Wendy Boyd

Applying an alternative mathematics pedagogy for students with weak mathematics: meta-analysis of alternative pedagogies

ABSTRACT Student mathematics performance and the need for work-ready graduates to be mathematics-competent is a core issue for many universities. While both student and teacher are responsible for learning outcomes, there is a need to explicitly acknowledge the weak mathematics foundation of many university students. A systematic literature review was undertaken of identified innovations and/or interventions that may lead to improvement in student outcomes for university mathematics-based units of study. The review revealed the importance of understanding the foundations of student performance in higher education mathematics learning, especially in first year. Pre-university mathematics skills were identified as significant in student retention and mathematics success at university, and a specific focus on student pre-university mathematics skill level was found to be more effective in providing help, rather than simply focusing on a particular at-risk group. Diagnostics tools were found to be important in identifying (1) student background and (2) appropriate intervention. The studies highlighted the importance of appropriate and validated interventions in mathematics teaching and learning, and the need to improve the learning model for mathematics-based subjects, communication and technology innovations.

Children as artists: The preschool as a community of creative practice

ABSTRACT Picasso once famously said “All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” This visual inquiry is engaged through a community of creative practice in two rural childrens centers where the researchers along with 4- and 5-year-old children collaborated to create a large-scale canvas and several smaller artworks developed from the childrens shared interests. By investigating the site where uninhibited and intuitive creative practice is expressed—that of early childhood education—the authors explored such questions as “What can we learn from the art making of young children?” and “Why is this important?” In this visual essay, it is recognized that children are indeed artists, rather than merely children who enjoy painting; issues of practice are explored and honored. It is further acknowledged that children are also theorists, experimenting again and again as learning occurs; they are also often our teachers. Collaborating with children as a community of embodied artists honors their creative authority.

A Challenge for Early Childhood Environmental Education

This chapter orients the reader by introducing the underlying premise of the book, in addition to outlining the remaining six chapters. The book’s foundation lies squarely in an era in which environmental education has been described as one of the most pressing educational concerns of our time, leading to the critical need for further insights in understanding how best to approach the learning and teaching of environmental education in early childhood education. In this chapter and indeed this book more broadly we address this concern by identifying two principles for applying play-based learning in early childhood environmental education. The principles we identify are the result of research conducted with teachers and children using three different types of play-based learning, namely open-ended play, modelled-play and purposefully framed play. Such play types connect with the historical use of play-based learning in early childhood education as a basis for pedagogy.

Comparing career identities and choices of pre-service early childhood teachers between Australia and China

ABSTRACT Australia and China are experiencing increasing need for trained early childhood teachers. Career identity and work choices are critical ingredients for achievement in career outcomes. This study reports on a survey undertaken by early childhood pre-service teachers from China and Australia regarding identity and choices for early childhood teaching. Significant similarities and differences of career identity suggest that Australian respondents have higher career aspirations to be an early childhood teacher than Chinese counterparts, but contradictorily the Australian respondents preferred teaching in primary schools. Reasons, views and intentions to work in early childhood education were key points of comparable interest.

Early Childhood Education in Vietnam: History and Evaluation of Its Policies

This chapter analyses Vietnam’s policies, laws and documentation on early childhood care and education (ECCE) through the 3A2S framework (Li et al, Int J Chin Educ 3(16):1–170, 2014) and concludes with an evaluation of the progress made in the provision of quality early childhood education throughout the twenty-first century. Early childhood care and education has a long history in Vietnam. As early as the 1900s, ECCE was provided to support women’s work, as Vietnam was an agrarian society. Following independence of France in 1954, Vietnam was involved in war and associated hardship until the 1970s so it was not until the 1980s that large-scale reforms in education became a significant focus of the government. Early childhood care and education was made an official department in 1991. Throughout the 1990s and into the twenty-first century, universal access to ECCE has been a priority with remarkable achievements gained. However, access to ECCE in mountainous areas, amongst ethnic minority groups and for many disadvantaged people, needs improvement. Vietnam has made significant progress in meeting accessibility, affordability, accountability, sustainability and social justice goals in ECCE, ongoing investment, both financial and in terms of human resources, is required to continue strengthening ECCE more uniformly across the country.

Environmental Education and Pedagogical Play in Early Childhood Education

This chapter turns the reader to critical debates and typologies in the environmental education research and literature. Such debates are contextualised within early childhood education and play pedagogies in particular. The authors initially discuss the concepts of sustainable development and sustainability, leading to further critical discussion around the apparent tensions between environmental education and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)/Education for Sustainability (EFS). The authors challenge the dominant aligning of Education for Sustainability (EFS) and early childhood education, arguing that such alignment is grounded within traditional ideas about children’s play. Rather the authors focus upon situating environmental education within contemporary play-based pedagogies. The chapter explores how understanding play-based pedagogy in terms of the role of the teacher is helpful because it widens understandings of ‘play’ so that content and educator interactions are valued alongside children’s activities and interests. Such understandings are essential with respect to supporting children in developing ecocentric or biophilic dispositions.

