PlayLab Updates

National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children's Day

2023-08-04T18:12:00.000+10:00

Today is National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children's Day and the theme is #LittleVoices #LoudFutures.

How are you celebrating National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children's Day? We believe that every child's voice is important and needs to be heard. We would love to see your posts on this special day so please share on our social media pages!

Join the Conceptual PlayLab team on Saturday at Peninsula campus or Sunday at Clayton campus for Monash University Open Day 2023.

This Saturday and Sunday #MonashOpenDay! Join us at our Peninsula campus on Saturday and Clayton on Sunday to learn more about studying Education at Monash University. We can't wait to see you there! Register now: bit.ly/43ZD08w

Latest papers

Our latest papers are available online:

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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Other resources

Conceptual PlayWorld website
TeachSpace
Lens
Free app download

Suva, Fiji 🌴 and celebrate NAIDOC week with us

2023-07-03T13:34:00.001+10:00

In early June, the Conceptual PlayLab team and our STEM champs visited Suva, Fiji to take part in an exciting ECE symposium with University of South Pacific.

Below: subject positioning made visible - teachers in Fiji with PlayLab working in small groups to show the different pedagogical positions - to be equally present with children, to be above children, to be below children asking for help, to be in primordial we position (as one unit of teacher-child).

Sonya Nedovic ⁦@MonashEducation PlayLab wows the participants of the talanoa in Fiji as she presents a snapshot of her PhD research.

Below: Monique says that it not so much about the resources but about being resourceful. University of the South Pacific and ⁦⁦@MonashEducation share their respective research together what a green-blue Pacific Conceptual PlayWorld could look like in Suva Fiji. We don’t buy but recycle.

Celebrate NAIDOC week with us, 2nd-9th of July

Visit the official NAIDOC week website to find out more about celebrations in your area.

Marilyn Fleer @MarilynFleer·23h

Celebrating #NAIDOC week by walking with the NT street art 👏🏼

Latest papers

Our latest papers are available online:

You can also access our latest working papers from the Conceptual PlayLab publications page.

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Other resources

Conceptual PlayWorld website
TeachSpace
Lens
Free app download

PlayLab PhD students attend an international conference in Norway on play, design and the arts

2023-05-24T08:21:00.000+10:00

PlayLab PhD students Yuwen and Zixi attend an international conference on play, design and the arts.

During our travel to Norway, we had the opportunity to explore the Bergen city with colleagues from the Kindknow Centre. We took the funicular to Floyen and visit the kindergarten there.

Photo: A kindergarten outdoor play area in Bergen Floyen

Photo: Bergen city

We also visited the Kindknow Centre and the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, where we learned about their innovative research and approaches to early childhood education.

Photo: The University Norway University of Applied Science

Photo: A group photo in the University Norway University of Applied Science

The highlight of the trip was attending the opening of the Research School, which was founded by the Norwegian government for eight years. It was inspiring to see such a strong commitment to research and education, and we are excited to see how this school will contribute to the field in the years to come.

Photo: Professor Elin Eriksen Odegaard’s opening speech for the NORCHILD Research School

Attending the BIN-Norden conference in days 4 and 5 was also an enriching experience. We had the opportunity to listen to keynote speakers such as Associate Professor Alicja R. Sadownik, who presented on "Children's playful entanglements as a matter of sustainable economics and justice-to-come," and Professor Ditte Winther-Lindqvist, who presented on "Caring well for children and the world." We also heard from many other Nordic researchers working on important topics related to children's play, exploration, and art.

Photo: Professor Ditte Winther-Lindqvist gave her presentation

Photo: Associate Professor Alicja R. Sadownik gave her presentation

Photo: Maria Hrindheim gave her presentation

On the last day of our stay, we listened to Dr. Ana Marjanovic-Shane on the Emancipation of Childhood. Her insights and perspectives on play, playful practices and institutionalization early childhood upbringing and education were truly eye-opening, and we were grateful for the opportunity to hear her speak.

Photo: Listen to Ana’s presentation

Additionally, Yuwen was able to reconnect with Maria during the conference, with whom she had previously collaborated to organize the Conceptual PlayLab and the Kindknow Centre's joint PhD day in 2020 and 2021. Yuwen is grateful for these experiences and look forward to future opportunities for learning and collaboration.

Photo: Yuwen and Maria in the conference dinner

Photo: A group dinner photo for Marilyn, Glykeria, Ana, Yuwen and Zixi

Overall, it was a wonderful journey in Norway. we had the opportunity to network with many Nordic researchers and deepen my understanding of early childhood education, particularly in the areas of play and exploration. We were also delighted to network with cultural-historical researchers such as Alicja, Ditte, Maria and many other colleagues at the Kindknow Centre.

Conceptual PlayWorlds for families

2023-04-06T12:49:00.000+10:00

Our Conceptual PlayWorlds for families are nearly here!

Coming soon!

If you would like to inspire your families, why not try out a Conceptual PlayWorld at home! Watch out for our roll out of starters for families on the ABC platform here. Below is a sneak peek of the fun that you can have at home with your own family!

Above is a Conceptual PlayWorld in action using We love you, Magoo by Briony Stewart and below is another Conceptual PlayWorld in action, Amira's suitcase by Vikki Conley.

If you've been inspired to try out our Conceptual PlayWorld starters at home, please visit our family starters page. For more details, please see our newsletter or join our mailing list to stay up-to-date with our latest research news.

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In March, we welcomed esteemed delegates from South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Dr Anne Suryani and Monique Parkes introduced the group to Conceptual PlayWorlds. A wonderful day was had by all.

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Latest papers

Our latest papers are available online.

A cultural-historical study of the development of emotion regulation through collective play in an institutional care setting in China

Science concept formation during infancy, toddlerhood, and early childhood: Developing a scientific motive over time

The role of props in promoting imagination during toddlerhood

Working papers from the Conceptual PlayLab publications page.

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Other resources

Conceptual PlayWorld website
TeachSpace
Lens
Free app download

Are you an educator that strives to foster scientific curiosity?

2023-03-07T09:29:00.001+11:00

Are you an educator that strives to foster scientific curiosity, develop mathematical logic and instil design and engineering thinking in our children?

The Conceptual PlayWorld model is a play-based model that can help you achieve those learning outcomes. It’s based on some of the world’s best research, and inspires young children to form concepts in STEM, especially girls.

If you, or someone you know, would like to learn how to construct a Conceptual PlayWorld for STEM in your setting - We are offering free VIP professional development programs.

Whether you’re an educator in Family Day Care, Preschool or School, we’re inviting you to join us!

We want to help you pioneer Conceptual PlayWorlds in your educational environment and there’s a number of ways you can participate.

Option 1

Marilyn and her team from the Conceptual PlayLab Monash University, run 2 hour workshops via Zoom. So wherever you are in Australia, or the world, you and a group of your peers can do this Professional Development together.

Option 2

The second option is a self-paced PD. You do this on your own, working through a series of modules at a pace that suits you.

The modules are packed with videos, prompts, and resources to support the planning and building of your very own Conceptual PlayWorld.

Marilyn and the team make sure the Professional Development is catered specifically for you - the workshop is based on the stories you and your children love.

All you have to do is have a selection of your favourite books ready and you’re good to go

Click here to sign up for your personalised PD today!

