Jennifer Usher, early learning and child care instructor at MHC, has been named the provincial of the ACIFA Innovation in Teaching Award, for her innovative approach to teaching that involves a connection to the outdoors.--HANDOUT PHOTO
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A Medicine Hat College early learning and child care instructor will be the recipient of the Alberta Colleges and Institutes Faculties Association Innovation in Teaching Award for her creative hands-on approach to early education.
In 2022, Jennifer Usher began exploring the benefits and opportunities for children to interact with nature in all seasons.
According to Usher, when children play outdoors and use their imaginations and develop problem-solving skills, they are also developing physical, cognitive and social skills simultaneously.
“It’s a new endeavour that we’re trying with our classes, and for it to have gone so successfully is really rewarding,” said Usher. “I don’t think that taking teaching (courses) and learning outdoors has to be just early learning. I think there’s other ways that we can share it with other kinds of programs, and that is really exciting to think about.”
Two years later in 2024, Usher developed a course that encourages students to use nature as their inspiration as well as a playground for learning. As part of the outdoor courses, Usher also hosted a series of free play sessions for members of the community that took place in Kin Coulee Park.
These sessions enabled early learning and childcare students to learn and practise theories of early learning childhood development for families with children ages two to five.
“Bringing the children in really made a big difference, because they (students) could learn about something and then they could try it out with the children right away,” says Usher. “It wasn’t like there was this delay between learning about a concept and then maybe you don’t get to see that in action until practicum. It’s so important that we’re tying the theory to real life and to practice and to children’s real experiences.”
Throughout the semester, students were able to explore new ways to help children engage with the outdoors while ensuring child safety, and Usher says she hopes to continue to find ways to bring classes outdoors.
Annually, post-secondary institutes nominate educators for the Innovation in Teaching Award who are then selected by an ACIFA committee to select a provincial winner. The award was launched in 2002.
