Monash University, Australia
Thesis: Teachers’ knowledge and practices in teaching through play: As a study of Curriculum implementation in Indonesia
Research supervisor: Research supervisors: Prof. Marilyn Fleer & Dr. Liang Li
I am a PhD student in early childhood education and development, faculty of education, Monash University, Australia. I am interested to attend the 8th ISCAR Summer University for PhD students in Cultural-historical psychology: Interdisciplinary research perspectives & social practices hosted by Moscow State University of Psychology & Education on 8th – 13th July 2019. With this letter, I hereby would like to state my motivation to attend this program.
The ISCAR Summer University topics/subject areas are relevant to my professional expertise and research area. Therefore I would highly appreciate being given an opportunity to participate in this event. Gathering with professionals from all over the world to learn more about the cultural-historical theory and practices in the field of child’s development and education will be beneficial for my research development.
I am particularly interested in joining this program because there will be dialogues, presentations, lectures, debates and discussion on the topics/subject areas. These activities might provide some related inputs and sharing of experiences on the topics/subject areas for my research. The presentations of papers, panel forum, and discussions can be used as forums for the researchers who are interested in cultural-historical and activity theories to share ideas, particularly for contributing to developmental psychology and childhood research. It will be valuable for my research. In addition, workshops on those related topics will be beneficial for the development of my research skills. I believe that this program will help me to become a future professional in my field as an – academic, researcher, and educational specialist, in early childhood education and development.
As a special added value of this event I find the opportunity to network with another professional from the world, and I consider this as an exceptional opportunity for horizontal exchange of experience. I also perceive this as an occasion to familiarise with good practices as a channel for my personal development. Importantly, the opportunity to attend the 8th ISCAR Summer University for PhD students will provide me with valuable feedback on progressing my research – both theoretically and methodologically.
The questions I want to discuss are: 1) What constitutes teacher’s knowledge of teaching through play in cultural-historical perspective?, 2) How should teachers conceptualize a play-based curriculum in an early childhood setting?, and 3) How should the teachers’ understanding of teaching through play implemented in the early childhood practices?
Two basic research problems that I am struggling with are 1) How can the cultural-historical concepts be implemented in educational practices? and 2) How can the cultural-historical concepts be used in analysing data in our research? I need to deal with these problems in the Summer University in order to help me develop deep analytical thinking that will enable me to contribute to the body of knowledge, specifically on teacher’s knowledge and practices of teaching, the cultural-historical perspectives on development and learning, and early childhood play pedagogy in the Indonesian context. Moreover, practically this research contributes recommended ways for the teachers to develop programs in early childhood education and implement an early childhood education curriculum through play-based activity appropriately. Therefore, teachers can improve the quality of early childhood learning.