Workshop in Early Childhood Education

An experienced team of early childhood teacher educators from New Zealand will be offering a two-day in-service programme for Maltese early childhood practitioners on 30th and 31st August. The workshop, which is being held at the University of Malta is entitled Starting from the Child. It has attracted more than 140 educators from the state and private school sectors and because of this response, initial plans to have three speakers were modified to include a fourth member on the team of experts who will be addressing the workshop participants.  Participants will all have the opportunity to explore a different issue with each of the four presenters. The eight-hour-workshop will run between 08.30 and 13.00 on both dates.  The event is being co-ordinated by Dr Valerie Sollars, Senior Lecturer in the Dept of Primary Education at the Faculty of Education. This event is being supported by Klabb Kotba Maltin.  

The presentations include:  Knowing the child: Using temperament theory to understand young children delivered byCarmen Dalli;    Seeing and hearing the child: the value of observation by  Val Podmore;  A responsive curriculum for the child  by Wendy Lee and Presenting the child: Assessment in Early Childhood Education  by Sarah Te One.

Dr Carmen Dalli started her teaching career at Zejtun Primary School in the early 1980s. She subsequently taught at the Faculty of Education of University of Malta where she introduced the first courses in early childhood education.  In 1986 she settled in New Zealand and for the last three years has been the Director of the Institute for Early Childhood Studies and director of Early Childhood Programmes at Victoria University of Wellington. Carmen’s research interests span the areas of development in the early years, children’s experiences in childcare settings, early childhood teacher education, early childhood policy, and professionalism in early childhood practice. She was a founding member of the national working group that developed the New Zealand early childhood Code of Ethics in the mid-1990s and is currently engaged in a national follow-up survey on the use of the code in everyday practice.

Dr Val Podmore is a senior lecturer at the Institute for Early Childhood Studies, and research convenor for the School of Education, at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.  Val has a longstanding involvement in early childhood educational research, including as team leader  of early childhood research at the New Zealand Council for Educational Research. She has been centrally involved in the development of the new approach to assessment in early childhood using the notion of "Learning Stories" and "Teaching Stories" including the use of observations.  She is currently a lead research associate working alongside an early childhood Centre of Innovation in Auckland (2003-2006) on contact to the Ministry of Education.  Her research interests include: early childhood policies, curriculum, and evaluation (national and international); young children’s learning and development; research methods and ethics; and socio-cultural approaches and participatory action research.

Sarah Te One is a part-time lecturer at the Institute for Early Childhood Studies, Victoria University of Wellington.  She has worked in the early childhood profession in a range of roles for the last 25 years, first as a kindergarten teacher and later as President of the Wellington Kindergarten Association. Sarah has extensive experience as a professional development co-ordinator and set up the early childhood professional development unit of Wellington College of Education. She has been involved in a range of early childhood research projects and was recently part of the Early Childhood Learning and Assessment Exemplar Project, directed by Dr Margaret Carr and Wendy Lee.  Sarah’s current challenge is her doctorate which explores notions of early childhood centres as communities.  

Wendy Lee has worked in early childhood education for the past 30 years. She is an experienced researcher and professional development consultant with a special interest in assessment, curriculum, planning, literacy, mathematics, visual arts, information communications, technology and leadership. She is currently directing a professional development programme on Leadership in early childhood and co-director of the Early Childhood Learning and Exemplar Project with Associate Professor Margaret Carr.  In 2004 Wendy chaired the Working Party for the Development of Professional Standards for Kindergarten Teachers. She is also involved in the ECE Information Communications Technology Strategy Project which is working towards developing an ICT National Strategy for ECE.

30 July 2004