begun to facilitate greater understanding of bicultural practices for the non-educational head office staff and governing board members. This has been further reinforced by the appointment this year of the Kaitautoko.  It will be exciting to see further developments in these areas that will then lead to the work the teachers have been doing in this area reflected across the whole organisation.

References:

Bishop, R, Berryman, M., Cavanagh, T. & Teddy, L. (2009). Te Kotahitanga: Addressing educational disparities facing Māori students in New Zealand. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25(5)734–742.

ERO (2010)  Success for Māori children in early childhood services.  Education Review Office, Wellington, NZ.

ERO  (2015)  Kidsfirst Kindergartens Wales Street - 31/03/2015 Sourced from: http://www.ero.govt.nz/review-reports/kidsfirst-kindergartens-wales-street-31-03-2015 on 11/06/16

NZ Teachers Council (2011)  Tataiako: Culturally competencies for teachers of Māori learners. Ministry of Education, Wellington, NZ.

Savage,C, Hindleb, R., Meyerc,L., Hyndsa,A., Penetitob, W. & Sleeterd, C.(2011) Culturally responsive pedagogies in the classroom: indigenous student experiences across the curriculum .Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 39(3), 183–198

Williams, N. & Broadley, M-E.  (2012)  Resource kit for student teachers, Ako Aotearoa, Wellington, NZ.

Week 27:  Contemporary issues or trends in New Zealand or internationally

I have been reflecting on trends in the education sector and how these impact on trends in early childhood education in New Zealand.  In 1996 we were world leaders in early childhood education with the introduction of a national curriculum for the sector.  Not only is this curriculum holistic in nature but it is also bicultural.  The key outcomes for children are based on increasing the depth and breadth of learning dispositions and the development of working theories.  Over the last twenty years many other countries have followed our lead and adopted national early childhood curriculum.    Australia obviously thought so highly of our curriculum that they adopted many aspects of it in the development of their curriculum.  You would think that this would position us strongly as we move into the future and respond to ongoing changes in both society and education. Not so!

Whilst we focus on the children's interests and use these to build on and deepen children's learning, trends and government initiatives that influence the primary and secondary sectors, put pressure on our teachers to change their teaching approaches.  Our teaching strategies are designed to build on children's natural enthusiasm for learning and assist them to be inquisitive problem solvers.  As Bruce(2016) discusses, we are part of a small economy that should be educating our children to be innovative and flexible thinkers in a similar way to the Finnish system.  An education system that is test driven is more likely to prepare children for compliant thinking. The introduction of national standards in the primary sector has begun to impact on the teaching in the early childhood sector.  Parents are increasingly concerned with 'preparing children for school'.  To parents this often means early reading and writing so that their child is meeting and exceeding the expectations of the tests that happen from new entrant level onwards.  This type of pressure in the U.S. has led to rote learning and formal instruction being used in their preschools.  A move away from a free play environment that has resulted in record numbers of children expelled from preschools (Klein, 2016).  ERO officers, in recent reviews of early childhood centres have preferenced responding to parent aspirations and goals, a supporting evaluation question in the evaluation of curriculum delivery, in their evaluation of the effectiveness of the curriculum in providing positive learning outcomes for children (ERO, 2013).  This has led in some cases to teachers only assessing aspects of children's learning that show a response to parents aspirations and goals.  This is concerning when parents aspirations are influenced by the 'preparation for school' thinking that early reading and writing is required.

So our challenge, in a non-compulsory education sector, is to be forward thinking in our teaching and to work alongside parents to assist them to see the benefits of learning through play.  To balance the more negative trends highlighted above with the positive trends that are identified in such publications as the CORE Education's Ten trends 2016 (CORE, 2016).

One of the top trends that will assist with this is networked communities.  Through teachers participating in Communities of Learning, as they have been in the Learning Community Clusters that began in Christchurch after the 2011 earthquakes, we will be better informed on the current teaching practices in the primary sector and be able to share these with parents who often think that primary education is the same now as it was when they were at school.  We will also be able to work in collaboration with primary teachers to support children's learning and parent engagement as children transition from one sector to the other.  Digital fluency, one of the competencies required for 21st century learning, requires a good level of social competence and learning dispositions.  In early childhood we can continue to focus on and strengthen these areas knowing that these skills will underpin future success for children.  The trend towards design thinking is another one that relates well to early childhood education.  As Ken Robinson noted, children in kindergarten are naturally divergent thinkers (The RSA, 2010).  This type of thinking is essential for being creative, innovative and problem-solvers.  As early childhood teachers we need to privilege teaching strategies that foster the continuation of these ways of thinking in children.  This often means finding time for sustained engagement with children, encouraging children to try and try again, provide time and space for learning rather than interrupting investigation with pre-planned routines, and have a strong pedagogy of listening so that you are responding to what children are truly saying.  