The Conceptual Playworld - where imagination in STEM and imagination in play come together.

The Conceptual PlayLab celebrates!

Congratulations to our very own Senior Research Fellow, Dr Anne Suryani who was awarded an Advancing Women's Success Grant which supports the career progression of early to mid-career high potential academic women with primary carer responsibilities and assists the university in fostering talent and progressing gender equity in senior roles within the academy.

Anne was also awarded the DFAT AII Studies and Cultural Leadership Award which recognises excellence in study or research at any level and across any discipline, or in cultural education and outreach, which has contributed to an increased understanding of Indonesia among Australians.

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Other resources

Conceptual PlayWorld website
TeachSpace
Lens
Free app download

Are you looking for resources to kickstart 2023?

2023-01-24T09:16:00.002+11:00

Are you looking for resources to kickstart 2023? Jump onto the ABC Kids page and download Conceptual PlayWorld starters for the stories read on Play School Story Time abc.net.au #STEM @MonashEducation

View Play School Story Time on ABC iview

Latest papers

Our latest papers are available online.

Collective play: the new conditions for children’s development in an institutional care setting

A cultural-historical study of the development of emotion regulation through collective play in an institutional care setting in China

Science concept formation during infancy, toddlerhood, and early childhood: Developing a scientific motive over time

The role of props in promoting imagination during toddlerhood

Working papers from the Conceptual PlayLab publications page.

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Other resources

Conceptual PlayWorld website
TeachSpace
Lens
Free app download

We are so excited about our partnership with the ABC!

2022-11-08T11:59:00.000+11:00

Marilyn and the PlayLab team are super excited about our partnership with the ABC’s Play School Story Time and ABC Kids Early Education. The team have been working with the ABC’s Early Childhood Education Producer, Laura Stone, behind the scenes to prepare some super innovative materials for educators and families.

Visit Play School Story Time to find out more!

Celebrating our successes

We congratulate Dr. Kulsum Chishti Yonzon and Dr. Xianyu Meng on their recent doctorate conferral.

Kulsum’s research study focuses on infants-toddlers learning and development, specifically how Conceptual PlayWorld creates conditions for developing the imagination and science concept formation in the toddler age period. Her areas of focus include children’s learning and development in infancy and toddler age period, translating theory into practice to develop effective play pedagogy, educational psychology, STEM education, and providing mentorship and guidance to early childhood educators and teachers. Kulsum is an Early Childhood Teacher and hails from Nepal. She has experience working in the early childhood sector in Nepal and Australia.

Xianyu's thesis was entitled "A cultural-historical study of the development of emotion regulation of children in institutional care in China: A playworld approach". Her research focused on applying the playworld pedagogy to an institutional care setting in the Chinese context, in an attempt to support the children's emotion regulation. Her research found that playworlds, when implemented as part of the institutional practice, created new developmental possibilities for children in institutional care in China. Before commencing her PhD journey, she worked as a Montessori early childhood teacher for five years, and as an educational consultant for a not-for-profit organisation specialising in the care of vulnerable children.

Latest papers

Our latest papers are available online.

Science concept formation during infancy, toddlerhood, and early childhood: Developing a scientific motive over time

The role of props in promoting imagination during toddlerhood

Balancing play and science learning - developing children's scientific learning in the classroom through imaginary play

Promoting Chinese children's agency in science learning: Conceptual PlayWorld as a new play practice

Working papers from the Conceptual PlayLab publications page.

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Other resources

Conceptual PlayWorld website
TeachSpace
Lens
Free app download

Conceptual PlayWorld PD highlights

2022-08-01T09:06:00.001+10:00

In this post we present highlights from our latest Conceptual PlayWorlds PD.

Conceptual PlayWorld PD highlights

In July 2022, the PlayLab team delivered four free weekly Zoom PD sessions to a group of 90 pre-service and in-service early childhood teachers studying postgraduate early childhood degrees at the Indonesia University of Education (Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, UPI). The fourth session was opened by Professor Ahmad Bukhori, Director of International Affairs; Dr Nandang Budiman, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Education; and Dr Euis Kurniati, Head of the Master of Early Childhood program. UPI has an existing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Monash University and thus PlayLab is pleased with this opportunity to support and strengthen our relationship with Indonesian academics and researchers in the early childhood field.

It was wonderful to see participants’ high levels of engagement with the program. They also worked together to investigate how Conceptual PlayWorld (CPW) can be adapted into the Indonesian context by using well-known local storybooks to teach STEM ideas to young children. For example, participants shared ideas on how CPW can be used to teach children about current environmental issues such as flooding, which is common in Indonesia.

According to Dr Kurniati, “CPW’s planning proforma is easy to understand and will be very helpful for our future teachers wherever they teach. Thank you to Professor Fleer, Dr Anne Suryani, Ms Oriana Ramunno, and Dr Taj Johora for organising these Zoom PD sessions for us. We look forward to further collaboration with PlayLab”.

The PlayLab team welcomes expressions of interest from early childhood educators and educational institutions around the world who would like to learn about, and implement, the CPW program in their practice. If you would like more information please contact Dr Anne Suryani at conceptualplaylab@monash.edu

Latest papers

Our latest papers are available online:

You can also access our latest working papers from the Conceptual PlayLab publications page.

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Other resources

Conceptual PlayWorld website
TeachSpace
Lens
Free app download

Welcome to an exciting opportunity to have your say about PLAY!

2022-06-24T11:46:00.002+10:00

The Monash PlayLab and Early Childhood Australia (ECA) are working together to support the Year of Play. We want to hear your thoughts through a very short survey (approximately five minutes). The outcomes of the survey will contribute important insights into how the sector engages with play and provide guidance for the development of resources and activities as we celebrate the Year of Play.

There are no right or wrong answers. Your responses will be kept strictly confidential, and no individual or service/school will be identifiable. When you respond to the survey on play, and say what kind of service you are in, we will then give you the opportunity to receive a summary of the models of play which you can use to self-assess or use to support your program.

You will also have the option to sign up for free professional development through the Monash PlayLab or further connect to ECA’s Year of Play.

Please follow this link to participate in our survey: https://tinyurl.com/YearOfPlaySurvey

We look forward to your responses!

Sincerely,

Laureate Prof. Marilyn Fleer, Dr Anne Suryani and Dr Kate Highfield

monash.edu/education/research/projects/conceptual-playlab

Join the conversation!

Like our FB page https://www.facebook.com/ConceptualPlayWorlds

Join our early childhood educators FB private group facebook.com/groups/383942372405331

Join our public lecture: Concepts, Creativity and Collective Thinking of Infants, Toddlers and Pre-schoolers - STEM Findings from the PlayLab

2022-03-17T09:10:00.001+11:00

Welcome to our first post for 2022!

STEM Findings from the PlayLab pubic lecture

Come along and hear about how infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers think, create and collectively innovate in STEM.

Laureate Professor Marilyn Fleer and Dr Prabhat Rai will share an overview of what we have learned over three years:

snapshots of practices from the PlayLab researchers through video and photographic documentation
new findings about how infants and young children think with concepts
how to authentically create STEM problems in play
how conceptual thinking changes from infancy to school
new digital innovations and possibilities for imagining in STEM for playgroups, preschools, family homes and schools

Laureate Professor Marilyn and Doctor Prabhat will be joined by PhD graduate Doctor Kulsum Chishti Yonzon, and PhD candidate Sonya Nedovic.

