Fluent Essays

Answer each question with APA references 1- In preparation for the discussion, review the Module 1 reading, Early Childhood Designs for Multiliteracies Learning, by Sandra Hesterman.In your initial response, critically analyze the case studies, and decide with which one you most identify and with which one you least identify.Provide a rationale for your selections by citing details to compare the case studies with your experience.provide at least 1 reference2-In your initial response, describe a digital tool, game, or app used to teach mathematics in an early childhood classroom.Discuss the benefits and limitations of the tool.Provide examples of state/national standards and strategies the tool, game, or app supports.provide at least 1 reference3- In your initial response, choose one of the activities described in the course readings or in an outside source for promoting science and sensory development in early childhood learners.Summarize the goals, materials, and activities.Suggest modifications to meet the learning needs of students who are culturally, linguistically, and ability diverse.Use a minimum of three references to support your recommendations.4 - At times, both teachers and parents may have questions about the social-emotional development of young children. Can a child be spoiled? What should be done about biting? How should they respond to temper tantrums? Use course materials and your own research to find out more about these early childhood concerns.How can developmentally appropriate curriculum be designed to include these areas?What content-specific curriculum might be beneficial?What at-home instructional strategies can teachers suggest to assist parents?Cite a minimum of three references in APA (6th edition) format to support your answers. early_schildhood_designs_d1.pdf Unformatted Attachment Preview Hesterman • Early childhood designs for multiliteracies learning Early childhood designs for multiliteracies learning Sandra Hesterman Murdoch University Abstract The Australian Government has recently mandated the implementation of an Early Years Learning Framework in early childhood educational settings across the nation. The framework identifies an early childhood pedagogy that will provide children with the best start in life, and maximise their learning potential. This research study investigated how teachers’ pedagogical considerations, evident in different teaching approaches, impact on the integration of information and communication technologies to support Multiliteracies learning. Five case studies, constructed over a nine-month period and employing ethnographic methodology, illustrated how teacher pedagogy impacts on the quality of children’s Multiliteracies learning experiences. An analysis across the five cases with reference to the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority Quality Improvement Plan identifies a Reggio-inspired teaching approach as best supporting the Early Years Learning Framework outcomes and Multiliteracies learning. Introduction Within the education community information and communication technologies (ICT) have long been considered central to Australia’s educational future, inspiring new ways of teaching and learning (Kalantzis & Harvey, 2004). However, until recently, early childhood teachers have been wrestling with how best to facilitate use of ICT to support and enrich children’s learning. Fortunately, various initiatives over the last decade have begun to support this process. In 2008, the Australian Labor government embarked on an education revolution to secure the nation’s long term economic prosperity. To achieve high quality and consistent standards in the area of early childhood education (ECE), the Council of Australian Governments circulated its inaugural Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) (2009) to all early childhood education settings. This provides detail on early childhood pedagogy and aims to secure young Australians’ entitlements: to become successful learners; confident and creative individuals; and active and informed citizens (Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs, 2008). An EYLF Quality Improvement Plan Template 158 (QIPT) was created by the new Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) in 2011. Furthermore, the Australian Research Council (ARC) and interested industry partners have granted funding over the past decade to support teacher professional development university-based research projects with the following aims: to determine the most effective pedagogy for the use of ICT in ECE; to investigate how ICT can best be used for enhancing children’s learning; and to identify specific ways in which teachers can develop Multiliteracies in ECE environments (Lee, 2004). Utilising Multiliteracies pedagogy is considered the most effective way to integrate ICT in ECE. Educational principles that guide this pedagogy include adopting a broadened definition of literacy and utilising technologies to support individual cultural purposes while also contributing to wider global knowledge. In 2004, I was granted an Australian Postgraduate Award in order to complete research contributing further insight to two ARC project investigations: Investigating Literacy in Early Childhood Centres (2002–2003) and A Pedagogy for Multiliteracies with Information and Communication Technologies in Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, Vol. 36, No. 3, 2013 Early childhood designs for multiliteracies learning • Hesterman Early Childhood Education (2004–2006). It can be argued that the quality of children’s ICT and Multiliteracies experiences are entwined with teachers’ pedagogical considerations. This research builds upon this idea by exploring how five teachers with different approaches and pedagogical stances integrated ICT in their early years programs to facilitate Multiliteracies. Ethnographic methodology was used to construct case studies in kindergarten and pre-primary classrooms in Western Australian schools over a nine-month period. This article presents the study’s findings and analyses the five teaching approaches through the lens of the ACECQA QIPT. can marginalise students, particularly those who come from families and communities where English is a second or third language’ (Tan, 2008, p. 145). The EYLF QIPT, outlined next, now provides Australian teachers with a new lens through which to re-examine teaching strategies. The EYLF and the QIPT Fundamental to the EYLF is teachers’ reflective practice. This includes teachers reviewing their teaching approach to determine how best they can support children’s achievement of the framework’s five broad learning outcomes: 1. Children have a strong sense of identity; Context ICT and multiliteracies Critics have long argued for the need to review schoolbased literacy practices, believing the definition of literacy should be broadened to encompass more than instructing students how to master sound-letter correspondence ‘alphabetic’ literacy, which is the reproduction of a ‘tightly confined set of linguistic conventions’ (Mills, 2009, p. 7). The term ‘Multiliteracies’ embraces the notion that there are multiple ‘modes of representation’ which are much broader than language alone (Cope & Kalantzis, 2000, p. 5). Multiliteracies pedagogy ‘encourages a broader perspective of the student as a learner and values diverse ways of knowing, thinking, doing and being’ (O’Rourke, 2005, p. 10). It is underpinned by multimodal theory, which asserts that children create meaning using a ‘… multiplicity of modes, means and materials’ for self expression (Kress, 1997, p. 97). The theory postulates that from birth a child actively seeks to make and understand ‘messages and meanings’ in accordance with their interests and using available resources that may include ICT. Children’s lives ‘are digital and they communicate in a variety of modes with myriad materials that are made of bits and bytes’ (Yelland, Lee, O’Rourke & Harrison, 2008, p. 1). Multiliteracies pedagogy can support children in: developing a strong sense of identity and well-being; feeling connected to their world; and becoming confident and involved learners who can communicate effectively using their preferred ‘languages’ of communication. Multiliteracies pedagogy also invites teachers to reflect critically on how their teaching approach enables different sorts of learning, and how they can support ‘new forms of communication which are necessary to participate fully in our dynamic and culturally diverse society’ (Mills, 2009, p. 10). Teachers must look beyond the ‘dominant paradigms of English literacy education and their teaching strategies [that] 2. Children are connected with and contribute to their world; 3. Children have a strong sense of wellbeing; 4. Children are confident and involved learners; 5. Children are effective communicators. While government directives advise teachers that how they implement the framework will be determined by their unique early years context, the QIPT (ACECQA, 2011) will assess the effectiveness of implementation processes by means of government standard specifications. For example, it will consider the extent to which the EYLF informs the development of the early years program towards enhancing each child’s learning and development, and how successfully teachers design and implement programs that support children’s learning. Early childhood teaching approaches On initial observation, Western Australian kindergarten and pre-primary classrooms present as having similar learning environment, program, teacher role and staffing requirements. However, on closer examination it is evident that there are significant differences in teaching approaches. Embedded within different teaching approaches are educational ideologies which are shaped by cultural considerations, philosophical principles and theoretical perspectives (Crotty, 1998; Briggs & Potter, 1999; Mac Naughton, 2003). For the purpose of this study, I limited my literature review to examining five teaching approaches. This section provides brief descriptions of these approaches: Traditional-Structured, Play-Based, Developmentally Appropriate Practice, Multi-Aged Grouping and Reggio Emilia-inspired. 1. Traditional-structured approach A curriculum associated with this approach is characterised by a high level of formality, particularly in Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, Vol. 36, No. 3, 2013 159 Hesterman • Early childhood designs for multiliteracies learning relation to learning literacy skills. Program activities are predominantly teacher-directed and prescriptive: For each new activity, materials were changed and distributed to every child by adults … The teaching focus was on academic skill development and close adherence to the formal syllabus pre-planned for the year, mainly the ability to read and write the alphabets and numbers. The educational philosophy offered little scope and opportunity for children to develop skills in self-expression. (Gupta, 2001, p. 35) In this research study, ‘traditional’ pedagogy within a ‘structured’ program targeted child development utilising the Western Australian Department of Education Level 1 (Year 1) student outcomes and standard measurements. 