By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. Pedagogy is defined as the method and practice of teaching. For early childhood educators it is about the understanding of how learning takes place and pedagogical approaches employed to support learning. It is different than curriculum which is the content of the learning (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2014). An emergent … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed. D, RECE. Young children have the capacity for scientific thinking and learning. Science, I would suggest is the root of the stem. Scientific skills such as observing, describing, comparing, questioning, predicting, experimenting, reflecting, and cooperating are core concepts that support learning in all areas. However, when I reflect back on the … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. Simon Nicholson, used the term loose parts in an article written in 1971. Loose parts are materials that are variable and unstructured. Nicholson maintained that children love to interact with variables in order to play, discover, invent, and experiment. In any environment, both the degree of inventiveness and creativity, and … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE and Cindy Green, BSc, RECE. If we were to sit down and calculate how many early learning environments we have visited individually and together it would boggle our minds, reminding us of our (almost) senior citizen status! We met many, many years ago when we were both teaching early childhood … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. I will begin this blog post with a pledge to always be first and foremost a proud early childhood educator and member of both my professional association, the Association for Early Childhood Educators of Ontario (AECEO) and the regulatory body, the College of Early Childhood Educators (CECE) , that oversees my chosen … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. The Rhythm of Learning in Nature is a professional knowledge retreat held every summer at beautiful Swan Lake in York Region, Ontario. It is an intensive six days of connectiveness to nature and is designed for adults and children. As the children play in the meadow and the forest, the … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. and Rose Walton, OCT, PhD Candidate. This post is the second in a series about rants. A rant is an argument that is fueled by passion. The early childhood education sector has suffered from a position of silence. Ranting helps us find our voice. Ranting makes visible our passion for … Continue reading
By: Cindy Green, RECE (with contributions from Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE). As an antidote to the last blog post where there was focus on ranting while reflecting on words that cause agitation Cindy offers some thoughts on being mindful, grateful and joyful. Then as promised there will be a return to the ranting as this … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE. and Gill Robertson, ECE. This post is the first of what I hope will be a series of co-authored blogs. This post is a rant and was inspired by words that rankle and undermine the view of ourselves as professionals and children as competent. “Cute” is one of those words. … Continue reading
By: Diane Kashin, Ed.D, RECE (with contributions from Cindy Green, RECE). This blog post has been ruminating with me for some time now. The process of pedagogical documentation is a new concept to many early childhood educators. According to Dahlberg and Moss (2008) “pedagogical documentation has its origins in the innovative and, today, world-famous municipal early childhood services in … Continue reading
