Defining and Assessing Quality in Early Intervention Programs for Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities and their Families: Challenges and Unresolved Issues

Historically, child care quality research has focused primarily on typically developing children cared for in center-based programs. Findings from this research suggests that variations in quality of care have an effect on children's well-being and developmental outcomes. In this paper, we draw on child care quality research to inform our understanding of quality in early intervention services for infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families. Conceptual issues in defining quality and methodological challenges for assessing quality of early intervention services are presented. In the final sections of this paper, we discuss our efforts to design a measure of quality for early intervention programs and present some of the unresolved issues related to the assessment of quality in early intervention programs.     

国际视野下的成人教育工作者专业化之困境及出路

国际社会,特别是发达国家成人教育界都较早地重视起成人教育工作者的专业化问题,而在我国,至今鲜有开展专门针对成人教育工作者专业化问题的讨论,即使偶有涉及,也仅限于成人教师.由于成人教育工作者构成的复杂性,目前世界范围内的成人教育工作者的专业化仍然面临重重困境和难题.因此,正确认识并解决这些问题,应是成人教育工作者的职责.     

An early career academic network: what worked and what didn’t

This article documents the experiences of three early career academics trying to establish a network of early career academics (ECAs) in a middle-ranked university in Australia. The changing context of academia means that ECAs face considerable challenges in understanding and negotiating effective career paths. Some of the issues encountered include insecure employment arrangements; unclear and shifting expectations; heavy workloads and competing demands; and conflicting experiences around the collegiate culture of academia. As research and teaching institutions, universities must ensure the ongoing development of new academics. While there is a growing interest in exploring the issues confronted by new academics, much remains to be done to better understand, and improve, the pathways of academic development. To this end we reflect on our efforts to establish an ECA network that aimed to enhance professional development, facilitate an improved research culture and establish an informal peer support network. We did so through establishing an online presence for sharing information, hosting a series of professional development seminars and hosting a 2.5 day writing retreat. Our experiences suggest that, while efforts to enhance the capacity of ECAs are worthwhile, the very same pressures that our network was attempting to address were simultaneously creating barriers to ECA involvement in the network and its activities.     

Globalisation,global English: ‘futures trading’ in early childhood education

This paper explores my thinking about the issues which surround globalisation and Global English and their connections with the literacy practices, literacy events and futures for young children in home and out‐of‐home communities or institutions such as kindergartens, childcare or the early years of school. Exemplars from Australia and Singapore are provided to highlight these issues and the possible risks or benefits for children and families that seem to flow from globalisation processes. Central to the purpose of the paper are provocations for the field of early childhood education in order to further the discussions on how we respond to the challenges of connecting between the local and the global in our role as policy‐makers, parents, teacher educators or early childhood teachers.     

The Effect of a History-Based Course in Optics on Students' Views about Science

In light of the convincing claims extolling the multifaceted merit of the “genetic” (historical) approach in designing learning materials (Matthews 1994), we developed an experimental course in optics. We tested the new materials and determined their effectiveness in a year long course given in several 10th grade high school classes. A special feature, which soundly contrasted our course from a typical one, was its essential incorporation of historical contents: the ideas, views and conceptions which constituted the early understanding of light and vision. In this report, we present that part of the assessment which concerns the course's impact on the students’ views about science and some related technological and cultural issues. In our analysis, we used a special hierarchical organization to represent pertinent data. Strong differences were found between the views elicited in the experimental group and parallel data regarding students in the control group. In our view, this demonstrated the advantage of utilizing historical materials in an aspect which is additional to our first intention – to improve students’ disciplinary knowledge. Such materials naturally address issues of much broader general interest, appropriate for physics education as opposed to physics training. Touching on a variety of features of science the materialspositively effect students’ views about science.     

Symposium VI: Intervention and Measurement: Facilitating Readiness

The recent conference sponsored by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau on "scientific Perspectives on School Readiness" provided an opportunity to assist in the continuing process of integrating applied research and practice with respect to our knowledge base on early educational experiences. Some of the issues raised by one of the symposia dealing with intervention and measurement at that conference are presented. Next, those issues will be highlighted in a discussion of one early education program begun as a research and demonstration effort sponsored in part by Maternal and Child Health Bureau. That project has moved into a statewide program for ethnic Hawaiian children in Hawaii.     

Children, Families and Change: International Perspectives

This special issue draws from several disciplines, including early childhood care and education, social and family policy, and economics to examine global trends affecting children and their families in rapidly changing environments. Authors' and guest editors' experiences and data drawn from ten countries help frame issues of importance to early childhood researchers, educators, policy-makers, and advocates. As the end of the century approaches, such cross-national perspectives on issues affecting the lives of children and families become increasingly relevant to our field. The introduction provides several contextual and theoretical frameworks through which to make connections between the articles in this special issue.     

When We Inquire Into Our Own Practice: An Early Childhood Teacher Research Group

Every day, early childhood teachers confront issues, problems, and concerns in their classrooms. Sometimes they do nothing. Sometimes they use trial and error. Sometimes they go to a workshop or read an article. We have found a way to intentionally and systematically research and answer our own questions and to enrich our own professional development through teacher research. Teacher research provides early childhood educators with a strategy that supports reflective thinking and practice. This article describes the experience of a small group of early childhood teacher researchers. How is it different from other required assessments? How is it different from other professional development?     

