Blended teacher professional development modalities for ECD practitioners on Learning through Play in South Africa

• In Event: Developing Digitized Tools for LtP ECE Programming

Proposal

Holistic development of young children leads to improved learning outcomes, improved well-being and healthy relationships with others. Central to this holistic development is a Learning through Play (LtP) approach, which depends on well-capacitated practitioners supported by their school leaders, district officials and parents/caregivers.

In South Africa, there is wide recognition of the critical role the Early Childhood Development (ECD) sector plays in ensuring holistic child development and in bridging inequality gaps. But the sector, which consists of a variety of ECD services, including many small home-based and private ECD centers outside the formal school system, continues to face major challenges in the areas of infrastructure, funding, lack of accurate statistics, human resources, and unqualified ECD practitioners. The recent shift in responsibility of the ECD sector from the Department of Social Development (DSD) to the Department of Basic Education (DBE) makes this an opportune time to address these challenges.

Leading a consortium with non-government partners, VVOB – education for development has commenced to support the Department of Basic Education (DBE) on continuing professional development for early childhood practitioners with the Funda Udladle Nathi (F.U.N.) programme (2022-2026), on Learning through Play, funded by the LEGO Foundation.

This presentation draws from a literature review and a gap analysis of ECD professional development provision in South Africa, undertaken recently in the context of the F.U.N programme, to inform VVOB’s support interventions. The presentation gives background on the ECD landscape in South Africa, with particular attention to digital and/or blended ECD professional development provision and LtP. A deeper dive into the gap analysis of ECD professional development provision gives insights and recommendations regarding (blended) professional development needs of practitioners, the kind of support offered to ECD practitioners in terms of both content and (blended) modes of delivery, the quality assurance of (blended) professional development, and the needs of professional development providers in the ECD sector. The presentation outlines how, following a ‘Path-to-Scale' learning approach, key insights from the gap analysis are currently being addressed to improve programming.

Besides the gap analysis, the project learning partner (NBA) is conducting effectiveness research on two different ‘modalities’ of continuous professional development. This study involves over 1000 centers and school leaders, practitioners, and teachers. The modalities blend digital self-study with limited face-to-face support, and professional learning community (PLC) engagement, where teachers and practitioners learn and practice LtP together. While both modalities use this blended approach, they differ in the amount of face-to-face support provided. The presentation will present findings from baseline and end-line on the effectiveness of both modalities used. This research uses a mixed-methods design, including data collection through school and center leader interviews, practitioner interviews and lesson observations, as well as knowledge and attitude questions that are collected through the Learning Management System of the F.U.N. program. The results of this research are expected to provide insights into how blended learning can be optimized, specifically for ECD practitioners and LtP interventions.

Author

• Chantal Lenore Snyman, VVOB Education for Development