My Conclusion.

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 As successful teachers in today’s society we must constantly reflect on our teaching and when being critical we have to hunt for assumptions, explore them and make adjustments using new knowledge and ways to thinking that we have been exposed to during discussions with others, research and our observations within the classroom.

Until I began to study at university I couldn’t understand the need to associate learning with play and fun, this didn’t happen when I was at primary school and I thought that, although I was not a neurosurgeon, I was quite an intelligent and world savvy person. Even while working in childcare, planning and ensuring the children in my care were provided learning that was interesting, fun and valuable to each of them individually, I could not relate this to the school system as education, believing that successful education must be structured and set across the board for all students to ensure they were all on the same page. How wrong we can be. Beginning to study my Bachelor of Learning Management has forced me to critically reflect upon my perception of both education and how I would teach children of today and let me just say that I was way off track in my previous opinions.

Our world is changing drastically with the advancements in technology and economical growth so why has it taken so long for governments to see the need for a change in the way we educate our children that propels their leaning towards a new standard that concentrates on what is needed for the future.

To conclude I would like to list the most invaluable information that I have learnt from my studies to date. I am sure that by the end of my study I will have added substantially to my list of knowledge that become my list for success as a Learning Manager.

"Steps For The Successfully Learning Manager"

• Know your curriculum!
• Know your children and their families (remember this will not be easy)!
• Set a realistic level of expectation for each individual student to strive for.....and stick to it!
• Learning should look, sound and feel fun!
• You can never be to organised, prepare for everything!
• Flexibility is your friend, always be ready for a visit!
• No question you have is to stupid to ask!
• Be approachable, it cost you nothing but the returns will be immeasurable!
• Always remember that you are a professional and act like it!
• Respect has to be earned, it cannot be demanded.
• Reflect, reflect and reflect again!
• If your students enjoy school and you can see them learning...... you are succeeding!
• Most importantly, enjoy what you do!

Representing, Constructing and Assessing Knowledge.

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My understanding of the term “Curriculum” is everything that is experienced in the classroom situation.  It is the sum total of the experiences, activities and events whether direct or indirect which occurs within an environment designed to foster children’s learning and development through the incorporation of their interest and needs (CQUniversity. 2011).  Our understanding of what curriculum is impacts upon how and what we teach.

When a Learning Manager (LM) plans for play-based learning, we begin to glimpse how complex this teaching method can be.  For me, I have found Frangenheim’s, “What, Why and How of Teaching and Learning,” thinking strategy to be a simple yet effective way to ensure that I am planning successfully (2010. p.21).  Frangenheim’s strategy uses ‘What’ as the what is being taught to the students, ‘Why’ as the construction of importance of the learning for the students through motivation and ‘How’ to conduct the learning experience to ensure of understanding what is being taught through the incorporation of cognitive strategies.

The ‘What’ component of teaching comes from our curriculum and should be the basis for the learning.  LM’s must decide what learning outcome will be the basis for the education experience and incorporate all information relevant to extend children’s knowledge via inclusive conceptual exposure (Connor. 2010. p.3).  LMs must also incorporate children’s experiences into the learning to give it purpose, while still allowing the play to develop independently by the students; this is the ‘Why’ for learning. Finally, through Connor’s statement, “that in each stage of early childhood, children have different ‘learning agendas’ which motivate them to explore their environments and engage with other and discover new things and ideas,” we can understand why learning managers must know their students to allow for the incorporation of cognitive learning strategies that will promote both the engagement and challenge of each learner in the learning; the ‘How’ (2010. p.1). 

I see this strategy as a continuous circle, although we must know ‘What’ we are teaching, student data collected from pre-testing needs to be incorporated into the ‘Why’ and ‘How’ to ensure we are teaching to all student types in such a way that it provides them an understanding of the relevant specific knowledge and skills incorporated within the learning.