This event will be a hybrid event, where attendees can join in person at Monash University's Clayton Campus or online.

Date: Thursday 17 March 2022

Time: 5.45pm – 8:00pm (AEDT, GMT+11)

To register for the event follow this link.

Event schedule

5:45pm: Arrival/registrations/exhibition for in person attendees
6:30pm: Panel presentation commences in room and online
7:45pm: Questions from audience
8pm: Event concludes

Our team keeps growing

We welcome Doctor Anne Suryani to our Conceptual PlayLab team as a Senior Research Fellow to lead Pillar 3 - Developing a national, evidence-based model for STEM teaching in the pre-school years!

Anne holds a PhD in Educational Psychology with a Mollie Holman Medal for the best doctoral thesis in education from Monash University. Prior to this role this role, she worked as a research fellow at Melbourne Graduate School of Education, the University of Melbourne.

Anne has been working in a range of government-funded, consultancy and grant-based educational research in the Asia-Pacific Region, including Australia. She has strong quantitative skills and experience in large-scale survey design and analysis as well as longitudinal and comparative studies. Her research interests include teacher motivation, teacher education, teacher professional development, religious tolerance education, and educational policy.

We also welcome four new PhD students, Wenxuan Zhang, Hong Chen, Zixi Liang, and Roujia He.

Wenxuan's research interests focus on the early childhood mathematics education in China, with specific emphasis on applying cultural-historical perspectives to understanding play-based pedagogy in children’s mathematics development. She is enthusiastic about how early childhood teachers in China implement Mathematical Playworld as an innovative approach.

Hong has worked as an early childhood teacher and also a primary level language teacher in Melbourne. Having been working with children from early childhood settings and primary school settings, she is passionate about discovering the depth of transition in regards to play, professional development and community involvement. She is particularly interested in supporting children's transition from early childhood settings to primary schools in Australia through the implementation of Conceptual PlayWorld. We’re looking forward to seeing the results of her research on children's transition to schools.

Zixi holds a Master of Teaching and Graduate Certificate of Educational Research from Monash University. She is passionate about improving children's social-emotional development in vulnerable families. She is also interested in fathers' involvement, and how to design early intervention programs and implement effective practices to provide unique opportunities for non-resident fathers to contribute to children's social-emotional development.

Roujia has worked as an early childhood educator and teacher in Melbourne and China. She is passionate about children’s cognitive development in a family environment. She is particularly interested in helping parents support children’s mathematical development in home sitting in China through the implementation of Conceptual Play World . We’re looking forward to seeing the results of her research on improving parenting skills through Conceptual Play World.

Latest papers

Our latest papers are available online.

You can also access our latest working papers from the Conceptual PlayLab publications page.

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Other resources

Conceptual PlayWorld website
TeachSpace
Lens
Free app download

Launching the PlayLab Podcast

2021-10-12T17:23:00.000+11:00

The PlayLab Podcast

We're so excited that the PlayLab Podcast officially launched on October 4! The Podcast, hosted by Monash PlayLab Director Laureate Professor Marilyn Fleer, shares the most up to date findings from our research and deep dives into the evidence-based model of Conceptual PlayWorlds for the intentional teaching of STEM concepts in the early years of childhood.

In the first episode, we introduce listeners to the research of the Conceptual PlayLab and touch on the story of how it all began. Each episode features a member of our team and an interview with Conceptual PlayWorld STEM champions who have personal experience with the model. The episodes include:

Welcome to the PlayLab Podcast
Conceptual PlayWorlds for Families
The Educator’s perspective and opening opportunities for young girls in STEM
Infants and toddlers, and how they experience STEM

The podcasts are designed in bite sized chunks you can listen to whilst commuting or going for a walk. To listen, please follow this link.

National Science Week Public Event - Innovating in early childhood: STEM learning

To celebrate National Science Week in August, the Conceptual PlayLab's Marilyn Fleer, Prabhat Rai and PhD student Sharon McCormack showcased innovative digital tools to enhance meaningful sharing between children and their families and early childhood educators, which was live streamed on 17 August 2021. Marilyn showcased research into family day care educators, Prabhat discussed digital innovations in family homes and Sharon shared her study design to reach families through the Facebook platform.

The video has been viewed 1,086 times on YouTube. You can watch it here.

Celebrations

In our last update, we reported that Tanya Stephenson submitted her thesis for examination! Tanya is now officially Dr. Tanya Stephenson and she has joined the PlayLab as Postdoctoral Research Fellow! Tanya is the first Kathleen Fitzpatrick ARC Laureate scholarship holder to complete her PhD with the Conceptual PlayLab. She is passionate about advancing early childhood STEM education. Her doctoral research focused on early childhood teacher professional development, particularly teacher practices to encourage girls in STEM. Her research interests include early childhood education, STEM education, educational equity, curriculum and policy, educational psychology and teacher professional development.

Another student, Xianyu Meng, has submitted her thesis for examination!

Sharing our research

We are continuing to share our research and findings with educators, families, policy makers and fellow researchers.

ECA National Conference 2021 - Young Citizens: the right to play, learn and be heard

We were proud to be part of ECA National Conference 2021, which brought together 1500 professionals discussing key issues in early childhood education over three days 7-9 September 2021.

Marilyn and Prabhat presented an overview of what we have learned from studying a broad range of Conceptual PlayWorlds in different early childhood settings. Over 500 people attended the presentation.

Marilyn also took part in the Play Statement, presenting on what we know about the research into play and was on the panel talking about children's rights.

Latest papers

We are excited to share our latest publication - “You Can be Whatever You Want to be!”: Transforming Teacher Practices to Support Girls’ STEM Engagement.

Published in the Early Childhood Education Journal, this paper explores how the STEM education practices of early childhood teachers change and develop through the Conceptual PlayWorld model towards actively supporting girls’ STEM engagement. An important consideration that contributes towards increasing the number of girls and women in future STEM-related careers.

Read more here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10643-021-01262-6

You can also access our latest working papers from the Conceptual PlayLab publications page.

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See our newsletter for further details about our other activities.

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Other resources

Conceptual PlayWorld website
TeachSpace
Lens
Free app download

Join our National Science Week Public Lecture on "Innovating in early childhood: using technology for equity and STEM learning"

2021-08-16T15:21:00.000+10:00

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.

Collective imagination as a source of professional practice change: A cultural-historical study of early childhood teacher professional development in the motivated conditions of a Conceptual PlayWorld.

You can also access our latest working papers from the Conceptual PlayLab publications page.

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See our newsletter for further details about our other activities.

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Other resources

Conceptual PlayWorld website
TeachSpace
Lens
Free app download

The PlayLab opens for 2021! Free online self-paced professional development now available!

2021-05-03T00:47:00.006+10:00

The Conceptual PlayLab is again officially open for 2021! We spent the summer focusing on analysing our research data, writing research papers, planning our study designs, and organising cameras and other equipment. We have many things to celebrate:

- three of our PhD students, Gilly, Sharon, and Ha achieved their Confirmation milestone in February,

- Tanya and Kulsum passed their Final milestone,

- Ade officially finished her PhD,

- Marilyn and Tanya's article is featured in the first ever issue of STEM|ED magazine,

- Marilyn's article is featured in the second issue of STEM|ED magazine, and

- We welcome Dr. Fatema Taj Johora to our Conceptual PlayLab team!

