Early Childhood Education as Development: Critique of the Metaphor

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the recent call for developmentally appropriate practices from the perspective of the sociology of the curriculum. A brief examination of this orientation toward curriculum studies is presented in the first section of this paper. Next, a discussion of curriculum theory as metaphor is presented and used to evaluate early childhood education as development on the basis of ethics, as well as disclosure value. Finally, two alternative metaphors are suggested as possible lenses for viewing the content of the early childhood curriculum: early childhood education as caring and early childhood education as schooling for democracy. Early childhood educators are urged to consider the potential of these two metaphors as ways of orientating discourse about what should be taught in early childhood and primary school classrooms.     

Early Childhood Education as Development: Critique of the Metaphor

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the recent call for developmentally appropriate practices from the perspective of the sociology of the curriculum. A brief examination of this orientation toward curriculum studies is presented in the first section of this paper. Next, a discussion of curriculum theory as metaphor is presented and used to evaluate early childhood education as development on the basis of ethics, as well as disclosure value. Finally, two alternative metaphors are suggested as possible lenses for viewing the content of the early childhood curriculum: early childhood education as caring and early childhood education as schooling for democracy. Early childhood educators are urged to consider the potential of these two metaphors as ways of orientating discourse about what should be taught in early childhood and primary school classrooms.     

Revealing the research ‘hole’ of early childhood education for sustainability: a preliminary survey of the literature

In 2007, Environmental Education Research dedicated a special issue to childhood and environmental education. This paper makes a case for ‘early childhood’ to also be in the discussions. Here, I am referring to early childhood as the before‐school years, focusing on educational settings such as childcare centres and kindergartens. This sector is one of the research ‘holes’ that Reid and Scott ask the environmental education community to have the ‘courage to discuss’. This paper draws on a survey of Australian and international research journals in environmental education and early childhood education seeking studies at their intersection. Few were found. Some studies explored young children’s relationships with nature (education in the environment). A smaller number discussed young children’s understandings of environmental topics (education about the environment). Hardly any centred on young children as agents of change (education for the environment). At a time when there is a growing literature showing that early investments in human capital offer substantial returns to individuals and communities and have a far‐reaching effect – and when early childhood educators are beginning to engage with sustainability – it is vital that our field responds. This paper calls for urgent action – especially for research – to address the gap.     

论高职课程特色

高职教育作为一种新的教育类型，只有通过富有特色的课程，才能创造出生机和活力。本文认为，高职课程至少要有课程目标的职业定向性、课程内容的应用技术性、课程组织的实践性、课程实施中产教结合的高层次等特征，并介绍了几种合乎这些要求的高职课程模式以问题为中心的综合基础课，以任务为中心的技术课程，以技术开发能力培养为中心的设计课程，以及用于提高学生职业适应性的微型课程等。     

Curriculum management and classroom practice in kindergartens in Hong Kong

Each curriculum reflects a vision of what children ‘ought to be and become’ based on a view of social values and a structure that translates those values into experiences for learners. Curriculum management is the leadership and coordination of shared work in schools. The impact of child centred philosophy that encourages learning through activity and experience has been great in the field of early childhood education. However, there is an implementation gap in our curriculum in Hong Kong. Supporting interactions among teachers within and between kindergartens is the key to curriculum management.     

Globalisation and science education: the case of Sustainability by the Bay

It is impossible to consider contemporary science education in isolation from globalisation as the dominant logic, rethinking and reconfiguring social and cultural life in which it is located. Carter (J Res Sci Teach 42, 561–580, 2005) calls for a close reading of policy documents, curriculum projects, research studies and a range of other science education texts using key concepts from globalisation theory to elucidate the ways in which globalisation shapes and is expressed within science education. In this paper, we consider an example from our own practice of a school-based curriculum project, Sustainable Living by the Bay, as one such instance. The first section reviews neoliberalism and neoconservativism necessary to understand how globalisation penetrates education, while the second outlines aspects of the curriculum project itself. As there were many different facets to the development and implementation of a project like Sustainable Living by the Bay, there is space only to elaborate two examples of the globalisation discourse. The first example concerns the government policy initiative that funded the project while the second example focuses on learner- centred pedagogies as globalisation’s pedagogies of choice.     