Along with knowing your curriculum and individual students, assessment is also critical for insuring successful teaching practice.  McNeil and McNeil’s statement that, “continual improvement only happens when we know where we are starting from,” shows the importance of educators beginning each teaching year with the pre-assessment of each student (2009. p.76).  Pre-assessment permits LMs to measurement were each student is at with their learning, observation how they learn and gauge at what rate their students acquire information, allowing LMs to set obtainable expectations for each individual learner.  The Early Years Learning Framework states, “knowledge of individual children, their strengths and capabilities will guide educators’ professional judgement to ensure all children are engaging in a range of experiences across all the Learning Outcomes in ways that optimise their learning,” highlights how play-based learning  values and encourages learning by all students at their individual rate so we can encourage all students to progress at their own level, with all learning progress being encouraged, no matter how small it may be (2009. p.19).  Students need also be set a level of expectation of learning by the teacher which will help alleviate the distress of some children who feel they are behind the other students (feeling dumb) and the students who feel disadvantaged as they have to aim higher than other students.

Assessment also promotes LMs reflection on how they are teaching and what is being taught while ongoing assessment allows for evaluation of students learning progress.  These assessments are then the proof or basis of the information LMs can employ in consultation with students, parents, fellow LMs and other professionals such as speech therapists.  LMs need to have proof of how a student’s learns and at what level they are at and what they should achieve, all of which is gathered from assessment be it an observation, this allows for the scaffolding of learning for students.

To ensure success when teaching with an early childhood play-based curriculum I feel that it is imperative that we begin by focusing on ensuring we are being integrative in our approach.  That is, ensuring that all learning allows children to incorporate prior knowledge of each child into the learning experience, encouraging them to not only explore and experiment during learning but also make connections to real life.  Talay-Ongan and Ap (2005) provide steps that I found I could relate to planning to ensure I was successful representing, constructing and assessing the student’s knowledge.  Their four steps to provide an integrated approach for planning were:

1.     Provide the environment-create a provocation or spark an interest by providing materials for children to explore.

2.    Sustain the play-once the children are absorbed in a topic, you can do several things to sustain the play.

3.    Enrich the play-If you notice interest is waning or the children need more complexity to sustain their involvement, enrich the project with props that might add new ideas.

4.   Represent the experience-The remaining step in the process is to develop documentation of children’s thinking and evolution of the project (2005.p.303).

References

Ap, E.A & Talay-Ongan, A. (2005). Child Development and Teaching Young Children. Cengage Learning. South Melbourne. Vic

Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace

Relations. (2009). Belonging, Being, Becoming The Early Years Learning

Framework for Australia. Retrieved from http://www.deewr.gov.au/Earlychildhood/Policy_Agenda/Quality/Documents/Final%20EYLF%20Framework%20Report%20-%20WEB.pdf

Connor, J. the early years learning framework professional learning program newsletter no 1 2010. http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/eylfplp/newsletters/EYLFPLP_E-Newsletter_No1.pdf

Connor, J. the early years learning framework professional learning program newsletter no 3 2010. http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/eylfplp/newsletters/EYLFPLP_E-Newsletter_No3.pdf

CQUniversity Australia. (2011). What is it to be a teacher, a professional and what in teaching is socially constructed? EDEC12027 Challenges of Early Childhood Education. Retrieved from http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=245373

 Frangenheim. E. (2010). Reflections on Classroom Thinking Strategies (9^th ed.). Loganholme, QLD: Rodin Educational Publishing.

Emerging Challenges for Play Based Learning.

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The main challenges I feel are emerging in relation to the integration of a play-based curriculum for the early childhood sector are the misconception of the ability to learn through play, the planning for and assessment of play, funding for education, the socio-cultural education of Learning Manager’s, transition to school, the social construction of childhood and how it relates to play-based learning, the equity and social justice issues of play, resourcing for play and the issue of mandatory and non-mandated education.  The high number of emerging challenged for play-based learning limits my discussion to only include the misconceptions of play-based learning, mandatory and non-mandated education and funding for education in Australia.  

