Early Childhood Teacher Education: A Global Perspective

A couple of years ago I attended a presentation at a professional meeting that made a major impact upon my life. The session, “Ways of Achieving Excellence in a Global Community,” included presentations by early childhood educators from Australia, Hungary and Finland. At the conclusion of this sharing of ideas regarding what other countries are doing to improve the lives of children, I overheard an American colleague whisper to her neighbor in amazement, “My God! We're a Third World country when it comes to child care.” Without contrasts brought out by this session, however, this educator might have never been open to the world of ideas for improving children's lives.     

Electronic Portfolios in Teacher Education: A Case Study of Early Childhood Teacher Candidates

The use of electronic portfolios is increasingly becoming popular in teacher education programs. The electronic portfolio allows learners to express their work and take ownership over their own ability to plan and assess and reflect upon their learning during a specific period of time. While many teacher education programs have adopted electronic portfolios in order to meet accreditation requirements, others use electronic portfolios to develop and improve on students’ technology skills—train students on how to better use technology in instruction and student assessment. Irrespective of the reasons for adoption, there is the need to assess students’ perceptions of electronic portfolios, and especially to explore the benefits and challenges students face in using electronic portfolios in their course work. Using a qualitative research design, the current study explored teacher candidates’ attitudes toward electronic portfolios and the differences that electronic portfolios bring to their profession. Such a study is necessary to help administrators identify students’ needs to ensure that they are gaining the maximum benefits from the use of electronic portfolios in their programs of study.     

Philosophy of Art Education in the Visual Culture: Aesthetics for Art Teachers

This paper describes an experimental course in the preparation of art teachers. The goal of the course was to engage final-year art students in thinking about the fundamental questions in aesthetic education and in considering various views of their roles as teachers of art. The classes presented a dialogue between two teachers: a philosopher of art and an artist. We discussed the social justification of art, the place of art in education and more generally the portrayal of visual culture in philosophical thought. The bibliography for the course comprised a list of basic texts in aesthetic education, from Friedrich Schiller to Nelson Goodman. In class we linked the range of philosophical views examined to the artistic exploration of themes (mainly in contemporary and local art). The course also incorporated guest speakers who presented their own projects relating to different meeting points of art and education, including social-activist artists, curators, philosophers of education and school architects. The article presents the rationale for the course, its method and a sample of its content.     

Institutional Art Education: Curriculum,Teacher and Learner

The purpose of this paper is to examine the degree to which institutional structures and their rationales affect educational opportunity in art. The meaning of educational opportunity is explored to disentangle individual learning which is negotiated within it. Curriculum is limited in its effectiveness unless it is accompanied by appropriate teaching where silent voices may be made audible. A swing of power in knowledge, methods, or skills from a teacher or curriculum-centred to a traditional learner-centred approach is insufficient. Individualised learning, leading to personal empowerment, is seen in the construction of self-belief that allows the learner to question the tenets of the teacher, the institution, and the politics of education, i.e., to see the system not in order to succeed within it, but in order to question its validity. The paper is in four sections – contexts and problems, art and curriculum, art and teaching, and individual learning.     

教师教育课程建构的价值追求

教师教育课程的建构既有由教师职业和专业特点决定的客观必然性,也有由教师教育价值追求决定的主观选择性.教师教育课程建构的价值追求不仅决定教师个人的教育教学理念和行为,也决定整个教师教育发展的方向,甚至整个教育发展的方向.由应试教育向素质教育转变既要变革中小学课程建构的价值追求,也要变革教师教育课程建构的价值追求.     

职前教师教育中数学教育类课程的构建

基础教育数学课程改革对数学教师的素质提出了新的要求,作为培养基础教育数学师资的母机高校数学教育,就应采取积极的策略,构建与时俱进的、具有前瞻性数学教育类课程体系,培养高素质的数学教师,以适应新课程改革的需要。     

Family Correlates of False Belief Understanding in Early Childhood: A Meta‐Analysis

This meta‐analysis seeks to integrate findings from 25 years of research on family correlates of young children's false belief understanding (FBU). Using data from 93 studies of 3‐ to 7‐year‐old children, we examined the correlations between FBU and four of the most widely studied family factors: parental socioeconomic status, number of siblings, parental mental‐state talk, and mind‐mindedness. FBU exhibited modest associations with each family variable and these associations held even when individual differences in verbal ability were taken into account. Moderator analyses revealed key child‐related factors (e.g., age, gender) as well as methodological factors that amplified or attenuated the relations between FBU and each family variable. Crucially, available longitudinal data highlight the importance of family factors in the development of FBU.     

