quality early childhood care
QUALITY EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE A PICTURE IS WORTH 1000 WORDS
WHAT IS QUALITY? • Take a moment to write down your definition of “quality” in early childhood programs and/or practices.
• Share
RESEARCH ON QUALITY “Quality in early childhood services is a constructed concept, subjective in nature and based on values, beliefs and interest, rather than an objective and universal reality.” (Moss and Pence, 1996)
OUR PROJECT BEGINS • Teachers were given digital cameras. • They were asked to take photographs of events in their classrooms that represented quality to them. • We returned with hard copies of the images and asked them • • • •
To select 10 of the images that represented quality. Talk with us about those 10 images. Select the 3 images that best conveyed quality Explain why they were the most significant to them
MATSELA PRESCHOOL
MATSELA: TSHIDI Small Motor Development
Gross Motor Development
INTERPRETATIONS “Even with this second one, when I tell them to pack the chairs according to colours, like green being with green. That is still… I didn’t know what he was thinking when he was climbing. It is clear in all these situations their actions were motivated by thorough thinking.”
MATESELA: HELEN
HELEN DEFINES QUALITY • For quality it is presented by knowing a child, to know a child as a whole. To know his liking as a whole, not only on the block side or on what only…I must know how can he develop daily. Because they don’t develop the same. Other kids develop at a slow rate, others develop quickly. So their quality may differ because of that development in their progress
EASTERN SUBURBS: CLAIRE
CLAIRE DEFINES QUALITY • When learners who they understand, enjoy take part by asking relevant questions and sharing their prior knowledge. • Group work gives every learner an opportunity to take part. Learners develop a sense of belonging irrespective of barriers they might have. • Learners implementing what they learned in class in their daily life, making a difference in learners’ lives leading them to independence and meaningful learning.
EASTERN SUBURBS: BERGITA Teacher-initiated
Child-initiated
BERGITA DEFINES QUALITY I would say quality, especially quality learning, is when the children learn new things. If they just sit there and repeat whatever they do and don’t learn new skills, then I feel quality learning is not taking place. But learning things without them realizing, without them saying, “Ah, I don’t have to learn this again, “ the learning skills that they will use in life and that is quality learning for me is to teach them or not even to teach them but give them the opportunity to learn things that they will need in life, like simple skills and social skills and working in a group together. I think those are the important skills. That they’re learning the cutting and those things - that’s the easy part, that’s not the quality learning that I feel should take place in a school. All those little things that are hard to teach a child, I feel that’s where the learning takes place, when we create the environment for them to be able to learn those things that they need.
YMCA: JENNIFER
JENNIFER DEFINES QUALITY • Quality is a whole learning area…whereby we talk about the physical, the auditory, you see? The perception, all those learning areas. The whole developmental area of a child, that is quality. Where you don’t miss any and when I’m talking about quality, it’s your program followed everyday. It might not be exactly the perception, the movement, reading their story, the what, what. But are you doing the right thing every day, that is quality education, that I’m sure of.
NKIDI’S REFLECTIONS • When talking about themes: • The purpose of themes is to develop language, build vocabulary, building confidence as children participate, the development of social skills • Which teachers can speak about the purpose behind the practice speaks to quality of understanding that goes beyond simply providing the activities.
• When talking about a quality program: • From a policy perspective we need for quality to grow but if we don’t invest in professional development and other opportunities for teachers to continue to learn, programs can’t improve
YMCA: JANE
REFLECTIONS This teacher was solution-focused Welcoming the children each morning allowed her to understand how each child was entering the class from home When children didn’t seem to understand the day’s learning, she made it a point to connect her teaching with the child’s prior knowledge and provided activities that integrated the content and skills throughout the day She focused on explicitly checking for children’s health as part of the daily greeting, toileting, and outdoor play activities
BUSY BEES: ASHLEY
BUSY BEES: ASHLEY • Planned activities provide structure and intentionality to the day.
• Spontaneous activities offer greater opportunities to respond to children’s expressed interests and allow the children to take a leading role in the curriculum.