As with any new idea, the concept of a play-based curriculum for early childhood education was bound to be met with some resistance, providing bumps that need ironing out.  I am aware of the negative perception of some parents and community members to the amalgamation of play into education from comments held with them during the nine years I have been employed in the childcare industry.  Opinions such as; it is easy for childcare workers as children play naturally and only need to be supervised for safety, that play is pointless self entertainment for children and that play doesn’t teach children anything are some of the comments I have heard.  These opinions have made me conscious of the misconceptions of play held by parents and other stakeholders’, exposing how the lack of understanding of play-based education could obstruct its implementation into our school system.  These misconceptions can easily be resolved by addressing specific issues in parent/teacher discussions, holding workshops to clarify play-based learning and by inviting parents into the classroom to involve them with the curriculum. 

During my prac placements I took the opportunity to discuss play-based learning with registered Learning Managers and was quite shocked at some of their comments. I was stunned to find how high the level of unhappiness of LM’s was in relation to both the curriculum itself and its incorporation into the school system.  The main area of concern for LM’s currently working in schools seemed to be that they felt the curriculum had not been fully perfected and was being incorporated before all the bugs had been removed.  Their remarks made me wonder why the LM’s felt this way and what could be done to rectify their opinions.  The answer I found was that all stakeholders’ whether they were educators or parents need to be fully instructed with the play-based learning system.  We can instruct parents and Learning Managers how a play-based curriculum in our social-cultural society allows children to engage in play experiences while drawing on their prior knowledge, giving their learning a real-life context.  Through instructing stakeholders on how play-based learning links the socio-cultural society of children, their prior knowledge and what is instructed at school to real-life situations, we will guarantee the success of both student learning and a play-based curriculum (Wheeler. 2007).

Another obstruction for play-based learning is that our educations system consists of both mandatory and non-mandated education.  The progressive decision to regulate a nationwide primary and early childhood play-based curriculum is disadvantaged by the government’s failure to make early childhood education mandatory, defeating the purpose behind syllabus changes.  The concept of early childhood education, for me, is aimed at building children’s readiness for ‘big school’.  It ensures orientation practices such as pencil grip, how to open their glue, handling scissors, letter and number awareness, writing their names, knowledge of school structure and the alleviation of separation issues, provide the all students the skills and knowledge to guarantee school readiness and continuity of learning for all students.  Kindergarten and prep not being mandated by the government will only cause confusion for some children attending early education setting, their lack of transition to learning hindering their educational development. The concept of an early childcare curriculum is a huge leap forward for the education of our nation but for it to be of benefit for children’s education it must be mandated along with the formal education years.

The making of early year’s childhood education mandatory benefits all stakeholders’ be they children, parents, educators and school community and projects the importance of early years learning for transition to formal education through its promotion of school readiness and focus on learning as a life altering experience.  This perception is established in the following statement from Grieshaber and Petriwshyj, “in the context of inclusion, there has been some questioning of the narrow approaches to transition, resulting in a shift to considering longer term transition processes, readiness of schools, and shared responsibilities of stakeholders,” (2011).

Funding for education is also providing to be a challenge for schools. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) conducted a report on educational expenditure in 2008 reporting the Australian government was only spending 13.8 percent of its total public expenditure on education.  This amount had remained exactly the same since 1995 (20011. p.254). Our national population had risen by 3.5 million between 1995 (Financial Demographics Pty Ltd. 2004), to reach 21.5 million in 2008 (Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2011), however our government did no increase their spending on education over the thirteen year period!  I located an article in the electronic newspaper, News.com.au, which further highlights the lack of educational spending in Australia  by showing that, “Australia sits equal sixth lowest out of 31 countries,” on the OECD's 2011 report on educational expenditure (News.com.au. 2011).  This lack of financial support from our government causes me to wonder how we are to fund the implementation of a national play-based early childhood curriculum.  The implementation of a new curriculum will need a huge induction of funding to ensure the training of LM’s, principals and teacher aides, to provide new equipment, provide policy development and construct buildings needed to accommodate a play-based learning curriculum. 

Newspaper Article Links Pertaining To This Topic

Childcare reforms force three in four centres to lift fees. 
Kids lead the way to new schools of thought.
Preschool crucial to bridge indigenous education gap. 
Australia spends less on education: OECD.

Website Links Pertaining To This Topic

OECD Education at a Glance 2011 HIGHLIGHTS.

