Early Childhood Education Journal最新文献

The Swedish preschool educational tradition is based on a holistic view where care, play, learning, and teaching are intertwined. Previous research argues for the need to develop teaching approaches that simultaneously direct attention towards content and children’s perspectives. The aim of this study is to contribute with knowledge about how preschool children’s agency is supported in activities that integrate play and science, with a special focus on the use of representations. The empirical data consists of video-observations of teachers’ and children’s (2-4-years) participation in activities that integrate play and science. In the analysis, the theoretical framework of Play-Responsive Early Childhood Education and Care (PRECEC) is used. Here, teaching and play are understood as a mutual activity. In these mutual activities, teachers and children are constantly shifting back and forth between as if (fantasy) and as is (reality) (Pramling et al., 2019). Three narratives have been constructed that exemplify how children’s agency is supported in activities that integrate play and science. These narratives highlight how children’s initiatives are given space to evolve and enrich both play and science; how children’s initiatives become valuable for teachers’ opportunities to trigger and further explore science content and; how teacher’s constantly must respond to children’s different initiatives and balance between them. Implications for preschool teachers and preschool practice are discussed in relation to children’s agency in science teaching in preschool.

There is little question that writing manuscripts and contributing to the scholarly literature in peer-reviewed outlets is a valued activity for college and university professors. Expectations have risen to the point that, in growing numbers of doctoral programs throughout the world, publication has become a formal part of the curriculum, an alternative to the traditional dissertation, or even a condition that must be met prior to graduation. The premise of this conceptual and practical article is that engagement with varied publication projects early, during doctoral candidature, provides an important opportunity to learn the practices, policies, and processes of scientific communication. The argument presented here in favor of publication during doctoral study is grounded in a review of the relevant research literature. Key points are illustrated through vignettes based on 25 years of experience teaching a writing for publication course to doctoral students and co-authoring/publishing a wide array of manuscripts with them. The article begins by describing the growing diversity amongst doctoral students and numerous obstacles confronted by novices seeking to publish their work in scholarly outlets. Next, it describes the importance of being socialized into the academic writing community and building the requisite skill set of academic authors. It then offers recommendations based on a review of the research as well as 25 years of experience as the editor-in-chief of Early Childhood Education Journal. The conclusion asserts that, when doctoral candidates participate in varied writing projects, acquire the writing habit, and collaborate with faculty members and peers, they become socialized into the norms of academic publication and are better prepared to launch careers as productive scholars.

Early reciprocal language experiences are crucial for children’s language development. Early childhood education and care (ECEC) has the potential to facilitate language development. However, knowledge on ECEC educators’ actions in implementing early language facilitation is scarce. This study surveyed educators’ declared practices of early language facilitation and its relationship with their educational background. Open-ended responses gathered from 644 Finnish ECEC educators were categorized by content and analyzed in relation to the educators’ qualifications and work experience. The findings showed that when reporting on their practices, the educators typically did not focus on the child’s communicative initiatives and reciprocal language. However, the responses of educators with a qualification in ECEC special education contained more focused content on child-led reciprocity. Moreover, both ECEC special education teachers and educators with experience in infant-toddler ECEC underlined the importance of interaction. The findings indicate a need to increase educators’ awareness of their actions in facilitating children’s early language skills. To achieve the educational and preventive rehabilitative potential of ECEC, it is crucial that centers both include ECEC special educators in their teaching staff and invest in educator training.

Recent calls and general interest have increased to strengthen preschool and special education’s inclusivity to empower early childhood teachers’ professional development. In response, this study explores the mediating role of early childhood teachers’ attitudes toward inclusive education in the relationship between perceived organizational support and career success and the moderating role of empathy in the mediation path. A questionnaire survey conducted among early childhood teachers from a city in Shandong Province was used as the research instrument. The analysis, based on 414 valid responses, found that (1) perceived organizational support had a significant positive impact on career success; (2) inclusive education attitudes played a partially mediating role between perceived organizational support and career success; and (3) empathy negatively moderated the first half of the mediation path. Compared to more empathetic participants, perceived organizational support had a significantly stronger positive predictive effect on attitudes toward inclusive education of less empathetic participants. This result confirms the relationship between early childhood teachers’ organizational support, inclusive educational attitudes, and career success. In addition, it provides an empirical reference for improving early childhood teachers’ inclusive education knowledge and competency.