Learning Stories – crossing borders: introducing qualitative early childhood observation techniques to early childhood practitioners in Saudi Arabia

Early childhood education has become a focus of government policy across the world. Part of the present increased interest in early childhood education has been a focus on curriculum frameworks and socio/cultural methods of assessment. Currently, New Zealand has emerged as a world leader in early childhood education, and observation and assessment techniques, developed in New Zealand, have become an international focus of research and pedagogic practice. One exemplar practice to have emerged from research in New Zealand is the assessment of children's learning. An assessment project, conducted at the instigation of the New Zealand Ministry of Education, was designed to recognise key outcomes from the New Zealand curriculum, Te Whāriki, and to provide practitioners with a tool that would assist in the development of assessment ideas and procedures. The result was Learning Stories. This present research explored the introduction of Learning Stories into Australia and investigated the potential of Learning Stories as an assessment tool for early childhood practitioners in the context of Saudi Arabia.     

Poverty and Childhood∗

ABSTRACT

The child‐centred theme of natural development in Rousseau's Emile has exercised a powerful and benign influence on education. Rousseau's proposed curriculum for girls, however, seems extraordinarily illiberal, requiring as it does a rigorous preparation for playing the traditional female role in a male‐dominated society.

It is argued here that such a conservative policy on the education of girls is inevitable in an educational theory which makes a virtue of its empirical foundations. Observational studies of the female's nature and of her needs and interests portray her as society permits or requires her to be rather than as she could or should be. This is a dangerous weakness in influential twentieth‐century versions of child‐centred theory which have embraced a scientific approach in the hope of enhancing their credibility. The full educational development of girls, however, requires a distinctive vision of how things ought to be, a willingness to defend such value judgments, and a determination to intervene positively in the classroom.     

A Comparative Analysis of Preschool Education in Korea and England

This article is a comparative analysis of preschool education in Korea and England. The purpose of this study is to compare and contrast preschool educational systems in Korea and England, including their contextual development and trends, the frameworks of the national preschool curriculum, and early childhood educators' perceptions and practices. This article examines how early childhood education in the two countries has been affected by different historical, philosophical and government policies.     

基于STEM教育理念的幼儿教育模式创新研究

STEM教育在幼儿教育中的应用是以STEM为主,融合语言、健康、社会、艺术和科学等方面的学习内容,使幼儿能够全面发展。文章阐述幼儿园STEM教育的指导思想、总体目标及特征,阐明其课程模式,强调人工智能对STEM教育的重要作用。     

Strategies of Environmental Education in Social Studies in Nigeria by the Year 2000

This paper focuses on the current position of environmental education and social studies education in Nigeria in the areas of curriculum structure and content. Enabling strategies for environmental education delivery within the social studies programme are discussed, including a social environmental education (SEE) model/tool which provides a visual summary of relationships, causes and consequences, actions and reactions between people and the physical and socio‐econo‐technosphere.     

试析美国幼儿教育课程模式的理论流派及其启示

美国幼儿教育课程模式是我国改革开放后幼儿教育课程改革的重点学习和借鉴对象,可惜一直以来研究者忙于介绍单个的课程模式,而缺乏整体的认识和剖析.本文从理论流派的角度,分别从浪漫主义流派、文化传递主义流派和进步主义流派剖析众多美国幼儿教育课程模式,最后就学习和借鉴美国幼儿教育课程模式提出了一些启示和反思.     

日本当前幼儿教育课程改革述评

在少子化、幼儿规范意识淡薄及世界幼儿教育普遍受到重视的背景下,日本政府于2008年展开了新一轮幼儿教育课程改革。此次课程改革强调幼儿教育的奠基作用,注重教育课程规定时间外所进行的教育活动,着力于"健康"和"人际关系"领域的改革,是一次较为保守的课程改革。     

农村幼儿教育课程目标与资源探析

课程目标空缺、课程资源相对贫乏是长期制约农村幼儿教育质量与水平提升的两大障碍。现代农村幼儿教育的课程目标既应涵盖整个国家的幼儿教育目标,也应包涵能够让农村幼儿在人生旅途上真正享有“机会均等”,或至少拥有教育公平最初所需要的特殊内容。农村幼儿教育课程资源的改善应在城乡教育资源共同体中寻求开发与扩充之路。     

