Jan Deans

This book explores the narratives of a group of four-year-old children in a composition project in an Australian early learning centre. The participants, centre staff and a composer, Stephen Leek, contributed a number of music sessions for the children, including five original songs. The book showcases young children’s communicative ability and sensitivity to wider issues. The staff in the centre have a strongly voiced philosophy that is enacted through arts-based pedagogy and incorporates significant themes including a respect for Aboriginal culture and custodial responsibility towards a sustainable future for the earth. Examples of adult and children’s ideas are illustrated through music making, singing, dancing, words, drawings and paintings, which provide insights into a world where children are viewed as active citizens and the arts have rights. The book describes the context of the centre, the history of projects and details one project as an example of “lifeworthy learning”.

Investigating children’s learning through dance and drawing-telling, Dance-Play and Drawing-Telling as Semiotic Tools for Young Children’s Learning provides a unique insight into how these activities can help children to critically reflect on their own learning. Promoting the concept of dance and drawing-telling as highly effective semiotic tools for meaning-making, the book enlivens thinking about the extraordinary capacities of young children, and argues for the incorporation of dance and drawing in mainstream early childhood curriculum. Throughout the book, numerous practice examples show how children use movement, sound, images, props and language to imaginatively re-conceptualize their everyday experiences into bodily-kinesthetic and spatial-temporal concepts. These examples illustrate children’s competence when given the opportunity to learn through dance and drawing-telling, as well as the important role that teachers play in scaffolding children’s learning. Based on award-winning research, this insightful and informative book makes a sought after contribution to the field of dance education and seeks to reaffirm dance as a powerful learning modality that supports young children’s expressive non-verbal communication. Encouraging the reader to consider the significance of multi-modal teaching and learning, it is essential reading for researchers in the dance, drawing and education spheres; postgraduate students taking courses in early childhood; play and dance therapists; and all early childhood teachers who have a specific interest in arts education.

Investigating children’s learning through dance and drawing-telling, Dance-Play and Drawing-Telling as Semiotic Tools for Young Children’s Learning provides a unique insight into how these activities can help children to critically reflect on their own learning. Promoting the concept of dance and drawing-telling as highly effective semiotic tools for meaning-making, the book enlivens thinking about the extraordinary capacities of young children, and argues for the incorporation of dance and drawing in mainstream early childhood curriculum. Throughout the book, numerous practice examples show how children use movement, sound, images, props and language to imaginatively re-conceptualize their everyday experiences into bodily-kinesthetic and spatial-temporal concepts. These examples illustrate children’s competence when given the opportunity to learn through dance and drawing-telling, as well as the important role that teachers play in scaffolding children’s learning. Based on award-winning research, this insightful and informative book makes a sought after contribution to the field of dance education and seeks to reaffirm dance as a powerful learning modality that supports young children’s expressive non-verbal communication. Encouraging the reader to consider the significance of multi-modal teaching and learning, it is essential reading for researchers in the dance, drawing and education spheres; postgraduate students taking courses in early childhood; play and dance therapists; and all early childhood teachers who have a specific interest in arts education.

Musical Childhoods is a culmination of more than a decade of research driven by the fact that music has been neglected in early childhood programs in favour of literacy and numeracy. Recent research has identified a connection between academic performance and musical programs and this has given music a renewed status in many schools. This book promotes the idea of children’s competence in the use of the language of music and argues that all children have a right to participate in musical discovery and celebrates children’s engagement with meaningful and disparate experiences in music. Written by leading practitioners and researchers in the field, this book seeks to reaffirm children’s communicative competence when exposed to high quality musical experience, provide new perspectives on children’s ability to engage with music in many diverse forms and explore and promote the role of the musician as an artist and teacher. The book is structured into three parts:The theoretical overviewThe children, the musicians and the musicThe research through the eyes of the protagonist and looking into the futureEarly childhood students, researchers and academics with a specific interest in music and musicality will find this an insightful read.

Musical Childhoods is a culmination of more than a decade of research driven by the fact that music has been neglected in early childhood programs in favour of literacy and numeracy. Recent research has identified a connection between academic performance and musical programs and this has given music a renewed status in many schools. This book promotes the idea of children’s competence in the use of the language of music and argues that all children have a right to participate in musical discovery and celebrates children’s engagement with meaningful and disparate experiences in music. Written by leading practitioners and researchers in the field, this book seeks to reaffirm children’s communicative competence when exposed to high quality musical experience, provide new perspectives on children’s ability to engage with music in many diverse forms and explore and promote the role of the musician as an artist and teacher. The book is structured into three parts:The theoretical overviewThe children, the musicians and the musicThe research through the eyes of the protagonist and looking into the futureEarly childhood students, researchers and academics with a specific interest in music and musicality will find this an insightful read.

The Early Years Coping Cards is a set of pictorial situation and coping response cards to engage young children aged four- to eight-years-old in discussing a variety of ways to cope with challenging situations. It can be used as a teaching tool to develop skills in building resilience, coping with difficult situations and responding constructively to challenges. The cards are accompanied by a User Guide that includes background information, conclusions from research and practical suggestions on using the cards.