Textbooks and teaching resources : a case study from the early childhood classroom - Australia

Abstract: In 2008, the Australian Federal and State Governments developed new educational goals to support and guide the development of a new Australian National Curriculum, which is to be implemented in 2013 in all Australian educational settings. This new national curriculum requires major structural reforms in early childhood education which will affect the roles of teachers and families and their expectations of teaching and learning in early childhood education settings. The development of the Early Years Learning Framework, as part of the Australian National Curriculum, has presented an opportunity for publishers to produce teaching and learning materials to support the new curriculum and the pedagogy underpinning it. This paper will explore a case study centred on how early childhood teachers resource their teaching and learning and plan the use of teaching and learning resources. The research focused on methodologies that involved classroom observations and teacher interviews, and provided data on the exploration of the effectiveness of teaching and learning materials used in the early childhood classroom. The results from the study indicated that publisher and teacher consultation is essential to the creation of valuable, relevant, skill based teaching and learning materials that complement the pedagogical approach of the teacher and align with curriculum requirements of the new Australian National Curriculum.