Session One (11.30am - 1.00pm)

Presenters: Faith Martin and Amy Dreaneen
Organisation: Massey Child Care Centre
Contact: admin@masseychildcare.ac.nz, 06 350 5531
Length: 90 minutes

FA1 - ‘It’s life, Jim, but not as we know it.’
Do staff appraisals build capacity? We don’t think so. The growth of a learning community comes about through the interplay among the spaces of personal abilities, interpersonal relationships and organisational structures. Massey Child Care Centre has developed a model for professional performance and development that recognises and values the spaces between the members of its learning community. This model fosters critically reflective teachers who navigate their way in directions and speeds unique to them, promoting personal and group development.  
This seminar will explore an alternative approach to staff appraisal that grows personal, interpersonal and organisational capacity by utilizing the spaces between learners.

Presenters: Christina Edmonds and Charmaine Thomson
Organisation: HR Manager & Membership Services Manager, Te Tari Puna Ora o Aotearoa/NZ Childcare Association  
Contact: charmaine.thomson@nzca.ac.nz
Length: 90 minutes

FA3 - Positive Employment Relations
In challenging economic times ECE Employers need to attract and retain their quality teaching teams. Understanding good HR practices and demonstrating positive employment relations means that teaching teams are more likely to remain with employers when they are authentically recognized for their abilities, understand their role in a high performing service and any changes to their employment conditions are clearly communicated.
Edmonds and Thomson have identified four key themes to discuss with current and aspiring Managers, Supervisors and Kaihatu in this 90 minute workshop - Attracting quality teachers    - Recruitment and employment ethics, establishing a positive employment relationship, getting the best out of your people and Managing for change.    

Presenter: Dr Anne Schofield
Organisation: New Zealand Career College
Contact: phone 09 336 0040, email: annes@nzcc.ac.nz
Length: 45 minutes

FA5 - Peer support: providing an optimal ECE environment for ESL learners
Interactions with peers are vital for English as a second language [ESL] learners to successfully acquire English (Girolametto, Weitzman, & Greenberg, 2004). ESL children who interact frequently with their peers have been found to be more successful in their English acquisition (Tabors, 2008). ESL children play a key role in their own language learning by developing unique strategies to interact with peers to form effective friendships that support their English acquisition (Drury,2007).
This workshop presents the findings of an investigation into the language acquisition of 12 ESL children attending three ECE centres; a sessional state kindergarten and two private all day centres. The participant-peer interactions of one child from each centre are explored to identify the nature of their English language learning experiences. This workshop will reflect on the role of teachers in supporting ESL children to build and maintain effective relationships that provide them with an optimal language environment.

Presenter: Iain Graham
Organisation: infocare systems ltd
Contact: +64 (0)9 4765955, iain@info-care.biz
Length: 45 minutes

FA6 - The parent portal
Infocares "Parent Portal” is an innovative tool which enables centers to provide parents with online access to securely share in the learning experiences of their children, events, newsletters etc. Parents are allocated usernames/passwords which limit access to their child’s information. This information can be in multiple formats: basic notes, word documents, pictures, pdf’s, media files etc. Like with other internet sites, parents can log in at leisure, view current news, stories pertaining to their child, and your centre. The process of adding content to the portal is simple. Parents can provide feedback on content. You can elect whether to include the feedback in the portal or not.
There are three sections of information that can be shared with parents depending on requirements: Child Gallery, Centre Gallery, Child’s Account  

Presenter: Keryn Davis & Dr Sally Peters
Organisation: CORE Education & University of Waikato
Contact: keryn.davis@core-ed.ac.nz
Length: 45 minutes 

 FA7 - “Don’t worry Dad; I’m just exploring a working theory!” Working theories in action.

