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Ann Fradkin-Hayslip Ed.D.  

Associate Professor Elementary Education & Reading, Author of "Process Learning: It's Not about the Product, it's About the Journey"

Ann Fradkin-Hayslip Ed.D. is an associate professor of education. A graduate of the first public alternative high school and Hampshire College, both non-graded systems, she earned a doctorate from the University of Florida, where she wrote and published her dissertation on teacher autonomy, including a comparison of educational practices in the U.S. and Finland. Subsequent peer-reviewed publications on teacher autonomy, motivation, job satisfaction, asset-based teaching, and school culture have appeared in national and international journals. She is the author of the book, "Process Learning; It’s Not About the Product, It’s About the Journey", published by Cognella Academic Publishing.

Dr. Fradkin-Hayslip taught for nearly 30 years, in urban, suburban, and rural settings, in public, private, and federally funded programs. She has taught on the college level for the past 10 years, in early childhood, elementary, and graduate literacy programs, and has served on multiple committees and panels. Her dissertation and recent research have focused on educational practices and teacher preparation in Finland. In May 2023 she led a group of students to Tampere and Helsinki, Finland to visit schools ranging from three-year-olds through high school and is planning to lead a group in 2024. Presentations on the state and national level have focused on inequities in education, combatting cultural bias, play-based education, and the impact of poverty on school-aged children.

Speech Topics


Takeaways from the Happiest Nation

Much has been written about educational reform in Finland; its rising and most recent decline of PISA rankings. Since 2000, Finland has ranked in the top tiers of reading, mathematics, and science literacy. Do international scores adequately define the worth of an educational system, or do other factors more realistically offer an unbiased view? The PISA scores from 2000 to 2022, have consistently beat out its counterpart, the United States, but first, let us step back several decades to trace how this tiny country propelled its name into the news and became a focus for educators around the globe.

Attendee Results:

  • Identify patterns of PISA scores from 2000 to 2022.
  • Examine John Kotter’s steps for Leading Change.
  • Compare and contrast school philosophy and curricular frameworks of Finland and the U.S.
  • Compare and contrast teacher preparation programs in Finland and the U.S.
  • Develop action plans to bring harmony and excellence into the classroom.

Disrupting Inequities: Educating for Change

Well-meaning educators too often demonstrate behaviors consistent with cultural bias. These precepts can and do cause dissension in the classroom and may pose inequity issues. Educators may unwittingly project these biases and hamper the development of a positive class climate and healthy home-school connections.

Attendee Results:

  • Identify cultural bias.
  • Self-reflect to examine our biases.
  • Learn methodologies to combat cultural bias.
  • Develop practices and design lessons of equity to prevent unintentional bias and instead, to support and promote positive dispositions.

The Impact of Poverty on School-Aged Children

An alarming number of school-aged children live in poverty; a crisis that contributes to the inequity of democracy in education and impacts cognitive and social-emotional development in early learners.

Attendee Results:

  • Evaluate yourself on statistics related to childhood poverty.
  • Explore national guidelines and cost-of-living indexes.
  • Identify economic disparity within school districts.
  • Create an action plan to combat the systemic roots of childhood poverty.

How to See the Assets through the Haze of Poverty, Inequity, and Challenge

This presentation explores why teacher candidates and beginning teachers may espouse asset-based pedagogies in education methods courses yet adopt deficit attitudes during the field experience. It seeks to provide avenues to support asset-based approaches with practical hands-on activities. Given the number of children living in poverty, the inequity within schools, and the deficit mindset toward poverty and social challenges, this conversation is needed.

Attendee Results:

  • Define and self-identify one’s assets.
  • Examine human capital in a capitalistic society.
  • Evaluate Strength-Based/Asset-Based Teaching.
  • Create an action plan to move beyond a Deficit Model of Education.

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