From Play to Practice

From Play to Practice
Author: Marcia L. Nell
Publisher: National Association of Education of Young Children
Total Pages: 123
Release: 2013
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9781928896937

Describes play workshop experiences that give educators a deeper understanding of play-based learning and illustrate the power of play.

Powerful Interactions

Powerful Interactions
Author: Amy Laura Dombro
Publisher:
Total Pages: 160
Release: 2020-10-06
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9781938113727

Make your everyday interactions with children intentional and purposeful with these steps: Be Present, Connect, and Extend Learning.

Linking Children’s Learning with Professional Learning

Linking Children’s Learning with Professional Learning
Author: Jeanne K. Keay
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 170
Release: 2012-01-01
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9460916457

Producing evidence that professional development undertaken has an impact on children’s learning is an increasingly important issue in education. This book proposes a process model designed to support and enable education professionals to focus on this issue as an integral part of their daily work. This model centres around the identification of professional learning needs in relation to the learning needs of children and focuses on evidence of impact as part of that process. For this model to work effectively, however, there must be a culture which supports, enables and recognises the value and importance of professional learning and development and which is inclusive and child centred. This culture, its elements and its development are also addressed and provide the context and underpinning for the model. In the second part of the book research undertaken to develop and pilot the model with a range of education professionals is discussed and the model is further developed to support education practitioners, leaders and professional development providers to ask questions that are specific to their roles and responsibilities. This book will be of interest to a range of professionals teaching, leading, working, studying and researching in compulsory and post-compulsory education. It also has relevance for the increasing number of providers of learning and development opportunities for education professionals.

Evolving Learner

Evolving Learner
Author: Lainie Rowell
Publisher: Corwin
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2020-02-19
Genre: Education
ISBN: 154433835X

Learn from Kids, Peers, and the World to Transform Professional Learning What can kids teach us about educational practices? It turns out, plenty. PD is evolving into professional learning (PL), where personalized experiences focus on goals and outcomes, rather than seat time. In Evolving Learner, successful PL is framed through three critical sources: learning from kids, from peers, and from the world. Woven throughout the book are tangible connections to cycles of inquiry where a harmonious balance is the ultimate goal when students are engaged in inquiry for deeper learning and teachers are engaged in a parallel process to improve their practice. The authors’ unique framework shifts away from factory model "PD" and transforms it into experiences tailored to kids’ and adult learners’ specific needs. Clear strategies for accomplishing PL are presented through A framework where both students and teachers are active agents of learning Cycles of inquiry to empower students to become the owners of learning Techniques to make thinking visible for teachers and students Cutting edge coverage of applying technology to professional learning including the use of social media, gamification, and digital badges The time is right to reclaim ownership of your professional learning: Evolving Learner is an essential guide for embarking on this journey.

Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8

Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 587
Release: 2015-07-23
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0309324882

Children are already learning at birth, and they develop and learn at a rapid pace in their early years. This provides a critical foundation for lifelong progress, and the adults who provide for the care and the education of young children bear a great responsibility for their health, development, and learning. Despite the fact that they share the same objective - to nurture young children and secure their future success - the various practitioners who contribute to the care and the education of children from birth through age 8 are not acknowledged as a workforce unified by the common knowledge and competencies needed to do their jobs well. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 explores the science of child development, particularly looking at implications for the professionals who work with children. This report examines the current capacities and practices of the workforce, the settings in which they work, the policies and infrastructure that set qualifications and provide professional learning, and the government agencies and other funders who support and oversee these systems. This book then makes recommendations to improve the quality of professional practice and the practice environment for care and education professionals. These detailed recommendations create a blueprint for action that builds on a unifying foundation of child development and early learning, shared knowledge and competencies for care and education professionals, and principles for effective professional learning. Young children thrive and learn best when they have secure, positive relationships with adults who are knowledgeable about how to support their development and learning and are responsive to their individual progress. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 offers guidance on system changes to improve the quality of professional practice, specific actions to improve professional learning systems and workforce development, and research to continue to build the knowledge base in ways that will directly advance and inform future actions. The recommendations of this book provide an opportunity to improve the quality of the care and the education that children receive, and ultimately improve outcomes for children.

Learning for Themselves

Learning for Themselves
Author: Kath Murdoch
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 138
Release: 2012-07-26
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1136609687

In a world of rapidly changing knowledge which requires new and transferable skills, classrooms are increasingly being viewed as places where pupils learn how to learn. In order to help pupils develop new skills, teachers must encourage them to work independently and manage themselves as learners. Learning for Themselves offers teachers a repertoire of effective strategies and frameworks to nurture independent learning. The chapters are organised into four broad areas: learning preferences thinking inquiry personal challenges. Each section includes learning tasks covering commonly addressed topics in primary school curriculums, with each task designed to be adapted by students and teachers to suit particular interests and a range of teaching and learning goals. Photocopiable learning proformas for each task, and additional proforma resources are included to assist teachers and pupils when planning, managing, monitoring and keeping records associated with independent learning. Saving valuable planning time for teachers, this book offers a creative and effective way to encourage pupil's independence and will appeal to all teachers who aim to equip their pupils with transferable skills.

