Creating Text with 21st Century Early Learners

The Project – Creating Texts with 21st Century Early Learners – was a collaborative project between the Association of Independent Schools of Western Australia (AISWA) and Edith Cowan University (ECU). The project, which was funded by AISWA, provided twenty-four early childhood teachers with an ongoing and multi-layered professional learning experience about the teaching and learning of written communication in early childhood. The project goal was to develop the teacher participants’ understanding and knowledge in relation to young children’s writing development and to positively influence the learning of the children in their classes. In realising this goal the project aimed to:

• develop teacher participants’ theoretical and pedagogical knowledge and understanding in relation to early writing;
• provide opportunities for teacher participants to reflect on, critique and explore new knowledge in light of their own experience and understanding of the children they teach;
• support teacher participants in carrying out their own action research whereby written communication learning and development needs for individuals and groups of children in their classes are identified and addressed;
• establish a collaborative learning community whereby teacher participants share and reflect together on their thinking and learning, their classroom experiences and their problems, strategies, and solutions; and,
• encourage teacher participants to capture their ongoing learning and development and that of the children’s written communication through the use of a professional learning journal.