Date and time

TBC

Delivery mode

A blend of face-to-face and online - for the online components, a Zoom link will be provided 24 hours prior to the event.

Audience 

Early Child Director, Educational Leader and Foundation Teachers, Head of Early Primary

Description

The following program will give you an overview of this world-leading Pilot Program, which you can then trial within your early learning or primary classroom. The program has been devised with the aim of upskilling and building capacity to create learning spaces and experiences that support the child and their family moving into their next area of learning, exploring the worlds of literature as a catalyst for furthering conceptual knowledge and understanding of STEM.

By using well-loved books, we can develop a PlayWorld that enables both the child and teacher who acts as a facilitator with a text, to explore the narrative, pondering issues that arise from the text that can be explored within the lens of STEM resources, materials, and ideas.

The world of STEM and STEAM are changing rapidly; through a conceptual PlayWorld children are given the tools, strategies, and language to explore these worlds, using narrative text. Through this exploration, children are immersed within the text, and by taking on the characters' personas are problem-solving issues arising from the text. What these PlayWorlds allow for is a means of exploration, communication, and creation to be actively engaged with and by the children. Seeing them become the protagonist of the texts, they bring the imaginary and their real worlds together.

Participants will receive a copy of ‘Play in the Early Years’ written by Professor Marilyn Fleer.

Key takeaways                 

• develop a deeper understanding of the use of STEAM ideas within the early years' space
• build relational trust with the children in exploring the chosen texts
• support in developing strategies to explore narratives as means to problem solves and develop conceptual understanding
• tools and templates to support STEM within the ECEC service or primary class program
• information on how to create a PlayWorld within your educational setting.

Presenter information

Professor Marilyn Fleer

Professor Marilyn Fleer holds the Foundation Chair of Early Childhood Education and Development at Monash University, Australia. She was awarded the 2018 Kathleen Fitzpatrick Laureate Fellowship by the Australian Research Council and was a former President of the International Society of Cultural-historical Activity Research (ISCAR). Additionally, she holds the positions of an honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Education, University of Oxford, and a second professor position in the KINDKNOW Centre, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, and has been bestowed the title of Honorary Professor at the Danish School of Education, Aarhus University, Denmark. She was presented with the 2019 Ashley Goldsworthy Award for Outstanding leadership in university-business collaboration.

Link(s) to relevant VRQA Standards 

• Curriculum and Student Learning – Curriculum framework
• Curriculum and Student Learning – Student learning outcomes
• Curriculum and Student Learning – Monitoring and reporting on students’ performance