Te Whariki Update/Early Childhood Education
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Two new videos in the series Te Whāriki: Policy to Practice
In 2000, early childhood services received The Big Picture (the introductory
video in Te Whāriki: Policy to Practice). The Ministry of Education
is now distributing:
- Empowered to Learn/Whakamana ki te Ako: Te Whāriki
for Infants and Toddlers;
- Empowered to Learn/Whakamana ki te Ako: Te Whāriki for
Young Children.
The purpose of the series is to assist early childhood teachers as they use Te
Whāriki to develop and implement curriculum in response to
children's abilities, strengths, and interests. Te
Whāriki promotes an image of all children as:
competent and confident learners and communicators, healthy in mind, body,
and spirit, secure in their sense of belonging and in the knowledge that they
make a valued contribution to society.
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The Big Picture explains the Te Whāriki curriculum framework and gives examples
of how teachers use the principles, strands, and goals to guide their planning
and practice.
Empowered to Learn
The two new videos present a variety of scenarios in which teachers demonstrate
how they use Te Whāriki to develop and implement curriculum for infants,
toddlers, and young children.
The videos offer the insights of several teachers who are experienced in the use
of Te Whāriki and promote discussion about how to use the Te Whāriki
framework to guide planning and practice. The videos provide guidance on and insight
into bicultural practice and reflect some of the diversity in New Zealand early
childhood education.
You can either watch the videos in their entirety or focus on a single
section and stop for discussion and reflection. The accompanying booklets
provide suggestions for workshop discussion and readings that explore
the pedagogical practice demonstrated in the videos.
Feedback on The Big Picture
Here is one teacher's feedback on the way she and her staff have used The Big
Picture:
We found The Big Picture extremely valuable in that it showed us what people
do in other centres. We are quite isolated, and the video helped us feel less
cut off. We found it reassuring that we are doing the right thing, and it is also
reassuring that we can develop our curriculum from the children. The idea of the
project approach and of doing longer term projects helped us feel more confident
in developing projects from the children's interests. The idea of the principles
and strands being a framework frees us to do this. We like Rita Walker's comment
at the end of The Big Picture Ð it helped us to realise that Te Whāriki is
not meant to be daunting or frightening and that we can just get on with it.
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Wendy Boyd, Head Teacher,
Queenstown Childcare Centre Preschool
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Doreen Launder, the Early Childhood Curriculum Facilitator, would welcome further
feedback on all of the videos in the series
Te Whāriki: Policy to Practice, addressed to her at the Ministry of
Education, Box 1666, Wellington, fax (04) 471 8051.
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