Nancy Thomas

Nancy believes that learning is an active, and a social, process. She believes that her role in the classroom is to provoke students to think in new ways about children and families, which includes troubling dominant yet often hegemonic societal views on young children and families. She believes that she is responsible for provoking learning, but this is not the same as making students learn. Nancy's philosophy is deeply rooted in the notion that learning is an intrinsic process, and that knowledge is not outside of us, but rather socially constructed with and alongside other learners. Her desire is to create a dynamic learning environment; she provides innovative materials and visual examples (provocations); she creates the opportunity for students to share their ideas in small and large group discussions; and she endeavors to design classroom learning experiences that encourage students to connect new information to past knowledge and then to create, with their peers, new knowledge and understandings. Nancy facilitates learning in her courses by providing students with well-prepared presentations on the course topics, followed by a variety of in-class experiences that connect new information to prior knowledge. | Early childhood, emergent/emerging curriculum studies, environment as third teacher, Reggio Emilia, pedagogical leadership

Nancy Thomas is Chair, Early Learning and Curriculum Studies | Associate Professor at MacEwan University. Their stated interests include Nancy believes that learning is an active, and a social, process. She believes that her role in the classroom is to provoke students to think in new ways about children and families, which includes troubling dominant yet often hegemonic societal views on young children and families. She believes that she is responsible for provoking learning, but this is not the same as making students learn. Nancy's philosophy is deeply rooted in the notion that learning is an intrinsic process, and that knowledge is not outside of us, but rather socially constructed with and alongside other learners. Her desire is to create a dynamic learning environment; she provides innovative materials and visual exampl. This summary considered all 2 collected sources.