First Steps Palmerston North (TLIF 4-069) - Unpacking a puzzle of practice: Exploring ways to support consistent, intentional teaching to promote children’s social-emotional competence Publications
Publication Details
Project Reference: First Steps Palmerston North (TLIF 4-069) - Teachers at this large early learning centre wanted to become more intentional in how they supported children to develop their social-emotional competencies. They wanted to feel greater confidence that they could implement appropriate strategies, both in planned, deliberate ways over time, and in response to what they noticed and recognised in moment-by-moment interactions.
Author(s): (Inquiry Team) led by Karen Mackay
Date Published: February 2019
Overview
A growing body of research tells us about the social-emotional competencies to look for in children, the way they develop, and the strategies teachers, parents and other carers can use to help grow them. The project team at Best Start used this research to develop frameworks for understanding both teacher and child development. These tools were linked to Te Whāriki and Te Whare Tapa Whā. As teachers carried out mini-inquiries, the centre developed a bank of resources to support social-emotional learning. Coaching and video analysis supported teachers to reflect critically upon what was happening for children and the intentionality and impact of their own responses to children.
I found it helpful to [use the teacher inventory tool to] think about where I was currently sitting with my practice. I also liked how it prompted me to think, “Actually, am I doing this intentionally? When was the last time I did that? How effectively do I do that on a daily basis?” This was great, as it caused great reflection on my behalf and then further intentional teaching, which benefited the children.
Teacher reflection
The new tools and routines proved valuable in capturing and communicating what children need to know and be able to do to manage their emotions and relationships, and what teachers need to know and be able to do to support this learning and development. However, it was important that they be integrated into the centre’s existing systems and routines and that support and feedback for teachers be as individualised as it is for children. It was also important that both child and teacher learning and development be shared and celebrated across the whole centre community.
The inquiry story
This inquiry involved all 34 teachers in the six rooms that make up Best Start Palmerston North. It was led by the centre’s curriculum manager and by the lead teacher in each room. Children at the centre are aged from six months to five years. Their parents and whānau were kept informed and engaged with the inquiry, which took place over two years.
What was the focus?
In the year prior to this project commencing, the centre engaged in an internal evaluation that examined the extent to which teachers were being intentional in strengthening children’s social-emotional competence within their day-to-day practice. Data from the evaluation showed that teachers needed to be more intentional and to feel more confident about how they implemented the strategies that help foster children’s social-emotional competence. The project team asked: “How effectively do we develop consistent and intentional strategies across our six rooms for strengthening children’s social and emotional competence?”
What did the teachers try?
The project team used the Teaching as Inquiry approach described in The New Zealand Curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2007) to scaffold each teacher through a series of at least three mini-inquiries. The inquiries were documented on a centre-developed inquiry form, and each teacher received ongoing support and coaching from a lead teacher or the curriculum manager.
The lead team introduced the following five innovations to develop consistent, intentional practice that would be informed by data and would work, over time, to promote children’s social-emotional competence.
- The team developed a centre-based inventory of the teacher practices that promote children’s social-emotional competence. This was based on research evidence about effective practice and was accompanied by descriptions of what the practices look like for teachers and children. Teachers could use it to reflect on their practice, identify areas for focus, and monitor change over time.
- The team developed a centre-based assessment of children’s social-emotional competence. This was based on another tool that was being developed by one of the project’s external experts. It links markers of social-emotional development with the outcomes in Te Whāriki (Ministry of Education, 2017) and is organised around the four dimensions of Te Whare Tapa Whā (Māori health model). The centre’s child assessment tool incorporated a fifteen-point rubric spread across five ‘anchors’: Responding, Connecting, Exploring, Building, and Integrating. Its purpose was not to create summative statements about children’s development, but to describe what was happening at particular points and how this was changing. This information was to be used as a focus for analysis and teacher discussion.
- The team developed systems for using the centre-based teacher inventory of practice and child assessment tool to examine what teachers were doing to support children’s social -emotional competence and examine children’s emerging social competence.
- The team implemented the use of video as a teacher reflection tool to examine teacher practice in relationship to self-identified goals and as a data gathering tool to show shifts in the intentional teaching of social-emotional competence and in outcomes for children.
- The team used the data from the inventory of practice, social-emotional assessment tool, and video recordings to develop processes for supporting teachers to integrate reflection and feedback aimed at improving practice and increasing children’s social-emotional competence over time.
Added to the data above was the ongoing collection and analysis of learning stories and other artefacts. The latter included frequency counts of key behaviours or skills, running records of child talk, and meeting records. Parents’ perspectives were recorded in the online reporting system, and teachers kept records of their reflections on their learning from their inquiries and the centre’s appraisal processes. Surveys captured teachers’ changing perspectives on the two new centre tools and provided feedback that could be used to refine them.
One teacher in each room was tasked with locating or creating resources that would help children learn about and grow their social and emotional competencies. These included books, social stories, and posters illustrating how people’s faces reveal different emotions. The teachers looked for resources that would be culturally responsive and engaging. For example, connections to atua helped a Māori child learn to use deep breathing like Tāwhiramātea in order to feel calm and peaceful, like Papatūānuku.
