Critical Issues for Pre-school Education: Seminar 4
The fourth in a series of seminars funded by the Economic and Social Research Council took place in Glasgow on 24 October 2008 and was hosted by Learning and Teaching Scotland.
The seminar focused on pedagogy and ways of supporting learning. The reports here are summaries of the presentations and the discussion prompted by each talk.
The reports have been prepared by the seminar team to be a record of the fourth seminar in this series and to allow people who were not able to attend the event to get a flavour of the debate. There is an opportunity to comment at the end of each report.
Keynote presentations
Pedagogy: the silent partner in early years learning
Christine Stephen looked at the role of the early years practitioner in the UK and at different models of pedagogy.
Research, policy and practice: a sleeping giant?
Jean Carwood-Edwards spoke on the role of the Learning and Teaching Scotland Early Years team in building links between research and practice.
Gaze aversion as thinking time
Dr Gwyneth Doherty-Sneddon reported on research into the habit of 'gaze aversion', used as a thinking tool by both adults and children.
Just when you thought it was safe (to say that you were a ‘child-centred’ pre-school)
Professor Peter Kutnick’s presentation dealt with social pedagogic interactions during cognitive/learning activities among 4-year-olds in pre-school centres in England and Italy.
Developing the disposition to learn
Professor Guy Claxton emphasised the role of pedagogy in supporting children to become better learners, stressing the role of education in developing values, habits of mind, dispositions and attitudes.
Lessons learnt from implementing a play-based curriculum in Northern Ireland primary schools
Dr Glenda Walsh spoke on Northern Ireland's Enriched Curriculum, introduced to bring more developmentally appropriate practice to teaching and learning in the early years of primary school.
Please add your comments
Seminar 4 focused on pedagogy and ways of supporting learning. Please add your comments after each presentation summary.