School of Education faculty members Mary Knight-McKenna, Portia Wade and Heidi Hollingsworth presented at virtual conferences in November.
School of Education faculty members Mary Knight-McKenna and Heidi Hollingsworth presented virtually at the 13th International Conference of Education, Research, and Innovation (ICERI) on Nov. 9.
Innovative professional development to promote infant and toddler language: Effectiveness and teacher responses
Heidi Hollingsworth and Mary Knight-McKenna presented results of their research focused on teachers of infants and toddlers who participated in professional development (PD) for fostering early language development. The multi-session PD program was provided by Alamance Partnership for Children and utilized digital language recorders from the LENA Foundation to measure the classroom language environment. Results indicated (1) participating infant/toddler classrooms were providing a high rate of the conversational turns that are so important for children’s language development, (2) the PD program was effective in increasing the frequency with which participating teachers used twelve language promotion practices of focus, and (3) the PD program was generally a positive experience for participating teachers.
School of Education faculty members Mary Knight-McKenna, Portia Wade and Heidi Hollingsworth presented virtually at the National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators (NAECTE) Fall 2020 Conference on Nov. 4.
Early childhood teacher education in 2020: Policy and advocacy for equity
Heidi Hollingsworth, Mary Knight-McKenna and Portia Wade presented details about a course in Elon’s Early Childhood program. The course, Early Childhood Policy and Advocacy, aims to prepare early educators and citizens who are informed about current policies and who are effective advocates for the profession and the children and families they serve. These aims are accompanied in 2020 by a renewed emphasis on equity in response to the contexts of the BLM movement and COVID-19. Examples of content, resources, and assignments, along with student feedback, were presented.
Details:
Hollingsworth, H., & Knight-McKenna, M. (2020, November 9-10). Innovative professional development to promote infant and toddler language: Effectiveness and teacher responses. Virtual session presented via paper. In L. Gómez Chova, A. López Martínez, & I. Candel Torres (Eds.), ICERI2020 Proceedings, 13th International Conference of Education, Research, and Innovation (pp. 1157-1161). IATED Academy.
Hollingsworth, H., Wade, P., & Knight-McKenna, M. (2020, November 4). Early childhood teacher education in 2020: Policy and advocacy for equity. Roundtable presentation at the National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators (NAECTE) Fall Conference.