FINDINGS More teacher-centered Matsela: Tshidi: traditional focus on motor development and rote learning, but not as much on individual child as on the activities of the children; little focus on children’s thinking/learning
More child-centered Matsela: Helen: strong focus on the individual child; activities are traditional but not necessarily central to her discussions of quality
Eastern Suburbs: Bergita; teacher control/teacher-initiatied; partial control/child-initiated activity; intentionality in teaching life skills; opportunities for group play and creative exploration
Eastern Suburbs: Claire: Focus on children’s problem-solving through activities she has planned and with materials that are available
YMCA: Routines structure the interview Jennifer: presents learning areas; balances what children can do in each area and what teachers do (reminiscent of Bergita)
YMCA: Routines structure the interview Jane: Strength of the routine for the children; combines her theme teaching with practical application; focus on health and safety; intentionality in her teaching to connect to the children’s real worlds/lives
Busy Bees: Focused on the children’s experiences and their perspectives
FINDINGS: STRUCTURE Structure
Flexibility
• Structure is found in how the learning environment is set up. • Structure in lessons provides quality control. • Structure is provided in the classroom rules.
• Unstructured opportunities also provide quality through “teachable moments” and free play. • Flexibility to take advantage of teachable moments leads to quality outcomes for learners.
FINDINGS: TEACHING & LEARNING Matsela Tshidi presented a “traditional” approach to tasks that boys and girls completed in the classroom (e.g., boys stack the chairs and girls prepare where they nap). She focuses much of her activity descriptions on fine and gross motor activities. She can’t “see children thinking” but knows they do this when asked to sort and stack by color. Eastern Suburbs Birgida echoes Claire in describing quality activities as “When learners learn new things and skills that they will use in their daily living without realizing that they are learning. Giving learners an opportunity to learn social skills, working together in harmony. When learners are self-initiative and creative in performing simple skills like sharing, waiting for your turn learned mostly in ECD centres.”
Helen describes individual children as they are engaged in activities. “This is Milo and she’s possessive too, she’s so possessive…I’ve got this little boy of mine, who I say is a little bit…got some disabilities…this one is a little bit naughty, but is still young.” She talks very little about the actual curriculum or theme or her instruction. Her focus is on each of the children as they are engaged in the classroom. Claire speaks about her themes and sees learning as when children remember what they said and did at a later time (e.g., insect theme). She sees children engaged in problem-solving activities as they play on the playground and she takes advantage of “teachable moments” as they present themselves in the classroom (e.g., the light reflecting off the CD) and on the playground (e.g., talking about the ants and bee). “It’s nice to see when you have prepared a lesson, that when you come and present it that they are actually absorbing what you are teaching them and that they are learning from it…When they enjoy it and you can see they’re enjoying it and they’re asking relevant questions and when they come back 3 weeks later, they still remember.” YMCA Jane: Connects her thematic studies to practical applications in her example of the Jen sees curriculum as specific to the materials in her learning areas and her theme. transport theme, learning how different children travel to school, the role of robots, Quality for her is having the learning areas that support the different areas of a child’s and the integration of shapes and small and gross motor skill activities. Her focus on development. “It’s your program followed every day. It might not be exactly the learning comes in when she makes sure that the children know what they have perception, the movement, reading their story, the what, what. But are you doing the learned through their participation in more structured activities such as the cut and right thing every day, that is quality education. That’ I’m sure of.” paste or drawing activities. She is explicit and intentional in teaching children how to play safely on the playground. She sees quality in what the children learn in the class and remember (much like Claire when the children remember their study of insects) and through the specifically taught routines (e.g., toileting) that show “you are considerate for them.” Busy Bees Differentiation: What are quality learning activities? Bergida: I created a learning area for smaller children e.g., the one from Nigeria not Bergida: When learners learn new things and skills that they will use in their daily living knowing English. I give them simple tasks like making different shapes of faces. It without realizing that they are learning. Giving learners an opportunity to learn social helps to develop their fine motor skills. The think, create own images using different skills, working together in harmony. When learners are self-initiative and creative in objects. performing simple skills like sharing, waiting for your turn learned mostly in ECD Playing/Creativity: centres. Bergida: Learners learn through playing interactively, creatively and meaningfully and quality learning occurs. Playing is fun, gives learners joy and fulfillment. The educator gives them tasks that can last for days to encourage active participation, e.g., decorating tree, building a house.
FINDINGS: TEACHING & LEARNING • Teaching traditional roles and values • Following the daily routine and providing learning areas • Seeing children as unique individuals • Connecting teaching in the classroom to the child’s lived worlds • Engaging children through planned and spontaneous activity • Differentiating activities for learners’ • Offering opportunities for playing , exploring, interacting, and creating
DISCUSSION • Quality • Level of control: Teacher-centered vs. Child-initiated • Role of structure: Daily routines, rules
• Curriculum: Differentiation, Intentionality/Teaching for learning, Play/creativity
WHAT IS QUALITY? • Take a moment to write down your definition of “quality” in early childhood programs and/or practices.
