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Title: Leadership in Early Childhood Education by Associate Professor Elina Fonsén
Synopsis:
This early childhood leadership workshop equips participants with the skills needed to develop and refine their leadership skills. The training expands the understanding of ECE leadership by exploring key tasks in early childhood education, including assessing and improving quality, leading operational culture, and applying principles and practices of pedagogical leadership. It also introduces the concepts of development planning as a means of enhancing early childhood quality education.
Topics:
1. ECE pedagogy
We figure out together with participants: What is ECE pedagogy? What is a basic task in ECE? What are our basic assumptions of childhood, learning and teaching?
2. Pedagogical leadership
This is about theories and practices of pedagogical leadership. What do we lead and how we can do it?
3. Organizational culture and its impact on pedagogical work
Pedagogical work: Schein’s iceberg model of hidden levels of basic values behind visible pedagogical activities in ECE. How can we find its bottom?
4. Quality of ECE
How is the quality of education defined? What are the different perspectives on quality? What are quality evaluations and the impact of these evaluations.
Development work as a part of pedagogical leadership
How do we use Kotter’s 8 steps for effective development to define our own development work in ECE.
Title: Leading Professional Learning Communities as Adaptive Systems for Workplace Learning in Early Childhood Education by Associate Professor Hairon SALLEH
Synopsis
Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) are vital in early childhood education, with centres establishing collaborative routines and inquiry. However, having PLC structures doesn't always lead to sustained learning, as collaboration can become procedural or compliance-based, limiting impact on practice. This Master Class redefines PLCs as adaptive systems for workplace learning, focusing on how leaders interpret and strengthen these processes. It has three parts: the first examines how learning occurs inside PLCs, emphasizing inquiry quality, dialogue norms, and reflection, including assessment as ongoing sense-making. The second explores how learning extends beyond groups, highlighting how knowledge becomes a shared organisational resource and how leaders judge when to connect learning across teams, with assessment focused on system-level contribution. The third discusses technology's role in supporting adaptive learning by enhancing continuity, visibility, and connection, while avoiding reinforcement of performative practices.
Topics
Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) are widely recognised as essential in early children education with centres establishing regular collaborative routines and shared professional inquiry. Yet the presence of PLC structures does not necessarily translate into sustained workplace learning. Collaboration at times become procedural, fragmented, or compliance-driven, with limited impact on professional judgement or practice. This Master Class addresses this challenge by reframing PLCs as adaptive systems for workplace learning and focuses on how leaders (in the broadest sense) interpret, assess, and strengthen learning processes as they unfold.
The Master Class is organised around three parts that together shape the effectiveness of PLCs as learning systems. The first part examines within-group PLC frameworks and processes, focusing on how learning occurs inside PLCs. Attention is given to the quality of professional inquiry, the norms that shape dialogue, and the movement from discussion to experimentation and reflection. The first session also touches on assessment as an ongoing diagnostic sense-making where observable processes and professional talk assist leaders and facilitators understand the depth, coherence, and direction of learning within PLCs.
The second part examines within-school PLC frameworks and processes which focuses on how learning coheres and accumulates beyond individual PLC groups. Participants will explore how learning travels across teams, how shared focus is developed without over-standardisation, and how professional knowledge becomes a collective organisational resource. Leadership attention at this level involves judging the balance between depth and coherence, autonomy and alignment, and determining when and how to connect learning across groups. Assessment here is framed as discerning whether PLCs are contributing to system-level learning rather than remaining isolated pockets of practice.
The third part considers the role of technology in assisting adaptive workplace learning systems. Rather than positioning technology as a solution or innovation, this part examines how digital tools can support adaptation by enhancing continuity, visibility, and connection in professional learning. Participants will explore how technology can make professional thinking visible, support reflection over time, and enable learning to be shared and revisited across PLCs, while also considering the risks of technology reinforcing performative or documentation-driven practices.
Title: Pedagogical Leadership and Play based learning by Professor Sue GRIESHABER
Synopsis:
In this interactive session participants can expect to be actively engaged and discuss big ideas related to play (including digital play), it’s importance in children’s learning, and pedagogical leadership. They will also probe, unpack, and extend understandings of a continuum of play (child directed play, child and teacher directed play, teacher directed play). In a more detailed focus on play-based learning, participants investigate the environment, pedagogies, the roles of adults, and documenting children’s learning. A critical reflection on the supports required for and the challenges of enacting pedagogical leadership for play-based learning draws from participants’ experiences and recent research literature.
Title: Cultivating Hearts & Minds: Building a supportive learning culture by Associate Professror SUM Chee Wah
Synopsis:
The workshop aims to help leaders build a workplace where educators and children thrive. An early childhood education centre’s culture affects the quality of learning. Teachers need to feel safe, valued, and supported to be their best. This four-hour workshop for preschool principals moves beyond management to embrace transformative leadership through the 'Cultivating Hearts and Minds' framework, focusing on Psychological Safety, Collaborative Practice, and Strengths-Based Leadership. Participants will learn how their leadership impacts the centre and leave with practical strategies to foster shared learning. Using reflective exercises, peer consultation, and tools, principals will develop a personalised, actionable plan.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Singapore University of Social Sciences, 463 Clementi Road, Clementi, Singapore
SGD 85.00
