Grade R Theory and Practice 279
Notes Semester 2
Table Of Contents:
Table Of Contents: 1
Who is the grade R teacher? 6
The Broader Community 9
An optimal learning environment 13
Principles of Learning 21
Teaching and Learning 28
Life Skills: Creative Art 39
Learning and Teaching through Play 44
Play Facilitation White Paper: 50
Malaguzzi’s article/poem (1994): 53
The Kindergarten Programme 53
The Environment is a teacher 56
Sources:
Excell, L. & Linington, V. 2015. Teaching Grade R. Juta: Cape Town. Chapter 5, 6, 7,
8,10,14
Malaguzzi, L. (1994). Your Image of the Child: Where Teaching Begins
Callaghan, Karyn (2013). The Environment is a Teacher. Ontario Ministry of
Education
Jensen, H., Pyle, A., Zosh, J. M., Ebrahim, H. B., Scherman, A. Z., Reunamo, J., &
Hamre, B. K. (2019). Play facilitation: the science behind the art of engaging young
children (white paper). The LEGO Foundation, DK. [This source will be referred to as
the play facilitation white paper]
Vosniadou, S. (2001). How Children Learn. International Bureau of Education
The Kindergarten Programme, Ontario Ministry of Education, 2016
Powerpoint slides, Linda Bosman Week 8-13
,Term 1
Pedagogical documentation
Week 3: lecture 2 (8 March 2023)
Define:
● document
● Documentation: visible listening; ensures children are seen and heard. Documenting and
displaying learners' work; process; achievements; influences etc around schools. Shows
the process of learning and overcoming a setback.
○ “We define documentation as the practice of observing, recording, interpreting,
and sharing through a variety of media the processes and products of learning in
order to deepen and extend learning … These physical traces allow others to
revisit, interpret, reinterpret, and even re-create an experience.” (Krechevsky,
Mardell, Rivard, & Wilson, 2013, p. 74)
● Pedagogical documentation: the discussion, analysis and reflection of documentation.
Allows teachers to see into children’s worlds so they can adjust teaching content and
styles.
○ “… pedagogical documentation is a process for making pedagogical (or other)
work visible and subject to dialogue, interpretation, contestation and
transformation.” (Dahlberg, 2007, p. 225)
● provocateur
● Pedagogy
○ “Pedagogy is the understanding of how learning takes place and the philosophy
and practice that supports that understanding of learning.” (How Does Learning
Happen?, 2004, p. 16)
● Learners are actively involved in their own learning
● Documentation helps them to reflect and analyse (NB science skills!)
● Learners can more easily share their findings and learning process with others.
● Helps us to include the voice of a child in our pedagogical practices.
● Real world problems, children choose them and use higher order thinking skills to
solve them.
● Students can self-assess
● Accountability with themselves
and one another
How to start?
1. Collaborative inquiry approach
, a. See what other teachers are doing
b. Get diverse representations of student thinking and learning
c. Work in teams to study content
2. What is the purpose of this?
a. Study children’s beliefs, interests and sources of current knowledge
b. Engage them in reflecting on their learning
c. Helping them develop theories that give meaning to events/objects
d. Help them to ask good questions
e. Encouraging self-assessment
3. Consider your audience
a. If you are going to make the documentation public, decide how you want to
show it and consider the audience
b. Is it for parents? Students? You?
4. How do you want to collect the info
Phases of pedagogical documentation
1. Observing and recording student experience
2. Interpret learning in service of teaching
3. Respond, share, build a culture of inquiry and collaboration
Document
- Can be interpreted
- Take into consideration the context and experiences of the child when trying to make
sense of their documents.
- What is your role as the documenter?
- Expressing your thoughts/feelings
- The creator, you know the real meaning
- Protagonist
- The main character, the one who is the good guy
- The child is the protagonist in this case.
- What is the listener's role?
- Active listening
- Interpret the documenter
- Reflect on the experience, link the interpretation to theories and gain deeper
insight.
Pedagogy
- The ways of teaching based on learning theories; societal normatives; child’s context.
- Everyday work of teachers in promoting children’s growth, development and learning
, - Philosophy of learning
- Support teaching practice
- To engage in knowledge creation
- Knowledge is socially constructed
- Creative and transformative
Pedagogical documentation
- Taking note of what children do and how they think and learn to share with others
and adapt to the learning environment.
- Used to get to know learners better, not for assessment purposes.
- Underlined by social constructivism
- Supports a rights and strengths-based view of children.
- Children have a voice and they are strong, curious, creative, intelligent.
- Look at what children can do, use documentation as a tool for changing your
thinking.
- Children build theories from when they are born
- These theories are NB because they reveal how children think, question and
interpret reality.
- These theories need to be expressed, documented and listened to.
- Teacher’s role in listening:
- Be still and listen to the kids
- Do research with children, not on or about them
- Coproduce knowledge with the children
- Practise active listening
- Suspend your voice to make room for the children’s voice.
- Makes learning visible
- Creates authentic records for dialogue, reflection and analysis.
- A cyclical process that facilitates growth.
To document:
- Intentionally observe
- Be prepared
- Types of documents
- Photos, texts, letters, menu’s, transcribed conversations, recordings
- Document:
- Daily experiences
- Projects
- Extraordinary moments
- Individual development
