Professional Learning Catalogue

Place Family Engagement at the Heart of Quality Early Learning

New Offering! Circle of Care is a three-part series designed to strengthen meaningful partnerships between educators and families. Rooted in Alberta’s Flight Framework and the PolicyWise Spark Guide, this series supports educators to build trust, communicate intentionally, and create shared learning
experiences that honour families as essential partners in children’s development.

Delivery: In-person only. Three-part series totaling six hours, delivered in three sessions over several weeks.

Session 1 – Foundations for Connection (Educators)
Educators will explore their own working styles through guided exercises and the creation of a personal communication profile. They will deepen their understanding of developmental domains and clarify personal growth goals related to family engagement. Through hands on scenarios, participants will practice communication strategies in preparation for working directly with families in part two of this series.

Session 2 – Connection in Action (Educators & Families)
Educators facilitate interactive experiences with families and children, drawing on developmental domains, within their own programs. This session provides opportunities to practice new skills, lead meaningful conversations about children’s learning as it unfolds, and build authentic relationships in a familiar setting. Families leave with activities they can replicate at home and a greater understanding of how children develop through play. This supports a shared understanding of how provocations and planning occur by educators in their child care spaces creating more opportunities for engagement.

Session 3 – Reflecting on Connection (Educators)
Educators gather to reflect on and strengthen caring partnerships with families. Through guided reflection and discussion, educators explore family-centred relationships, culturally responsive practice, and how daily routines, environments, and communication honour families. This session supports educators to intentionally build trusting partnerships beyond the series.

Participants Will:
• Strengthen family and educator relationships through intentional communication
• Explore family engagement as a shared responsibility and leadership practice
• Reflect on current family engagement practices and adapt strategies to meet diverse family needs
• Use observation and feedback tools to evaluate impact and support continuous improvement

Guide Responsive Practice Through Reflection and Family Collaboration

New Offering! Families complete questionnaires that offer a snapshot of their child’s growth. Child care professionals bring this information to life by weaving it into everyday observations, engaging in meaningful dialogue with families, and connecting them to resources when needed. These sessions invite educators to strengthen responsive practice, nurture family partnerships, and build confident pathways of support.

Delivery: Participants are encouraged to take the entire series (3 sessions), though each 2-hour session can also be taken on its own.

Prerequisite: ARCQE requires participants to have previous experience using ASQ Questionnaires to register for any sessions in this series

Session 1: Seeing the Whole Child: Using Questionnaires to Support and Inform Daily Practice
• Explore how information collected from developmental questionnaires can support understanding of each child’s growth and unique learning needs
• Connect questionnaire responses with everyday observations and children’s play
• Recognize the importance of family voices, values, and cultural perspectives in developmental conversations
• Build confidence in using questionnaires as one tool within a broader picture of practice

Participants Will:
• Position developmental questionnaires as a starting point for reflection, not a checklist or assessment of the child
• Invite educators to examine how their image of the child influences how questionnaire information is interpreted
• Use real-life scenarios to explore how questionnaire insights can inform responsive environments, materials, and daily interactions
• Engage participants in discussion and reflection using interactive tools (polls, word clouds, breakout conversations)
• Support educators to integrate questionnaire information alongside professional judgment, observation, and family knowledge

Session 2: Communicating with Care: Building Trust Through Family Conversations
• Use strength-based approaches when discussing information with families
• Create supportive communication tools that invite collaboration and a continuum of support between home and child care (i.e. letters, follow-up notes, handouts)
• Build skills for navigating sensitive conversations with empathy and openness
• Foster partnerships where families and educators work together to support each child’s well-being

Participants Will:
• Explore common questions and concerns educators have when preparing for developmental conversations with families
• Reflect on how language, tone, and timing can either build trust or create barriers
• Emphasize culturally responsive communication that honours family values, lived experiences, and ways of knowing
• Provide opportunities for participants to practice reframing conversations using strength-based, relational approaches
• Encourage shared problem-solving and collaboration instead of “delivering information” to families