Audio‐visual Education in Primary Schools: a curriculum project in the Netherlands

Since 1978 the National Institute for Curriculum Development (SLO) and the National Institute for Support of Arts Education (LOKV) have been working together with two schools in Zaandam on audio‐visual education in primary schools. The project made its object to work out of the aims of audio‐visual education (or ‘media education') in the primary school (children aged 4‐12 years), to explore the nature of audio‐visual education, and to establish a curriculum. ‘Audio‐visual education’ aims to increase audio‐visual literacy, helping pupils acquire information and an insight into the meaning of mass media in order to learn how they are used for communication. It also entails using audio‐visual means as a method of expression and using audio‐visual equipment in education. The teachers in the project schools have designed and implemented lessons in audio‐visual education. After these lessons were given they were discussed and analysed by the advisors, project leaders and colleagues. This developmental approach led to a total curriculum, which is described     

中学教师继续教育课程研究

“十五”期间初中教师培训应以新课程教学改革为中心，坚持以提高师德水平和业务能力为重点，突出现代教育、创新教育和教研能力的培训，使培训更具针对性、实用性和时代性。     

Early Childhood Educators' Perceptions of Nature,Science, and Environmental Education

This study examined early childhood educators' perceptions about nature, science, and environmental education. Preservice early childhood teachers (n = 195) and early childhood professionals currently practicing in the field (n = 162) rated the importance of providing specific nature/science experiences for young children, the importance of specific nature/science learning outcomes, and their confidence implementing specific activities. Research Findings: Consistent with our hypotheses, both professionals and students rated the curricular domain of nature/science as the least important for young children in terms of experiences and learning outcomes in comparison to other curricular domains. Similarly, both professionals and students reported that they were least confident implementing nature/science activities compared to activities in other curricular domains. Qualitative analysis of open-ended questions yielded themes related to definitions of nature, specific activities in and about nature that can promote children's learning and development, and what educators need to know and be able to do in order to be effective “nature educators.” Practice or Policy: Preservice and in-service teacher professional development would benefit from (a) the inclusion of content on nature, science, and environmental education, including the interrelatedness of human and natural systems; (b) a focus on place-based education and/or emergent curriculum; and (c) the provision of experiences in nature that help teachers to develop confidence implementing activities in nature. [Supplementary material is available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Early Education & Development for the following free supplemental resource: Appendix A: Teacher Survey Questions.]     

The Challenges Facing Early Childhood Care,Development and Education (ECCDE) in an Era of Universal Basic Education in Nigeria

Early childhood is a critical period of rapid physical, cognitive, and psycho-social development of a child. The quality of care and education which a child receives at this crucial age will determine to a great extent the level of his/her physical and cognitive development in the future. In Nigeria, Early Childhood Care, Development and Education (ECCDE) is an aspect of Universal Basic Education which was introduced in 1999 to increase the access of children to basic education and improve the state of education in the country. While all hands are on deck to ensure successful implementation and achievement of the objectives of the scheme, it is unfortunate that ECCDE is facing some challenges thus making it unrecognized in Nigeria. This paper examines the challenges of early childhood education in Nigeria. To improve the situation, the following measures are recommended: establishment of more public crèche, kindergarten, and nursery schools by the government; enforcement of the use of mother tongue in the teaching of children; training more personnel in the field of early childhood education in tertiary institutions; and introducing unified curriculum as well as providing more infrastructures.     

Contextual challenges of implementing learner‐centred pedagogy: the case of the problem‐solving approach in Uganda

This article explores teachers’ experiences of implementing the problem‐solving approach; a learner centred pedagogic innovation prescribed by a centrally mandated curriculum in Uganda. It presents teachers’ interpretations of the pedagogic principles suggested by the innovation as well as their accounts of challenges of implementing the pedagogic approach. The findings suggest that the teachers’ implementation of the problem‐solving approach was far more regulated by contextual affordances and constraints within schools and the broader education system and society than by their interpretations of the official curriculum. These findings highlight the influence of structural contextual factors in regulating pedagogic practice and teachers’ take‐up of learner‐centred pedagogies in Africa. The evidence from this paper suggests the need for education researchers in developing countries such as Uganda to focus on helping teachers develop strategies for teaching large classes as learner‐centred pedagogies have a bleak future in the region.