Measurement Invariance of a School Readiness Screener for Use in Preschool and Kindergarten

Research Findings: Public policy has increasingly focused on expansion of preschool access for underserved students and systematic evaluation of preschool quality and students’ readiness for school. However, such evaluation is limited by a lack of thoroughly validated assessments for use with preschool populations. The present study examined the measurement and structural invariance of the Kindergarten Student Entrance Profile (KSEP) across kindergarten and prekindergarten groups to evaluate its potential use across developmental groups. Participants included 522 kindergarten and 548 prekindergarten students in central California. Invariance was tested by fitting a series of multiple-groups confirmatory factor analysis models with parameter constraints across groups. Results indicated that measurement and structural parameters of the KSEP were invariant across kindergarten and prekindergarten groups. Prekindergarten means on both Social–Emotional Readiness and Cognitive Readiness were significantly lower than kindergarten means. Practice or Policy: These results suggest that the KSEP may potentially be used with prekindergarten students to assess school readiness and inform intervention before kindergarten entry.     

美国学前教育改革的新动向--入学准备研究

学龄前儿童的入学准备研究，是目前美国学前教育改革的一个热门话题。文章揭示了影响入学准备的两个重要因素：学生和学校，并概述当前美国各州入学准备研究的情况以及对我国学前教育改革的一些启示。     

美国学前教育改革的新动向——入学准备研究

学龄前儿童的入学准备研究,是目前美国学前教育改革的一个热门话题。文章揭示了影响入学准备的两个重要因素:学生和学校,并概述当前美国各州入学准备研究的情况以及对我国学前教育改革的一些启示。     

Immediate Effects of a School Readiness Intervention for Children in Foster Care

Research Findings: School readiness is a strong predictor of adjustment in elementary school and beyond. Children in foster care are at particular risk for academic and social difficulties in school. Limitations in self-regulatory skills and caregiver involvement among these children might contribute to a lack of school readiness. This study presents the immediate effects on school readiness of a targeted, short-term intervention designed to improve children's early literacy, prosocial, and self-regulatory skills during the summer before kindergarten entry: Kids in Transition to School. Using a randomized controlled trial design, we assigned 192 children in foster care to either an intervention or services as usual comparison condition. Multimethod, multi-informant assessments were conducted immediately prior to and following the completion of the intervention. The results from structural equation modeling indicated that the intervention had significant positive effects on early literacy and self-regulatory skills. Practice or Policy: An efficacious, short-term, readily scalable, theoretically based intervention targeted at specific vulnerabilities for children in foster care may help to improve the school readiness and eventual school adjustment of these children.     

Protective Factors for School Readiness Among Children in Poverty

The economic status of families and their children's learning outcomes are closely related. For example, children living in poverty tend to score worse on measures of reading and math performance than their more affluent peers, and this achievement gap is present by kindergarten. In this study, we identified protective factors associated with school readiness among an Arizona sample of children living at or below the federal poverty line (N = 230). Using multiple linear regression, we examined the association between assessments of school readiness, health status, childcare hours, home language, parent engagement, and parent education. We found that increased weekly childcare hours and better health were associated with higher proficiency in math, literacy, and approaches to learning, and may serve as resilience factors for children in poverty that may contribute to closing the achievement gap.     

认真实施聋校课程计划 全面提高聋校教育质量──关于制定《全日制聋校课程计划》的说明

《全日制聋校课程计划》所规定的课程门类、教学要求、教学内容和课时分配，体现了国家对听力语言残疾儿童、少年义务教育的基本要求，按照《课程计划》的规定，全日制聋校对听力语言残疾儿童、少年实施全面的基础教育，补偿生理和心理缺陷，使他们在德、智、体诸方面生动、活泼、主动地得到发展，具有良好的思想道德品质、基本的文化知识、健康的体魄和一定的生活能力、社会交往能力，掌握初步的劳动技能，为他们平等地参与社会生活，成为社会主义的建设者和接班人奠定基础。     