We have also been working on our free self-paced online professional development for early childhood educators to understand and implement a Conceptual PlayWorld.

Self-paced online professional development is launched!

The free course includes video examples and starter kits that support educators working in the early years - from infants to school children.

It's an ambitious project, and we look to support more than 3000 educators to bring our proven play-based model to Australian children.

By taking part, you will be contributing to Australia's largest ever study in STEM and early childhood education.

If you want to find our more, watch our promotional video. The course will be released on 3rd May, please register via this registration link or check our website.

Gillian, Sharon and Ha achieved their Confirmation milestone

Three of our PhD students, Gillian O'Connor, Sharon McCormack, and Ha Dang all passed their Confirmation milestone with flying colours in February this year.

Gilly’s research is part of Pillar 1 which explores the development of children’s STEM thinking as they transition from infants to toddlers and later pre-schoolers. Gilly’s study focuses specifically on Science concept formation as it occurs across the infancy-toddlerhood period. Allowing us to map the onset of children’s pathways in Science, her research will make significant contributions to our understanding of a crucial area of science education research that has yet to be explored.

Sharon's research project is situated in Pillar 2 and she will be conducting research to investigate children’s learning of STEM concepts in home settings through the implementation of Conceptual PlayWorlds for Families interventions. Within the research project, Conceptual PlayWorlds will be implemented online on the social media platform of Facebook in closed groups with families. The research aims to examine the ways family support children’s STEM learning within home settings and new practice traditions created through the use of digital technologies and tools that support children’s play, learning and development within home settings.

Ha's research is a collaboration between Monash Engineering and the PlayLab. She is interested in investigating how families can provide the conditions that support the development of spatial reasoning skills, which are correlated with participation and success in STEM, especially engineering. Her research will contribute towards efforts to increase engineering participation overall, and address the gender imbalance in engineering.

The first PhD student from the PlayLab to complete their final milestone

Kulsum Chishti Yonzon is the first PhD student from the Conceptual PlayLab to complete the final milestone of her doctoral research. Her passion is using play-based pedagogies for children’s learning and development in early years. Kulsum’s research aims to understand the process of toddlers’ micro-genetic transitions into imaginary play and learning of science concepts. Coming from Nepal, Kulsum has enormous enthusiasm and over the years she has evolved in her theoretical understanding of cultural-historical concepts and STEM learning in early years. At PlayLab she feels supported and a sense of community and belongingness in her long and rewarding PhD journey. Her research advocates the importance of early childhood education and especially teaching of science concepts using play-based pedagogy.

Hungry for STEM ideas

.. is Marilyn and Tanya's article in the first STEM|ED magazine, published in February. The article presents a case study of an early childhood teacher, Kathy, who set up a number of Conceptual PlayWorlds after participating in the PlayLab's free professional development program. Kathy noticed that the drama of the stories and the PlayWorlds, and the emotional connection to the characters in the story really helped captured children's attention, especially girls' and facilitated their positive engagement with STEM. Kathy's Conceptual PlayWorlds include helping feed the hungry caterpillar and designing a structure to keep her safe, and building a spaceship to help Baby Bear travel to the moon.

Tanya Stephenson has passed her Final PhD milestone in record time, and is now focussed on finishing her thesis. Her research is focussed on how teachers can create an inclusive environment to foster girls' interest in STEM in the early years.

Celebrating Dr. Ade Dwi Utami

Juggling competing demands as a PhD student and a mother, Dr Ade Dwi Utami recently completed her PhD on ‘Children's learning and development in an early childhood education setting in Indonesia: A Playworld approach’. Her inspiring doctoral work won a Postgraduate Publication Award at Monash and also features in the Three Minute Thesis Spotlight section on the University website.

Dr Utami’s research developed an innovative play approach, in the Indonesian context. By filming teachers and children as they developed a collective imaginary play, she was able to demonstrate the power of imagination in play to improve children’s learning and development in different areas including; science, technology, communication, wellbeing and creativity. Learn more her fascinating research here.

Our team is growing again

We are delighted to welcome Dr Fatema Taj Johora to our Conceptual PlayLab team. Taj will lead the research of PlayLab on working with early childhood centres. A recipient of the Endeavour Scholarship for her doctoral research and Australian Leadership Award for Master of Education (Special Education) at Flinders University, Dr Johora has research and teaching experience in Australia and Bangladesh. Her doctoral research at Monash University used a cultural-historical approach and digital methodology, to gain deeper insight into the participation of children with disabilities in mainstream play-based settings in Australia. Dr Johora will lead data collection work in Pillar 1 of the programmatic study of the Conceptual PlayLab.

March and April PhD days

We had very productive days on 11th March and 27th April where some of our PhD students presented our data and analyses to each other to facilitate learning and feedback. Our PhD students are all at different points in our journey, and it was wonderful for those of us early on in our journey to watch and learn data analysis techniques from not just the research pillar leads but also our more senior students.

We are also grateful to Dr. Lorna Arnott for generously spending time to help us understand the process of publishing our papers in the International Journal of Early Years Education journal, where she is the Deputy Editor, and the Journal of Early Childhood Research, where she is the Assistant Editor. Lorna is a Senior Lecturer and Director of Early Years in the School of Education, University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, UK.

We were delighted and grateful to host Nicola O'Reilly, who joined our PhD day before 5am in Ireland and presented her fascinating study titled A delicate balance – Supporting children’s learning in ECEC settings as an adult co-player during sociodramatic play. Nicola has been working in Early Childhood Education for over 20 years and holds a Masters of Education in Maynooth University from which I graduated last year. She is currently heading up the development of a STEM CPD project for Early Childhood Professionals with a team from Dublin City University and the support of several Government Departments. She is also on the Editorial Board of Education Matters, Ireland’s Education Yearbook.

Our collaboration with the KINDknow Centre, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences continues

Following our joint PhD day, Maria Grindheim, a research co-ordinator at the KINDknow Centre, conducted a feature interview with Marilyn, where they talked about what led to Marilyn's interest in early childhood education, and what she saw as the most important issues in the field. Marilyn is the director of our PlayLab and she is also a professor II at the KINDknow Centre.

Marilyn's journey in early childhood education started as a teenager with a school visit to the local kindergarten, where she was fascinated by children's mathematical thinking during play and inspired by a great kindergarten teacher. Her research in STEM learning has shown that if "you build children’s imagination in STEM, you are exploring wonder, creativity, imagining and then you are able to learn about concepts and bring them into your play and thereby play more richly." To Marilyn, the most important issues regarding early childhood education is the push to include more academic content and remove play in some countries, while other countries are wanting to include more play-based programs in the early years.

Marilyn also discussed the gender imbalance in STEM fields, how that has an impact on women's career opportunities, but also on the community as a whole. This imbalance starts in early childhood, where girls are still not accessing resources in play-based settings. However, research on our Conceptual PlayWorld model has shown that "the girls are just as excited about STEM as the boys", and while being inside conceptual play, the teachers notice gendered issues and ensure both boys and girls get equal access, whereas these issues can be missed when the teacher is outside of the play.

You can read the full interview here.

Latest papers

Our papers are available online with open access.

