Nanaksar Early Childhood Education Centre

Great to see the work happening in this ECE centre

Current ECE debates

There are some interesting debates in the NZ Education sector at the moment but also some very poorly informed research being paraded as evidence for why ECE is failing children. Please feel free to email me any other links along the same lines - to maureen.perkins473@gmail.com


I decided to add a range of the links here to put several of these debates in one place.

A Blog post on Hekia Parata's decision to end the Teachers Council and create a new body where Teachers are unable to elect any representatives.

http://howmelulaterseesit.blogspot.co.nz/search/label/Hekia%20Parata


Doing the rounds on ECE Facebook pages is the following Blog post arguing against John Hattie and Ken Blaiklock's recent comments in a Listener article that I will post when I can An interesting post but the vitriol gets in the way of some very good points.

http://networkonnet.wordpress.com/2014/04/27/hattie-makes-hi… 

Another Link
http://leading-learning.blogspot.co.nz/2014/03/the-educational-world-according-to-john.html


Here is Blaiklocks response to Helen Mays response to his presentation to the Ministry last year.. Scroll right to the end to see what Blaiklock presented to  the Ministry of Education. this was NOT representative, by the way, of the views of the  ECE team at Unitec

http://unitec.researchbank.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10652/2344/Pdf%20Copy%20of%20Blaiklock%2c%20K.%20Yes%2c%20We%20do%20Need%20Evidence%2c%20Dec%2c%202013.pdf?sequence=1


http://hdl.handle.net/10652/1766 

And here are some responses to the Listener article

EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

At last someone is asking the questions that need to be asked about the spending of so much taxpayers’ money on consultants to intrude on peoples’ right to choose to attend a non-compulsory sector of the education system (“Early warnings”, April 19). The millions spent on contractors might be better spent on improving child health and eliminating the conditions of poverty, which is the daily experience of many Pacific children targeted in this sweep of initiatives. Chronically ill, deaf, undernourished or obese children being raised in badly insulated homes cannot learn, however wonderful the early childhood education (ECE) provision.

I fully support quality ECE and have spent many years in teacher education committed to producing qualified and registered teachers, which is the major component of quality ECE. However, the wholesale pushing of children and their families into variable quality provisions is the worst tragedy of all. In any forum where I speak, my message to Pacific parents is clear: you do not send your child to an unqualified doctor or your pet to an unqualified vet, so why would you send your child to an unqualified teacher that your child spends hours of their life with?

The government money would be better spent improving quality, rather than sending out patronising prophets to Pacific communities, which already know about the value of ECE but are prevented from accessing it because of cost or a lack of information or confidence.

For Pacific communities, quality also includes those centres that produce bilingual children fluent in Pacific languages who are cognitively advantaged learners according to reputable international research.

Diane Mara
Associate dean Pasifika,
Faculty of Education,
University of Auckland

Professor Helen May (Letters, April 26), one of the authors of Te Whariki, the early childhood education (ECE) curriculum, appears annoyed that serious concerns have been raised about its effectiveness. As an experienced academic, however, May should welcome challenge and debate about Te Whariki, instead of shooting the messengers when presented with evidence-informed viewpoints that differ from her own.

May’s response to the concerns raised by Professor John Hattie and me claims “the views presented come from voices whose engagement in ECE, and whose scholarly or professional standing in ECE, is non-existent, fleeting or lightweight”. Strong words indeed, but rather than directing baseless personal attacks at her colleagues, it would be more productive for May to acknowledge that Te Whariki, like all educational policy documents, should be amenable to change in the light of valid research evidence.

May suggests that Professor Anne Smith has dealt with my concerns about Te Whariki, but this is not the case. I have written in detail about Smith’s comments in a paper available online at Unitec’s Research Bank (hdl.handle.net/10652/2344). The paper, which also presents an analysis of the OECD’s examination of Te Whariki, concludes with the following.

