Creative Little Scientists: enabling creativity through science and mathematics in preschool and first years of primary education: guidelines and curricula for teacher training (D5.2)

One of the key objectives of the Creative Little Scientists project is to propose a set of curriculum design principles as guidelines for European initial teacher education (ITE) and continuous professional development (CPD) programmes that will foster creative approaches to science and mathematics learning in preschool and the first years of primary education in the frame of inquiry-based educational environments. Work Package 5 is based on the findings of the theoretical review (Work Package 2), comparative studies (Work Package 3), and in-depth field research (Work Package 4). In addition it has been informed by the involvement of communities of stakeholders – teachers, student teachers, school staff members, teacher educators, researchers, out-of-the box thinkers, policy makers and experts in the field of inquiry, creativity or science – in online and face-to-face focus groups. This document offers teacher education policy makers and institutions a set of curriculum design principles and accompanying conceptual recommendations in order to design and apply curricula that will foster creative approaches to science and mathematics learning in preschool and first years of primary education. Furthermore it offers teacher education institutions a related set of teacher outcomes about what teachers should know and be able to do in order to develop such creative approaches. These can be seen as concrete recommendations for teacher educators and teacher education institutions to frame their sessions, workshops and courses. They are directly linked to the implications for teacher training which arose from deliverables D2.2 Conceptual Framework, D3.2 Report on Mapping and Comparing Recorded Practices, D3.3 Report on First Survey of School Practice and D4.4 Report on Practices and their Implications (see also Figure below)

Knowledge foundations for the development of sustainable wildlife enterprises in remote Indigenous communities of Australia

Sustainable wildlife enterprises in remote Indigenous communities are an important source of economic development and employment whilst providing people with opportunities to continue their close connection with country and to maintain customary wildlife harvesting practices. Critical to the success of wildlife enterprises is recognition of the importance of both Indigenous ecological knowledge and western science in their design and implementation. This paper analyses the Indigenous ecological knowledge and western science underpinning the northern long-necked turtle and fledgling tarantula spider industries that have been established by the Djelk Rangers in the remote township of Maningrida in central Arnhem Land. The paper addresses issues of complementarity and conflict across both knowledge systems. The paper also examines the formal transmission of knowledge through education and training institutions as a means of developing employment pathways for young Indigenous people to work in wildlife enterprises

Brainstorming and Mind-mapping: Crucial Basic Skills Duet in Building Critical Thinking for Academic Composition

Academic writing in English has been a challenging basic skill for most English learners despite the levels of fluency the learners have. The range of struggle extends from the limited knowledge of the topic to the less practice in technical academic writing process. Although the challenges vary from one learner to another, there is a similar struggle indicated, particularly in starting the composition process. Brainstorming and mind-mapping have been commonly introduced as the initial phase for academic writing. Nevertheless, they are not as extensively practiced as the next steps of drafting. The next challenge in academic writing highlights the struggle in presenting logical flow of ideas to reflect the critical thinking of the writer. Interestingly, this struggle is closely related to the initial process of collecting and clustering ideas through brainstorming and mind-mapping. According to Pareto Principle, the 20% focus on building “vital few” – in this context is the basic skill – leads to 80% effective results of improvement. Thus, the extensive practice in brainstorming and mind-mapping as the basic skills in academic writing is believed to be crucial to support the whole composition process; particularly in developing the ideas and keeping the track of those ideas to present the critical and logical thinking of the writer

Showcase of Active Learning and Teaching Practices in Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) Education

The new concept of Open Spatial Data Infrastructures (Open SDIs) has emerged from an increased interest in open data initiatives together with national and international directives, such as the EU Open Data Directive (Directive (EU) 2019/1024), and the large investment of European public authorities in developing SDIs for sharing spatial data within public authorities. Open SDIs have the potential to boost reaching SDIs’ general aims and goals of facilitating the exchange and sharing of spatial data to support planning and decision-making by including public participation and increased openness in all aspects of SDIs, including Open SDI Education. The open SPatial data Infrastructure eDucation nEtwoRk (SPIDER) project aims to address Open SDI Education by particular emphasis on studying Active Learning and Teaching (ALT) methods for SDI education. This article provides a theoretical basis of ALT for SDI methodologies. We show in which way ALT practices were already implemented in SDI education at the Partner universities before the COVID-19 pandemic. We also describe how the pandemic functioned as a catalyst for implementing ALT practices to an online environment, and how students evaluated these practices. The outcomes of our research can serve as an inspiration for SDI education in other countries

Collaborating around digital tabletops: children’s physical strategies from the UK, India and Finland

We present a study of children collaborating around interactive tabletops in three different countries: the United Kingdom, India and Finland. Our data highlights the key distinctive physical strategies used by children when performing collaborative tasks during this study. Children in the UK tend to prefer static positioning with minimal physical contact and simultaneous object movement. Children in India employed dynamic positioning with frequent physical contact and simultaneous object movement. Children in Finland used a mixture of dynamic and static positioning with minimal physical contact and object movement. Our findings indicate the importance of understanding collaboration strategies and behaviours when designing and deploying interactive tabletops in heterogeneous educational environments. We conclude with a discussion on how designers of tabletops for schools can provide opportunities for children in different countries to define and shape their own collaboration strategies for small group learning that take into account their different classroom practices

Using graphic organizer in helping year five pupils to comprehend the small 'I'

Graphic organizers are structural tools that help readers organize thoughts. By using graphic organizers, pupils can experience words beyond pronunciation and display connections between ideas and concepts to improve comprehension. Graphic organizers help pupils sort, show relationship, make meaning, and manage data quickly and easily before, during, and after reading and discussion. As a result, pupils can display connections between ideas and concept, thus improving the text comprehension. The subjects were primarily Year Five pupils (n = 60) at a suburban school in Kota Kinabalu. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of using graphic organizers as a learning tool to help Year Five pupils organize thoughts and improve reading comprehension. Using a triangular approach to data collection, this 6 week study utilized a Pre-test and Post-test control group design and individual interviews to determine the effects of graphic organizers on pupils' achievement. The data suggests that using graphic organizers might have been one factor that aided pupils in the reading comprehension process. In addition, 'this study revealed that pupils believed that graphic organizers were helpful in allowing them to organize their thoughts after reading a story. A paired samples t - test determined significant difference in achievement between the groups. The experimental group improved in achievement at least as much as the control grou