1) Methodological Challenges of Studying Children in a Living Laboratory: Case example of Conceptual PlayLab

2) Early Childhood Science Education from 0 to 6: A Literature Review

3) Programmatic research in the Conceptual PlayLab: STEM PlayWorld as an educational experiment and as a source of development. Subscribe to the journal for free to access the paper.

You can also access our latest working papers from the Conceptual PlayLab publications page.

Here is to an exciting 2021!

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The PlayLab celebrates 2020

2020-12-14T15:37:00.000+11:00

What a year 2020 has been! We ended the year with a remote celebration and hosted a joint PhD event with the KINDknow Centre, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences. Marilyn, Prabhat and Glykeria delivered their keynote at the Early Childhood Voices 2020 Conference, and we published more research papers.

Joint PhD event with the KINDknow Centre, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences

The Conceptual PlayLab, Monash University held a joint PhD event with KINDknow Centre, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences to promote international collaborations, networking and the building of research leadership.

Over two days in late November, we focussed on the cultural-historical concept of "crisis" and how it can be theoretically discussed and methodologically used in empirical research in diverse ways.

We were grateful to Associate Professor Alicja R. Sadownik, of Western Norway University of Applied Sciences and Kindergarten Knowledge Center for Systemic Research on Diversity and Sustainable Futures, for her keynote presentation on Research as an arena for migrant families’ dealing with crises of transitions to ECEC in another socio-cultural context, and to Drs. Glykeria Fragkiadaki and Prabhat Rai, of the Conceptual PlayLab, Monash University,for their keynote presentation on Collective imagination and concept formation in play.

The PhD students also got more experience presenting their work and receiving feedback in a collegial and supportive environment, as well as being exposed to, and learning from each other's work.

Early Childhood Voices Conference Keynote

Marilyn, Glykeria and Prabhat presented one of the keynotes at the Early Childhood Voices Conference 2020, which was virtually organised by Charles Sturt University. The keynote focussed on how to create new research models for supporting early childhood research. The presentation is available here.

Latest papers

Our latest papers are now available online with open access.

1) Methodological Challenges of Studying Children in a Living Laboratory: Case example of Conceptual PlayLab

2) Programmatic research in the Conceptual PlayLab: STEM PlayWorld as an educational experiment and as a source of development. Subscribe to the journal for free to access the paper.

You can also access our latest working papers from the Conceptual PlayLab publications page.

We wish you a wonderful end of year break with your friends and family. See you in an even bigger 2021!

See our newsletter for further details.

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Open Invitation to attend our free joint PhD event with KINDknow Centre, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences

2020-11-10T14:05:00.003+11:00

We are very excited to announce that the The Conceptual PlayLab, Monash University in collaboration with KINDknow Centre, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences is hosting a free scholarly event to support PhD students.

Purpose International collaborations, networking and the building of research leadership

Theme Presenting scholarly research - Research in crisis contexts

Focus of the event

This event is designed to open up a space for dialogue on concepts used in a number of theoretical traditions. One of these traditions is cultural-historical theory, but there are other theoretical interpretations of crisis.

We welcome a broad range of theories for this event, and will cluster our presentations so that the concept of crisis can be shown in a diversity of ways (Day 1) and with a narrowing to cultural-historical framework (Day 2), culminating in a key presentation and discussion led by Dr Glykeria Fragkiadaki and Dr Prabhat Rai to bring together the 2 days.

Presenters and participants will collectively discuss concepts in relation to their empirical studies. The event aims to advance thinking on concepts and promote international exchange, international research community building and networking, and to actively support the development of research leadership skills.

Date 26th – 27th of November, 2020

Day 1 26th November, 2020: 7.30-9.05 am CEST (GMT+1) & 5.30-7.05 pm AEDT (GMT+11)

Zoom link Click here to join

Keynote Research as an arena for migrant families’ dealing with crises of transitions to ECEC in another socio-cultural context by Associate Professor Alicja R. Sadownik, of Western Norway University of Applied Sciences and Kindergarten Knowledge Center for Systemic Research on Diversity and Sustainable Futures.

Day 2 27th November, 2020: 7.30-9.00am CEST (GMT+1) & 5.30-7.05 pm AEDT (GMT+11)

Zoom link Click here to join

Keynote Collective imagination and concept formation in play by Dr Glykeria Fragkiadaki and Dr Prabhat Rai, of the Conceptual PlayLab, Monash University.

Presenters

Poster paper presenters will be organised to share their work in relation to a set of

questions – What is aim of your research? What is the method/concepts used? What is the

(expected) result? What impact can/do/could the results have? The discussant will ask these

questions and the poster presenter will respond to these questions (rather than give a

presentation).

Please email Yuwen Ma or Yuejiu Wang if in Australia or Maria Grindheim if in Norway to express your interest in participating in this exciting 2 part day event.

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Special edition featuring the PlayLab's visiting scholar Dr. Elaine Soares França from Brazil

2020-11-01T14:10:00.003+11:00

In this post we present a spotlight on our special visiting scholar Dr. Elaine Franca from Brazil welcome our latest PhD student Monique Parkes.

The Conceptual PlayLab brings visitors from all of the world and Australia

This year, we are fortunate to have with us Dr. Elaine Soares França, a visiting scholar from Brazil.

Elaine holds a Bachelor of Science Education degree from the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais, and a Masters and a Ph.D. in Education from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). She is also a Science teacher in a Laboratory School at UFMG. She has extensive teaching experience as a primary and secondary years educator. She has also been a tutor to several Professional Development Programs for primary and secondary years educators (in Portuguese only).

In her masters degree study entitled “Differences in the science classroom: knowing the elementary school teachers’ practices” (abstract in English), she characterized practices of science teachers. In this study the focus was on aspects related to the goal of promoting science for all, including urban students with learning difficulties.

In her doctorate degree study entitled “Building relationships between science and imagination throughout a classroom’s first three years in elementary school” (abstract in English), she investigated how relations between science and imagination are built in a classroom at Primary School.

The theoretical methodological approach in both studies were based on elements from ethnography of education. These elements are informed by Interactional Ethnography, and Discourse Analysis, specifically, Microethnography.

She used the notion of creative activity proposed by Vygotsky to develop broader and deeper understanding of how imagination occurs in science classes. By approaching science in the primary years with Childhood’s Sociology perspective and Cultural-historical psychology, she was able to evidence how children’s knowledge is important, makes sense, can help the group to engage in scientific activities, and support the construction of school science knowledge (abstract in English).

Her current postdoctoral research study's main objective is to investigate the analytical frameworks of the Conceptual PlayLab research group of Monash University, relating the approach that the Australian group has been developing data that emerged from a study conducted in a Brazilian school. The plan is also to establish a partnership with researchers from Conceptual PlayLab, whose work has greatly contributed to the academic discussions on the theme in focus.

Since arriving in Melbourne in January, she has been able to visit Scienceworks, State Library Victoria, Sea Life Melbourne, and Melbourne Museum. Elaine found these amazing places are rich resources to learn science and improve imagination to better understand the world. She is hoping to be able to see more of Victoria when restrictions are further eased.

Elaine has fully immersed herself in the PlayLab, contributed to our in PhD Days, and she presented her doctoral thesis to us. Her participation in the weekly Study Group meetings and the different discussions and readings promoted by the PlayLab throughout this year has been great for the PhD community. Before March, she also helped with data collection at a Playgroup.

