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

by Isauro Escamilla
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
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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.

Learning Stories

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

Documentation and Inquiry in the Early Childhood Classroom

by Linda R. Kroll
Documentation and Inquiry in the Early Childhood Classroom
Author: Linda R. Kroll
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2017-09-27
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1315464993
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Documentation and Inquiry in the Early Childhood Classroom explores teacher inquiry, reflection, and research and the documentation of these processes within a variety of school sites and models. Compiling underrepresented inquiry stories from practicing teachers and administrators in early childhood (0–5) classrooms in the San Francisco Bay Area, this book highlights the power of the community in supporting professional development for early childhood educators and the education of young children. Important elements addressed include teacher learning, children’s curricula, parent and community communication, and equity and social justice for teachers, children, and families.

Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8

by National Research Council
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
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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.

Spotlight on Young Children

by Holly Bohart
Spotlight on Young Children
Author: Holly Bohart
Publisher: Spotlight on Young Children
Total Pages: 112
Release: 2018-06-05
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9781938113345
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The debate surrounding testing and accountability in early childhood education continues, but one thing is universally agreed upon: effective observation and assessment of young children's learning are critical to supporting their development. Educators balance what they know about child development with observation and assessment approaches that both inform and improve the curriculum. This foundational resource for all educators of children from birth through third grade explores What observation and assessment are, why to use them, and how Ways to integrate documentation, observation, and assessment into the daily routine Practices that are culturally and linguistically responsive Ways to engage families in observation and assessment processes How to effectively share children's learning with families, administrators, and others Find inspiration to intentionally develop and implement meaningful, developmentally appropriate observation and assessment practices to build responsive, joyful classrooms.

Powerful Interactions

by Amy Laura Dombro
Powerful Interactions
Author: Amy Laura Dombro
Publisher:
Total Pages: 160
Release: 2020-10-06
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9781938113727
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Make your everyday interactions with children intentional and purposeful with these steps: Be Present, Connect, and Extend Learning.

Funds of Knowledge

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