Abstract:

In a study, five early childhood educators from a larger study (Yap, 2024) volunteered to participate in classroom observation. They belonged to early childhood educators who rated their own conceptions and efficacies moderately and highly. The five teachers also participated in the lesson observations voluntarily. A total of 209 minutes and 37 seconds of learning sessions were video recorded and analyzed thematically. The researchers viewed the video clips in segments and analyzed them referring to the thematic synthesis framework (Braun & Clarke, 2017). Three themes emerged namely “teacher led play-based instructions” with three subthemes "teacher as actor, children as actor and questioning", "play-based instructions for environmental pollutions and sustainable practices" and "play-based instructors for creativity teaching" with two sub-themes "behavioral management and spiral teaching". The themes were corroborated with the earlier reported findings using interviews and questionnaire (Yap & Tan, 2023). Synthesized these findings we can conclude preliminary that using video as a tool we can observe how early childhood educators based on their beliefs and efficacies enacted creative teaching and teaching sustainability in play-based instructional contexts. Video as a tool broadens the lens of the researchers to "slow-down", "revisit", and iteratively view emergent creative episodes and to explore intuitive processes and cultural practices that otherwise unintentionally dismiss.

References:
[1] Clarke, V., & Braun, V. (2017). Thematic analysis. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 12(3), 297–298. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2016.1262613
[2] Yap, J.M. (2024). An exploratory study on early childhood educators’ efficacy in using play-based instructions for creative teaching and sustainable development. A master’s in education dissertation submitted to the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
[3] Yap, J.M., & Tan, A.G. (2023). A mixed-method exploratory study on early childhood educators’ play-based creative teaching and sustainability. Conference paper read at the ERAS-WERA focal meeting November in Singapore.

Keywords:

Early childhood education, video, creative teaching, sustainability.