NSF Awards: 1222607
This professional development video is from PEEP and the Big Wide World, the NSF-funded, Emmy Award-winning science and math series for 3-5 year olds. Modeling best practices in teaching science to preschoolers, this video features a center-based preschool teacher engaging her students as they participate in hands-on activities from the Explore Plants unit of the PEEP science curriculum. When children do science investigations, they need to be able to look at, touch, and manipulate objects – explore on their own time and in their own way – and build their understanding by repeating an activity many times. The video illustrates how teachers organize and intentionally plan learning spaces with specific learning goals for children in mind.
Brian Drayton
I really enjoyed this, and I liked the way that good practice was just introduced as part of the narrative.
Are these modules designed to be used as part of a PD program, or just available for individual use? Do you have some info about how they have made a difference in someone’s planning or practice?
P.S. I think this is true of all science classes: "they need to be able to look at, touch, and manipulate objects – explore on their own time and in their own way – and build their understanding by repeating an activity many times. "
Gay Mohrbacher
Outreach Project Director
Thanks, Brian. The video modules live on the PEEP website at http://peepandthebigwideworld.com/en/educators/...
If an educator chooses to watch the modules on her/his own, that’s simply done and there is a PDF to download, recapping the teaching strategies used. We’ve also incorporated the videos in facilitated trainings — you’ll see a Leader’s Guide for the workshops along with PowerPoints on the same page as the videos.
These new resources just launched 11/14 — we don’t have intel yet from practitioners using the final versions. We do, however, have info from when the resources were piloted with resource and referral agencies that serve family childcare educators. Trainers there were the ones who told us to make the trainings more turnkey (e.g., PowerPoints. Almost all the providers trained rated the individual teaching strategies as helpful, with more than 2/3 rating them very/extremely helpful.
Jessica Hunt
Assistant Professor
I enjoyed this video as it was an account of the teacher’s practice and also the children’s engagement. I would love to hear more about the professional development itself. For instance, how do the professional development modules support teachers’ learning in terms of thoughtfully organizing and intentionally planning in light of learning goals? What activities are planned for teachers to support them to take up these practices?
Gay Mohrbacher
Outreach Project Director
Hi Jessica. We chose four themes to focus on for the teaching videos: Learning Environments, which addresses your comment about how teachers need to intentionally plan learning centers and materials with specific goals in mind; Science Talk, (which you’ve seen); Documentation and Reflection, which urges educators to find ways to capture what the children are doing — in journals, by taking dictation, by filming or taking photographs — so that the investigations can be revisited and reflection and discussion encouraged. The 4th strand is Individualized Instruction, which addresses how to modify activities based on age or learning styles. Each of the six curriculum topics has its own set of these 4 videos. Start here: http://peepandthebigwideworld.com/en/educators/...
Jessica Hunt
Assistant Professor
This sounds great! I will check out this weblink.
Neil Plotnick
Teacher
Aside from the interactions with the plants, seeds and other materials; are the students creating some sort of journal or log of their experiments? I noticed that one of the teachers was using a camera. Perhaps they can use photographs and discussions as a means of reflection on what they have observed over time.
Gay Mohrbacher
Outreach Project Director
Right on, Neil — see the above answer to Jessica. Each of the six PEEP curriculum units has its own set of PD videos focusing on 4 themes, one of which is Documentation and Reflection. Having an experience by doing a hands-on activity is important, but even more important is the chance to go back and reflect on what was done.
Stephanie Teasley
Research Professor
Love this video! It was engaging and informative. Great to see such focus and engagement with learner so young. How does the project scale so that many teachers can get involved? What kind of investment is needed in terms of necessary materials, books, etc. to provide such a rich environment for exploration?
Gay Mohrbacher
Outreach Project Director
Thanks, Stephanie. We’re getting the word out to early childhood educators through partnerships with such organizations as Child Care Aware, National Head Start Association, and National Association for Family Child Care. The Peep PD modules also have been presented at conferences and in webinars. We also actively use social media to introduce educators to the resources. In terms of investment, we are careful to ensure the materials required for the science investigations are ones readily available. Books, too, should be available in libraries. See a sample list of materials at http://peepandthebigwideworld.com/en/educators/...
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