Community Early Learning and Child Care Facilitators
Community Early Learning and Child Care Facilitators Project Presented by: Kim Atkinson Allison Benner 1
Investigating Quality Project (2005-2011) Community Facilitator Pilot Project (2011-2014) Funded by Ministry of Children and Family Development
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Project Philosophy • Innovative model of supporting quality child care • Draws on models of supporting high quality child care in Sweden, New Zealand, and Reggio Emilia, Italy
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• Learning Circles
• Community Facilitator visits • Communication between visits • Special events (guest speakers, visits to exhibits)
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• Supporting educators in creating practices that reflect the principles, vision, and goals outlined in the BC Early Learning Framework
• Supporting educators in their engagement with pedagogical narrations. • Providing constructive feedback on practices.
• Leading team discussions on learning and teaching. • Identifying focal areas for professional development.
Cutting Edge Ideas in ECE Practice • Image of the child/educator • Questioning routines and schedules • Gender roles
• Materiality • Nature/culture • Decolonizing perspectives 6
Challenging Educators to Rethink Developmental Theories
Disrupting Developmental Theories • How do we view children? • What values and truths do we hold about children and how they learn? • How are our choices around routines, rules and practices formed by our assumptions of what is ‘best’?
• What is our role in early childhood settings?
What can early childhood pedagogies draw on if not the developmental truths of the child? What can early childhood educators do when confronted with the idea that the accurate, factual and therefore correct understandings of the child produced in the discourses of developmental psychology are but one view of the child? (Mac Naughton, 2005, p. 40)
Critically Reflecting on Art • How might we explore art with children and enter into dialogue with children through their art? •What meanings are being made possible by art explorations and connections between child, materials, temperature, light, sounds, and ideas and intentions?
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• What different ‘languages’ emerge in the interaction between children’s bodies, materials, environment? • What pedagogical challenges, possibilities emerge for you from reflecting on this encounter?
• What learning processes could be seen from this encounter ? • What assumptions are imbedded in how you view this encounter?
Image of the Educator
We challenge thinking about: • Routines and schedules •Safety •Mess
•Rules •Risk • Image of the educator in control, able to predict the flow of a day
Disrupting Daily Practice There is no longer a right or correct way to teach the child; instead, there are many possible answers. The educator's job' is to discover these answers with the child, to have her or his own knowledges transformed through the child and vice versa. The educator is not the expert but collaborates with the child to produce knowledge of the world. (Mac Naughton Shaping Early Childhood p. 76)
Pedagogical Narrations and Critical Reflection
As I was reading this chapter it came to me that doing narrations is definitely going deeper than simply narrating an account of the facts of the children's experience. The reading also got me thinking about how I put together the narration ....in that it was not only about what occurred. I got to feel more deeply connected ... by working with the photos, the re-reading of articles, the deeper reflecting about what else might be happening besides what met my eye, and in what I chose to tell. Lynne Wanamaker Early Childhood Educator
Evaluation Year 1: focus on educators’ and facilitators’ experiences of the project, based on focus group and survey data
Year 2: same as Year 1, plus educators’ ratings of project quality, relevance, and their own skills development Year 3: same as Years 1 and 2, plus piloting the use of progress indicators relating to the project’s goals 18
Outcome 1: Critically Reflective Educators Through … this project, I grew to a stage where I form my documentations into a series that reflect the longer learning process of the children. The writing in my documentations is also different from before: they contain more reflective questions. 19
Outcome 2: Enhanced Learning Opportunities for Children [Children’s learning] has been the most significant change I have seen this year. … They question, observe, reflect, and give feedback. They feel confident in their knowledge, they feel confident to ask questions, they trust the people around them. The behaviours have diminished. Children are focused, interested, and seem to love to research and explore. 20
Outcome 3: Family Involvement Knowing that the project was going on [through the documentations] gave me more confidence in the program our child attends. It also helped me to try to focus on what the children and our son were doing through their activities. I have tried to extend some of the activities at home if I have had the capacity to do so. I try to participate in whatever I can at the daycare. 21
Ratings of Project Quality and Usefulness to Practice
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Ratings of Project Usefulness: One vs. Two Years of Participation
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Skill Acquisition: One vs. Two Years
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Issues & Challenges • For educators • For community facilitators • For policy-makers
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Thank you! Questions …?
