Elección del “container” 28 : ¿Por qué hay necesidad de elegir un marco de trabajo?

The notion of pedagogy as a knowledge-based practice is based on the understanding that teaching involves knowledge of curriculum and of pedagogy. It is the combination of curriculum and pedagogical knowledge that allows teachers to support and extend children’s learning. There were 47 teacher responses that mentioned aspects of teacher use of ICT that reflected an understanding of pedagogy as knowledge-based practice. The knowledge-based practices they described included:

• Using ICT as a literacy tool for name recognition • Using ICT to create books

• Using ICT to support an emergent curriculum

• Using Google and YouTube for research to support children’s learning • Using ICT to research aspects of their teaching practice

Table 7 contains the contribution counts for these themes. Table 7 ICT and Teaching as a Knowledge-Based Practice

ICT and knowledge-based practice themes Count

Using ICT as a literacy tool for name recognition 9

Using ICT to create books 5

Using ICT to support an emergent curriculum 10 Using Google and YouTube for research to support children’s

learning

21 Using ICT to research aspects of their teaching practice 2

Total number of contributions 47

Using ICT as a Literacy tool for name recognition

The use of ICT to support name recognition was mentioned in nine of the 47 teacher responses. The creation of digital photographs with name labels appeared to be one of the ways teachers used ICT to support name recognition. TS described how she, with other teachers in her early childhood service, created photograph name labels with the children that were intended to support children’s literacy learning. Named photographs were placed in a number of areas in the ECE service environment such as in the painting area so children could use these as a guide to help them write their names on their paintings. TH described how, in her ECE service, children use a computer in a range of ways for literacy development, including creating nametags and writing letters. She said:

We’ve got another computer that is set up in the environment for literacy. It runs the programme Microsoft Word so it’s where they create their nametags … they have been using that for letters and with cards for the alphabet, and writing their name. (TH)

In the above comment, TH indicated that computer use afforded teachers a range of ways to support children’s literacy learning implying that they had a valid place in early childhood education to support and extend this kind of learning.

Using ICT to Create Books as Another Mode of Literacy

Five of the 47 teacher responses indicated that ICT contributed to children’s literacy development within their teaching practice through the creation of books as a way to engage children’s literacy learning. Sometimes these creations were teacher authored, others involved children in the creation process. The content of

these books varied, with some having connections to recent trips, whilst others were about favourite stories that were recreated with the children. The following two examples are representative of the way teachers used ICT to create books to support literacy.

TT described how she used ICT to create stories about events or trips that the children were involved in. She commented, “We’ve just recently had a trip to the Hamilton Gardens, and we’re just in the process of making [a] storybook using the digital images”. TJ explained how she often read a favourite book to children and then together they used ICT to recreate it using their own images and text. She described this process as follows:

I use [ICT] to make books with the children, for example, we recently did Wombat Stew, so we took photos as we were going through the process, and then we collated them and put them into a book with the children who were then able to revisit it. (TJ)

TJ implied that this collaborative process supported children’s literacy learning through the production process and when the children revisited the story by reading the book.

ICT and Support for an Emergent Curriculum

Teacher use of ICT to support emergent curriculum was another aspect of pedagogy as knowledge based practice. Emergent curricula arise naturally from adult-child interactions and from situations that are ‘teachable moments’ that connect learning with children’s experiences and prior learning. An emergent curriculum includes and responds to children’s interests rather than focusing on a narrow, individual or calendar-driven curriculum An emergent curriculum is process rather than product driven, and it is typically implemented after an idea or interest area emerges from a child or a group of children. Examples extracted from the data highlighted the role ICT can play in supporting the notion of emergent curriculum with 10 of the 47 teacher responses including mention that ICT supported emergent curriculum as follows.

TC spoke of how ICT supported children’s emerging interests and ideas. He commented:

… a child who came in [to the centre] and confused me completely in the afternoon session, where he’d been chatting to Mum, and Mum said, “He’s really wanting to know how King Arthur died”, and so we went and discovered it. We talked about it at mat time with his peers, and off we went and Googled it and found out the myth or legend, or not, of King Arthur and how he died. That was a real emergent thing, one of my best examples to date in teaching, of real pure emergent stuff. (TC)

In the above comment, TC implied that ICT played a useful role in supporting the exploration of the child’s interest in King Arthur and in co-constructing an emergent curriculum for his peers.

TAB summed up her perspective of ICT in relation to emergent curriculum in the following remark, “So basically, it’s really applying [ICT] as [ideas] emerge from the children and use it to pursue these ideas and extend their current knowledge” (TAB). We can see here that it is the capacity to pursue and build on children’s ideas that make ICT a useful tool for teachers within an emergent curriculum.

Teachers Using Google for Research to Support Children’s Learning

Twenty-one of the 47 teacher responses mentioned using Google to research and extend children’s learning. They indicated that the search engine Google was their preferred tool as it allowed them to access information quickly. The following two examples illustrate how teachers used Google with children to explore and extend their ideas.

TZ described using Google for researching ideas with children to extend on a topic of interest. She commented:

We often Google search things here with the children, for example, we will take a group of children who are doing a particular topic, like we were doing bugs [at the moment], and extend on that topic, and they Google search on the computer for new information. (TZ)

In the above comment, TZ indicated that Google provided the teachers with an easy mode to locate and explore new ideas and information with children.

TAB mentioned children taking control of their own research through Google. She suggested that the Internet provided a means for children to be involved in researching their own topics of interest as they develop naturally – in other words, teachers being able to quickly respond in the moment and search for new information as children’s interests emerge.

Teachers Using YouTube for Research to Support Children’s Learning

Six of the 47 teacher comments mentioned that they accessed YouTube for research purposes with their children. TO’s comment is representative of this use. She remarked:

I like taking the children onto the Internet to YouTube when they’ve had questions, for example, during the Olympics. We went onto YouTube and watched lots of sports and stuff. We use YouTube quite a bit as a research tool (TO)

In the above comment, TO indicated that ICT enabled teachers to collaborate with children around their ideas and interests and to extend these. She implied that YouTube was a legitimate research tool.

Teachers Using Google to Research Aspects of Their Own Practice

It was apparent in the data that two of the forty-seven teachers comments indicated they used Google as research tool for their own teaching practice. TP spoke of the teachers in her early childhood service using Google to research aspects of superhero play to inform their practice. She commented:

Our teachers use the computer to research subjects that they need to learn more about. We had a bit of an issue with superhero play here, so we Googled it and found journal articles to help understand its possible influences on play, so we used it as a research tool … It’s a research tool for staff as well as the children. (TP)

TP indicated that digital tools such Google, provided teachers with an easy means to access relevant information to inform their teaching practice.

Overall the teacher comments reported here indicated they had ‘know how’ in relation to their use of ICT in their teaching practice and teaching as itself being a

knowledge-based practice through their descriptions of how ICT could be used for research to develop both their own and children’s learning. They indicated ICT was used as a tool to provide them quick assess to a wide range of information that could support and extend children’s ideas.