Early Childhood Education Journal最新文献

Early Care and Education (ECE) providers earn low wages, have limited access to employer sponsored health insurance, and are at higher risk for poor health (Lessard, 2020). Evidence shows that poor ECE teacher physical and mental health is associated with decreased ability to provide quality care for young children (Esquivel et al., 2016). One potential way to improve ECE teacher health is through workplace wellness interventions. Through longitudinal surveys and qualitative interviews with ECE providers, we found that, over the course of a year, ECE providers who participated in Be Well Care Well (BWCW), a 12-month wellness program designed specifically for ECEproviders, improved significantly on measures of personal strength and resilience, worker stress, job satisfaction, motivation towards health, and engagement in physical activity, which was supported by interviews conducted by a subset of teachers. Providers’ physical activity was specifically associated with the amount of time they reported engaging in components of the BWCW intervention. Compelling data was also gathered about the experience of children in the care of ECE providers who participated in BWCW. Findings show that after participating in BWCW, teachers’ interactions with the children in their care proactively facilitate healthy social and emotional development. This provides initial evidence that BWCW is a promising approach for improving the lives of ECE providers and the quality of care they provide to young children.

Early childhood educators (birth through second grade) have faced a wide range of challenges while providing education and care for the youngest group of children. Their positions often range from child-care settings to grade school, with different configurations for benefits, class size, and salary. During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, 192 early educators shared their perceived stress levels and personal and employment context including relationship status, caregiving responsibilities, education level, work setting, and age group. While there were noted differences across the group, educators working in school-aged settings and those who were caregivers (outside of work) reported higher levels of stress. Interview results from a subset of survey respondents showed concerns about online learning and the well-being of their students, while also underscoring personal growth through the challenges.

High-quality early childhood education provides children with opportunities for engaged learning. Yet there are currently no classroom-level measures that focus specifically on how teachers support engagement in the classroom, a key underlying dimension of playful learning. We introduce the Playful Learning Across the Years (PLAY) observational tool, a new tool designed to assess support for engaged learning in early childhood classrooms. Using data from videos of Ghanaian preprimary classrooms (N = 420) coded using the tool, we conduct factor analysis to assess the underlying domains of engaged learning opportunities at the classroom-level and find three domains representing support for exploration, social connectedness, and positive emotional climate. We then examine if these domains are sensitive to impacts of a teacher professional development program and find that the program had large impacts on all three domains (d = 0.55–1.01). Finally, we explore concurrent validity of the tool using classroom process quality scores from a separate classroom observational tool and teacher characteristics and find some evidence from each. This study aims to systematically operationalize opportunities for engaged learning at the classroom-level in an under-studied context, with implications for measuring quality and promoting children’s school readiness in early educational settings globally.

Global trends suggest that teaching writing focuses on a skills-based approach to preparing children for high-stakes standardised tests. In the early years, teachers are grappling with finding a better balance between preparing children for such tests and satisfying their sense of pedagogic responsibility to teach them to become joyful, creative writers. This paper explores an Australian Preparatory teacher’s teaching of writing framed by the pedagogic framework LAUNCH. Using video and audio recordings, as well as children-made artefacts, the paper considers the impact of this framework on the writing experiences of fourteen five- and six-year-old children. Basil Bernstein’s visible and invisible pedagogies provide the theoretical frame. Findings assert that a pedagogic mix allows early years teachers to teach children to be skilled and confident writers while nurturing their imaginations and creativity. This is significant given that current debates around children’s writing experiences are often tied to high-stakes, standardised test-based writing.

Through a qualitative, collective case study design, the study investigated children’s demonstration of agency in composing writing projects in three elementary classrooms within one school. Researchers conducted interviews with the teachers, observed classroom writing instruction, interviewed children individually or in small focus groups, and collected student texts. The findings demonstrate how the curriculum, which supported choice and expression of student voice, shaped students’ responses in unique ways. Across classrooms students found ways to embed their out-of-school experiences within their writing and express their linguistic identities and cultures. The shared philosophy of the school using a Reggio-Emilia inspired model of instruction supported the argument that agency is relational and mediated through the ways in which people use tools within their social settings. Implications for practice include building community, providing choices within and across genres, and encouraging children to use their full linguistic resources to support student agency.

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.