Sally Peters

I Didn't Expect That I Would Get Tons of Friends More Each Day: Children's experiences of friendship during the transition to school

This article presents some of the findings from a study that explores the complex nature of the transition to school, and looks specifically at 23 childrens experiences of friendship and the way in which this impacted on their early experiences of school. Observations of the children, and interviews with the children, their families and their teachers, revealed that not only did friends play a vital role in facilitating the childrens transition to formal schooling, they also assisted directly in facilitating the childrens learning. Conversely, a lack of friends was related to a more difficult transition, the repercussions of which often extended for some time. The article suggests that parents/caregivers and teachers may wish to take a proactive role in providing opportunities for children to make friends during their transition to school.

Playing Games and Learning Mathematics: The results of two intervention studies

Abstract This article presents the findings of two studies that were designed to improve young childrens number knowledge through the use of mathematical games. The first study, with 5‐year‐old children (N = 55), involved parents coming into the classroom to play games with small groups of children. The second study, with 7‐year‐old children (N = 128), explored several ways of incorporating games into school mathematics programmes, including parents playing games with the children. Individual task‐based interviews were used to gather data on the childrens number knowledge, and detailed observations were made of selected childrens experiences during their normal mathematics lessons and while they were playing the mathematical games. The results showed that games appeared to be most effective as a way of enhancing childrens learning when a sensitive adult was available to support and extend the childrens learning as they played. The factors that appear to be important when involving parents in games se...

Fostering children’s working theories: pedagogic issues and dilemmas in New Zealand

Working theories and learning dispositions are key learning outcomes in the early childhood curriculum in New Zealand. However, while there has been a focus on learning dispositions in recent years, less is known about the development of children’s working theories or the pedagogy to support this. The aim of this study was to explore children’s working theories in action in a number of Playcentre settings. The authors were interested in children’s problem‐seeking and ‐solving, theorising, acting and interactions as they engaged in everyday inquiries and conversations with others. This paper discusses some of the dilemmas for educators, including defining and recognising working theories, and deciding what to respond to, and how to respond. When attention was paid to the subtle nuances of moment‐to‐moment interactions it provided new insights into pedagogy. The findings have implications for early childhood educators as they seek to develop episodes of sustained shared thinking and support the development of children’s working theories over time.

Chasms, Bridges and Borderlands: A Transitions Research ‘Across the Border’ from Early Childhood Education to School in New Zealand

The theoretical stance underpinning a research study impacts on what features of transition are seen as important, the data that are gathered and how they are analysed. This chapter sets out the ecological and sociocultural theoretical approaches that underpin my own transitions research and also acknowledges the relevance of ideas about cultural capital and rites of passage. I discuss some of the issues and challenges arising from this theoretical position and outline some current and anticipated future research directions and policy implications. Within this discussion I trace my own changing preoccupations from understanding the potential chasm between the cultures of early childhood education and school in New Zealand to the possibility of building bridges across the chasm to support children’s transition journeys and more recently to the possibility of developing borderlands of shared understandings and negotiated space between early childhood education and school.

Borderlands, Bridges and Rites of Passage

This chapter examines transitions by looking closely at the border or threshold to be crossed between different educational contexts. We explore research findings related to borderlands and bridges between the early childhood and school sectors, the ways in which these might be conceptualised in policy and the implications for practice for the professionals involved. The chapter also considers the child’s pathway or learning journey traversing these borders, borderlands or bridges and discusses the place of rites of passage in this process.

Shaking up human development: A reflection from Aotearoa New Zealand on Erica’s Burman’s contribution

This paper describes the influence of Erica Burman’s book Deconstructing Developmental Psychology in one university department over two decades. To illustrate, three colleagues describe their separate geographical and theoretical journeys towards critical study of human development. Ongoing influences of Burman’s work in Aotearoa New Zealand are outlined. In particular, Burman’s view—that development is socially constructed within particular cultural, economic and historical circumstances—has become central to our research and university curriculum.

Exploring Learning in the Early Years

“It’s not until you look at yourself that you see what’s really there” (Practitioner researcher reflection).1 When practitioners research their own settings and strive to understand children’s learning, “what’s really there” can be surprising. In this chapter we draw data from two projects where classroom and early childhood education practitioners engaged in research that explored their interactions with children and ways of understanding and enhancing their learning. Our research provides a platform for critical engagement with Professor Nuthall’s work. Nuthall uncovered hidden aspects of children’s learning and challenged teachers to acknowledge that what they “intend and believe to happen in their classrooms is frequently not what students experience” (Nuthall, this volume, p. 1). His research highlighted the difficulties involved in promoting children’s learning and challenged the correlations between what teachers do and what students learn. In our research, we examined the gap between what adults may believe is happening and what children experience, and the challenges and dilemmas practitioners face in their daily practice of supporting children’s learning.

An International Tertiary Research Partnership

The stereotypical image of the academic as a ‘mad professor’ who leads a solitary existence in the confines of a cluttered, dingy office engrossed in his or her own world of philosophical thought is far from the realities of 21st century academic life. Tertiary organisations have long recognised the need to collaborate and network beyond the four walls in order to generate knowledge on a much grander scale.

Pedagogies of Educational Transition: Current Emphases and Future Directions

In exploring the pedagogies of educational transitions, the chapters in this book reflect both the personal and collective nature of transitions. While transitions are experienced by individuals, they occur within social, educational, community, political, economic and institutional frames, involving children and families in expanding sets of relationships. Examining experiences of transition not only illuminates the potential influences in individual lives but also contributes to our collective understandings of transition. As a result, we can highlight the journeys of transition for individual children and families and discuss the shared transition experiences of children in Sweden as they move from preschool to the preschool class and then to school, challenges in recognising diversity and promoting inclusion in different contexts, the experiences of Indigenous children as they start school in Australia and New Zealand, implications for children as they experience different pedagogical and curriculum approaches across preschool and school in Iceland and the potential of transitions as a focus for change in Scotland.