Inquiry Cycle.

Noticing:

First Obsevation:

Inquiry Goal:

Recognising:

Planning:

Annotated Bibliography:

Tsai, C. (2015). Am I interfering? preschool teacher participation in children play. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 3(12), 1028-1033. doi:10.13189/ujer.2015.031212

A teacher intervenes in children’s play for many reasons from mediating conflicts, asking about what they have made, reminding children of rules within the classroom and responding to children requests. Each of these reasons come with both positives and negatives and those change depending on who the teacher is and how they respond to different situations. The teachers own philosophy, beliefs, degree or education around children and how well they know the children will also affect the situation and how the teacher assesses and intervene in the situation. However, observations of the situation before intervening could change or limit the participation from the teacher. This is useful to my inquiry goal as it identifies areas in which teachers intervene in and the factor that makes up how teachers decide to intervene in situations. From this, I can focus on why I intervene in the way I do.

Ivrendi, A. (2017). Early childhood teachers’ roles in free play. Early Years, 1-14. doi:10.1080/09575146.2017.1403416

What is the role of the teacher in children play, there are many different roles teacher play in children’s play and learning. But it is how that teacher interacts with the children and their play matters. Whether the teacher in sitting back and observing, provoking or questioning, supplying resources or information or sitting back ready to step in when invited or when conflicts happen. How a teacher interacts changes from child to child and between different age ranges as in different ages they might need or want more support or teacher participant within their play and they will affect how and when the teacher intervenes or participants. This is useful to my inquiry goal as I am working with a mixed age group of children, so I do need to be aware of the different children and their age and where they are developmentally when thinking about intervening or participating with their play.

Lansbury, J. (2014). Share… Wait Your Turn? Don't Touch… Playdate Rules That Limit Learning (And What To Try Instead). Retrieved from https://www.janetlansbury.com/2014/06/share-wait-your-turn-dont-touch-playdate-rules-that-limit-learning-and-what-to-try-instead/?fbclid=IwAR2pmScROPoH3c1zK--UeHUVbM4xUDqLAjwxP7rbJnb-_lCUcB3_gUTAW5Y#.W0jcgqi34HY.facebook

As this is an RIE focused website and article the focus is and can be different from other ways of doing and intervening. Identifying what the children are learning in a situation when it is a conflict, turn taking or sharing is happening, is important when deciding to intervene as if a teacher intervenes what will the children learn for this. Observing the situation, sportscasting the actions and feeling that can be seen in the situation and having minimal interaction like moving closer to the conflict or situation and only supporting and preventing harm to themselves or to each other maximizes the learning that the children gain from the situation. This is useful to my inquiry goal as it provides another way of looking at supporting and intervening in children’s conflicts rather than just stepping in and problem-solving it for them but providing them with the support and strategies to help them resolve their conflicts themselves with minimal teacher interaction.

Lansbury, J. (2013). 5 Benefits of Sportscasting Our Child’s Struggles. Retrieved from https://www.janetlansbury.com/2013/04/5-benefits-of-sportscasting-your-childs-struggles/

Sportscasting is a strategy to support children to resolve or problem solve the situation, by keeping the children safe and observing and stating the facts, what is seen and open-ended questions to provoke them to solve it themselves rather than a teacher stepping in and solving or mediating the situation. Sportscasting also shows the children that we are here to support them but shows that we trust them to handle it themselves. This is useful to my inquiry goal as it is a strategy that I could use to support children with their conflicts, so I have minimal intervention in their situation.

Responding:

Two Pieces of Evidence:

       1. Observation from another staff member:

Chelsea Obs. As I was walking through the main room of our centre I noticed something that Chelsea was doing. A few minutes beforehand I could hear an upset friend and could tell that it was escalating to frustration. When I looked over I saw Chelsea with the upset child. She was at his level and very calmly speaking with him. I noticed that he was very engaged with her support and I observed as his tense body relaxed and he calmed himself. I made a passing comment to Chelsea "that was really good how you dealt with that" as she gave him great tools for self regulation and rolemodeled the calmness that the upset child was previously struggling with. Sometimes with his group of friends it can become heavy handed quite quickly so the way Chelsea intervened and offered support was not only timely but effective

       2. Diary Entry:

-Diary entry is the same situation that is being talked about in the observation from another staff member above.

Diary entry continued:

Before this situation happened I was able to observe and listen to one of the staff members and the parent of this child talk about how when he does not rest during the day or if he does not get a good nights sleep the child's self-regulation basically disappears. The parent then communicated that the child had quite a restless sleep last night so he might need a sleep today.

Revisiting:

Summary:

1) How the inquiry has supported the consolidation of effective relationships with the learning community.

My inquiry goal and my relationships with the children has helped me know the children and their behaviours. Through this goal, I have learnt that I do not need to always step in and intervene and that when I do it can be too early or too late. I have also learnt that I should not have to intervene that children should be able to problem solve their situations. I have also learnt that I should be encouraging them and providing them with ways and tools to assist them in their own problem-solving. My inquiry goal and my relationships with whānau and the teaching team has helped me to understand the children better through what they have been like at home and over the past days at the centre when I had not been there. Knowing that information helped me better assist children with their own problem-solving.

2) How the inquiry has supported you to consolidate effective educational leadership strategies.

The inquiry cycle has supported my leadership strategies as I am not having to take leadership over problem-solving children's conflicts. But now to assist them and provide the children with the strategies and tools to problem-solve their conflicts themselves with me supporting them and helping guide them through their problem-solving. It has also helped me communicate with the rest of the teaching team about what I am doing around know when and how to intervene and the different strategies and tools that I have found and used.

3) How the inquiry has supported you to notice, recognise and respond to children's learning informed by whānau aspirations.

This inquiry has supported me to notice, recognise and respond to children's learning as I have had to observe the children in their play and within their conflicts and had to recognise what is happening in the situation and what they are learning especially within a conflict. Then to respond based on what I know about the children and or have been told by the other teachers and whānau and about their child/ren and what they have been like previously that night or day/s before and to take that into account when either not intervening or interventing minimally or fully.


4) How your professional practice has been informed by theoretical perspectives throughout the inquiry.

My practice has been informed by Bronfenbrenner's ecological system theory as throughout the inquiry I have had to look at and understand the children's mesosystems between home and centre and how they can each affect one another. With having information about how the child had been at home and at the centre the past days helped me to better support the children. I am also informed by Vygotsky and Bruner around scaffolding and that I have come to see that I do not need to fully intervene to scaffold the children in their problem-solving that I can intervene minimally and support and scaffold the children to problem-solve themselves.

5) Where to next? How has this inquiry informed you as a professional educator.

In my registration, I am going to continue to work on my practice around when and how to intervene as I feel there is more I could research and I feel that I need more time to improve my comfort level around intervening. This goal will stay along with other goals that I have to better my practice, like identifying what I so and valuing it and building confidence in all areas of my practice. This inquiry cycle has helped me better understand being reflective and having a reflective process like this has helped me look in depth at my teaching practice and how I can better my practice as an educator.

Final Observation: