Janet Scull The University of Melbourne 2009 AATE/ALEA National Conference

1. The Young Learners’ Project: mapping preschool teachers’ beliefs, theories and practices. Janet ScullThe University of Melbourne2009 AATE/ALEA National Conference

2. Chief Investigators: • Associate Professor Margaret Brown (Principal Investigator), Professor Field Rickards, Professor Bridie Raban, Associate Professor Esther Care, Mr Terry O’Connell (Australian Scholarships Group) • Research team: • Associate Professor Brown (Team leader), Ms Emelie Barringer, Dr Anna Bortoli, Mr Robert Brown, Dr Linda Byrnes, Associate Professor Care, Ms Esther Chan, Dr Amelia Church, Ms Jan Deans, Ms Lucy Jackson, Dr Anne-Marie Morrissey (now at Deakin University), Dr Andrea Nolan (now at Deakin University), Dr Louise Paatsch, Professor Raban, Dr Maria Remine, Dr Janet Scull, Ms Lena Tan, Ms Jessica Taylor and Dr Linda Watson (Birmingham University, UK) • Funding Support: • Australian Scholarship Group (ASG); Australian Research Council (ARC): Linkage Projects funding scheme (Project number LP0883437); Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne

3. Longitudinal study (2007-2012) that tracks children’s literacy development and outcomes in the 4-year-old pre-school year (phase 1) through to the first year of primary school (phase 2) and the factors that impact on these including individual characteristics, families and teachers Mixed methods For phase 1 participants will be recruited from up to 40 funded preschools (urban & rural) and the study will track a minimum of 300 children and up to 30 preschool teachers Research Design

4. Teacher research project Develop up to 30 early childhood teacher profiles that: a) identify theoretical constructs that underpin teacher practices in the preschool and first years of schooling. b) identify distinct literacy teaching strategies/practices. c) investigate congruence and connectedness between teacher and family literacy beliefs and practices. d) correlate literacy outcomes of children, tracked through to the first year of school, with teacher profile characteristics.

5. Teacher research project Research indicates that teacher/child interactions are a key factor in early literacy development. (Siraj-Blatchford & Sylva EPPE Study 2004). Despite this research there are strong indications that teachers are unclear about how to intrepret literacy and how to translate contemporary strategies into practice. (Dickinson & McCabe, 2001) Teacher beliefs are central to how teaching is conceptualised and enacted. (Kantor, 1992; Crawford, 1995, Green 2005) Factors that inhibits teachers’ abilities to adopt new literacy practices include entrenched belief systems and conceptualisations that are resistant to change. (Carvalho, de Lautour & Kumar, 2006) Through guided reflection teachers can be supported to articulate and re-evaluate long standing theories in relation contemporary views on pedagogy and literacy practices. (Raban, Nolan, Waniganake, Brown, Deans & Ure, 2007) Research into teacher beliefs and practices has focussed on survey and interviews and general theorising with little attention to mapping interpretations to observations. (Green, Peterson & Lewis, 2006 (Survey), Bracken & Fischel 2006 (Q-sort) Connor, Morrison & Slominski, 2006 (Observations)

6. Phase one - Profiling Teacher Practice Research into the role of the teacher has investigated several main themes including: pedagogy and practice, teacher beliefs and teacher knowledge. The Young Learners teacher research aims to bring together these lines of inquiry through in-depth, descriptive and multi-faceted profiles of early childhood teachers. What beliefs and knowledge do early childhood teachers have in relation to literacy in the preschool? How are teacher beliefs and knowledge about literacy translated into practice? Teacher practice Teacher knowledge Teacher beliefs

7. Constructing Multi-dimensional Teacher Profiles: Beliefs, Knowledge and Practices • Teacher survey (Beliefs and Knowledge) • Practitioner self assessment (Beliefs) • Video recordings of teacher-child literacy practices - book reading, writing and drawing, teacher selected literacy event (Practices) • Literacy audit materials (Practices) • Video-stimulated teacher interviews (Beliefs, Knowledge and Practices) • Raban & Ure, 1997; Stannard, 1997; Louden & Rohl, 2003; • Raban, Nolan, Waniganayake, Ure, Brown & Deans, 2007

8. Data analysis Dominant pedagogical beliefs The teaching practices and concepts prioritised Insights into how teachers attend to children’s interests in literacy and identifies pedagogical issues, challenges and continuities between literacy interpretations and practices.

9. Literacy is: Communication(n=4) Understanding or gaining meaning (n=3) Interaction (n=2) As a way of knowing, understanding, doing (n=1) Language, reading and writing (n=4) Encompassing a range of semiotic modes enabling plurality of expression and interpretation (n=2) Teachers’ beliefs

10. How do children learn? Play (n=5) Hands on experiences (n=5) Constructing, testing, problem-solving, experimentation Through interactions (n=3) Teacher directed learning and instruction (n=4) Teachers’ beliefs

11. What is your role in children’s learning / fostering children’s literacy development? Identifying and interpreting children’s interests and needs (n=6) Scaffolding and facilitating learning (n=6) Instructing, informing, modeling and developing skills (n=4) Planning for and providing opportunities and resources that allow children to explore and develop concepts and knowledge, both independently and with an enabling other (n=7) Teachers’ beliefs

12. Theoretical Orientations Underpinning SAM

13. Developmental - 18% The role of the teacher: Guide Observe, assess & support children’s development with reference to developmental milestones. Socio-constructivist - 40% The role of the teacher: Engage Scaffold & transform learning in response to children's prior understandings. Teachers’ theoretical orientations

14. Teacher practice

15. Literacy practice - Reading to children

16. Literacy Analysis Teacher 6 (Sophie)

17. Reading to children 12.8% Predict/anticipate events in texts 1.8% Recall text details 0.9% Using pictures to elaborate text meaning 1.4% Text discussions 3.5% Responding to children’s comments 4.2% (Combined interactions around interpretations of meanings of texts 10.4%) Vocabulary development 1.4% Reading and discussing texts

18. Attention to print concepts Concepts about print 2.2% Attention to new/known words 0.8% Attention to new/know letters 5.5%

19. Drawing and writing Comments to encourage drawing 4.9% Assisting children to compose messages 3.9% Recording children’s dictated texts 4.9% Providing models for children to copy 2.1% Spelling words for children 0.5% Sounding words for children 0.2%

20. Attention to phonological awareness Teachers’ programs detail songs and rhymes to shared children. Directing children’s attention to the sounds of langauge 0.1% Sounds within words 0.2% Oral cloze 0.6%

21. Attention to phonological awareness

22. Literacy practice - Teacher selected activities

23. Congruence between teacher’s beliefs, understandings and practice. Early findings Teacher practice Teacher beliefs Teacher knowledge

24. In contrast to studies of preschool teaching (Hannon & James, 1990; Raban & Ure, 2001; Fleer & Raban, 2006; Lynch 2009) the teachers demonstrated understanding of literacy and a preparedness to actively stimulate and support children’s literacy learning. The teachers in this study attended to a range of literacy practices that arguably equipped children well for the transition to formal schooling. These included engagement with a wide variety of texts; making meaning using a range of media, and; interpreting symbols and pattern-systems. Alignment with principles of emergent literacy - “Today conditions and situations are created and activities initiated within the [preschool] classroom that allow children to approach the written word through actions that have meaning to them and clear purpose and communication” (Tafa, 2008 p.168) Early findings

25. Phonological awareness A large body of research evidence suggests the importance of phonological awareness for children’s later literacy learning (Adams, 1990; Bryant & Bradley, 1985; Ehri, 1998;Goswami, 2000). The data in this study indicates that preschool teachers tend to emphasise children hearing rhyme and perhaps larger sound units (syllables and onset and rime) with the explicit teaching of phonemes left for when children learn to read and write through more focussed school-based instructional processes (Clay, 1991; 2001; Goswami, 2000). Notwithstanding this outcome, Phillips, Clancy-Menchetti and Lonigan state with reference to phonological awareness instruction, “it is likely that many preschool teachers are lacking in clear pedagogical understanding of the relevant constructs as well as lacking in appropriate curricular materials” (2008, p.14). Early findings

26. The Draft Australian Early Years Learning Framework Belonging, Being, Becoming (2009) notes the significance of early literacy development and key literacy outcomes, though it has yet to detail the specific roles and pedagogies of early childhood teachers in relation to facilitating children’s early literacy learning. The achievement of continuity between prior-to-school and school contexts requires a movement away from generalisations and assumptions to a fuller understanding of the types of activities children engage in, supported practices adopted by teachers and beliefs that influence how literacy is interpreted and enacted. Through the development of detailed and multi-dimensional teacher profiles, this study aims to provide insight into the what, how and why of early literacy teaching. It will continue to profile another 22 preschool teachers, and will also survey the beliefs and theories of primary school teachers in Victoria. In doing so, the study aims to draw attention to common and contrasting pedagogies and the influence these have on early literacy development and transition from pre-school to school. Future directions - Bridging Divides

28. Teacher Project: Research Design • Research indicates that teacher/child interactions are a key factor in early literacy development. (Siraj-Blatchford & Sylva EPPE Study 2004). • Despite this research there are strong indications that teachers are unclear about how to intrepret literacy and how to translate contemporary strategies into practice. (Dickinson & McCabe, 2001) • Teacher beliefs are central to how teaching is conceptualised and enacted. (Kantor, 1992; Crawford, 1995, Green 2005). • Factors that inhibits teachers’ abilities to adopt new literacy practices include entrenched belief systems and conceptualisations that are resistant to change (Carvalho, de Lautour & Kumar, 2006) • Through guided reflection teachers can be supported to articulate and re-evaluate long standing theories in relation contemporary views on pedagogy and literacy practices (Raban, Nolan, Waniganake, Brown, Deans & Ure, 2007) • Research into teacher beliefs and practices has focussed on survey and interviews and general theorising with little attention to mapping interpretations to observations (Green, Peterson & Lewis, 2006 (Survey), Bracken & Fischel 2006 (Q-sort) Connor, Morrison & Slominski, 2006 (Observations)

29. Future Directions • The long term goals of the research include are to: • Enable teachers, as reflective practitioners, to conceptualise and justify their beliefs, informed by theory, and enact these in practice • Investigate and illustrate how key learning theories are interpreted in practice • Articulate characteristics of teacher profiles linked to high literacy outcomes for young children • Correlate dominant teacher literacy beliefs and practices with family literacy beliefs and practices • Refine and develop tools for researching teacher beliefs and literacy practices