References:
Bruce, Bryan (2016)  World Class Education? Inside New Zealand Education.  Documentary on TV3. Source TV3 on demand.

CORE (2016) Ten trends 2016. Retrieved from:  http://blog.core-ed.org/blog/2015/05/early-childhood-education-10-trends-and-a-not-so-little-story-of-action.html on 5/06/16

Education Review Office (2013)  He Pou Tātaki. How ERO reviews early childhood services. NZ government, Wellington NZ.

Klein, R. (2016) We're doing preschool all wrong, says a new book and it could harm an entire generation of kids.  Retrieved from:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/preschool-and-play-erika-christakis_us_56bcb83ae4b0b40245c58953 on 5/06/16

The RSA.(2010, Oct 14). RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U 

Week 26: Current issues in my professional context

I have worked in my current position for the last five and a half years and over this time I have seen a substantial change in the culture of our organisation.  My values as a teacher have always been guided by a desire to provide the best possible education for all children in partnership with their parents and families (Werner Andrews, 2015).  To do this I believe in critically reflecting on my work and engaging in ongoing professional learning to ensure that my practices have a strong base in current research and theory.  When I first joined the team of managers responsible for ensuring the quality of teaching and learning in our 70 kindergartens and early childhood centres is of a high level I was surprised to find a wide range in the quality of education being provided.  In an organisation where teachers get substantial professional time during the term and in the term breaks I had expected to find innovative teaching and a culture of continual improvement.  What I found was, although some sites were providing a high quality of education, many were quite average.  A culture of 'that's how we've always done things' prevailed.  Changes in management and the make-up of the team I worked in facilitated what Stoll (2000) refers to as reculturing.  As a team we recognised that we needed to work closely with teaching teams to provide the professional learning specific to the needs of each team and to work alongside the teachers as they put their new learning into practice.  By reducing the number of teams each manager worked with we were able to work on building trusting relationships with the teachers (Brown III, 2015).  We have also supported the development of groups of head teachers and teachers from across the organisation to work together and support each other. This has facilitated the development of collaboration, problem-solving and partnerships across the organisation - strategies for innovation promoted by Hargreaves(1994) (cited in Stoll, 2000). We developed a set of quality indicators that clearly showed the level of teaching and learning that was expected in our organisation.  At the same time as we were doing this the Chief Executive led a project to develop a set of values for the organisation.  After gathering data in a employee engagement survey which showed a high level of engagement in and loyalty to the organisation groups of teachers were asked to put forward what they saw as the values that should underpin our work.  From these values further consultation happened with the management and administration staff.  The result of this project was the development of the following values;

These values now inform the teaching and decision making across the organisation and accomplishment in them is celebrated each year at the AGM.

Current issues in our organisation;

While schools have been implementing national standards and dealing with the challenges that testing and reporting bring, in early childhood education we have been increasingly aware of the trickle down effect this is having.  Parents have always been concerned about their children being 'ready for school' and as the pressure goes on to be achieving national standards in the first year of school they are becoming more and more concerned about how a free play curriculum prepares their child to succeed.  To address these concerns we are working to ensure the early literacy and mathematics learning that is happening is highlighted in children's assessments.  We are also working more closely with schools to ensure that children's transitions are smooth and support the continuity of learning.  Many schools are now teaching in the new entrants classes in ways that more closely reflect the team teaching that happens in early childhood.  They are also establishing learning environments that look very similar to those of early childhood centres.  One of the kindergartens I work with is participating in a teacher swap for one afternoon every second week.  Both the primary and early childhood teachers are gaining greater insight into the curriculum in each area as well as gaining a greater depth of knowledge of and continuity for the children.

If we teach today as we taught yesterday, then we rob our children of tomorrow. (Dewey, 1916)

References:

Brown III, G.  (2015)  Strong one, lasting one: an elementary school principal's ability to establish a positive culture by building trust.  Journal of cases in educational leadership, 13(4), 309-316.

Stoll (1998). School Culture. School Improvement Network’s Bulletin 9. Institute of Education, University of London. 

Werner Andrews, S.  (2015)  Parents as partners: creating a culture of collaboration and respect with parents.  The NAMTA Journal, 40:1, 129-137.