In 2009 a team of practitioner and experienced researchers began to explore children’s working theories in action in five Playcentre settings in Canterbury. This collaborative TLRI funded research project Moments of wonder, every day events: how are young children theorising and making sense of their world, set out to investigate how children expressed these key learning outcomes described in the early childhood curriculum Te Whariki (Ministry of Education, 1996), and how these are understood and supported in these Playcentres.
During the course of this 2-year research project, the team utilised a rich range of data gathering techniques. These included Learning Stories, interviews, video clips, photographs, pedagogical documentation, narratives written by practitioners and parents, and children’s work. The project team developed a number of case studies to explore the research questions across the five settings.
This presentation highlights some of the findings from case studies developed as the team explored the different ways opportunities can be created for children to express and develop working theories and the outcomes for children’s learning as a result. The various presentations by project team members will focus on some of the specific strategies implemented during the course of the project, and the ways these have contributed to children’s ‘working theories’ learning. Some of the dilemmas and challenges adults faced as they attempted to place greater value on the ways children express and develop working theories will also be shared.

Presenters: Judith Duncan, (University of Canterbury) Sarah Te One Victoria University of Wellington) & a member from Whanganui Central Baptist Kindergartens (still to be decided).
Organisation: University of Waikato, University of Wellington & a member from Whanganui Central Baptist Kindergartens (still to be decided).
Contact: judith.duncan@canterbury.ac.nz; 03 364 3466 & Sarah Te One: sarah.teone@vuw.ac.nz; 04 463 5716
Length: 90 minutes 

FA8 - Who are the teachers? Who are the learners?  
Challenging the spaces in-between. (Funded by the New Zealand
Teaching and Learning Research Initiative Fund, 2010-2011)
This workshop will challenge teachers’ places in the spaces between whanau and community, and the child in their centre.  The workshop begins from the premise that the child is embedded within a whanau, which should be the focus of our teaching and learning in early childhood. Using data from a two-year research project this workshop explores the interconnectedness between community, whanau and centre and will highlight crossing boundaries between public spaces and private places. The workshop provides opportunities for teachers to:
·          examine their current pedagogies;
·          reconceptualise their spaces for whanau and community in their centres; and,
·          resituate the place of an early childhood care and education centre in the lives of whanau and in the community. 

Presenter: Bridgit Williams
Organisation: EC Professional Support, Faculty of Education, The University of Auckland
Contact: bj.williams@auckland.ac.nz (09) 623 8899 ext 48433
Length: 45 minutes

FA9 - Exploring our identities as teachers
Where do our beliefs about teaching come from and how do these align within the role of teachers as learners in the current ECE environment?
For many, the ambition to become a teacher derives from our own experience as learner. The essence of our views about teaching comes from what we believe. What we believe comes from what we have experienced, and what we have experienced in turn influences our practice as a teacher.
This presentation will examine some of the deeply embedded beliefs about teaching and question how we are challenging these beliefs in order to take on the role of a learner in the current sociocultural context of the early childhood education. 

Presenter: Barbara Watson
Organisation: EC Professional Support, Faculty of Education, The University of Auckland
Contact: bs.watson@auckland.ac.nz (09) 623 8899 ext 48225
Length: 45 minutes

FA10 - Expressing our identities through practice
Is what we say we believe in evident in our practice?
We say we believe that children are capable and competent…how closely does our practice really align with these views? We say we work in partnerships with parents, but what does this look like in reality?
This presentation will challenge us to uncover the gap between what we say we believe (espoused practice) and what we actually do (theory in use). We will explore how reflective practice and professional challenge can encourage us to be learners and therefore close this gap. 

Presenters: Hanna Faletaupule and Jennifer Boyd
Organisation: Tots Corner Early Learning Centre
Contact: totscorner@ihug.co.nz 09 4807025
Length: 45 minutes

FA11 - Teachers unpack ‘Collaborative Documentation’ through ICT
Having completed the Ministry of Education ECE ICT PL programme in 2009, the Infant/Toddler teaching team at Tots Corner continue to un-pack the ways in which ICT could enhance their pedagogical documentation. Through the use of ‘google docs’ teachers are able to critically reflect upon their role as teachers and their approaches to collaboration. We wish to share how we have been challenged in our understanding of collaboration, coming to the conclusion that truly reflective practice comes through multiple perspectives. 

