Classroom management is a serious concern for beginning teachers including preservice teachers. The Queensland Department of Education, Training and Employment (DETE) has developed the Essential Skills for Classroom Management (ESCM), a system of positive and pro-active strategies for maintaining supportive learning environments. In addition, the DETE offers Classroom Profiling, a data driven, non-judgmental process to allow teachers to reflect on the classroom management strategies they employ. This qualitative study investigated whether Classroom Profiling training could increase preservice teachers’ knowledge and confidence in using ESCM. Fifteen preservice teachers in their final year of a Bachelor of Education degree in Far North Queensland participated in the study. Methods included surveys and a focus group discussion. Findings suggested that Classroom Profiling training improved preservice teachers’ perceptions of their knowledge and confidence in classroom management techniques including the ESCM.

Children’s Voices in Australian School Age Care: What do They Think About Afterschool Care?

While embedded in teacher professional standards and assumed aspects of teacher professionalism, willingness and ability to engage in professional dialogue about practice and curriculum initiatives are rarely examined or explicitly taught in teacher education programs. With this in mind, the authors designed an assessment task for pre-service teachers that required them to interview their supervising teachers about the implementation of sustainability as cross-curriculum priority in the Australian national curriculum, and to write a reflective account of the process. Forty-seven early childhood pre-service teachers and their supervising teachers consented to the interview transcripts and reflective accounts being used as research data. Analysis of the reflective accounts highlights what enabled and constrained the dialogue across professional experience settings and the benefits of having pre-service teachers engage in such an assessment task. The authors discuss implications for pre-service teacher education and on-going teacher professional learning.

Play is a cornerstone of early childhood education. However, recent trends of schoolification and school readiness have meant that academic learning and adult-guided play are often privileged over free play. The aim of this study was to explore how a service-learning experience, in the form of organising and running a pop-up playground for young children and their families, would promote learning about and advocacy for play among early childhood preservice teachers (PSTs). Thirty-six PSTs enrolled in a second-year early childhood education unit in an Australian University were required to advertise, organise and facilitate a loose parts playground at a local park as part of their coursework. PSTs were asked to reflect on their learning from the event. Findings suggest that a service-learning pop-up playground was highly successful in promoting PST learning about children’s play, loose parts and the adulteration of play. Learning about advocacy for play was less evident.