Session 3: Moving Forward Together: Linking Families to Resources and Community
• Consider ways to sustain knowledge gained from questionnaire aligned with practice that reflects your program context (digital, paper, or blended)
• Integrate family responses with educator observations to guide environments and decisions
• Explore where to find referral pathways, community services, and professional supports for families
• Promote a collaborative culture where educators, families, and communities walk alongside one another to help children thrive

Participants Will:
• Support educators and leaders to think critically about how developmental information lives within their program over time
• Explore the educator’s role in walking alongside families when additional supports may be helpful, without positioning referrals as a “handoff”
• Discuss ethical, relational, and professional considerations when linking families to resources

Transform Behaviour into Understanding with a Strength-Based Approach

In this session, you will explore how behaviour is a form of communication, and how connection, safety, and empathy can transform your approach. Unpack practical strategies, meaningful reflection, and tools to strengthen your responsive, relationship-based practice.

What if we stopped asking “How do I stop this behaviour?” and started asking “What is this child seeking?”

Participants will:
• Reflect on behaviour as communication
• Learn connection-based, responsive strategies
• Practice co-regulation tools
• Reframe traditional behaviour “management”
• Leave with one relationship-focused action plan

Tools to Nurture Emotional Strength and Coping Skills in Young Children

Reaching In, Reaching Out (RIRO) is a professional learning series designed to guide development of resiliency skills in young children from birth to seven years. RIRO strategies focus on laying a strong foundation of thinking and coping skills that nurture resilience for both educators in their work “with” children and also through strategies intentionally introduced to children. RIRO teaches the “3Rs of Resilience” skills to help: Relax, Reflect and Respond effectively to life’s challenges.

Resiliency skills help adults and children develop several critical abilities associated with resilience:
• Reflect on behaviour as communication
• Learn connection-based, responsive strategies
• Practice co-regulation tools
• Reframe traditional behaviour “management”
• Leave with one relationship-focused action plan
• Being in charge of our emotions
• Controlling our impulses
• Analyzing the cause of problems
• Empathizing with others
• Believing in our competence
• Maintaining realistic optimism
• Reaching out to others and opportunities

RIRO training gives professionals skills and theory to support a relationship-based reflective practice and provides a framework for creating a “culture of resilience” in programs serving young children.

Training Delivery:
ARCQE is one of the approved organizations to deliver RIRO. Consisting of 12 hours of content in two or four parts, the program is flexible and can be successfully
delivered through a series of modules designed to meet local needs. It can be delivered in two specialized PD days or four single 3-hour sessions.

Part 1 (one full day or two half days) helps adults build their own foundation of the critical resiliency abilities described above. Participants learn resiliency
skills they can model with children and families. Specifically, they learn to:
• Identify and strengthen critical abilities associated with resilience
• Use strategies to stay calm and focused in stressful times
• Identify how their thoughts can affect their ability to cope with stress and challenges
• Challenge thinking habits that hinder resilience
• Generate alternative ways to handle conflict, problems and stress

Part 2 (one full day or two half days) of the program, participants learn to apply the skills with children.
They learn to:
• Model the skills and foster resilience in the children around them
• Use their resiliency skills to increase their understanding of children’s behaviour
• Incorporate resiliency skills into their work setting by using child friendly approaches such as children’s literature, puppets, and play-based activities

Focus On Working With Challenging Behaviours

This Canadian Child Care Federation series is divided into three 3-hour sessions and is recommended to be offered intermittently to enable participants an opportunity to internalize information and apply it to practice between sessions. In determining the delivery method of these sessions, it is important that the process of delivery for the three sessions be determined based on the level of education and experience of participants.

Session One will focus on exploring the whys and wherefores of children’s behaviour, understanding what children may gain from challenging behaviour and your role in assessing the function that challenging behaviour plays and examining the effects that challenging behaviour may have on the other children in the program and on the practitioners.

Session Two will identify strategies that prevent or minimize challenging behaviours, recognize anxiety and other early warning signs of challenging behaviours, and examine and where necessary, change the practitioner’s approach to challenging behaviour. It will also establish how to use observation techniques to gain more information about challenging behaviour.

