Professor of Education, Emerita
Contact
Education
Ph.D., Boston College
M.Ed., Rhode Island College
B.A., Marshall University
About
Professor Bartolini is the 2017 Boston Association for the Education of Young Children (BAEYC) recipient of the Award for STEM as an “educator who inspires children to explore and discover our world through the use and application of science, technology, engineering, and math and who encourages children to become stewards of our environment (BAEYC 16th Annual Early Educator’s Awards certificate).” She is the former 2010-2015 recipient of the Wheaton College Dorothy Reed Williams Endowed Chair in the Social Sciences for her work promoting a national early STEM literacy campaign for young children.
Main Interests
Early Childhood State, National and International Programs and Policies; Early STEM Literacy; Children’s Play; Documentation of Teaching and Learning/ Reggio Emilia; Steering Committee of Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Children’s Entertainment at www.truceteachers.org.
Other Interests
I love to travel, beachcomb, birdwatch, kayak, garden, walk, enjoy nature and spend time with my family and friends.
Publications
2021. Bartolini, V. Creating a Reggio-Inspired STEM Environment for Young Children. St Paul, MN: Redleaf Press.
2017. Bartolini, V., Rasleigh, E. Transforming a Reggio-Inspired Documentation Assignment Using VoiceThreads, an Online Collaborative Tool. Innovations in Early Education: The International Reggio Exchange.
2014. Bartolini, V., Worth, K., & Jensen, J. Ed. B. Falk. A Shift to Inquiry: The Heart of Effective Teaching and Professional Development for the Twenty-First Century. The New Educator 10:1, 2014. NY: NY Taylor & Francis Group LLC.
2011. Co-Editor: Focusing a New Lens: STEM Professional Development for Early Education and Care Educators and Programs, Full report and Executive Summary.
2008. Contributing Author: Piense en Arte Think Art Educator’s Guide, Fundacion Cisneros.
2003. Contributor. Guidelines for Preschool Learning Experiences. Early Childhood Advisory Council to the MA Department of Education
2002. Teacher, They Won’t Let Me Play! Strategies for Inappropriate Play Behaviors. St. Paul, MN: Redleaf Press. Selected to Choice Magazine’s “Outstanding Academic Title” list for 2003.
2002. “Do Too Many Chefs Spoil the Soup? An Appetizing Tale of Collaboration and Evaluation”. Early Learning Network News. December, 2002. Selected as the Showcase article.
2001. Contributor. Early Childhood Program Standards. Developed by the MA Early Childhood Advisory Council to the MA Board of Education.
Teaching Interests
My frequent travels to study the internationally acclaimed early childhood programs of Reggio Emilia, Italy, have spurred my interest in the documentation of learning. In particular, students in my upper level courses use technology to create mini video documentaries of children’s learning.
I also collaborate with the Southeastern Education Professionals Partnership (SEEPP), a partnership made up of groups and agencies involved in the mixed delivery system of early education and care including: out of school time center based programs, public schools, independent and System affiliated family child care, Head Start, and higher education. Through this partnership I teach Teaching Preschool STEM and Leadership, Policy, and Advocacy in Early Education and Care. Read about SEEPP at http://www.cdedu.us/SEEPP/
Student Projects
Students in my Issues and Early Education and Care course create mini-documentaries focusing on young children’s learning of STEM concepts. These video- documentaries have been presented at national and international conferences and posted to the password protected website VoiceThread.com.
Five students, alum Blakely Bundy and I traveled to Reggio Emilia to study their infant, toddler and preschools. I plan to take further faculty-student trips. Additionally, Professor of Mathematics Rochelle Leibowitz and I collaborated with our students and the Fundacion Cisneros, NYC, to create the Educator’s Guide, Piense en Arte, for the Correspondences art exhibit held at Wheaton Spring 2008. Not only were our students’ art cards published in the guide, regional teachers who attended a professional development evening at the exhibit received copies of the guide to use in their classrooms. Wheaton graduate, Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, generously loaned some of her works of Latin American art to the college for this provocative exhibit.
Research Interests
I recently served as Associate Advisor to the national STEM Genome, Impact Genome Project in my particular area of expertise regarding early childhood play, learning and STEM. I continue to analyze my students’ video documentations posted on VoiceThread.com to inform the development of an early STEM literacy model. Most recently, I used these videos during a keynote address to early educators ( https://wheatoncollege.edu/news/) and to policy makers (http://www.trianglecoalition.org/).
During the past few years, my teaching and research interests have taken me to New Zealand, Namibia and South Africa, Belfast, Finland and to Reggio Emilia, Italy, to study early childhood programs. My research has focused on the policy arena for early childhood, including state, national and international levels. I have served as Vice President and President of the Massachusetts Association of Early Childhood Educators (MAECTE). Additionally, I am a member of the Democracy in Groups (DIG), comprised of colleagues from Boston area colleges and universities. We research the impact of documentation as it pertains to adult learning. And I serve on the Steering Committee of Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Children’s Entertainment (www.truceteachers.org), promoting the importance of high quality play in the lives of young children.
I particularly enjoy collaborating with P-16 colleagues. With my colleagues, we have written articles, developed innovative courses and grant funded programs, such as the successful Teaching Scholar Partnership Program through ICO/ NSF.