Photo-Booklets for English Language Learning: Incorporating Visual Communication into Early Childhood Teacher Preparation

Teachers can integrate discussion and writing about photographs into the early childhood curriculum to build speaking, reading, and writing skills in any language. Although little available research focuses on photography and early childhood education as related specifically to English Language Learners, several current teacher resources do focus on uses of photography in classrooms for young children. What is lacking, however, is substantial reference to the planned use of language along with image creation through photography for the language development of English Language Learners (ELLs) in the early childhood classroom. Teacher training, too, devotes insufficient attention to either visual literacy or visual communication. This article provides a discussion of the role of the visual in English language development as a basis for a sample photography project that can be incorporated into a course for pre-service teachers in methods of teaching ELLs. Pre-service teachers thus experience the project first-hand in terms of image creation and the planning of appropriate content, language, and visual literacy objectives. The resulting visual products then function as teaching resources themselves; however, effective visual learning for ELLs requires that teachers possess such an informed understanding of the techniques that structure and assist language development.     

A Cross‐Cultural Study of Art Teacher Education in Taiwan and England

This aim of this research was to investigate art teacher education in Taiwan and England to gain insights into two art education systems with a view to improving art teacher education in Taiwan. To achieve this aim, a cross‐cultural study using a multi‐method approach was adopted and data was collected over three years of full‐time study in England and four academic years of reflection on teaching in art teacher education in Taiwan. This research revealed how complex and hazardous it is to state categorically what the similarities and differences really are between two art teacher education systems, especially in a subject as ill‐defined as art. Nonetheless, this study did produce some important differences in the two art teacher education systems in aspects of (1) government regulations and institutional provision, (2) theoretical underpinning, (3) art curriculum policy and delivery, and (4) cultural differences affecting art teachers' attitudes and values.     

从文化学角度看中国幼教课程改革的方向

从文化学的角度看,幼儿教育改革实质上是一场深刻的社会变革,而文化变革正是这场变革的实质内容.主导中国内地幼教改革20年的"文化普遍论"思潮和香港幼教界所推崇的儿童中心主义思想在一定程度上导致中国幼教改革偏离了自身的文化传统.作者认为,文化相对主义和"3CAP"也许是中国幼教课程改革的发展方向.中国幼教改革的当务之急是要发展本土化的幼教课程模式,探索有中国文化特色的幼教发展之路.     

谈视觉文化影响下的高职美术教育

新的视觉文化(Visual Culture)时代的到来,扩大了美术教育的领域.为适应形势发展的需要,高职美术教育要采用如下教育策略:一是注重教师的自我培养提高,二是注重全面培养学生视觉素质,三是注重教学内容和教学方法的丰富多样.只有这样,高职美术教育才能跟上时代的步伐.     

美国儿童早期公民教育课程标准探析

公民教育是美国各级学校教育,包括学前教育阶段的基本任务之一。美国儿童早期公民教育课程标准对儿童早期公民教育的知识、价值观与品德、社会技能等方面的培养目标都给予了详细阐述。这对我国学前教育阶段的社会领域教育颇有启发借鉴意义。     

Self‐Assessment in Art Education through a Visual Rubric

A tool for self assessment in secondary art education was developed and tested. The tool includes rubrics for assessing production and reception activities in art education and consists of visual and text rubrics. The criteria in the rubrics are based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Visual Literacy which was developed by The European Network of Visual Literacy (ENViL). The way teachers and students use the rubrics, whether they consider them helpful and to what extent students’ self‐assessments are in line with teacher assessments was studied. It was concluded that teachers work with the rubrics intensively and both students and teachers appreciate its visual form. However, it was found that the agreement between teachers and students about the students’ scores was moderate and needed to improve. The results show that it is untrue that students, or boys in particular, overestimate their own performance in art education. The current study contributes to the development of feasible and valid assessment criteria and instruments in secondary art education.