Mindfulness and Purpose in Early Childhood Education

Learning Stories are a widely used technique to assess children’s learning in New Zealand's, Te Whāriki early childhood curriculum, child care centres . The technique requires teachers to observe children and write narrative ‘stories’ to interpret the learning that is occurring in particular situations. A learning story is a written record of what an eduator has seen a child do, or what a group of children have done in the program.   The written story can be as short as a one paragraph, one page or longer, but usually focuses on a specific incident or episode (like an anecdotal) or snapshot of time (i.e. 10 minutes at the art table) or a group activity (a nature walk or visit to the fire station).   A record becomes a learning story when the educator adds their interpretation of the child's competencies and attitude toward learning (courage, curiosity, perserverance). New Zealand educators match up the strands of their early childhood curri...

  WHAT IS A LEARNING STORY? Learning Stories are a widely used technique to assess children’s learning in New Zealand's, Te Whāriki early childhood curriculum, child care centers . The technique requires teachers to observe children and write narrative ‘stories’ to interpret the learning that is occurring in particular situations. A 'Learning Story' is a record of what an educator has seen a child, or what a group of children do in the program.   The written story can be as short as one paragraph, one page or longer, but usually focuses on a specific incident or episode (like an anecdotal), or a snapshot of time(e.g. 10 minutes at the art table), or a group activity (a nature walk or visit to a fire station). It becomes a 'learning' story when the educator adds their interpretation of the child's competencies and attitude toward learning (courage, curiosity, perseverance). New Zealand educators match up the strands of their ear...

WHAT IS PROVOCATION?   Put simply, provocations provoke ! They provoke thoughts, discussions, questions, interests, creativity and ideas. They can also expand on a thought, project, idea and interest. Provocations can come in many forms: ·          An interesting photo, picture or book , ·           Nature (e.g. specimens) ·          Conceptual (e.g. changing seasons, light) ·          Old materials displayed in a new way, ·          An interest that a child or children have , ·          An object (e.g. magnets , maps) ·          New creative mediums , ·          Questions (from any source – i.e. What is gravity?) ·     ...