Early Childhood Folio vol. 19 no. 1 (2015)

This article reports on a qualitative study exploring the extent that the Apple iPad can be used to support assessment in an early childhood education (ECE) context. It is part of wider project exploring the educational affordances of the iPad in one ECE context from the perspectives of teachers, parents, and young children. Observations focused on interactions between an early childhood teacher and children as they were using an iPad and teacher interviews informed the study. The findings… Read more

Online portfolios, which allow teachers, families and children to document and share children’s experiences and learning, are increasingly used by New Zealand early childhood education (ECE) services. This study examined teachers’ and families’ engagement through one online portfolio system. An online survey gathered management, teacher, and whānau perspectives from 80 ECE services alongside case studies of two ECE centres. This article presents findings from the project, including the… Read more

Documentation of children’s assessment for learning is a vital cog in the turning gears of early childhood education (ECE). This article examines findings from a current research study comparing teacher, parent, and whānau engagement with, and use of, paper-based portfolios traditionally used in an ECE setting and newly introduced online ePortfolios. The study sought to discover whether there were changes to the way parents and whānau interacted with the assessment documentation when the… Read more

The authors of this article explore one child’s connections between the dispositional learning outcomes recognised during the child’s time at kindergarten, and those of the key competencies of the school curriculum. The kindergarten teachers who worked with the child came to think of these learning dispositions as part of the contents of the child’s virtual “backpack”: competencies she carried with her beyond the gate of the kindergarten to school as she continued the… Read more

Relationships lie at the heart of early childhood education principles, curriculum, and pedagogy. Building strong relationships is taken for granted as a capacity all teachers possess; yet this might be an area of practice in which teachers need support and professional guidance. In this article, we examine and discuss what teachers do to build strong positive relationships with other teachers, children, families, whānau, and the wider community. Teaching practices… Read more

This article considers ways in which early childhood educators in Aotearoa New Zealand might draw upon te ao Māori conceptualisations in delivering pedagogies that foster and enhance dispositions of empathy, compassion, and caring, thereby strengthening children’s emotional and social competence as well as their self-control. It first outlines some theoretical considerations from both western and Māori paradigms, and then provides several examples from previous research.… Read more