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Early Years International Conference and AGM 2008

Thursday 12th June 2008

Master Classes

Beyond Words – how children make meanings with interactive media

Facilitators: Brian McHenry and Janet Preston, Early Years – the organisation for young children supported by the Cross Border Training Programme Part 2

This Master Class will explore how ICT can be woven appropriately into many of the experiences contributing to children's learning and development in the Early Years. We will explore how children and early years practitioners can use media such as computers, projectors, light boxes and digital imaging to support children's understanding of their world.

Brian McHenry is currently a Development Worker with Early Years – The Organisation for Young Children. He has worked in the early year's sector for over twelve years and is currently supporting the development of appropriate high quality play and learning experiences for young children aged 0 - 4. Brian has a particular interest in creativity in the early years and specifically the work undertaken by the Pre-School/ Infant Toddler Centres of Reggio Emilia and the importance placed on the child as an active protagonist in the creative process. He has experience in both Graphic Design and Children's Illustration and has used computers and new media extensively in his work. He believes strongly in the creative opportunities available through ICT and that this creativity is paramount to successful learning.

Janet Preston is currently an Early Years Specialist with Early Years the Organisation for young children providing support to staff, children and parents in a range of early year's settings. Janet has a particular interest in supporting the development creativity in young children having initially trained as an art teacher, and has visited the infant and toddler centres and pre-schools in Reggio Emilia on a number of occasions most recently in 2007. Janet's Masters Degree involved research on the impact on children's learning of implementing aspects of the Reggio Approach.

Supporting Boys through Active Learning: the "crisis" for boys in education

Facilitators: Sandy Slack and Gerin Martin, Lynchburg City Schools and endorsed High/Scope Trainers

As a participant in this workshop you will be challenged to avoid stereotyped thinking that "boys always....." or "girls always.....". You will understand gender based differences in brain development and other physiological differences that will help you understand why gender does matter. Consciously creating a "goodness of fit" for all children will require you to understand the data on boys and the proven active learning strategies that benefit boys and yes, even girls!!! This is an active workshop in which you will experience for yourself what active learning means!

Sandy Slack has a master's degree in early childhood education from George Washington University. She has worked with preschool children for 36 years and with preschool children with special needs for 29 years. Sandy began using the High/Scope Curriculum in 1981 and became a trainer in the curriculum in 1991. Sandy has conducted training on the High/Scope curriculum in many states and Puerto Rico. Sandy and Gerin collaborated as a team for five years in a child care centre where Sandy supported children with developmental delays in Gerin's classroom. Together they began to read about and experience first hand the gender based needs of boys. This workshop has now been presented locally in Virginia and at the High/Scope Registry Conference in Ypsilanti.

Gerin Martin has a bachelor's degree from Radford University and is currently enrolled in a Master's degree program in early childhood special education from Lynchburg College in Lynchburg, Virginia. Gerin has worked with preschool children for 12 years. She began using the active learning based High/Scope Curriculum seven years ago. She became a certified High/Scope classroom teacher in 2005 and is currently becoming an endorsed trainer. Gerin and Sandy collaborated as a teaching team for five years and continue to collaborate as High/Scope trainers. Gerin initially began working on the issue of meeting the needs of boys because of the high numbers of boys in special education and the demanding physical behaviours in her own classroom.

Ingredients of Highly Effective Pre-School Programmes

Facilitator: Dr Larry Schweinhart, President, High/Scope Educational Research Foundation

The Master Class will identify five ingredients of preschool programs found to be highly effective stand out as definitive and serve as rules for how to design such programs. For the concept of school readiness to contribute to developing highly effective preschool programs, it must serve as the mediator between pre-kindergarten and its long-term effects. Thus, the validity of a school readiness measure depends on its sensitivity to the effects of pre-kindergarten and its ability to predict later effects on school achievement and other important life outcomes. In the High/Scope Perry Preschool Study, the program improved children's intellectual performance and commitment to schooling, which in turn led to improvements in school achievement, educational attainment, and adult earnings, and reduced criminal offences.

Larry Schweinhart is an early childhood program researcher and speaker throughout the United States and in other countries. He has conducted research at the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation in Ypsilanti, Michigan, since 1975 and served as its president since 2003. He has directed the High/Scope Perry Preschool Study through age 40, the Michigan School Readiness Program Evaluation, High/Scope's Head Start Quality Research Centre, and the development and validation of the High/Scope Child Observation Record. Dr. Schweinhart received his Ph.D. in Education from Indiana University in 1975. He and his wife have two children and three grandchildren.

Like Bees, not Butterflies – child-initiated learning in the early years

Facilitator: Sally Featherstone, Freelance trainer and consultant in Early Years

When children are really engaged in learning the initiate themselves, their behaviour is more like bees than butterflies. Why is child-initiated learning important? What is happening in children's brains when they are involved in self-selected activities? How can we provide an environment where child-initiated learning is facilitated and valued? What is the role of the adult during these sessions? What are the challenges and dilemmas that arise when supporting children in activities they have chosen themselves? This session will be more suited to experienced professionals and their advisers.

Sally Featherstone following a career in teaching, 6 years headship of an Infant school with a large nursery, and 4 years as an LEA adviser in Leicestershire, has been working as an independent trainer and consultant for the past 9 years. Her work covers a wide range of current issues in the management and assessment of learning in the early years. Sally's particular interests are in the development of independent learning, whole brain learning, gender, and play in the early years. She is the series editor for the successful Little Book series and is the co-author of the recently completed series of Little Baby Books. She has worked with others on the titles Thinking Child and Thinking Child Resource Book, on Foundations for Independence, We Can Do It, Smooth Transitions, and Boys and Girls Come out to Play. Sally divides her time between writing and training and conferences for practitioners working with children from birth to eight.

'The playful brain: what neuroscience can tell us about how to develop powerful learners'

Facilitator: Professor Guy Claxton, Professor of the Learning Sciences, University of Bristol Graduate School of Education

Children are born with strong learning capacities and dispositions built into their brains. They also come with the ability to amplify and transform those basic abilities. But to do so they have to find some key resources in their environments. If Brain and Culture engage successfully, children grow into ever more confident and capable learners. If they don't they may lose even the natural learning ability they came with. In this Master Class, we will dig into this delicate interaction, and extract the lessons for early years nurturing and education.

Guy Claxton is one of the UK's leading experts on practical ways of developing young people's learning and creative capacities. He is the author of over 20 books on learning and the mind, including Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind: Why Intelligence Increases When You Think Less (1997), Wise Up: The Challenge of Lifelong Learning (1999), The Wayward Mind (2005) and The Creative Thinking Plan (with Bill Lucas, 2007). He holds degrees from Cambridge and Oxford, and is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society and an Academician of the UK Academy of Social Sciences. Guy Claxton's work impacts on education policy and practice at local, national and international levels. He is currently Assistant Director for Learning at the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust. Internationally, Guy has been a member of the OECD High Level Forum on Education and the Brain, and has recently spoken at conferences in Spain, Sweden, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, and the US. His highly successful Building Learning Power approach has been developed through four years' action research with 200 teachers in Cardiff, a year with 70 early years practitioners in Oxfordshire, and student-led learning-to-learn networks in South Devon. Guy Claxton is Professor of the Learning Sciences at the University of Bristol Graduate School of Education. He lives in Sussex.