During National Science Week, we will showcase innovative digital tools, alongside what we have learned about supporting STEM conversations with educators and families over the past year. Come along to a public lecture to hear about our findings to date.
You will experience the following journey with a special focus on STEM PlayWorlds across different digital platforms:
Laureate Professor Marilyn Fleer will share a snapshot of an exciting professional development model for family day care educators to help them bring STEM into the family home.
Dr. Prabhat Rai will showcase how to work remotely with families through innovative models of collaboration and engagement.
PhD student Sharon McCormack will highlight creative and imaginative ways that families and educators can use social media for STEM learning.
Date: Tuesday 17 August
Time: 6:30pm – 8:00pm
The event will be live streamed online, to register for the event follow this link.
Celebrations
We had many things to celebrate in the last few months:
- Tanya Stephenson submitted her thesis for examination!
- Xianyu achieved her Final review and Monique achieved her Confirmation review milestones in July
- Two of our PhD students, Yuwen and Yuejiu achieved their Progress review (mid-candidature) milestone in August, and
- We welcome three new PhD students Oriana, Sonya, and Wenxuan to our Conceptual PlayLab team!
Celebrating our women in STEM: Dr. Rebecca Lewis, Dr. Ade Dwi Utami, and Dr. Fatema Taj Johora
Our PhD graduates are producing amazing research that we’d like to share with you:
Inclusive education: Participation of children with disabilities in Australian mainstream preschools. Click this link to know more about Dr Johora's work.
Why play matters? Changing teachers' play pedagogical practices to improve children's learning and development. Work based in Indonesia. Dr Utami's fabulous research can be accessed from the following link.
The educator’s role in creating the conditions for children’s participation and concept formation using a teacher-researcher methodology: Implications for professional development. Dr Lewis's paper based on her doctoral research explains educator’s role in creating conditions for children’s concept learning, and can be accessed from here.
From left, Dr. Ade Dwi Utami, Dr. Fatema Taj Johora, Laureate Profession Marilyn Fleer, Dr. Rebecca Lewis
Sharing our research
We are continuing to share our research and findings with educators, families, policy makers and fellow researchers.
ISCAR 2020/2021
The International Society for Cultural-historical and Activity Research 2020 conference was scheduled to be held in July/August 2020 but had to be postponed due to the pandemic. The Conceptual PlayLab presented a number of papers, symposia, workshops and posters at the conference this year. We enjoyed the many rich, stimulating and inspiring discussions with scholars across the world.
South Australian Association of Independent Schools
Marilyn delivered webinar for the educators through the network of South Australian Association of Independent Schools which introduced characteristics of Conceptual PlayWorlds and inspired participants to implement it in their educational settings.
ASERA conference 2021
The Conceptual PlayLab’s team; Laureate Prof. Marilyn Fleer, Dr. Glykeria Fragkiadaki, Dr. Prabhat Rai and Ms. Tanya Stephenson presented a symposium titled “Programmatic research on STEM concept formation: Conceptual PlayWorlds as an educational experiment in early years” in ASERA’s 2021 conference.
Four interrelated papers were presented that showed results from educational experiments done by the team at Conceptual PlayLab in collaboration with educators, families and children. An intervention of a Conceptual PlayWorld was used for researching STEM concept formation and the motives of teachers, families, and early childhood children and girls.
TAFE staff in NSW
Dr. Rebecca Lewis introduced TAFE CEC staff to the Conceptual PlayWorld model, and the national programmatic study led by Prof. Marilyn Fleer.
Latest papers
Our latest paper are available online.
You can also access our latest working papers from the Conceptual PlayLab publications page.
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If you are an early childhood educator who would like to have an opportunity to participate in the Conceptual PlayLab research activities in the future, you can register your interest and join our private Facebook group - Conceptual PlayWorlds for Educators. You can also access free resources for educators.
If you are a parent who would like to have an opportunity to participate in the Conceptual PlayLab research activities in the future, you can register your interest. You can also access free resources for families.
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