The importance of early literacy skills is well established in previous studies; reading abilities and academic success in later grades depend on the foundational early literacy skills developed in preschools. However, little is known about preschool teachers’ understanding of the impact of speech sound disorder (SSD) on early literacy skills. Preschool teachers are in a unique position, as they may be the first to notice speech sound errors in young children and to collaborate with Speech Language Pathologists (SLPS) to ensure these young children develop a strong literacy foundation. The purpose of this study was to determine preschool teachers’ (N = 75) beliefs and attitudes towards the inclusion of children with SSD, their understanding of the effect of SSD on pre-literacy skills, their beliefs about their roles and responsibilities in educating preschoolers with SSD, and how these three areas are influenced by their years of teaching experience. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. Results indicated that years of teaching experience did not predict preschool teachers’ attitudes or beliefs regarding the inclusion of children with SSD, their understanding of SSD and pre-literacy skills, or their understanding of their roles and responsibilities. However, higher education levels positively correlated with positive beliefs about the inclusion of children with SSD in the general education classroom. The responses from the survey indicated that preschool teachers have a general understanding of how SSD affects the development of pre-literacy skills. Preschool teachers suggested that they would like more opportunities for collaboration and carryover to support children with SSD.

This study analyzed the fit of data collected with the Measure of Engagement, Independence, and Social Relationships for 3- to 5-year-olds (MEISR 3-to-5-years-old) to a proposed theoretical model based on the cross-walk of MEISR 3-to-5-years-old items and codes from 7 chapters of the Activities and Participation component of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health-Children and Youth (ICF-CY). Participant children (N = 599) were recruited from 44 early childhood intervention programs across 9 autonomous communities (i.e., states) in Spain. Children’s ages ranged from 36 to 72 months (M = 49.22; SD = 9.77). Parents of children completed a sociodemographic questionnaire and a MEISR 3-to-5-years-old scale. Reliability and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) results supported the internal consistency of the MEISR 3-to-5-years-old items and its content validity for assessing child participation based on the ICF-CY framework. Statistically significant differences on the mean percentage of children who presented difficulties and learning opportunities when participating in home routines by the Activities and Participation ICF-CY chapters were found. No differences were found on children’s strengths for participation across chapters. Implications for practice are discussed. Such implications highlight the use of the MEISR 3-to-5-years-old in early childhood intervention programs to assess child functioning, plan interventions and follow-up child progress to promote learning and development of children.

The quality of teacher-child discourse affects children’s development and learning. Our study aims to explore teacher-child discourse during planned science activities (PSAs) in Vietnamese preschools. This research is essential to understanding the reasons behind Vietnamese children’s low level of scientific skills and to exploring the dynamics of discourse in an Asian context. We conducted a case study to describe and understand the teacher-child discourse during PSAs. The study involved eight PSA sessions in four classes of three to four-year-old in Da Nang, Vietnam. We found that teachers tended to make statements more often than ask questions. When they did ask, they preferred using closed questions that did not require much of a response from children. Open questions were used sparingly, even though they are crucial for promoting children’s cognitive thinking and literacy. Teachers also made use of rhetorical questions that did not require any answer. This has led to mostly non-interactive classes where students remain passive learners. To improve the quality of teacher-child discourse, we suggest providing teacher training on encouraging children to participate and asking more engaging questions.

Young children’s self-regulation (SR) skills are linked to many important outcomes across the lifespan and school stakeholders widely agree that these skills should be prioritized in schools. Despite broad agreement about the importance of these skills, the diverse field of SR research is rife with a lack of clarity in both conceptual definitions and measurement with many different terms and definitions used interchangeably. With a systematic review of early childhood SR research in schools, we aimed to add to these efforts by cataloguing which SR variables researchers measure and the specific methodological choices made to capture such variables. Coders identified 319 peer-reviewed articles published between 2010–2020 that included a school-based measurement of self-regulation related constructs among children between 3- and 8-years. This revealed 11 distinct variable terms used widely in the literature to refer to SR related skills or characteristics and behavior problems was overwhelmingly the most frequent. Studies of many of these variables relied heavily on adult reports, usually teachers, and the use of multiple informants to measure variables was uncommon. Findings further highlight the conceptual clutter in SR research, point to possible points of empirical weaknesses in the measurement of these skills, and identify some methodological overlap in how variables are being operationalized in the literature.