Presenter: Karen Miller
Organisation:
Contact: karen.miller@xtra.co.nz
Length: 45 minutes

FA12 - Fostering scientific literacy in early childhood education.
Teacher recognition and understanding of the concept of scientific literacy and the nature of science are fundamental to supporting scientific inquiry and learning.
This presentation explores providing children with scientific conceptual knowledge to support their developing working theories. Small scale research into supporting science in a South Auckland centre is reported on and practical experiences to support development of children’s scientific literacy are explored.

Session Two (3.30pm - 5.00pm)

FP1 - Korero session one: future directions in ECE
Exploring the budget implications. This session will focus on the potential longer term impacts of funding changes, the diversity of licensing provisions, the current meaning of quality teaching and the future shape of the ECE workforce.  

FP2 - Korero session two: infants and toddlers
Discourse and discussion on new approaches for best practice with infants and toddlers. Consider the changes to licensing max numbers and under 2s etc.

FP3 - Korero session three: leadership and ethics
What are the attributes that sound leaders demonstrate? How to remain ethical and neutral when working with governance and management structures.

Presenters: Toni and Robin Christie
Organisation: Director, Childspace
Contact: toni@childspace.co.nz  (04) 4785220
Length: 90 minutes

FP4 - Nanny Mere's Papa Taakaro: A community built playscape on Te Moutere o Matakana
Join Toni and Robin Christie for a story about community, culture, design, construction, isolation, budget, teamwork and more. In January 2010 a small team from Wellington packed up their van and drove to Tauranga where they boarded a ferry to the beautiful Matakana Island. 
Together with the community they rebuilt the playground of the Kohanga Reo on the island using locally sourced materials to create an environment reflective of the local ecosystems and cultural symbols. The pictures tell the story in slide photographs, along with a running commentary from Toni and Robin this story will provide inspiration, ideas and more than a few good laughs.   

Presenters: Tara Fagan & Tania Coutts
Organisation: CORE Education
Contact: tara.fagan@core-ed.org (021)594830
Length: 90 minutes

FP5 - Flying with Penguins: What it means to be literate in a digital world
Digital literacy is the ability to locate, organize, understand, evaluate, and create information using new technologies (Wikipedia). This workshop will explore the importance of this concept for what it means to be literate in 2010. It will also include practical ways in which this aspect of literacy learning can be developed with young children.

FP6 - Withdrawn presentation

Presenter: Meredith Kelly
Organisation: University of Otago, College of Education, Southland Campus, Invercargill
Contact:  meredith.kelly@otago.ac.nz 03 211 6809
Length: 45 minutes

FP7 - Teachers as learners:  Engaging with children’s thinking using Schema Learning Theory
Completing my Masters in Education (end of 2010) involved a small scale study of the participation of a kindergarten team of teachers looking at the similarities and differences between their approaches in assessment of children’s learning and approaches from schema learning theory with a view to engage more directly with their children’s thinking. 
As the teaching team discovered similarities and differences between the assessment approaches, the findings suggested that the teachers viewed their children as ‘thinking children’, their selves learners as they processed schema learning theory and what this theory could offer their children and their assessment practices.  The participants felt that ultimately schema learning theory did have something positive to add to their current practice in assessment as before this experience, they had not directly engaged in a structured way with the possibilities of children’s thinking. They felt that being more in touch with children’s thinking would assist them in explicit teaching within a recognised schema, and therefore provide opportunities for both teachers and children to be learners together.   

Presenter: Peggy Tan
Organisation: PhD Candidate, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
Contact: pstan6@student.monash.edu +61 3 98942349
Lenght: 45 minutes

FP8 - Literature review on occupational licensing and the development of the early childhood workforce in New Zealand
"This presentation will trace the development of the early childhood workforce in New Zealand and discuss the mandated teacher registration for teachers working in teacher-led services against the literature on occupational licensing. These teachers must hold at the minimum the Diploma of Teaching (ECE) and be registered with the relevant professional body this being the New Zealand Teachers Council. This staffing policy is significant as it has generated international interests on the innovation of increasing the number of registered teachers as a step towards improving the quality of early childhood education services."