不同社会经济地位家庭儿童的入学语言准备状况比较

本研究以150名来自不同社会经济地位家庭的一年级新生为对象,探讨家庭社会经济地位与儿童入学语言准备的关系。研究发现,家庭的社会经济地位与儿童的语言能力存在密切相关,不同家庭的儿童在听、说、读、写四方面均存在显著差异,社会经济地位较高家庭的儿童在语言准备上具有明显的优势。政府应制定和实施针对弱势家庭儿童的补偿性学前教育政策。     

论我国幼师转型与学前教育专业课程建设

调整幼儿师范学校的布局和办学模式、理顺学前教育专业的教育体制、提升学前教育专业设置和培养目标既符合我国经济社会发展的实际,也符合世界各国师范教育发展的趋势.在我国幼师转型的过程中,我们要充分认识我国国情,充分发挥政府主导和学校自主两方面的积极性,爱护幼师系统的原有师资队伍.转型后的学前教育专业要重视专业建设,首先要构建包括基础理论课程、专业性课程、工具性课程、实用性课程在内的新的课程体系.     

Teaching French in a School for Children with Moderate Learning Difficulties

Margaret Riley, who teaches at Woodside Senior School, Bolton, considers approaches to the teaching of a modern foreign language in a school for children with moderate learning difficulties.     

The Interplay of School Readiness and Teacher Readiness for Educational Technology Integration: A Structural Equation Model

Decades of research have shown that technological change in schools depends on multiple interrelated factors. Structural equation models explaining the interplay of factors often suffer from high complexity and low coherence. To reduce complexity, a more robust structural equation model was built with data from a survey of 349 Swiss primary school teachers. It confirms that educational technology integration is dependent on individual teachers' readiness, which is in turn influenced by school readiness. Teacher readiness to integrate educational technology is based on perceived skills and beliefs. Facets of school readiness include educational technology resources in classrooms, perceived importance of technology integration, goal clarity, head teacher support, as well as formal and informal exchange among teachers.     

宁波市流动儿童入学准备水平的调查及对策分析

采用入学准备测评工具SRTB-CV,对170名大班儿童进行测试,结果表明,流动儿童在行为帮助、精细运动、感觉运动和大运动技能发展方面优于本地儿童,但在学习方式、认知发展、言语发展,以及情绪与社会性发展领域显著落后于本地儿童。因此,流动儿童家长、社区教育、幼儿园等必须多方面促进流动儿童入学准备;政府应实施针对流动儿童的补偿性学前教育,改善流动儿童早期教育的条件。     

弱智学校课程改革与教育策略研究报告

2002年6月—2005年5月利用近3年的时间,在辽宁省14个市、地的19所弱智学校开展了课程教材改革与教学策略实验研究。研究从弱智教育学校课程改革的可行性论证入手,对当前课程存在的问题及基础教育新一轮课程改革的趋势进行思考和定位,提出弱智学校课程改革的基本原则与思路,构建校本教研指导下的“以学生为本”的校本课程模式,对研究中遇到的问题与难题加以讨论。     

学前儿童生命教育课程初探

有关学前儿童生命教育的研究尚处于起步阶段,目前实施学前儿童生命教育面临的最大困难是缺乏一个科学、系统的学前儿童生命教育课程体系。为此,研究者在综合分析国内外相关研究的基础上,尝试建构一个关于学前儿童生命教育课程目标、内容、实施和评价等方面内容的体系。     

华德福教育思想中的学前儿童生命教育

生命教育不应是一段风潮,而是成为教育的常态,这需要教育者不断思考与实践。华德福教育思想以整体的眼光看待儿童的生命、用想象力滋养儿童的生命、将教育与儿童的生命紧密相连等观点,给予生命教育以启示:回归本质,教育本应当是生命的教育;敬畏生命,是生命教育的宝贵初心;平等意识,是生命教育的永恒主题;生命美育,是生命教育的有效方法。     