• Share
RESEARCH ON QUALITY “Quality in early childhood services is a constructed concept, subjective in nature and based on values, beliefs and interest, rather than an objective and universal reality.” (Moss and Pence, 1996)
OUR PROJECT BEGINS • Teachers were given digital cameras. • They were asked to take photographs of events in their classrooms that represented quality to them. • We returned with hard copies of the images and asked them • • • •
To select 10 of the images that represented quality. Talk with us about those 10 images. Select the 3 images that best conveyed quality Explain why they were the most significant to them
MATSELA PRESCHOOL
MATSELA: TSHIDI Small Motor Development
Gross Motor Development
INTERPRETATIONS “Even with this second one, when I tell them to pack the chairs according to colours, like green being with green. That is still… I didn’t know what he was thinking when he was climbing. It is clear in all these situations their actions were motivated by thorough thinking.”
MATESELA: HELEN
HELEN DEFINES QUALITY • For quality it is presented by knowing a child, to know a child as a whole. To know his liking as a whole, not only on the block side or on what only…I must know how can he develop daily. Because they don’t develop the same. Other kids develop at a slow rate, others develop quickly. So their quality may differ because of that development in their progress
EASTERN SUBURBS: CLAIRE
CLAIRE DEFINES QUALITY • When learners who they understand, enjoy take part by asking relevant questions and sharing their prior knowledge. • Group work gives every learner an opportunity to take part. Learners develop a sense of belonging irrespective of barriers they might have. • Learners implementing what they learned in class in their daily life, making a difference in learners’ lives leading them to independence and meaningful learning.
EASTERN SUBURBS: BERGITA Teacher-initiated
Child-initiated
BERGITA DEFINES QUALITY I would say quality, especially quality learning, is when the children learn new things. If they just sit there and repeat whatever they do and don’t learn new skills, then I feel quality learning is not taking place. But learning things without them realizing, without them saying, “Ah, I don’t have to learn this again, “ the learning skills that they will use in life and that is quality learning for me is to teach them or not even to teach them but give them the opportunity to learn things that they will need in life, like simple skills and social skills and working in a group together. I think those are the important skills. That they’re learning the cutting and those things - that’s the easy part, that’s not the quality learning that I feel should take place in a school. All those little things that are hard to teach a child, I feel that’s where the learning takes place, when we create the environment for them to be able to learn those things that they need.
YMCA: JENNIFER
JENNIFER DEFINES QUALITY • Quality is a whole learning area…whereby we talk about the physical, the auditory, you see? The perception, all those learning areas. The whole developmental area of a child, that is quality. Where you don’t miss any and when I’m talking about quality, it’s your program followed everyday. It might not be exactly the perception, the movement, reading their story, the what, what. But are you doing the right thing every day, that is quality education, that I’m sure of.
NKIDI’S REFLECTIONS • When talking about themes: • The purpose of themes is to develop language, build vocabulary, building confidence as children participate, the development of social skills • Which teachers can speak about the purpose behind the practice speaks to quality of understanding that goes beyond simply providing the activities.
• When talking about a quality program: • From a policy perspective we need for quality to grow but if we don’t invest in professional development and other opportunities for teachers to continue to learn, programs can’t improve
YMCA: JANE
REFLECTIONS This teacher was solution-focused Welcoming the children each morning allowed her to understand how each child was entering the class from home When children didn’t seem to understand the day’s learning, she made it a point to connect her teaching with the child’s prior knowledge and provided activities that integrated the content and skills throughout the day She focused on explicitly checking for children’s health as part of the daily greeting, toileting, and outdoor play activities
BUSY BEES: ASHLEY
BUSY BEES: ASHLEY • Planned activities provide structure and intentionality to the day.
• Spontaneous activities offer greater opportunities to respond to children’s expressed interests and allow the children to take a leading role in the curriculum.