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Investigating Quality Project (2005-2011) Community Facilitator Pilot Project (2011-2014) Funded by Ministry of Children and Family Development
2
Project Philosophy • Innovative model of supporting quality child care • Draws on models of supporting high quality child care in Sweden, New Zealand, and Reggio Emilia, Italy
3
• Learning Circles
• Community Facilitator visits • Communication between visits • Special events (guest speakers, visits to exhibits)
4
• Supporting educators in creating practices that reflect the principles, vision, and goals outlined in the BC Early Learning Framework
• Supporting educators in their engagement with pedagogical narrations. • Providing constructive feedback on practices.
• Leading team discussions on learning and teaching. • Identifying focal areas for professional development.
Cutting Edge Ideas in ECE Practice • Image of the child/educator • Questioning routines and schedules • Gender roles
• Materiality • Nature/culture • Decolonizing perspectives 6
Challenging Educators to Rethink Developmental Theories
Disrupting Developmental Theories • How do we view children? • What values and truths do we hold about children and how they learn? • How are our choices around routines, rules and practices formed by our assumptions of what is ‘best’?
• What is our role in early childhood settings?
What can early childhood pedagogies draw on if not the developmental truths of the child? What can early childhood educators do when confronted with the idea that the accurate, factual and therefore correct understandings of the child produced in the discourses of developmental psychology are but one view of the child? (Mac Naughton, 2005, p. 40)
Critically Reflecting on Art • How might we explore art with children and enter into dialogue with children through their art? •What meanings are being made possible by art explorations and connections between child, materials, temperature, light, sounds, and ideas and intentions?
10
11
• What different ‘languages’ emerge in the interaction between children’s bodies, materials, environment? • What pedagogical challenges, possibilities emerge for you from reflecting on this encounter?
• What learning processes could be seen from this encounter ? • What assumptions are imbedded in how you view this encounter?
Image of the Educator
We challenge thinking about: • Routines and schedules •Safety •Mess
•Rules •Risk • Image of the educator in control, able to predict the flow of a day
Disrupting Daily Practice There is no longer a right or correct way to teach the child; instead, there are many possible answers. The educator's job' is to discover these answers with the child, to have her or his own knowledges transformed through the child and vice versa. The educator is not the expert but collaborates with the child to produce knowledge of the world. (Mac Naughton Shaping Early Childhood p. 76)
Pedagogical Narrations and Critical Reflection
As I was reading this chapter it came to me that doing narrations is definitely going deeper than simply narrating an account of the facts of the children's experience. The reading also got me thinking about how I put together the narration ....in that it was not only about what occurred. I got to feel more deeply connected ... by working with the photos, the re-reading of articles, the deeper reflecting about what else might be happening besides what met my eye, and in what I chose to tell. Lynne Wanamaker Early Childhood Educator
Evaluation Year 1: focus on educators’ and facilitators’ experiences of the project, based on focus group and survey data
Year 2: same as Year 1, plus educators’ ratings of project quality, relevance, and their own skills development Year 3: same as Years 1 and 2, plus piloting the use of progress indicators relating to the project’s goals 18
Outcome 1: Critically Reflective Educators Through … this project, I grew to a stage where I form my documentations into a series that reflect the longer learning process of the children. The writing in my documentations is also different from before: they contain more reflective questions. 19
Outcome 2: Enhanced Learning Opportunities for Children [Children’s learning] has been the most significant change I have seen this year. … They question, observe, reflect, and give feedback. They feel confident in their knowledge, they feel confident to ask questions, they trust the people around them. The behaviours have diminished. Children are focused, interested, and seem to love to research and explore. 20
Outcome 3: Family Involvement Knowing that the project was going on [through the documentations] gave me more confidence in the program our child attends. It also helped me to try to focus on what the children and our son were doing through their activities. I have tried to extend some of the activities at home if I have had the capacity to do so. I try to participate in whatever I can at the daycare. 21
Ratings of Project Quality and Usefulness to Practice
22
Ratings of Project Usefulness: One vs. Two Years of Participation
23
Skill Acquisition: One vs. Two Years
24
Issues & Challenges • For educators • For community facilitators • For policy-makers
25
Thank you! Questions …?
26
