This paper describes the organisation of an Early Childhood Network as a forum to support practitioners’ investigation and documentation of practice to build towards a postgraduate qualification. Empirical data is presented from participants’ reflective journals and interviews and the themes emerging from this explored. The need for initiatives to provide professional development for 
all Early Years Practitioners commensurate with that of teachers within mainstream schooling is asserted. Although this discussion focuses on the UK, the authors believe that the issues raised may be usefully considered by Early Childhood practitioners and those engaged in professional development in other cultures and contexts.

https://eprints.worc.ac.uk/779/1/JETEN_paper__-_final_version_(2).pdf

The Development of Thought: Equilibration of Cognitive Structures

The Early Years Network: a Case Study in Continuing Professional Development

This chapter is set in the context of Temasek Polytechnic, Singapore, where problem-based learning (PBL) was introduced in 1998. Through a small-scale research project, involving 2 experienced facilitators (academic staff developers) and 20 first-time facilitators participating in a 2-day PBL learning experience as part of an initial teacher training program, the values of problem-based learning are identified. Six values emerged from the research data – namely, engaging in collaborative learning, stimulating thinking through dialog, appreciating diverse perspectives, dwelling with questions, rethinking power issues, and cultivating the whole person in learning. In essence, it is observed that the holistic engagement in learning that tends to be a part of the PBL process should become a way of life.

Values of Problem-Based Learning: Perceptions of Facilitators in an Initial Teacher Training Program at Temasek Polytechnic, a Singapore Institution of Higher Learning

As a teacher educator I am impelled to find answers to crucial questions about the ends and means of both teacher education and outdoor education in schools. Ends and means do not exist independent of wider societal influences. In response, this chapter places the research in context: my beliefs about outdoor education and teaching, a description of the course being examined, the context of outdoor education and initial teacher education in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Over the past decades, outdoor education has been constructed and reconstructed under the foci of personal and interpersonal skills, outdoor pursuits, place-based approaches and environmental and sustainability discourses. Initial teacher education has also been shaped by the divergent agendas of deregulation, social justice and professionalism. This chapter examines how these diverse influences have constructed our milieu and influenced my work. Coming to understand the contested landscape of outdoor education teacher education is critical in order to develop informed and capable outdoor education teachers.

Context of the Study

/pdf/why-sensemaking-is-not-enough-changemaking-as-concept-and-2qo7tsjgap.pdf

The Development of Thought: Equilibration of Cognitive Structures

Citations

The Early Years Network: a Case Study in Continuing Professional Development

Values of Problem-Based Learning: Perceptions of Facilitators in an Initial Teacher Training Program at Temasek Polytechnic, a Singapore Institution of Higher Learning

Context of the Study

Why sensemaking is not enough: Changemaking as concept and intervention method

In Environmental Education

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