Symposium VI: Intervention and Measurement: Facilitating Readiness

The recent conference sponsored by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau on "scientific Perspectives on School Readiness" provided an opportunity to assist in the continuing process of integrating applied research and practice with respect to our knowledge base on early educational experiences. Some of the issues raised by one of the symposia dealing with intervention and measurement at that conference are presented. Next, those issues will be highlighted in a discussion of one early education program begun as a research and demonstration effort sponsored in part by Maternal and Child Health Bureau. That project has moved into a statewide program for ethnic Hawaiian children in Hawaii.     

Philosophical differences between early childhood education and special education: Issues for school psychologists

Increasingly, professional psychologists are extending their services from school-age children to young handicapped children. Psychological intervention and education issues regarding this group of children are complicated by the fact that the field of early childhood special education itself is in its infancy. This article presents the emerging field of early childhood special education, clarifies some major concerns in educating young handicapped children, and raises issues for school psychologists working in this area.     

构建城镇贫困人口的预警机制模型

城镇贫困人口问题的严重程度直接影响着我国构建和谐社会的进程,如何建立起一套行之有效的监测预警机制已经十分紧迫。文章通过选取城镇贫困人口预警指标、确定指标权重、划定预警区间阀值、运用经济预警和模糊综合评价法,构建城镇贫困人口预警机制模型。实证分析表明此模型对城镇贫困人口预警是有效的。     

基于开放存取的理性思考

“开放存取”已蔚为风气,但需要理性认识开放存取在我国发展中存在的障碍．理性思考开放存取实践中涉及的主要问题。结合我国的国情．提出针对我国发展开放存取的建议与对策。     

0-3岁儿童早期教育成本核算研究

早期教育成本核算是从经济层面推进早期教育事业健康发展的关键。阐述了早期教育成本核算的相关概念,分析了早期教育成本核算的必要性,提出了早期教育成本核算的原则、步骤和方法,并就早期教育成本核算中的相关问题进行说明。     

Educating the Child‐centred Practitioner: Innovations and dilemmas

The education of child‐centered early childhood practitioners involves issues of content, pedagogy, relationships and context. Recent insights on the nature of child‐centered teaching generated by collaborative research with teachers, has highlighted its complexity and suggests that new ways of thinking about teacher education are needed. But developing a more learner‐centered approach to early childhood teacher education will be difficult, given the instrumentalist orientation in many institutions and in societies at large. This paper discusses the broad issues surrounding the development of a more learner‐centered approach to early childhood teacher education and describes several initiatives the authors have been involved in, in Australia and the United States.     

智力落后的成因及早期预防

智力落后受到全世界的关注,它涉及社会、医疗、教育和心理等重大问题。许多研究数据表明智力落后在我国残疾人总数中占有很大的比率,智力落后对我国社会、家庭等各方面带来了负担,减少智力落后人数关键在于早期预防。     

Early Childhood Education as a Scientific Discipline: a state‐of‐the‐art perspective

The objective of early childhood education is to address the totality of issues and areas of activity relevant to young children. In spite of the considerable growth in knowledge concerning children and childhood, this objective has yet to be attained at the theoretical level. Proceeding from the vantage point of a retrospective of the conceptions of the two classical theorists, Rousseau and Frobel, the case is made for grounding early childhood education in the dimensions of subjectivity, intersubjectivity, society and history in order to be able to analyse its various tasks in their respective specificity and reciprocal dependence. The attempt is made to characterise the challenges facing such a theory and to outline the resulting systematic issues for a pedagogy of early childhood.     

Quality improvement in early years settings in Hong Kong and England

With a growing awareness of the importance of early childhood education, the governments of Hong Kong and England have both increased investment through providing fee assistance to parents for buying services and providing funding to providers for offering ‘free’ places, respectively. Alongside the increased funding of early childhood education, a heightened interest in the quality of early years settings has arisen. This paper aims to develop a framework for comparative studies by addressing the similarities and differences in quality improvement of both systems. Three key issues are discussed: relevance of the quality criteria for assessment, interpretations of the quality improvement mechanism and its use in guiding practice, and the influence of contextual factors in terms of stakeholders' views of the quality process. It is argued that these key issues are fundamental to a framework for understanding different sociocultural contexts and dynamics in shaping the quality improvement of early childhood education.     

传媒娱乐化的伦理反思

加世纪90年代以束，在市场理念的驱动下，伴随着我国传媒市场化、商业化浪潮的兴起，传媒领域还掀起了一股娱乐化的浪潮。虽然，对当前的传媒娱乐化浪潮下定论尚显为时过早，但时传媒娱乐化中的伦理问题进行深入反恩却很有必要，因为，传媒娱乐化中经济伦理问题、人文关怀失住、对道德意义的消解及传媒娱乐化在价值导向上的背离等问题不仅关涉传媒自身的道德建设，也直接关涉到当前我国社会重建中的道德建设等重大问题。     

20世纪80年代末90年代初英国高等教育改革的启示

20世纪80年代末90年代初的高等教育改革对今天英国高等教育质量体系框架形成和运作有深远影响；英国的高等教育改革对我国高等教育质量保证体系的建设有很好的参考价值。     

“Our Divided Society—A Challenge to Religious Education”: REA’s 1969 National Convention and the Opening Up of Brave Conversations about Race and Religion

Abstract

The Religious Education Association (REA) selected as its theme for its 1969 National Convention, “Our Divided Society—A Challenge to Religious Education,” addressing, among other topics, issues of race and racism. Previously, the REA presented a mixed legacy in addressing racial injustice, remaining largely silent on such issues during the civil rights era of the 1950s and 1960s, unlike the National Council of Churches, which had taken a prophetic stance early on. Thus, the 1969 convention’s theme opened up brave new spaces for the REA to address issues of race and racism in American society.