“There is very little empirical evidence that the use of Te Whariki is effective at reducing educational inequities and promoting the learning and well-being of all children. Indeed, it is quite possible that the nature of the curriculum, by providing little guidance for teachers and making no requirements to teach or assess key areas of learning, is actually limiting opportunities for children to be provided with a full range of learning experiences and is falling well short of what is required to reduce educational disparities in our society. We now need to make substantial changes to Te Whariki, or consider developing a new research-based curriculum, if we are to ensure that all children in New Zealand will receive a high quality early childhood education.”

Ken Blaiklock
Department of Education,
Unitec Institute of Technology
(Auckland)

The “Early Warnings” report, while better than most at avoiding the platitudes that surround early childhood education in this country, still comments only briefly on the central issue: the first five years of life are critical for language development. Children with delayed language development on entry to school are at greatly increased risk of school failure. Fortunately, one of the goals of our early childhood curriculum, Te Whariki, is ensuring that children “develop verbal communication skills for a range of purposes”. It also advises ECE teachers to ask themselves “in what ways does the programme provide for one-to-one language interaction … between adult and child?”

However, it is not sufficient simply to argue that ECE must be of “high quality” if “quality” is nowhere defined or measured. Given that language development and learning how to behave are No 1 priorities in under-fives, here is a simple test of ECE quality. Tally, on a piece of paper, each time you say something to your preschooler and the child replies. Don’t record the interactions, which are just instructions about what you want the child to do. Make another tally every time the child talks to you and you reply. Do this for six hours over a two-day period when you are both at home.

Now go to your child’s ECE centre and count the number of adult-child and child-adult interactions (about matters other than how to behave) involving your child for six hours. If you find that your ECE centre is providing at least 80% as many one-on-one language-learning interactions as are being provided at home, then the centre is probably of sufficient educational quality for you to continue your child’s enrolment without putting their future achievement at risk.

John Church
Adjunct senior fellow, Department of Psychology, University of Canterbury

Photography in early childhood education | EDtalks

An interesting talk I found when researching the topic. There is a real dearth of information on the current dominant discourses around Photography in ECE, which I am hoping to remedy.

Philosophy MOOC

I have now completed a course on Introduction to Philosophy through Edinburgh University. This was a really challenging course at times but all the way through I could see useful links to both the Academic Liteacies and Research courses in particular as well as our programme in general.

I am already planning ways to incorporate more of this information in our work on reflections for students, especially with regards to critical thinking.

MOOCing continues

So next week I begin my next Coursera MOOC experience which is a Philosophy course from Edinburgh University. Although no additional texts are necessary I have downloaded to my Kindle the text that goes with the course as I am sure I will want to refer to it.

When I was completing my MEd I became aware of a huge gap in my understanding of ideas from the domain of Philosophy. So much of the literature I was reading touched on philosophical theory which was basically absent from any of my other studies. So this MOOC work is a very real professional development opportunity for me as a lecturer on a teacher education programme.

I am trying not to give into an urge to work next on Dinosaurs 101 probably an essential course for early childhood teachers!

MOOCs

MOOCs have been a common topic in articles and blogs about distance and blended learning for a few years now. I have toyed with the idea of looking further into these because I am involved in teaching a course that uses a blended learning approach and because I  have used a range of online and blended courses for my own education over the years. Some good, some appalling.

Initially I was attracted to a course being run by Moodle - it's first MOOC. Moodle is used by a number of schools and tertiary institutions ( including the one I work for) as a learning platform or LMS for students. Other organisations choose to use Blackboard, WebCT or Cecil and you may have heard of those if you havent heard of Moodle. Now this isnt an advert for Moodle so I think thats enough background.

I have managed to learn a bit about Moodle on  my own but not nearly enough to make it really useful.
So I enrolled in the four week online course which has just finished. It had over 8000 participants from all over the world - more than 50 languages used. It was more time consuming than I thought it would be but that was mainly because I was incorporating ideas from other students into my work as well as completing the weekly tasks. The final week was most challenging because I got behind while getting marking done at work. But all PD can be like that. For the most part it was manageable and inspiring although any possibility of being part of a learning community was made
impossible by the sheer scale of the enrollment. For me that was OK. I learn well in a distance environment. For others this didnt work.