Learning Stories and Teacher Inquiry Groups: Re-Imagining Teaching and Assessment in Early Childhood Education

Learning Stories and Teacher Inquiry Groups: Re-Imagining Teaching and Assessment in Early Childhood Education
Author: Isauro Escamilla
Publisher:
Total Pages: 152
Release: 2021-07-13
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9781938113918

Learning Stories and Teaching Inquiry Groups is a practical text focused on how ECE practitioners can establish teacher inquiry and reflection groups and integrate the use of learning stories to strengthen their assessment, teaching practices, and knowledge of child development. Drawing on relevant research and the authors' direct work with teachers, the book focuses on describing ways the authors have adapted the framework of the learning stories approach from New Zealand to specific US educational contexts via examples from several urban and rural ECE contexts. The book provides practical examples of novice through veteran early childhood teachers engaging and collaborating in onsite and cross-site inquiry and reflection with a focus on learning stories. This text will be useful for infant, toddler, and preschool teachers taking courses at the AA, BA, and MA levels, as well as teachers engaged in onsite professional development. This text will help early childhood educators learn to write learning stories as an observational and assessment approach to document young children's learning experiences and to deepen teachers' understanding of the role of narrative in linking child development knowledge with effective environmental design, high-quality curricular approaches, and socially and culturally inclusive relationship practices. The text will support early childhood educators' professional development through easily understood instructions and case study samples of inquiry work with learning stories through community of practice. Educators will learn how linking learning stories with regular, systematic forms of teacher inquiry, documentation, and reflection promotes a new image of children as holistic learners.

Funds of Knowledge

Funds of Knowledge
Author: Norma Gonzalez
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 332
Release: 2006-04-21
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1135614059

The concept of "funds of knowledge" is based on a simple premise: people are competent and have knowledge, and their life experiences have given them that knowledge. The claim in this book is that first-hand research experiences with families allow one to document this competence and knowledge, and that such engagement provides many possibilities for positive pedagogical actions. Drawing from both Vygotskian and neo-sociocultural perspectives in designing a methodology that views the everyday practices of language and action as constructing knowledge, the funds of knowledge approach facilitates a systematic and powerful way to represent communities in terms of the resources they possess and how to harness them for classroom teaching. This book accomplishes three objectives: It gives readers the basic methodology and techniques followed in the contributors' funds of knowledge research; it extends the boundaries of what these researchers have done; and it explores the applications to classroom practice that can result from teachers knowing the communities in which they work. In a time when national educational discourses focus on system reform and wholesale replicability across school sites, this book offers a counter-perspective stating that instruction must be linked to students' lives, and that details of effective pedagogy should be linked to local histories and community contexts. This approach should not be confused with parent participation programs, although that is often a fortuitous consequence of the work described. It is also not an attempt to teach parents "how to do school" although that could certainly be an outcome if the parents so desired. Instead, the funds of knowledge approach attempts to accomplish something that may be even more challenging: to alter the perceptions of working-class or poor communities by viewing their households primarily in terms of their strengths and resources, their defining pedagogical characteristics. Funds of Knowledge: Theorizing Practices in Households, Communities, and Classrooms is a critically important volume for all teachers and teachers-to-be, and for researchers and graduate students of language, culture, and education.

Learning Stories

Learning Stories
Author: Margaret Carr
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 169
Release: 2012-03-19
Genre: Education
ISBN: 144625819X

Margaret Carr′s seminal work on Learning Stories was first published by SAGE in 2001, and this widely acclaimed approach to assessment has since gained a huge international following. In this new full-colour book, the authors outline the philosophy behind Learning Stories and refer to the latest findings from the research projects they have led with teachers on learning dispositions and learning power, to argue that Learning Stories can construct learner identities in early childhood settings and schools. By making the connection between sociocultural approaches to pedagogy and assessment, and narrative inquiry, this book contextualizes Learning Stories as a philosophical approach to education, learning and pedagogy. Chapters explore how Learning Stories: - help make connections with families - support the inclusion of children and family voices - tell us stories about babies - allow children to dictate their own stories - can be used to revisit children′s learning journeys - can contribute to teaching and learning wisdom This ground-breaking book expands on the concept of Learning Stories and includes examples from practice in both New Zealand and the UK. It outlines the philosophy behind this pedagogical tool for documenting how learning identities are constructed and shows, through research evidence, why the early years is such a critical time in the formation of learning dispositions. Margaret Carr is a Professor of Education at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. Wendy Lee is Director of the Educational Leadership Project, New Zealand.

Purposeful Play

Purposeful Play
Author: Kristine Mraz
Publisher: Heinemann Educational Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2016
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9780325077888

Play is serious business. Whether it's reenacting a favorite book (comprehension and close reading), negotiating the rules for a game (speaking and listening), or collaborating over building blocks (college and career readiness and STEM), Kristi Mraz, Alison Porcelli, and Cheryl Tyler see every day how play helps students reach standards and goals in ways that in-their-seat instruction alone can't do. And not just during playtimes. "We believe there is play in work and work in play," they write. "It helps to have practical ways to carry that mindset into all aspects of the curriculum." In Purposeful Play, they share ways to: optimize and balance different types of play to deepen regular classroom learning teach into play to foster social-emotional skills and a growth mindset bring the impact of play into all your lessons across the day. "We believe that play is one type of environment where children can be rigorous in their learning," Kristi, Alison, and Cheryl write. So they provide a host of lessons, suggestions for classroom setups, helpful tools and charts, curriculum connections, teaching points, and teaching language to help you foster mature play that makes every moment in your classroom instructional. Play doesn't only happen when work is over. Children show us time and time again that play is the way they work. In Purposeful Play, you'll find research-driven methods for making play an engine for rigorous learning in your classroom.