Rate My Professor Meredith Kelly

Dr. Meredith Kelly serves as a Senior Lecturer and Academic Programmes Coordinator in the College of Education at the University of Otago's Southland Campus in Invercargill. She earned her Master of Education from Massey University, along with a Bachelor of Education (Teaching) and a Diploma in Teaching from Dunedin College of Education. Kelly has been deeply involved in teacher education at the Southland Campus for many years, where she teaches courses within the Bachelor of Teaching (Early Childhood Education) and the Graduate Diploma of Teaching (Early Childhood Education) programmes. In her role, she coordinates the overall delivery of these programmes at the campus. Before transitioning to higher education, she accumulated extensive practical experience teaching in both urban and rural kindergartens across Southland, New Zealand, and spent four years instructing in primary school settings in the United Kingdom.

Her research specializations encompass early childhood assessment and schema learning theory, early childhood curriculum with a focus on integrated approaches incorporating pedagogical learning areas, and early childhood pedagogy framed within socio-cultural practice. Notable publications include the 2023 book chapter co-authored with A. C. Gunn, B. Offen, A. P. Ormond, and S. S. Sexton, titled 'He ara e rua he whāinga kotahi: Walking dual pathways toward shared goals in initial primary sector teacher education,' featured in the International Handbook on Education Development in Asia-Pacific (Springer Nature). In 2016, she published 'Schema learning theory: Enhancing practice within sociocultural teaching, learning, and assessment' in Early Childhood Folio. Additional contributions consist of conference presentations, such as 'Technology is more than ICT!' delivered at the 2012 ECE Research Hui in Dunedin, and proceedings papers including 'Playgroup communities: Adults supporting learning in play' (2011, Power of Play Conference) and 'Teachers as learners: Engaging with children's thinking using schema learning theory' (2011, NZCA Conference).