References

Wheeler, H. (2007). Parents as partners in children's early learning and development. Retrieved from http://www.teachingexpertise.com/articles/parents-as-partners-in-childrens-early-learning-and-development-2864

News.com.au. (2011, September 13). Australia spends less on education: OECD. Retrieved from

http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/australia-spends-less-on-education-oecd/story-e6frfku0-1226136156465

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2011). What is the total public spending on education? Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/61/14/48630949.pdf

Financial Demographics Pty Ltd. (2004). Australian Population. Retrieved from http://www.findem.com.au/factsheets/AUSPOP.pdf

Grieshaber, S. & Petriwshyj, A. (2011). Critical Perspectives on Transition to School. Retrieved from CQUniversity e-courses, EDEC12027 Challenges of Early Childhood Education, http://library-resources.cqu.edu.au/cro/protected/edec11027/edec11027_cro7273.pdf

Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2011). 3218.0 - Regional Population Growth, Australia, 2008-09. Retrieved from http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Products/3218.0~2008-09~Main+Features~Main+Features?OpenDocument#PARALINK11

What is a teacher?

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I had always seen teaching as a profession but it wasn’t until I embark on my study of this subject that I began to recognize the vast amount of ‘professional’ areas that teaching encompasses.  Learning Managers (LM) in today’s socio-cultural society need to be educated in an immeasurable cross-section of skill bases to ensure we are able to provide both a professional and socially applicable standard of education.    

LMs must be compassionate, understanding and committed to their work while remaining professional at all times. The following statement by Ayers (1993.p.5), “teaching is instructing, advising, counselling, organizing, assessing, guiding, goading, showing, man aging, modelling, coaching, disciplining, prodding, preaching, persuading, proselytizing, listening, interacting, nursing, and inspiring.  LMs must be experts and generalists, psychologists. and cops, rabbis and priests, judges and gurus,” highlighting the importance of LMs having the skills needed to allow them to evaluate the variety of issues that arise within teaching that involve students, families, other teaching professionals, school communities, cultural communities and governments into a professional perspective through the incorporation of critical reflection and ongoing training (CQUniversity. 2011).

The fast paced development of our society also demands LMs must not only be able to acquire new knowledge needed to teach within our socio-cultural society and but also incorporate their imagination and creativity into planning lessons to promote engagement by all students, whether they be auditory, tactile or visual learners, within the learning experiences.  These professional skills, along with the Code of Ethics for LMs in Queensland, ensure that children are receiving the specialised education that is required to prepare and propel them toward the future.

Today’s LMs must be able to influence student learning by incorporating their experiences and understanding into the classroom whilst engaging with students to construct the curriculum while encouraging students to impart their own experiences and understanding by relating the learning to real life. This, to me, point out just how imperative it is for LMs to receive ethical training to ensure we are given the information and skills needed within our socio-cultural society to guarantee every student receives a socially, culturally, technologically and economically relevant education that is futures orientated while providing the skills needed for lifelong learning. I read an article entitled, ‘Teaching Young children specialist or not?’ by Dr Glenda MacNaughton that explains the importance of what we do as educators.  MacNaughton states, “teaching expertise means empowering young children to develop the understandings, skills, strategies, and dispositions that will set them on the path to lifelong learning” (1998. p.5).

I feel that LMs today are specialists in education, that is, we must become metacognitive specialists, able to asses our own ZPD as well as that of our students.  We need to be able to not only read the teaching environment, the students and other stakeholders but also define and differentiate between the languages of education to provide an emergent curriculum, such as play-based learning.  The incorporation of these languages verbal, graphic, tactile, musical, visual and gestural within the planning and instruction of learning experiences are critical in ensuring all students engage in reciprocal interaction, promoting their learning (Educational Performance Systems Inc. 2005).   

LMs must also understand their level of accountability for the education of students.  Woodrow (1999. p.23) defines teaching in today’s society is LMs undertaking the task of assessing the learning each student requires and know the curriculum to allow them to construct an equilibrium that joins the two.  This tells us that to be successful in educating today’s students it is imperative that LMs instruct them using a variety of thinking strategies and the skill needed to develop and grow as independent and constructive citizens of tomorrow (Frangenheim. 2010. p.5).