Elaine said that it has been very enriching for her to learn about Australian education and she hopes to be able to remain connected with the discussions and work developed by PlayLab next year, after she leaves for Brazil in January 2021. We will certainly miss her and definitely hope to stay in touch!

Our team is still growing

We are thrilled to welcome our new PhD student Monique Parkes to the Conceptual PlayLab team. Monique has worked in several roles as an early childhood educator and teacher in Melbourne and Bangkok. Amongst the many things she is involved in, she is passionate about lifting the bar for Early Childhood Education, play, early intervention, nature, sustainability, and social issues concerning women. She is particularly interested in contemporary matters and progressivism. We’re looking forward to seeing the results of her research on STEM learning and development in early childhood educational settings.

See our newsletter for further details about our app launch and other activities.

We would love to hear from you about what this research means to you and if you would like to get involved.

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Our new Conceptual PlayWorld app has launched!

2020-10-30T07:00:00.000+11:00

How do we develop scientific curiosity, mathematical logic & design and engineering thinking in young children?

As you have read on our webpage, the Conceptual PlayWorld is a new way to help children form concepts in STEM. It’s based on world-class research and designed around play.

Both parents and educators can use the model to create a new world based on a beloved story.

In these imaginary worlds, adults and children take journeys, navigate challenges and solve problems.

It’s a new idea, and to support the process, we have launched a new app! This app has been developed in partnership with Moses Wan and Jonathan Li from the Faculty of Engineering at Monash, and Dasha Spasojevic, Tom Morgan and Jason Crow from Monash Art Design and Architecture. It is 100% free, and is designed to help you learn and experience world-class research for yourself.

The photos below show Marilyn with Professor Elizabeth Croft, Dean of Monash Engineering; Moses Wan, Conceptual PlayWorld app developer; and Marilyn with Dr. Jonathan Li, Senior Lecturer/Associate Dean Education at Monash Engineering.

Conceptual PlayWorld app to support educators and families

This app helps you plan and implement a PlayWorld through your smartphone. It can be used in the family-home setting, just as successfully as in the classroom or early childhood settings.

This is what you will see when you open up the app.

The Conceptual PlayWorld App is your trusty companion when creating imaginary play scenarios. It helps you design a world where children are invited to go with you on exploratory journeys, navigate challenges and solve problems.

Watch our video for further details on this app and other apps that are coming soon.

Coming soon!

Conceptual PlayWorld app in VR to support families

We also have another app which gives you the immersive experience of a PlayWorld through virtual reality.

The application’s home base is a family home.

For first time users, there is a complete tutorial. It takes the user through the app, allowing them to try each type of interaction. The tutorial is always available for the user to return to at any point.

Once the user has an understanding of the theory, they are able to immediately experience a Conceptual PlayWorld in action, through 360 degrees footage.

The main room contains 3 doors, with each door dedicated to a step in creating a Conceptual PlayWorld.

Behind the doors, you’ll find interactive scenes that contain animations, pop-ups and even the option for the user to experience the footage from a adult’s height, or at a child’s perspective.

And finally, back in the main room, there is a TV screen where the user can access the latest videos that show a range of Conceptual PlayWorlds in action. Examples can be seen of infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and even school age children with their educators going on STEM journeys.

At this point, the app has been used in live demonstrations, and, through testing as well as feedback, all our apps will continue to improve.

Under development

Also under development is an Augmented Reality app to support children's understanding of spatial relations.

For more details, please see our newsletter.

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We would love to hear from you about what this research means to you and if you would like to get involved.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

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Reimagining early childhood for the 21st century: one year on, findings from the Conceptual PlayLab

2020-06-29T06:42:00.001+10:00

Our public presentation Reimagining early childhood for the 21st century: one year on, findings from the Conceptual PlayLab was a great success, and last month we welcomed another PhD student to our team. We keep developing new ways to embrace technology for learning.

Our team is growing

We are thrilled to welcome our new PhD student Sharon McCormack to the Conceptual PlayLab team. Sharon is a committed and experienced educator, with a passion for learning and teaching. Sharon’s experience stems from educational leadership roles across various sectors, including a wide range of diverse Melbourne school communities over the past four decades. We look forward to seeing the results of her research on STEM learning and development in family settings.

Public presentation: Reimagining early childhood for the 21st century: one year on, findings from the Conceptual PlayLab

We celebrated online, the outcomes of Australia’s first Programmatic Study about STEM concept formation in homes and play-based settings, one year on from its inception. Important topics and take away messages were discussed such as: Gender justice in STEM, “STEM is for me” identity, the STEM pipeline begins during infancy, supporting families in challenging times, research synergies with the discipline of engineering, VR, and AR innovations.

The presentation was facilitated by Professor Amanda Berry - Monash Education Associate Dean of Research, and featured:

Marilyn Fleer, Tanya Stephenson, Glykeria Fragkiadaki, Prabhat Rai, from the Faculty of Education and Jonathan Li and Ha Dang from the Faculty of Engineering

On May 13th, 560 viewers out of 758 live stream registrations watched the live public lecture followed by an online Q&A, on YouTube and via ongoing discussions on Twitter.

To date there have been more than 4,880 views on YouTube. Geographic data from YouTube scopes participants from all over the world. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, academics, early childhood educators, parents, practitioners, and other participants, gained access from the comfort of home to important worldwide research outcomes that are changing the way young children learn and develop in STEM while playing and imagining. Watch the event here.

Exciting Virtual Reality (VR) app

We are super excited to be developing VR apps as educational tools for families, early childhood education and primary school teachers, to learn about Conceptual PlayWorlds and how to implement one in their classroom or family home. Developed by the outstanding Monash University, Faculty of Engineering student Abbey McLean, this VR app allows the user to feel as though they are entering the space of a Conceptual PlayWorld of adults and children based on the children’s book, Rosie’s Walk. Within the 3D environment, videos appear on a TV screen to guide through the five steps of creating your own Conceptual PlayWorld. This is coming soon!

Our newsletter contains further details.

We would love to hear from you about what this research means to you and if you would like to get involved.

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The Conceptual PLayLab - exciting news - one year on

2020-05-18T05:51:00.005+10:00

After spending the summer focussed on analysing our research data, writing research papers and planning our study designs for 2020, the PlayLab is again open!

Two more PhD students joined our team

Our new scholarship holders PhD students Gillian O’ Connor and Marija Sliogeris are warmly welcomed to the Conceptual PlayLab! Gillian has a background in psychology and education. As part of the Conceptual PlayLab, Gillian’s research will follow the pathways of STEM concept formation in Early Years.

Marija has a background as a primary school and special education teacher. Marija’s research with the Conceptual PlayLab, will focus on educators’ professional development as they build their own conceptual understandings of play and learning in STEM, and put these into practice.

Public presentation: Reimagining early childhood for the 21st century: one year on, findings from the Conceptual PlayLab

Marilyn and the team are delighted to invite you to join us on 13th May as we reveal our findings one year on from the launch of the Conceptual PlayLab. Come and find out what the 21st century holds in store for early childhood STEM education.

Date: Wednesday 13 May 2020

Time: 6:30pm – 8:00pm

This event is fully online via live stream and is free, but registration is essential. (link removed as event has passed)

Post event update - the video is now available here.