Session Three will identify appropriate behaviour strategies, and how to develop, implement and evaluate a plan of action for coping with challenging behaviours, including determining when outside intervention is necessary. In this session, we will focus on working with parents as partners around challenging behaviours, help other children and their parents cope with challenging behaviour, and reflect on your professional practice, practice of relationships and as it relates to challenging behaviour.

Embrace Diversity and Strengthen Family Connections

This learning opportunity is designed to help early childhood educators deepen their understanding of how young children develop language and literacy. With a focus on inclusive practices and supporting diverse abilities, this session will explore practical programming ideas to foster children’s growth within their learning environments. Consider how diverse backgrounds influence how children and families understand and develop language and literacy.

Participants Will:
• Discover how environmental factors influence language and literacy learning in young children
• Reflect on strategies to enhance your practice and better support children’s language and literacy skills
• Explore ways to engage and collaborate with families to support children
• Learn about ways to incorporate culturally responsive practice into relationship-building with children and their families

Create Inspiring Environments that Foster Curiosity and Collaboration

As Loris Malaguzzi, founder of the Reggio Emilia approach, said, “There are three teachers of children: adults, other children, and their physical environment.” Take part in learning how to thoughtfully create responsive environments that continue to invite, provoke, and enhance learning. Support and encourage communication, collaboration, and inquiry.

Participants Will:
• Unpack the concept of the environment as the “third teacher” and its role in shaping children’s learning experiences
• Explore the key elements of responsive environments that support active engagement and exploration
• Gain practical ideas and insights for creating spaces that provoke curiosity and encourage meaningful interactions
• Learn how to reflect on your environments and collaborate with children, families and colleagues so that you can continue to be responsive to children’s needs and interests

Explore & Reflect: Integrating Indigenous Knowledge in Early Years

In this transformative session, you will gain a foundational understanding of Canada’s Indigenous Peoples and confront some of the difficult truths about our nation’s past. Through mindful listening, self-reflection, and interactive activities, explore how these historical realities continue to shape the present. You will learn how you play a key role in advancing Reconciliation, and how to bring this knowledge into your work with children and families, creating spaces for healing, understanding, and meaningful change.

Participants Will:
• Reflect on their own current practice and experience
• Create a list of engaging activities for implementing in your own classrooms; daily, weekly, and yearly
• Review important information to inform current practice
• Plan an activity to be used in your classroom following this learning event
• Discuss considerations when working with Indigenous families

Amplify Children’s Voices: Strategies for Meaningful Listening and Engagement

Listening to children is key to understanding and embracing their emotions, needs, and aspirations for a healthy and engaging early learning experience. When educators actively listen, children feel seen and heard, and their thoughts, ideas, and feelings are valued as essential contributors to their communities and learning environments.

Articles 12 and 13 of the United Nations Children’s Version of the Convention on the Rights of the Child States:

12. Respect for Children’s Views: Children have the right to give their opinions freely on issues that affect them. Adults should listen and take children seriously.
13. Sharing Thoughts Freely: Children have the right to share freely with others what they learn, think and feel, by talking, drawing, writing or in any other way unless it harms other people.

This learning opportunity invites participants to reflect on the image of the child as well as their role in listening in building strong, supportive relationships between children and educators. You will explore practical, hands-on strategies and resources to enhance these connections, ensuring children’s voices are authentically honoured.

Participants Will:
• Reflect on how the image of the child connects to the educator’s role in what listening looks in practice
• Explore practical strategies and resources that support meaningful connections with children
• Understand observation as a powerful way of listening to children
• Learn how to make children’s voices visible in learning environments and curriculum planning

Empower Young Minds to Approach Diversity and Promote Inclusion

It is essential for educators to take proactive, intentional steps to address racism and discrimination in meaningful ways in their practice with children and families. Research on this topic demonstrates that children begin to form their understanding of race and diversity at an early age.

This session offers educators an opportunity to deepen their understanding of the nature and impacts of racism, both within society and in the context of early childhood education. Through reflective practices, participants will examine their own experiences and biases related to diversity, fostering increased comfort and confidence in addressing issues of race with young children.