The chalk and talk LMs of the past need only be adverse in teaching from script, standardised marking and maintaining control of the class, a far cry from LMs today who I see as themselves being lifelong learners and futures orientated.  I simplify it by saying that we are educators in a rapidly developing social-cultural society preparing future world citizens for the unknown, a huge and daunting task but the reward for our success!!!!
 

TEN ACTION POINTS FOR EXE (Experiential Education) TEACHERS

1. Rearrange the classroom in appealing corners or areas

2. Check the content of the corners and replace unattractive materials by more appealing ones

3.  Introduce new and unconventional materials and activities

4. Observe children, discover their interests and find activities that meet these orientations

5. Support ongoing activities through stimulating impulses and enriching interventions

6. Widen the possibilities for free initiative and support them with sound rules and agreements

7. Explore the relation with each of the children and between children and try to improve it

8. Introduce activities that help children to explore the world of behaviour, feelings and values

9. Identify children with emotional problems and work out sustaining interventions

10. Identify children with developmental needs and work out interventions that engender involvement within the problem area.

  (Information courtesy of Directorate for Education, OECD 2004. P. 6)

References

Ayers, W. (1993). To Teach The Journey of a Teacher. Retrieved from CQUniversity e-courses, EDEC12027 Challenges of Early Childhood Education, http://library-resources.cqu.edu.au/cro/protected/eded11404/eded11404_cro1844.pdf

CQUniversity Australia. (2011). What is it to be a teacher, a professional and what in teaching is socially constructed? EDEC12027 Challenges of Early Childhood Education. Retrieved from http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=245373

Directorate for Education, OECD. (2004).Starting Strong Curricula and Pedagogies in Early Childhood Education and Care. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/23/36/31672150.pdf

Educational Performance Systems Inc. (2005). What is Metacognition?Retrieved fromhttp://www.epsi-usa.com/approach/metacognition.htm

Frangenheim. E. (2010). Reflections on Classroom Thinking Strategies (9^th ed.). Loganholme, QLD: Rodin Educational Publishing.

MacNaughton, G. (2000). Teaching Young Children Specialist or Not.Retrieved from CQUniversity e-courses, EDEC12027 Challenges of Early Childhood Education, http://library-resources.cqu.edu.au/cro/protected/edec12027/edec12027_cro258.pdf

Queensland Collage of Teachers. (2012). Code of Ethics for Teachers in Queensland. Retrieved from http://www.qct.edu.au/PDF/PCU/CodeOfEthicsPoster20081215.pdf

Woodrow, C. (1999). Tools test and tables. The Ethics of Assessment. Retrieved from CQUniversity e-courses, EDEC12027 Challenges of Early Childhood Education, http://library-resources.cqu.edu.au/cro/protected/edec12027/edec12027_cro260.pdf

What is play based learning and why use it?

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To fully understand the concept of play-based learning I feel we must develop our own understanding of what play means to us.  I see play as any activity that is controlled by children which provides orientated and intrinsically motivated engagement of people, mostly children, using objects within their surroundings.  It is the action of creating using their imagination, play is pretending. 

 
To me play-based learning is simply the providing of experiences for children to promote interactions with different people, equipment, resources and perspectives that will promote them to individually develop an understanding of their world through integrating with people.  Kennedy and Barblett provided a more scholarly definition when they state, “The Early Years Learning Framework defines play-based learning as: ‘A context for learning through which children organise and make sense of their social worlds, as they engage actively with people, objects and representations’,” (2010. p.3).

However simply it can be worded, the act of providing play-based learning is not in itself a simple task.  This does not mean that we should not consider its merits simply because it is hard work.  The following quote by personal development mentor Steve Pavlina (n.d) is an interesting thought that puts purpose and hard work into perspective, “When you live for a strong purpose, then hard work isn’t an option. It’s a necessity”.   This level of work involved in the representation, construction and assessment of knowledge through the incorporation of play-based learning will be discussed in my blog at a later date.