Continuing our collaboration with different organisations to nurture STEM interests in every young child

Keeping our research connected and accessible to the local community is a priority for the Conceptual PlayLab. We welcomed groups from Royal Botanic Gardens and representatives from the City of Casey.

We also participated in a podcast with Playgroup Victoria. Their series of podcasts inspires families to create engaging settings for children’s learning and development of STEM in the home through play and imagination.

It is important to establish these synergies within informal settings to encourage a love of STEM for every young child!

South Australia Department of Education

Marilyn and Glykeria attended Adelaide’s Education Leaders’ Day 2020. Thank you to Department of Education, Government of South Australia, for inviting Conceptual PlayLab to attend this event.

Marilyn and Glykeria hosted a Deeper Learning Masterclass and a Rapid Upskill Masterclass, focusing on advancing the quality of teaching and the impact for learning in Early Childhood Settings in SA. The event was a fabulous resource of inspiration for Education Leaders! New insights were given about the connection between everyday concept and scientific concepts and a refreshing professional learning experience about play- based learning in STEM. The Masterclass ended up with one of the participants mentioning that “Three little pigs, will never be the same again!”

Working with the Victorian Government and Department of Education and Training

We welcomed Jen Nicholls, Manager and Fiona McClure from the Victorian DET to the PlayLab, where we explored a shared vision and pioneered conversations towards establishing a strong early childhood educational system in Victoria, for all children from birth to eight years!

A professional video for the Victorian Government and the Department of Education and Training was created by Marilyn and the Conceptual PlayLab to support pioneering work introducing 3-year-old kindergarten programs in Victoria. An extra year of play-based learning is added to Victorian children’s education! This video has been designed to support leaders in strengthening understandings and supporting them in the important work they do in leading teams. The video is part of a series of videos produced by DET. This particular video gives

a brief overview of the latest thinking about child development
Highlights new thinking about play and learning
Presents an evidence-based model of practice for supporting the work of educators working in multi-age groups settings – called Conceptual PlayWorlds.

Our newsletter contains further details.

We would love to hear from you about what this research means to you and if you would like to get involved.

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Celebrating the end of the year, PhD milestones, and awards

2019-12-23T05:16:00.004+11:00

This last month we celebrated many achievements, including confirmation milestone, education and research awards, and collaboration with the academic community in Australia and abroad.

Two of our PhD candidates celebrated their confirmation milestone

There was a buzz in the PhD community as Tanya Stephenson and Xingjie Wang completed their Confirmation Milestone last month. Tanya Stephenson is doing pioneering research about the role of gender in STEM education, creating better conditions for girls’ engagement with STEM in early years. Xingjie Wang is doing important research about STEM engagement in family settings supporting families to facilitate STEM learning and development at home for every child. Congratulations to Tanya and Xingjie!

Awards, awards, awards

Our very own Laureate Professor Marilyn Fleer received the 2019 Monash University Vice-Chancellor's Education and Research Award named the Ashley Goldsworthy Award for Leadership in Collaboration. What's more, Dr Jonathan Li, our very close collaborator from the Department of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering also received a Vice Chancellor's Award for Technological Innovation in Learning and Teaching. Fascinating interfaculty research is taking between Jonathan’s team (including our joint PhD student Ha Dang) and the Conceptual PlayLab.

Marilyn, along with Dr Hilary Monk, Dr Corine Rivalland, Dr Gloria Quinones and Dr Liang Li (who received the Award for Research Impact - Economic & Social) also received the Faculty of Education Dean's Awards 2019.

International collaboration

The Conceptual PlayWorlds are creating an innovative pedagogical space linking researchers and building collaborations within Australia and overseas.

Associate Professor Siv Ødemotland, Department of Arts Education, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences visited Conceptual PlayLab sharing her expertise in drama and theatre for early years.

We also welcomed Dr Jane Webb-Williams, School of Education, University of South Australia, adding to the conversation about play and playful pedagogies in early years.

Dr. Janette Kelly-Ware from University of Waikato visited the Conceptual PlayLab sharing updates for early years education in New Zealand and worldwide.

And Marilyn travelled to Switzerland, hosted by Professor Gabriel Kappeler, Haute École Pédagogique du canton de Vaud (HEP Vaud) at Lausanne!

We wish everyone a wonderful and relaxing time celebrating the end of 2019 with your friends and family!

Our newsletter contains further details.

We would love to hear from you about what this research means to you and if you would like to get involved.

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STEM PlayWorlds for Infants and Toddlers professional video launch, PlayLab and playgroups

2019-11-25T14:37:00.082+11:00

So much happened this month, we launched of our STEM PlayWorlds video, met Playgroup Victoria families, presented at the MERC conference, welcomed more visitors. Marilyn presented a keynote speech at the Regional Early Childhood Education and Care in the Pasifika Talanoa Symposium and celebrated the second edition of her book Technologies for Children.

STEM PlayWorlds for infants and toddlers video launch

What an incredible STEM journey we shared with children, parents, educators, academics and the local community in Windermere Early Learning Center at Peninsula Campus! More than happy and excited for the Conceptual PlayLab's STEM PlayWorlds for Infants and Toddler's professional video launch! Watch the whole video here!.

PlayLab meets playgroups

This month, Conceptual PlayLab Senior Research Fellow Prabhat Rai and PhD student Xingjie Wang visited several playgroups, meeting with parents, playgroup facilitators and managers from Playgroup Victoria and officials from local government. It was a great opportunity to know 'what matters' when parents and community members think of their children's long-term wellbeing and education in Victoria

PlayLab visitors

In early October Dr Lynneth Solis, Senior Research Manager at “Project Zero”, from Harvard Graduate School of Education shared with the PlayLab views on children’s play.

Monash Education Research Community (MERC) conference

Our PhD students had a wonderful time this month at the MERC conference held at Monash University, Clayton Campus. Through a fruitful and productive week, they were hosting, chairing, sharing and presenting pioneering and groundbreaking PhD research work!

Regional Early Childhood Education and Care in the Pasifika Talanoa Symposium

Our very own Marilyn Fleer, Geraldine Burke and Denise Chapman represented Monash Faculty of Education at the Regional Early Childhood Education and Care in the Pasifika Talanoa Symposium. The Symposium was entitled “Ensuring inclusive and quality early childhood education and care in the Pacific through teacher educations reforms” and was held at Nadi, Fiji.

Second edition of Marilyn's book Technologies for Children now available

This book, published by Cambridge University Press, is an indispensable resource for pre-service teachers, practitioners and families.

Our newsletter contains further details.

We would love to hear from you about what this research means to you and if you would like to get involved.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

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Academic synergies for early childhood education and for women to shine in STEM

2019-10-31T14:21:00.070+11:00

We had a fantastic month welcoming Australian Government Women in STEM Ambassador Professor Lisa Harvey-Smith and outstanding Australian early childhood education academics to the PlayLab.

PlayLab visitors

We were thrilled to e-welcome Professor Lisa Harvey-Smith to our Conceptual PlayLab over Zoom! One of the first of her kind, Lisa is the well known astrophysicist, author and Australian Government Women in STEM Ambassador. Amazing diverse STEM trajectories coming together to inspire and support young thinkers and lovers of STEM!