What happened as a result of this innovation?
Teacher ratings on the inventory of practice showed a slow but consistent improvement in teachers’ sense of confidence and efficacy in terms of understanding and implementing practices that support children’s social-emotional learning. This was despite the usual changes in staffing and the interruptions of Covid-19 and an ERO review. Other data, including the teachers’ own reflections and the data from learning stories, video recordings, and parent feedback, reveal that shifts that may appear small on paper are often significant in practice. For example, there is evidence of:
- teachers improved understanding of key aspects of children’s social-emotional learning and ability to recognise, describe, and discuss what is happening;
- teachers helping children to recognise and support their own social-emotional learning;
- the more deliberate use of environmental supports and the development of child-specific resources (for example, social stories and emotion cards);
- strengthened assessment practice, including the use of narratives, videos, time samples, and eventrecording;
- the progression of social and emotional learning being documented more frequently and in greater depth;
- increased engagement and reciprocal communication with families;
- parents adopting the new strategies at home;
- teachers expressing greater confidence in their ability to support children during periods of heightened emotion, document children’s progression, and collaborate with whānau.
The shifts in teacher practice appear to be sustainable. While the mini-inquiries were undertaken separately, teachers are spontaneously sharing their learning as a community of learners. Where there was initial discomfort about video recordings, teachers are choosing to capture video recordings of practice in order to help each other inquire and reflect.
Overall, the trajectory of children’s social-emotional learning was positive. However, some children movedboth forward and backward along the progression. This was expected, given the normal variations in child development, the impact of transitions into new parts of the centre where children are confronted with new expectations, and teachers’ own changing understandings about social-emotional skills and the ways children might use these skills.
The child assessment tool has served to support and challenge teachers’ understanding of children’s social-emotional learning and how development can ebb and flow. Teachers are thinking more deeply about children's capabilities across different contexts at home and at the centre, and about how they can better support children’s next steps in learning.
Across all parts of the centre, there is evidence of children:
- knowing more about their emotions and learning to express them appropriately and to regulate them;
- connecting with peers, making friends, and showing kindness;
- becoming more curious about and engaged with social and emotional thinking and learning;
- spontaneously and regularly accessing resources from within the environment to support their communication and interaction with their peers and teachers;
- sharing with their whānau the important social and emotional skills they can use across a range of everyday situations.
Teachers have a high level of confidence in the content of the teacher inventory tool and child assessment tool. While teachers have offered suggestions for improvement, they see their value and intend to keep using them. Importantly, some teachers initially felt hesitant about using the child assessment tool because of a perception that the need to make judgements that might not be fair to the child. This hesitation dissipated as teachers understood more about child development and the tool’s purpose to inform teaching.
Parents have reported favourably about the improvements in their children’s learning and wellbeing and about how they are using similar learning strategies at home.
What did they learn?
One of the important lessons was about the importance of integrating new systems into existing systems so they can be efficient, manageable, and maintained over time. Related to this is the need to support implementation. For example, requirements for teachers to reflect upon practice need to be accompanied by feedback and prompts aimed at getting them to critique what changed and the outcomes, rather than simply recap what happened. Further, it is important to understand the importance of individualising the support provided to teachers and offering specific feedback, while also sharing and celebrating the learning, work, and ideas across the whole centre.
Inquiry team
Karen Mackay was the project leader, and Bryanna Jackson, Kat Abraham, Karen Penny, Carla Nixon, Jennifer Saunders, and Sophin Mao worked with her on the project lead team.
Two of Best Start’s professional service managers provided critical friendship.
Monica Cameron and Tara McLaughlin, both of Massey University, were the project’s external experts.
For further information
If you would like to learn more about this project, please contact Bryanna Jackson at bryanna.jackson@best-start.org
Reference list
McLaughlin, T., Aspden, K, & Clarke, L. (2017). How do teachers support children’s social emotional competence: Strategies for teachers. New Zealand Council for Educational Research: Early Childhood Folio, 21,21–27.
McLaughlin, T., Aspden, K., & McLachlan, C. (2015). Teaching practices to promote children's learning and social-emotional competence. Unpublished practice list. Institute of Education, Massey University, New Zealand. https://eyrl.nz/teaching-practice-list/
Ministry of Education. (2007). The New Zealand Curriculum for English-medium teaching and learning in years 1–13. Wellington: Learning Media.
Ministry of Education (2017). Teaching for positive behaviour: Supporting engagement, participation, and teaming. Wellington: Ministry of Education.Available at: https://pb4I.tki.org.nz/PB4L-School-Wide/Support-material
Ministry of Education. (2017). Te Whāriki. He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington: Ministry of Education.
Ministry of Education (2019). He Māpuna te Tamaiti.Supporting social and emotional competence in early learning. Wellington: Ministry of Education.https://tewhariki.tki.org.nz/assets/Uploads/files/HeMapuna-te-Tamaiti-complete-book.pdf
Navigation
Contact TLIF
If you have any questions about TLIF projects, please contact us at:
Email: TLIF Mailbox