Sense of School Community for Preschool Teachers Serving At-Risk Children

Research Findings: Challenging the development of high-quality preschool education is the instability of the preschool teacher workforce, blamed in part on workplace conditions including isolationism, perceived lack of career reward, and lack of preparation. Little attention has been given to whether a preschool's organizational climate can mitigate these challenges, despite demonstrated workplace climate effects on teachers' attitudes, commitment, and practices in kindergarten–Grade 12 teachers. This study investigated preschool teachers' perceptions of a positive workplace climate (i.e., sense of school community); predictors of these perceptions (teacher qualifications and organizational features); and relationships among teachers' sense of community, classroom teaching quality, and attitudes toward teaching in a sample of 68 preschool teachers serving at-risk 4-year-olds. Overall, teachers provided high ratings for their sense of school community, although moderate interprogram variability and moderately large to large intraprogram variability existed. Teacher qualifications and preschool affiliation did not predict teachers' sense of community, but preschool size predicted perceptions of collegial support. Perception of collegial support and program influence was significantly related to positive attitudes toward teaching; only perceptions of program influence were related to classroom quality. Practice or Policy: We discuss the potentially important role of work environment in bolstering the quality and stability of the preschool teacher workforce.     

Counselling for Educational Problems of School Children with a Sensory Disability

This is a study of deaf children in Bhimavaram, West Godavari district Andhra pradesh. Physical disability hampers personality development of the child, because of the social stigma that such disability conditions carry. Children with hearing disability cannot speak also as they are deprived of learning and imitating sounds in the environment. Because of the disability of hearing and speaking they are segregated from the rest of world due to the lack of communication. Due to its invisible nature, the disability does not evoke the necessary response from the public. Compared to other human positions, hearing is next to mind itself, mans most important assistant for an integrated and satisfying social existence. It can isolate a person from his/her family, peers and community. Those who do not understand this disability may subject the victim to extremely negative attitudes.     

校本课程开发:教师的准备

“三级课程”的实施意味着教师不仅仅是课程的实施者 ,而在一定程度上是课程的开发者 ,从而使教师的角色发生了变化 :他们不仅要决定“怎么教”而且在一定程度上要决定“教什么”。这样就给教师提出了某种挑战。为了有效地进行校本课程开发教师必须做好如下几方面的准备 :课程意识与课程观念、课程知识与课程开发能力、参与意识与合作精神、行动研究的意识和能力。本文对此作了探讨。     

广西农村壮族儿童的入学准备状况

本研究对广西农村壮族儿童的入学准备状况进行了一年的跟踪调查,即在5岁和6岁时分别对儿童的入学准备状况进行了考察.第一次500名(年龄M=65个月,SD=3.63),第二次409名(年龄M=77个月,SD=3.63)儿童参加了研究.研究工具在美国研究院设计的儿童入学准备测验的基础上改编而成.结果表明,尽管壮族农村儿童的入学准备得分在入小学前的一年中有了明显的进步,但壮族农村儿童的入学准备明显不足,尤其在早期读写、数学技能以及颜色认知方面与城乡汉族儿童的差距很大.壮族农村6岁儿童在入学准备得分上不存在性别差异,但是来自不同乡镇的儿童得分有显著差异.     

Examining the Relationship Between Neighborhood Environment and School Readiness for Kindergarten Children

In the current research project, the relationship between neighborhood environment and school readiness was investigated. To measure neighbourhood environment, data from the 2001 Canadian Census were used, while school readiness was measured using the Early Development Instrument (EDI). EDI data were collected for kindergarten children across British Columbia, Canada, in the school years 2000/2001 through 2004/2005 by the Human Early Learning Partnership. A hierarchical linear modeling approach to data analysis was taken given the complex structure of the data (children nested within neighborhoods). Results from this study suggest that neighborhood environment is related to children's school readiness outcomes as measured by the EDI. Specifically, all 5 EDI domains were significantly predicted by between 2 and 8 of 13 neighborhood variables that were conceptually grouped into 8 categories accounting for family structure, income, education, Aboriginal status, language, labor force occupations, employment rates, and domestic work. Overall, 3 themes emerged from this study that suggest neighborhood-level sources of social wealth: the importance of neighborhood culture, stability, and heterogeneity in promoting better school readiness outcomes for children. Formulations regarding areas for future research are presented.