We also had an incredible day hosting Professors Claire McLachlan (Dean, School of Education, Federation University Australia), Jayne White (Associate Dean ECE, RMIT University), and Nicola Yelland (Professor of Early Childhood Studies, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne). These outstanding Australian ECE academics and research teams bring together their strengths, making a dynamic and pioneering presence in ECE worldwide!

Strengthening our partnership with Playgroup Victoria

The Conceptual PlayLab team travelled to Melbourne CBD to participate in Playgroups Victoria CEO Forum. Our Programmatic Research is creating new knowledge and innovative resources to support families and diverse institutional settings in reinforcing young children’s engagement, learning and development in STEM.

Supporting early- and mid-career researchers

Marilyn shared her unique winning pathway towards an ARC Laureate Fellowship Scheme in the Humanities with nearly fifty early and mid career researchers and PhD students during September's Peninsula Campus Research Seminar.

Conceptual PlayWorlds around the globe

Conceptual PlayWorld ideas are endless and are proliferating around the world thanks to social media! Check out our Facebook page to get an insight into how an inspired educator from Samoa created a “School PlayWorld” to support children’s transition from kindergarten to primary school. She posted:

“The children will role play a teacher at every opportunity and I am now the student as they explore the role, responsibilities and through play demonstrate their social construction of the teacher and school. It is very informative and insightful.”

Please share your ideas here too, we'd love to hear from you!

Our newsletter contains further details.

We would love to hear from you about what this research means to you and if you would like to get involved.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

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Open Day, PlayLab visitors and BHERT award

2019-09-30T11:37:00.101+10:00

We had a busy month welcoming visitors at our Open Day, hosting a number of international visitors, and Marilyn was awarded the Business/Higher Education Round Table (BHERT) award for Leadership in Collaboration.

Another PhD candidate joined our team

We welcomed our new affiliate PhD candidate Yuwen Ma. Yuwen holds Bachelor and Masters degrees of early childhood education from Nanjing Normal University, China.

Monash University Open Day

Our team had a great time preparing for Open Day and welcoming high school students and their families. Our visitors enjoyed a set of engaging activities for STEM teaching and learning in the early years.

PlayLab visitors

We welcomed international scholars to the PlayLab to discuss and share ideas about early childhood STEM education through play and imagination, and about transitions between preschool to primary school as well as from families to school. Our visitors included: Dr. Sunanta Klibthong and her colleagues from Mahidol University, Thailand; Professor Hsin-Kai Wu and Assistant Professor Ching-Ting Hsin from the National Tsing Hua University and the Graduate Institute of Science Education in Taiwain; and PhD candidate Maja Højslet Schürer, from Institution of Learning, Aalborg University, Denmark.

Further work on our partnership with Playgroup Victoria

We are very pleased to be establishing a sustainable relationship between playgroups and the Conceptual PlayLab! Dr. Joanne Tarasuik, Playgroups Victoria Research Manager, and Deborah Njegac, Playgroups Victoria Manager Practice and Advocacy, were welcomed to our Lab. Together we explored the opportunity to collaborate in inspiring STEM engagement for Victorian families.

Our newsletter contains further details.

We would love to hear from you about what this research means to you and if you would like to get involved.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

Other resources

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Conceptual PlayLab PhD students have been working hard on theoretical cultural-historical research methodology, hands-on video data collection, and abstract writing for next year's international conference

2019-08-19T15:36:00.012+10:00

Last month saw the Conceptual PlayLab and affiliated PhD students rolling up their sleeves and taking deep dives into cultural-historical research method and methodology, guided by Marilyn. The students have also been receiving in the lab and on the field digital video data collection and organisation, guided by our Research Officer, Sue.

Another PhD candidate joined our team

This month we welcomed on board our affiliate PhD candidate Yuejiu Wang. Yuejiu comes from China and she has a Bachelor and a Masters degree in early childhood education.

Another challenging and productive PhD day

During the July PhD day, the PhD students worked hard to prepare for the next prestigious ISCAR (International Society for Cultural-historical Activity Research) Congress in Brazil. Everyone is going to compose an abstract for submission to next year's congress, which will be a valuable opportunity to showcase our research and learn from other cultural-historical researchers from around the world.

PlayLab visitors

We welcomed Sam Page, CEO, and Janet Williams-Smith, Vic Board Director, of Early Childhood Australia (ECA). Amazing discussions brought to the foreground the need to support educators' identity and families, researching jointly and nationally on STEM and PlayWorlds. Upcoming webinars will offer great learning and Professional Development opportunities.

We also welcomed visiting scholar Emma Palmer from the Department of Education and School Psychology at UDEM, Mexico. The Conceptual PlayLab team joined the fruitful discussions highlighting the need of reinforcing world-wide the narrative around the importance of children’s play as leading educational activity.

Our newsletter contains further details.

We would love to hear from you about what this research means to you and if you would like to get involved.

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Other resources

Conceptual PlayWorld website
TeachSpace
Lens
Free app download

Conceptual PlayLab team is now complete and we are piloting a new Conceptual PlayWorld for infants and toddlers

2019-07-22T15:22:00.080+10:00

We have been busy welcoming Conceptual PlayLab pillar leaders who have now completed our team, hosting international and local visitors, and presenting our research findings in Norway.

Welcoming our pillar leaders

Our Senior Research Fellows have just arrived. They will join Marilyn Fleer, Sue March and our PhD students Tanya Stephenson, Sarah Carpendale and Xingjie Wang.

Glykeria, will lead the first pillar of our research, investigating how young children form concepts in STEM. Prabhat will lead our second pillar, looking at the ways families support their children to learn about STEM.

Two PhD candidates joined our team

We welcomed our new affiliate PhD candidates Suxiang Yu and Ha Dang. Suxiang holds a Master degree in early childhood education, and is an early childhood education lecturer. Ha holds a Bachelor degree in Engineering and a Bachelor degree in Science, and previously worked as an engineering team manager in the telecommunications industry.

New Conceptual PlayWorld for infants and toddlers with Windermere Early Learning

We've been working on a new Conceptual PlayWorld for infants and toddlers using "There’s a Possum in the House". It’s a rich story and allows educators to explore:

• Scientific concepts – nocturnal animals, spatial relations and prepositional language

• Design and technology – how to design a possum trap

• Social and emotional development – working as a team and empathy with the possum

The good news is we’ve filmed a sample PlayWorld as a professional video project in partnership with Windermere Early Learning and you’ll be able to see how it works in practice.

PlayLab visitors

We welcomed Professor Elin Eriksen Ødegaard, Dr. Anne Myrstad and PhD student Czarecah Oropilla (Eya) from Western Norway University of Applied Sciences and the Arctic University of Norway. It was a fantastic start to planning our International Research in Early Childhood Education conference for 2020.

We welcomed Danny Schwarz (CEO) and Sinead Halliday (Communications and Media Coordinator) from Playgroup Victoria to our June PhD day, further strengthening our partnership.

CHACDOC Conference in Norway

Marilyn was joined by Monash's Liang Li in presenting their Conceptual PlayLab research from China at the Cultural-Historical Approaches to Children's Development and Childhood (CHACDOC) Section Conference in Norway. It was great to connect with delegations from East China Normal University and Switzerland.

Our newsletter contains further details.

We would love to hear from you about what this research means to you and if you would like to get involved.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

Other resources

Conceptual PlayWorld website
TeachSpace
Lens
Free app download