Play-based learning provides children today with skills that are not only invaluable for our current society but also for the unknowns of their future.   Advancements of technology within our society and our every changing economy demand our education system must be such that it provides all students with the skills that are vital to ensure the growth and survival of humanity.  Our students must be independent thinkers, problems solvers, have resilience and strive to be lifelong learners that are futures orientated.  These capabilities are the real life skills needed by the citizens in our society which, I feel, will develop independently in children provided with a play-based learning education.  Downey and Garzoli (2007) tell us that play provides children with, 

enjoyment, building of social skills and roles, exploration, making sense of themselves and the world, adaptation, learning, creativity, experimentation, expression, survival, exercise power, dealing with emotions, release of stress, testing of limits, risk-taking, development of the “whole” child, as well as bonding and making friends.

As educators, we can see the benefits for students to master the real-life application of these cognitive skills in promoting resilient, future orientated lifelong learners.

When looking to the theorists to help understand the importance of play in early education I find myself agreeing with Vygotsky’s contemporary concept that play is a social action that allows children to incorporate rules into their imaginary games.  Vygotsky’s explains that children, in their play, incorporate social rules they have seen into imaginary situations, highlighting how play leads cognitive development through their inclusion of social concepts, manipulatives and actions.  Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development (ZPD) theory shows how a child’s social interactions impact upon their acquisition of knowledge and understanding by assessing what is achievable independently and what they will require assistance with, allows me to understand the importance of incorporating scaffolding into planning learning experiences (Dockett & Fleer. 2002).

Image courtesy of clipartof.com andrebertel.blogspot.com

As a tactile or kinaesthetic learner myself, I can fully understand the importance of a hands on way of learning that has relevance to real life and is motivated by enjoyment and engagement. During this course we have read may article stressing the importance of using play to promote learning in children. The complexity of some of these articles has often caused me some confusion when trying to understanding how theorists have arrived at their conclusion of play-based early education. Through my own research on this topic I have come across an organisation based in America, The National Network for Child Care (2006), which incorporates information and research from universities, parents, other professionals, practitioners, and the general public in a simplistic way, highlighting the reasoning behind play-based learning and the perception of all our societies’ stakeholders. I found the following statement demonstrated how some children may view the chalk and talk method of education that we have been using. The National Network for Child Care (1996) writes,

We need only try to read a page of words in a foreign language to realize that words alone do not have meanings. Someone once said that words are like empty cups. It is only through varied, first-person real life experience that words are filled with meaning for the young child.

Website Links Pertaining To This Topic

The National Network for Child Care

Newspaper Article Links Pertaining To This Topic

Taking Play Seriously.

New preschool plan centres on environment.

References

Barblett, L. & Kennedy, A. (2010).  Learning and teaching through play

Supporting the Early Years Learning Framework. Retrieved from http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/eylfplp/pdf/RIP1003%20EYLF_sample.pdf

Dockett, S. & Fleer, M. (2002). Play and Pedagogy in Early Childhood Bending the Rules. Southbank, VIC: THOMAS LEARNING

Downey, J. & Garzoli, E. (2007). The Effectiveness of a Play-Based Curriculum
in Early Childhood Education. Retrieved from http://teachplaybasedlearning.com/8.html

Finest Quotes. (n.d.) Hard work Quotes.                                          http://www.finestquotes.com/select_quote-category-Hard%20Work-page-0.htm

National Network for Child Care. (1996). BETTER KID CARE: PLAY IS THE BUSINESS OF KIDS. Retrieved from http://www.nncc.org/Curriculum/better.play.html

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Prelude

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The following blog entries create a portfolio that I hope will give you an insight into my understandings and opinions of the following areas of early childhood education today within Australia, its importance for our nation’s future and that of our entire civilisation. I will discuss what I think play based learning and why we should use it to educate our children, look at and compare several Early Childhood Curriculums, how, as teachers we represent, construct and assess knowledge of and for our students and the emerging challenges for play based learning within our society. I will also share my views and opinions on teachers in today’s society, what we are and what we do.

Please feel free to post your comments as your views may give me a different perspective to ponder and reflect upon.