I was further seduced into the world of MOOCs by a mention on Facebook of a MOOC that would analyse connections between literature, film and online games and the topic was Lord of the Rings. They had me at Literature .

The course is called "Online Games: Literature, New Media, and Narrative" and is run on Coursera and taught by Vanderbilt University. I thought it might be a useful way to compare two different types of MOOCs and learn a little more about them.


Secretly I also wanted an excuse to learn  to play online games. I was fooling myself as this aspect of the course was far too time consuming. Luckily the course did not require participation in the game unless one wanted a Distinction certificate. I did want one but it was not going to happen. So each week I watch several 4-20 minute video chats and lectures. Just perfectly sized to fit in a lunch break or after work or after dinner. Each has a mini quiz and each week ends with a larger quiz. 

I have really enjoyed this non ECE work and an opportunity to drag out books from previous study as we compare Tolkien and Keats, LOTR and Northrop Frye's Hero archetype.

Changing visions for the Blog and the Art of Awareness

I was aiming to have a new post on this Blog at least each month but a few things have got in the way - like marking! Another obstacle has been the desire to write about subjects that are not strictly ECE related. So I have been pondering another change of name for the Blog but Im not sure yet. So I have decided to allow myself to post things that are of interest to me as an ECE person in the hope that they will also be of interest to anyone who stops off here to read this Blog. Still a work in progress after all these years... but I am sure that is reflective of Education in general.

So here I am with a note in the diary to post something this month and I find myself with two main topics I want to share with you. The first is a book I am reading by Deb Curtis and Margie Carter called           The Art of Awareness. 



 I have read or rather skimmed through this book before and enjoyed it but am rather luxuriously reading it properly today ( in the sunshine) through the lens of wondering what would be useful for ECE teachers to know about observation. The other topic I am going to touch on today is  MOOCs or Massive Open Online Courses. I have been enrolled in two of these courses in the last month and am about to start my third.


The Art of Awareness

I am not going to review this book here as there are several reviews online and in the literature. Instead, I will make comments over time as I reflect on what I have read today and make connections with other readings and ideas. It is an excellent book that could be used  (with some adaptations to suit the philosophy of a particular curriculum framework or philosophical context) in pre-service teacher education or as a part of professional development for teachers, either with an external facilitator or by using the book as a guide within a team of teachers. I particularly liked the thread that weaves throughout the book, arguing that observation is something an intentional teacher does every day, and which is not carried out just for the purposes of documenting assessment. When I see both students and teachers in centres I wonder if they have that same understanding.

Here's a question for you. When you make notes about a child                           
or take a photo, are you already intending to document immediately? Or are you
 gathering information that will later be viewed and discussed in the context of a
 range of information so that some documentation can be created?

I firmly believe we should document formally only when we have a real story to tell. And these stories usually take time. This is perhaps a real challenge for teachers who have been told to get a certain number of assessments per month into children's portfolios. But it is not just a problem for teachers and management to consider. The Education Review Office is the rationale given by many teachers for having a regular target for stories in terms of quantity. They are trying to provide accountability. Can we really support learning and provide accountability with the same documentation?

Book review - Understanding the Te Whariki approach

I recently wrote a review for this new book by Wendy Lee, Linda Mitchell, Brenda Soutar and Margaret Carr. It has been published in
Early Education Vol 53


You should really subscribe to that journal so I am not going to reproduce the whole article here. I will say though that there is much to recommend this book, especially for student teachers, tutors and lecturers, both in NZ and internationally.

Each chapter is well structured and offers a range of reflective questions and a list of key points. It does an excellent job of summarising the cultural, political and social contexts within which Te Whariki ( The NZ ECE Curriculum document) was developed.

Unfortunately little reference is made to any of the contradictions within Te Whariki and the critiques that have been made of the document over the years. The authors present assumptions that a learning and planning story approach is intrinsically tied to the implementation of Te Whariki. Although a narrative approach is common in NZ it is by no means the only way to document and plan for learning in NZ ECE centres.

