Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization Regional Center for Early Childhood Care and Education and parenting (SEAMEO CECCEP), Deakin University and Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia (UIII), conducted an innovative training workshop for Early Childhood Care Education (ECCD) teachers. The workshop aimed to develop the capacity of early childhood educators in designing play-based activities to support children's spatial and thinking. This workshop was attended by 20 early childhood education teachers. The workshop started on September 18, 2023 at Faculty Lecture Room A UIII, Depok City, Indonesia.
The workshop was led by experts in the field of literacy and numeracy, including lecturers from UIII who have international experience in this field. The workshop participants were given insights into the latest teaching methods, effective learning strategies, and how to integrate literacy and numeracy in daily activities in ECD classrooms.
The training workshop took place over several days on the UIII campus, with participants consisting of ECD teachers from various parts of Indonesia. The workshop offered a platform for educators to gain an in-depth understanding of the importance of literacy and numeracy in early childhood learning. Prof. Nina Nurmila, Ph.D., dean of the Faculty of Education opened the event. The first material was delivered by Dr. Meri Novianty, M.Pd,. With the theme of numeracy learning practices in the context of early childhood education in Indonesia. Furthermore, the second material about game-based learning to develop reasoning skills in early childhood education teachers delivered by Assoc, Prof, Wanty Widjaya, P.hD.
Furthermore, exploration and discussion of spatial visualization activities, mental rotation, and spatial orientation led by Dr. Destina Wahyu Minarti, M.Pd,. the participants were invited to play and test spatial reasoning using several media such as tangrams, blocks, question paper, illustrated paper and materials around the table. Playing in groups divided into 6 groups, in groups accompanied by 1 facilitator from SEAMEO CECCEP.
At the end of this professional learning program, participants will design a learning trajectory on Game-Based Spatial Reasoning to be implemented in their respective Early Childhood Education (ECE). In addition, participating ECD teachers will be invited to co-author publications with the research team, resulting in papers being submitted and/or published. This workshop is also expected to have impacts in the short, medium and long term, namely:
1. In the short term, it is expected that early childhood teachers will have a good understanding and exposure to the concept of spatial thinking and can apply their knowledge and understanding to develop Spatial Reasoning learning trajectories.
2. In the medium term, participating ECD teachers will be able to design their own learning pathways to improve children's reasoning in other priority areas of the early childhood curriculum.
3. Finally, in the long term, children get support to develop their spatial reasoning skills from well-trained ECD teachers with good spatial skills. So that children have reasoning skills.
The collaboration between SEAMEO CECCEP, Deakin University, and UIII in organizing this training workshop demonstrated a shared commitment to improving the quality of early childhood education in Indonesia. Hopefully this training will have a positive impact on the learning and development of children across the country.
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