Participants Will:
• Analyze the nature, origins, and systemic effects of racism
• Identify and address manifestations of racism at individual, societal, and institutional levels
• Seek to understand the impact of racism on children’s development, relationships, and well-being
• Reflect on personal biases and experiences about diversity, and engage in ongoing self-examination
• Develop evidence-based strategies to engage children in conversations about race, diversity, and inclusion
• Foster supportive and culturally sensitive learning environments
• Learn to model inclusive behaviours and fostering open conversations about race with children

Natural Environments That Inspire Curiosity, Creativity, & Deeper Thinking

Enjoy the many profound benefits of connecting your practice with nature. Support creativity and land-based learning through outdoor and natural
environments. Educators will leave with actionable insights and practical strategies to enrich their practice, encouraging children to learn through nature while fostering curiosity and respect for the world around them.

“Look into nature, and then you will understand it better.” — Albert Einstein (1951)

Participants Will:
• Examine the value of natural settings and how they support various areas of learning
• Discuss subjects and topics that can be effectively taught in outdoor environments, integrating nature into the curriculum
• Create safer, more engaging natural environments
• Address potential barriers and risks associated with nature-based play and learning, and how to mitigate them, including communication about outdoor play with families and colleagues
• Explore strategies for incorporating nature into your classroom, outdoor spaces, and daily routines

Fostering Relationships Through Meaningful Routines

Explore how working through a practice of relationships and building on your image of the child supports the routines and activities scheduled into a child’s day. Consider how the environment and careful observations of children can support their understanding of the world, and how these can create positive early learning experiences for children. You will learn strategies to ensure that transitions become an unhurried and less stressful learning adventure by defining transitions, including why they are important, and how they can support children and educators.

Participants Will:
• Identify key components and factors in programs and environments
• Define transition procedures and reflect on children’s best interests
• Discover strategies for creating smooth transitions
• Develop tools to build capacity in decision-making and creating responsive environments that support children and their emotional regulation

Shape Meaningful Learning Environments Through Reflection and Documentation

Empower your practice! This session guides early childhood educators to draw on their strengths and experiences, using pedagogical documentation to create nurturing and inspiring environments for children. Participants will explore documentation in a meaningful way, with an emphasis on reflective program planning and creating learning stories. By documenting individual schemas and areas of interest, educators will be able to better recognize the impact of their environment and materials while celebrating the diverse learning paths of each child.

Key Focus Areas:
• The characteristics and practices of an intentional, reflective educator
• Using Developmentally Appropriate Practices (DAP) to create high-quality curricula
• An introduction to emergent curriculum and the Plan–Do–Review cycle
• Methods of pedagogical documentation to capture and validate children’s learning and development

Reimagine Everyday Materials to Engage Children

Loose parts offer endless possibilities for play and discovery that stimulate the senses and invite children to investigate, create, and experiment. This session shares practical strategies for using everyday materials to create more in-depth play experiences fueled by curiosity and imagination.

“The developmental literature is clear: play stimulates physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development in the early years” — Dr. Jane Hewes (2006)

Participants Will Explore:
• The theory of Loose Parts
• How to use Loose Parts thoughtfully
• Storing and organizing Loose Parts
• Additional considerations for Loose Parts (safety, role of the educator, young children, outdoors, etc)

Make Early Learning Environments Safer for Children

Newly redesigned! Early childhood educators are invited to examine how everyday materials routines, and environments affect children’s health, safety, and well-being. Guided by Health Canada’s research and resources, participants will identify potential environmental health risks, reflect on current practices, and explore practical strategies to create safer, healthier spaces. This session is perfect for early learning and childcare educators in centres and dayhomes, consultants, and program directors.

Participants Will:

• Notice potential environmental health risks in early learning environments
• Reflect on how materials, routines, and spaces influence children’s well-being
• Co-construct strategies for risk prevention
• Create a personalized action plan and resource checklist for ongoing professional growth

An Introduction to Trauma-Informed Practice

Early childhood educators may work with children who have experienced trauma, carrying experiences that can affect how they feel, learn, and connect with others. Understanding how to support these children is crucial to fostering positive self-identities and emotional growth. This session introduces the principles of trauma-informed practice, emphasizing the importance of creating trauma-sensitive environments in early learning and childcare settings.