In addition there is no reference to the challenges of both Te Whariki and a narrative approach  in a sector where currently less than 50% of teachers are required to be fully qualified, where there is little or no group planning and assessment time for teachers, and a high turnover of teachers in many centres.

So I recommend buying the book and using it  as a source for critical debate and discussion.

Two babies and rubber bands

A lovely video that shows how simple learning resources can be. Amazing social and science learning happening here but most of all a lot of FUN with an adult who allows a little bit of risk.Apparently rubber bands are a major choking hazard so clearly it is necessary to supervise and put away the rubber bands when the fun is finished.

Quality in Action

This wonderful resource is not available any more and although there is a version of it here on the Ministry of Education ECE site, it is much friendlier viewed in its original format. So apologies if this breaks any copyright rules but it should be available.

The book was originally published as a resource to guide ECE professionals in implementing the Desirable Objectives and Practices (DOPS) which were mandated for licensed ECE services. The DOPs have been subsumed into the current Licensing criteria and Regulatory Framework but this is still a very useful document for teachers.

Orientation week

So here is another group of fresh-faced, occasionally terrified looking student teachers! What a week for them. Here on the last day of orientation I am sure their brains must be pretty fried and can only hope that some of what I am about to share about Moodle will go in - even if it is only how to log in and find the how-to video :)

Orientation is always a good time for me to remember what this shift in identity is like for these new teachers and to reflect on the effectiveness of my teaching at this time. This year the orientation process is very close to home as my youngest settles into a full time Adv Dip Ballet  programme in Melbourne. Scary stuff.

So welcome to you all. Try and float above the scary feelings. Look after yourselves as you would your best friend. And make use of all the amazing support here at Unitec.

Back at work and ready to Blog

So here I am back in the office. Having updated both my electronic and paper calendars for the years teaching, caught up on emails and atypical assignment marking, I have now decided to be brave and plunge back into my Blog. But it is not a New Years Resolution! They always fail. Just one item I can tick off my list of post-thesis "things I want to do".

I may change the name of this Blog later but for now I am not certain what this will morph into.

I expect to use this space as a portal to other Blogs and websites related to ECE and will happily look at any suggestions for these. Feel free to suggest your own Blogs if they are relevant.

I may well add some reflections on my own teaching as well as comments on political challenges in NZ ECE. There is little chance that these comments will always be balanced or completely objective. They don't have to be. This is a personal Blog sharing personal views.

I will also share reviews of interesting books and articles as I read them.

I can see that people are still visiting this Blog quite often. What do you want or expect to find when you end up here? Talk to me. What are you currently reading or researching that relates to ECE? Or to Education in general?

regards

Maureen

Amazing blog post shows off Playcentre

Yes I know. Its been a while... Rather than apologising though for my lack of focus on my blogging I need to mention that the thesis is nearly done and then life will return to normal - or at least my version of normal.

I cant resist sharing this post from a Playcentre Mum. It shows an average but wonderful day in a Playcentre for two sisters. Although the mum mentions writing a learning story for her children I think that this post in itself is a great learning story. Well done Deb! ( and no I dont even know her - it came through my Twitter feed)

New Zealand Playcenter DVD 2011

ECE Task Force - Implications for Playcentre

Here is a link to a new Blog I set up to share information about the potential impact on Playcentres of the recommendations of the Task Force.

ECE Task force report

Here is a link to information from ChildForum on the taskforce report

It is an in-depth report with a range of potential consequences for the sector, depending on how the Minister uses the findings.

The Third Update from the ECE Taskforce

Here is the latest report from the taskforce. The final report is due to go to the Ministry of Education at the end of this month.

ECE funding cuts

Find more videos like this on ECE Together

Outcomes of Quality ECE

Here is a really useful collection of links to research on benefits of ECE.

Margaret May and the value of ECE

I have just watched Margaret's EDTalk and decided to share it. Other relevant links are included in ICT Fun and Learning for ECE">

Margaret is a Kindergarten teacher at Greenhithe Kindergarten in Auckland, NZ and was, until recently, a part of the ECE ICT professional learning programme run by Core Education. This programme ceased last year as one of the many ECE casualties in a Budget re-shuffle under the new government.