INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD最新文献

Abstract

Millions of parents use non-parental childcare for their preschool-age children. Prior research has focused on family characteristics that are associated with parents’ preferences of early care and education arrangements. Yet, little is known about preschool parents’ perspectives of the childcare search process. To further explore how parents search for childcare, we conducted a mixed methods study focusing on parents in a single state in the USA. Our findings suggest that families have to make trade-offs between quality and practicality when choosing childcare. During the childcare search process, families relied heavily on personal networks for childcare referrals and were unaware of public childcare information sources. Parents make childcare decisions based on their perceptions of care. As states across the nation develop their consumer education program, it is important to develop a family-friendly program to reduce search barriers for parents who look for childcare information.

Physical activity (PA) engagement in Early Childcare and Education Centers (ECEC) supports preschoolers’ ability to meet the national physical activity guidelines. However, the influence of Head Start playground quality, as assessed by the Head Start Body Start Play Space Assessment (PSA), on Head Start preschoolers’ school day PA is under-researched. This study examined (1) the relationship between PSA quality scores and Head Start preschoolers’ school day PA engagement and (2) the association between PSA quality scores and the likelihood of preschoolers’ meeting the national PA guidelines during Head Start hours. Head Start preschoolers (N = 240, Mage = 3.9 years, 47% boys) from three centers participated in the study. Playground quality was assessed using the PSA, and preschoolers’ PA during Head Start was measured using wrist-worn GTX3 Actigraph accelerometers. Approximately, 77% of preschoolers in this sample achieved the recommended amount of PA per hour (15 min), over 90% accumulated 60 min of MVPA, and half surpassed 180 min of total PA during Head Start hours, and preschoolers’ PA engagement differed based on child sex and Head Start center attended. PSA playground quality scores were not significantly related to the amount or intensity of preschoolers’ PA engagement or the likelihood of meeting the national PA guidelines during Head Start. However, our findings revealed unique PA patterns among Head Start boys’ and girls’ PA that should be probed in the future studies using the PSA.

Previous research has shown that phonological awareness is one of the most important prerequisites for early reading. Monitoring its development requires reliable, easy-to-use instruments especially in the last years of kindergarten. The present study aims to explore the potential for assessing phonological awareness and some of its subskills through online testing. Participants of the study were 317 kindergarteners (Mage = 6.61, SD = .54 years). The instruments developed for this study within an online assessment platform in two assessment dimensions (syllable and phoneme awareness) contain nine subtests (syllable synthesis, segmentation, deletion; phoneme identification in different sound environments, identification of phoneme position, identification of initial phonemes, phoneme synthesis and segmentation). The results of the study show that: (1) the test is a reliable assessment tool for kindergarteners’ phonological awareness skills; (2) according to the underlying measurement model of phonological awareness, the tasks are separated based on particular operational components independently of the size of the language element involved; (3) segmentation tasks proved to be the most difficult parts of the test; and (4) the media effect is insignificant. The online test aims to emphasize the importance of online testing and the inseparable relationship between measuring and developing phonological awareness, prompting teachers to rethink their teaching methods. It also introduces a new tool for educators to use, tailored to children's needs but potentially challenging for teachers with lower ICT literacy, requiring methodological support, ultimately providing a new opportunity for kindergartens.

Teacher–child interaction is central in pedagogical activities in early childhood education and care (ECEC). In these activities, teachers’ visual gaze is a valuable tool for communication, but this has received little attention in ECEC research. Recent technological advancements in eye-tracking provide an approach to take a deeper look at how teachers focus their visual gaze during activities. Our study focused on three ECEC teachers’ visual gaze behavior during pedagogical activities in a group of children under three years of age (later toddlers) in Finland, to gain understanding of how teachers use their gaze to facilitate interactions and pedagogy. The data were collected using eye-tracking glasses in two types of activities: play and guided activity. From these eye-tracking recordings, we identified pedagogical episodes (e.g., guidance). To analyze teachers’ visual gaze behavior, we also coded the fixations to the different areas of interest (e.g., teaching materials). The findings showed that the teachers’ aim for interaction with children was associated with their visual gaze behavior on teacher- and child-initiated episodes. Moreover, the activity's structure and the teacher's position also played a role in how teachers focus their visual gaze. In this article, we also discuss the potential of eye-tracking technology in reflection of practices implemented in ECEC and we argue that the use of eye-tracking technology is an area that merits further exploration.

This article responds to the endemic, intergenerational, and pervasive racism endured by Black children in the USA and the need to reimagine classrooms as cultures of peace where Black histories, literatures, accomplishment, oppression, resistance, resilience, and joy are taught as central to the curriculum. To do so, the article shares a five-year study of practices developed by 12 teachers working with university educators to construct Pro-Black pedagogy for children from ages five-to-nine. The article opens with descriptions of renewed efforts in the USA to ban books and deny the teaching of whole histories and how that constitutes curricular violence in the lives of Black students. The study is anchored in Black Critical Theory as it encompasses understandings of anti-and Pro-Blackness in the education of young children. With decolonizing methodologies guiding data collection, analysis, and representation, findings are shared in the form of (a) practices used by the teachers to help students grow in their understanding of Black brilliance, resistance, and resilience; (b) tensions encountered; and (c) positive outcomes. The article closes with implications to guide the examination of curriculum and school structures as an essential element in Pro-Black curricular transformation.