Participants Will:
• Build foundational knowledge of trauma and its impact on young children
• Recognize abilities and needs of children who have experienced trauma
• Explore practical, trauma-aware strategies to support children through daily interactions
• Learn ways to prevent compassion fatigue and burnout while maintaining educator well-being

This session allows early childhood educators to strengthen their skills and create safe, supportive environments where children affected by trauma can heal, build resilience, and thrive.

Learning About Beliefs, Values, and Ethics

This series is developed to help professionals:
• Understand the relationship between beliefs, values and ethics
• Identify personal beliefs, values and ethics
• Acknowledge how beliefs, values and ethics are reflected in your actions
• Learn how to show understanding and respect for others beliefs, values and ethics of others

Delivery: This is a 4-part series of 3-hour workshops which must be taken in sequence – subject to presenter availability.

Empowering Family Connections to Strengthen Collaborative Relationships

This session emphasizes the importance of engaging with families and their children’s development, recognizing that “families know their children in ways that no one else can” (Makovichuk et al., 2014). When children enter early learning environments, it is essential for educators to build strong, collaborative relationships with families. By working together and sharing information, insights, and ideas, educators and families can create a holistic approach that thoughtfully supports each child’s unique needs. As Makovichuk et al. remind us, “families, children, and educators create places of vitality together” (2014). This session highlights how meaningful partnerships help bring that shared vision to life.

Participants Will:
• Explore the image of the family to consider how families are integral partners in a child’s learning journey
• Examine connections between these practices and Flight: Alberta’s Early Learning and Care Curriculum Framework
• Identify effective ways to observe, document, and communicate with families
• Reflect on and strengthen relationships with families using practical strategies
• Practice cultural sensitivity to embrace diversity within their program

Participants will explore guiding principles that support cultural diversity in early learning programs. Together, we’ll reflect on our own values and introduce the Consciousness Continuum model, a tool that supports educators in moving toward becoming “unconsciously competent” in their cultural understanding and practices.

You will leave with practical ideas for weaving cultural sensitivity into everyday interactions, helping to create environments where every child and family feels valued, seen, and truly included.

Expand Your Documentation Through Observation and Reflection

By using Learning Stories as a means of gathering children’s thoughts and learning, educators can support meaning-making moments through regular review of the gathered information. “Learning stories can act as ‘material objects that carry significant information across time and space’, create coherence between events and refer to longer term process to construct significant chains of learning episodes” (Carr & Lee, Learning Stories, 2012, p. 88).

Participants Will:
• Develop an understanding of Learning Stories
• Explore “4 Dimensions of Learning” (Wendy Lee)
• Examine strategies to write effective Learning Stories
• Learn to determine next steps

Turn everyday moments with children into powerful stories!

Nurturing Healthy Emotional Development Through Responsive Interactions

Why are interactions between educators and children so important? This session answers that question by looking at the sensitivity indicators identified in the Caregiver Interaction Scale (J. Arnett).

Participants will uncover practical strategies for supporting adult–child interactions and examine the co-learner role, where educators engage alongside children and follow their lead. Examine how sensitive and responsive interactions enhance the quality of child care and create a lasting impact on children’s development and well-being.

Participants Will:
• Find understanding about the importance behind daily sensitive and responsive educator–child interactions
• Explore how educator–child interactions are observed and measured
• Recognize what positive interactions look and sound like in everyday practice
• Identify strategies to strengthen educator–child interactions to implement moving forward
• Consider how to reflect on these interactions to gain important insights

Strengthen Teamwork Across Specialized Roles

Dive into a session that explores the dynamics of working within multi-disciplinary teams with varied experience levels. Participants will reflect on the characteristics and personalities of team members, examining how these factors influence team effectiveness, motivation, and overall collaboration.

Explore your own image of the educator, consider your dispositions toward learning, and envision your ideal work environment. This reflective approach helps you understand yourself, your team, and how to create a collaborative, thriving workplace.

Participants Will:
• Gain insights into fostering a positive work environment
• Build a culture of communication and optimism in the workplace
• Strategize to strengthen teamwork and transition from individual efforts, “Me,” to collective success, “We”

The goal is to enhance team cohesion, improve communication, and create a supportive, effective environment for all team members.