FINDINGS More teacher-centered Matsela: Tshidi: traditional focus on motor development and rote learning, but not as much on individual child as on the activities of the children; little focus on children’s thinking/learning
More child-centered Matsela: Helen: strong focus on the individual child; activities are traditional but not necessarily central to her discussions of quality
Eastern Suburbs: Bergita; teacher control/teacher-initiatied; partial control/child-initiated activity; intentionality in teaching life skills; opportunities for group play and creative exploration
Eastern Suburbs: Claire: Focus on children’s problem-solving through activities she has planned and with materials that are available
YMCA: Routines structure the interview Jennifer: presents learning areas; balances what children can do in each area and what teachers do (reminiscent of Bergita)
YMCA: Routines structure the interview Jane: Strength of the routine for the children; combines her theme teaching with practical application; focus on health and safety; intentionality in her teaching to connect to the children’s real worlds/lives
Busy Bees: Focused on the children’s experiences and their perspectives
FINDINGS: STRUCTURE Structure
Flexibility
• Structure is found in how the learning environment is set up. • Structure in lessons provides quality control. • Structure is provided in the classroom rules.
• Unstructured opportunities also provide quality through “teachable moments” and free play. • Flexibility to take advantage of teachable moments leads to quality outcomes for learners.
FINDINGS: TEACHING & LEARNING Matsela Tshidi presented a “traditional” approach to tasks that boys and girls completed in the classroom (e.g., boys stack the chairs and girls prepare where they nap). She focuses much of her activity descriptions on fine and gross motor activities. She can’t “see children thinking” but knows they do this when asked to sort and stack by color. Eastern Suburbs Birgida echoes Claire in describing quality activities as “When learners learn new things and skills that they will use in their daily living without realizing that they are learning. Giving learners an opportunity to learn social skills, working together in harmony. When learners are self-initiative and creative in performing simple skills like sharing, waiting for your turn learned mostly in ECD centres.”
Helen describes individual children as they are engaged in activities. “This is Milo and she’s possessive too, she’s so possessive…I’ve got this little boy of mine, who I say is a little bit…got some disabilities…this one is a little bit naughty, but is still young.” She talks very little about the actual curriculum or theme or her instruction. Her focus is on each of the children as they are engaged in the classroom. Claire speaks about her themes and sees learning as when children remember what they said and did at a later time (e.g., insect theme). She sees children engaged in problem-solving activities as they play on the playground and she takes advantage of “teachable moments” as they present themselves in the classroom (e.g., the light reflecting off the CD) and on the playground (e.g., talking about the ants and bee). “It’s nice to see when you have prepared a lesson, that when you come and present it that they are actually absorbing what you are teaching them and that they are learning from it…When they enjoy it and you can see they’re enjoying it and they’re asking relevant questions and when they come back 3 weeks later, they still remember.” YMCA Jane: Connects her thematic studies to practical applications in her example of the Jen sees curriculum as specific to the materials in her learning areas and her theme. transport theme, learning how different children travel to school, the role of robots, Quality for her is having the learning areas that support the different areas of a child’s and the integration of shapes and small and gross motor skill activities. Her focus on development. “It’s your program followed every day. It might not be exactly the learning comes in when she makes sure that the children know what they have perception, the movement, reading their story, the what, what. But are you doing the learned through their participation in more structured activities such as the cut and right thing every day, that is quality education. That’ I’m sure of.” paste or drawing activities. She is explicit and intentional in teaching children how to play safely on the playground. She sees quality in what the children learn in the class and remember (much like Claire when the children remember their study of insects) and through the specifically taught routines (e.g., toileting) that show “you are considerate for them.” Busy Bees Differentiation: What are quality learning activities? Bergida: I created a learning area for smaller children e.g., the one from Nigeria not Bergida: When learners learn new things and skills that they will use in their daily living knowing English. I give them simple tasks like making different shapes of faces. It without realizing that they are learning. Giving learners an opportunity to learn social helps to develop their fine motor skills. The think, create own images using different skills, working together in harmony. When learners are self-initiative and creative in objects. performing simple skills like sharing, waiting for your turn learned mostly in ECD Playing/Creativity: centres. Bergida: Learners learn through playing interactively, creatively and meaningfully and quality learning occurs. Playing is fun, gives learners joy and fulfillment. The educator gives them tasks that can last for days to encourage active participation, e.g., decorating tree, building a house.
FINDINGS: TEACHING & LEARNING • Teaching traditional roles and values • Following the daily routine and providing learning areas • Seeing children as unique individuals • Connecting teaching in the classroom to the child’s lived worlds • Engaging children through planned and spontaneous activity • Differentiating activities for learners’ • Offering opportunities for playing , exploring, interacting, and creating
DISCUSSION • Quality • Level of control: Teacher-centered vs. Child-initiated • Role of structure: Daily routines, rules
• Curriculum: Differentiation, Intentionality/Teaching for learning, Play/creativity