2. Play-based approach Teachers adopting a play-based approach aim to give guidance to self activity and free play in a non-prescriptive manner while remaining responsive to children’s interests. Evidenced in the literature are many examples that support the efficacy of play in ECE: …through play, children demonstrate improved verbal communication, high levels of social and interaction skills, creative use of play materials, imaginative and divergent thinking skills and problem solving capacities. Play and playful forms of activity potentially lead towards increasingly mature forms of knowledge, skills and understanding. (Anning, Cullen & Fleer, 2004, p. 21) While play is recognised as a means of promoting child-initiated learning of literacy, its provision (time, space and resources) within an early years setting is teacher dependent. With curricular constraints and policy mandates for teaching the three R’s, early intervention and primary school program integration, the quality of play in ECE has eroded. 3. Developmentally appropriate practice approach As pressure to provide more structured learning activities in early childhood education increases, so too does interest in developmentally appropriate practice (DAP). Supporters of this teaching approach believe that while there are individual differences in child development, nurture can stimulate language development providing that age-, individual-, social- and cultural-appropriateness of language activities is ensured. In recent years, the word ‘development’ has become a loaded term, implying there are universal stages that ‘normal’ children progress through to adult maturation. Research has shown that developmentally appropriate practice is culturally determined, thus culturally 160 biased. A culturally specific childhood is defined for mainstream education purposes. A DAP program will reflect the teacher’s ‘cultural orientation [towards language development] and their personal beliefs regarding what is best for young children’ (Szente & Hoot, 2002, p. 30). 4. Multi-aged grouping approach Typically, Multi-Aged Grouping refers to ‘educational settings which have two basic features: (a) there is a mixed age grouping of children, and (b) these children are deliberately organised for teaching and learning according to educational principles which assume that they will benefit from mixed age strategies’ (Scott, 1993, p. 52). Advocates for Multi-Aged Grouping contend that cross-age learning environments better accommodate children’s uneven development. Research confirms that the Multi-Aged Grouping (MAG) approach in the early years is a philosophy as much as a practice and in classrooms that include non-compulsory (kindergarten and pre-primary) and compulsory ECE, teachers tend to adopt ‘more formal types of learning, which included whole group team teaching and modified Year 1 curriculum for preprimary [and kindergarten] children’ (Stamopoulos, 2003, pp. 10–11). 5. Reggio-inspired approach The Reggio approach, which originated after World War II in Northern Italy, promotes social constructivist learning principles; the idea that ‘knowledge is socially constructed in a cultural setting’ (Hill, Stremmel & Fu, 2005, p. 7) and that ‘there is no knowledge independent of the meaning attributed to experience (constructed) by the learner, or community of learners’ (Hein, 1991, p. 1). Children are recognised as ‘unique individuals with rights’, who are ‘rich in resources, strong and competent’ (Rinaldi, 1998, p. 114). Children are encouraged to take leadership in planning, and to assume responsibilities for their own learning. The term The Hundred Languages of Children, synonymous with the Reggio approach, denotes how children learn and communicate in a myriad of multilevelled and multimodal ways. In the classroom, children have ready access to a wide range of media (including ICT) that they can use to design meaning. In Australia, the potential for a Reggio-inspired approach to broaden the definition of literacy depends on school support. While the five approaches identified above are described as generic forms, in reality teachers will reject, adapt, modify, and blend many different approaches based on what they perceive as the role of ECE. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, Vol. 36, No. 3, 2013 Early childhood designs for multiliteracies learning • Hesterman Methodology Ethnographic inquiry strategies were considered most appropriate for this study for two reasons. First, the research was exploratory and needed a flexible methodology which was responsive to unpredictability. Second, ethnographic inquiry facilitates the use of inductive strategies to learn about cultural conditions, local knowledge and teaching approaches (Flick, 2002). The approach assists the researcher ‘to recognise that different people …inhabit quite different worlds’ and that their ‘different worlds constitute for them diverse ways of knowing, distinguishable sets of meaning, separate realities’ (Crotty, 1998, p. 64). The fieldwork included ‘a process of deliberate inquiry in a setting’ (Erickson, 1986, p. 140). Methods employed to gather data included classroom observations, semistructured interviews, document analysis of school literature, teachers’ early years programs and children’s work samples. Observations in each classroom occurred on a fortnightly basis over a nine month period for a minimum of five hours per visit. A total of 120 children (aged 4–5 years) were observed participating in classroom activities. The five teacher participants were females aged between 35–50 years. Each was highly respected within their own school community for their outstanding professionalism in ECE. Four of the teachers had participated in an Australian Research Council (ARC) action-research project, A Pedagogy for Multiliteracies with Information and Communication Technologies in Early Childhood Education, and volunteered to be participants in this research study. During action research workshops (2004–2006) the four teachers wrestled with a range of philosophical issues pertaining to broadening literacy definition and ICT integration appropriate for ECE. My concern that ICT experiences supporting Multiliteracies learning would not be observed in their classrooms during fieldwork led me to contact a fifth teacher. This teacher had not participated in the workshops, was unfamiliar with the term Multiliteracies (although well-acquainted with The Hundred Languages of Children) and actively sought authentic ways to integrate ICT in student learning. Following fieldwork completion and data transcription, a three-fold process was undertaken. First, a series of individual case studies were compiled directly from the fieldwork data. Case studies were selected as the most appropriate method of presenting the individual data as they enabled capture, through rich description, of the culture of individual ECE settings, and emphasised culturally specific language, concepts and events. Second, further analysis was undertaken, using both inductive and deductive processes. Inductive analysis, described by Neuman (2000) as ‘open coding’, was used to identify broad themes in individual cases and then to establish theme commonality between cases. Deductive analysis was then used to re-examine all raw data for the purpose of gathering additional information on theme attribute difference. Third, a cross-case analysis of the data using the EYLF QIPT was undertaken. The multi-stage process yielded rich findings, illuminating powerfully how different pedagogical considerations shaped the dialogic intersection of ICT, Multiliteracies and ECE. However, in the process, ‘local narratives’ were fragmented (Rosenau, 1992, p. xii). To remedy this, the presentation of the individual case studies was altered to emphasise ‘the uniqueness and holism’ of each case, whilst retaining the thematic analysis (Noblit & Hare, 1998, p. 7). I elected to use Blank Verse poetry as a narrative medium that would enable my communication of participants’ voices (pseudonyms used) on significant themes and convey the ‘local narratives’ – story excerpts of participants’ told experience (Rosenau, 1992, p. xii). I selected and grouped words spoken by the teachers, to emphasise my utterance as the storyteller as I believed this was more effective than ordinary prose. Tedlock (1983, cited in Brady, 2005, p. 994) argues that treating oral narratives (such as those communicated during semi-structured interviews) as dynamic poetry can yield many analytic and aesthetic rewards: The apparent flatness of many past translations is not a reflection but a distortion of the originals, caused by the dictation process, the notion that content and form are independent, a pervasive deafness to oral qualities, and a fixed notion of the boundary between poetry and prose. Present conditions, which combine new recording techniques with a growing sensitivity to verbal art as performed event rather than a fixed object on the page, promise the removal of previous difficulties. (pp. 54–55) Consistent with the qualitative paradigm, it is acknowledged that these case studies retain uniqueness and holism, and have been shaped by multiple realities of ‘truth’. No attempt is made to treat them as a representative sample of wider Western Australian ECE. In the following sections the analysis of the data is presented and discussed. First, I present the thematic analysis of the case studies and the case study poems, and discuss their implications. This is followed by the cross-case analysis. Individual case studies The five case studies are presented below, each with: • A brief contextualising summary of the teacher’s pedagogical stance. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, Vol. 36, No. 3, 2013 161 Hesterman • Early childhood designs for multiliteracies learning • A case study poem voicing the teacher’s perspective on four themes identified during data analysis as common to all participants. These are: Image of the child; School context; ICT integration; and Multiliteracies. • A discussion of how ICT was integrated in ECE to support Multiliteracies learning, and of the effectiveness of this integration. Case-study 1: A Structured- ... Purchase answer to see full attachment