Robyn: Worms Underground

This chapter presents Robyn’s (an early childhood teacher) and the children’s experiences. Robyn’s kindergarten was located in an outer suburban part of Melbourne, Australia. Robyn focused on worms and making a wormery (a worm farm) owing to the childrens interest in worms, and her goals were to provide children with greater understanding of worms and their habitats. Robyn’s play order was purposefully framed play, modelled play and open-ended play. Robyn brought in a large clod of soil rich in worms for the children to explore. She initiated purposefully framed play asking children in-depth questions about worms, used correct terminology and built a worm farm with the children. She used nonfiction books and scientific tools to enhance the children’s learning. During the modelled play children made their own worm farms under guidance from Robyn, and in the open-ended play they were given free rein to make their worm farm. This led to some of worms being drowned by the children using too much water, leading Robyn to step in to save the worms. Robyn identified that normally she would use all three strategies in the same play session rather than in isolation or separately. This articulation of the combined play types to environmental education is important for early childhood education as educators move in and out of teaching strategies depending on the children’s cues, their interests and the intent of teaching.

Josh: Small Is Beautiful

This chapter presents Josh’s (an early childhood teacher) and the children’s experiences at St. Kilda and Balaclava Kindergarten, Melbourne, Australia. The outdoor environment at the kindergarten provided opportunities for children to find and observe living things and explore their habitat. Josh orientated the implementation of his three play types on an investigation of macro-invertebrate habitats. Josh implemented the play-types in the following order: open-ended play, modelled play, and then purposefully framed play. In the open-ended play experience the children explored various habitats with Josh observing the children. During the modelled play Josh modelled finding macro-invertebrates in their habitats, citing their names and characteristics. Joshs purposefully-framed play session began with exploratory learning of the environment, and then matching photographs of the macro-invertebrates with pictures, name, characteristics and habitat. As the children participated in the play types the level of their biophobic expressions declined and they began to show more biophilic orientated dispositions. Josh was challenged by implementing an open-ended play approach only. He explained he would not normally teach in this manner, instead choosing to follow up the children’s emerging interests immediately. However, he reflected that he found value in listening to the childrens ideas initially without questioning and interacting with the children.

Jeanette: Pond Life

This chapter presents Jeanette’s (an early childhood teacher) and the children’s experiences in implementing the three different play types at Cornish College Early Learning Centre, Melbourne, Australia. Using Jeanette’s knowledge of the childrens past interests she planned an adventure to the pond (also referred to as the lake) in the grounds of the College as a learning opportunity to teach environmental education. Jeanette chose to focus on investigating concepts of sustainability, biodiversity and animal habitats. She used the play-types in the order of open-ended play, modelled-play to raise questions with the children to stimulate their learning, and purposefully framed play to engage the children with content to build their understanding about biodiversity. The order of play-types suited Jeanette as it was consistent with her typical approach to teaching. Whilst the open-ended play experiences helped Jeanette ascertain the children’s existing knowledge base, for her it seemed to misconstrue what the children believed they would find in the pond (for example sharks and crocodiles). The later engagement of collecting the water and finding the creatures in the water in modelled-play and purposefully-framed play led the children to an understanding of the range of creatures that actually lived in the habitat. As such, purposefully framed play created a context for supporting children’s understanding of life and supported the development of their own biophilia dispositions alongside Jeanette’s disposition.

A Challenge Reconsidered: Play-Based Learning in Early Childhood Environmental Education

In this chapter, the authors discuss the two principles that emerged from this research project, and that can be applied for play-based learning in early childhood environmental education. These principles are (1) Valuing different play-types according to their pedagogical potential for engaging with aspects of environmental education; and (2) Creating combinations of play-types that support engagement with different aspects of environmental education. These two principles go beyond the traditional thinking of learning ‘naturally’ through play. This is because the principles allow educators to identify pedagogical value associated with a play type and to combine this with other play types to achieve environmental learning goals with children. Simply providing children with access to open-ended play in an outdoor setting is insufficient to support environmental learning. Environmental learning in the early years needs to provide children with opportunities for acquiring content knowledge that allow them to build understandings about their world and develop biophilic dispositions toward nature. This is a necessary basis for engaging children in discussion about the need for sustainability and sustainable actions in their own lives and communities.