Financial literacy and classroom practices among early childhood and elementary teachers in India and the US

This study compared the financial literacy and teaching practices of 82 early and elementary teachers in India and US using a 43-item survey. Analysis showed that financial literacy of Indian teachers was lower than their American counterparts. Teachers in India enjoyed teaching financial literacy more than teachers in the US. Indian teachers received more professional development training than American teachers. Indian teachers reported using the school store, children’s literature and pictorial worksheets while American teachers reported using learning centres, play money, fake credit cards, technology and games to teach financial literacy.     

Immigrant and nonimmigrant children's social interactions and peer responses in mainstream preschool classrooms

The authors examined the social practices and outcomes of 23 immigrant and 16 nonimmigrant preschoolers in English only preschool classrooms. In both classrooms, the majority of the children (nearly two thirds) were immigrant, English language learners. The children's social attempts, social strategies, speech functions, and degree of social success were observed and comparisons were made between nonimmigrant and immigrant peers. There were similarities between groups in their social engagement and social construction strategies; there were differences in social roles, social language functions, and types of social construction strategies. There also were significant differences in the social success of the two groups. Immigrant children experienced rejection of their social bids more than their preschool peers did. Immigrant children also were less likely to be leaders and seemed positioned in a lower social status among their peers did. These results are discussed along with implications for educational practices.     

Supporting the kindergarten–primary school transition in Hong Kong: reform in a teacher training programme

ABSTRACT

The conflicting education values in Hong Kong kindergartens and primary schools pose various challenges to kindergarten teachers in providing pupils with a smooth transition to primary school which requires collaboration from schools and families. This study explored these challenges as well as the benefits of a professional teacher training programme. In-service teachers (N?=?35) and tutors (N?=?2) engaged in the module ‘The Social and Emotional Aspects of Teaching and Learning’ participated in this study. The trainees’ weekly reflective journals throughout the 22-week module were subjected to documentation analysis. Group interviews with the in-service teachers and individual interviews with the tutors were conducted on completion of the module. Findings reveal a gap between teacher training and providing pastoral care for pupils through supporting the social and emotional aspects of their families in Hong Kong, and indicated that traditional beliefs associated with the teaching profession should be widened. Meanwhile, counselling knowledge and skills should be contextualised and integrated into teacher training programmes.     

New technologies,new multimodal literacy practices and young children's metacognitive development

This paper discusses concepts of learning through ‘collaborative multimodal dialogue’. It draws on an ESRC‐funded study (RES‐000‐22‐2451) investigating 3‐ and 4‐year‐old children's encounters with literacy as they engage with a range of printed and digital technologies at home and in a nursery. The study goes beyond analysis of spoken language, giving a more complete understanding of literacy learning processes through detailed analysis of how children use multiple communicative modes as they experience literacy in different media. These experiences underpin metacognitive development and are crucial to children's abilities to act strategically in future situations. Drawing on notions of literacy as social practice, this paper discusses how the advent of new technologies has introduced new dimensions into young children's literacy learning, the implications of which have not yet been fully recognised in early years policy guidance, training or practice.     

美国幼儿教师教育标准及启示

制定幼儿教师教育标准是幼儿教师教育的基础性工作。美国全国幼儿教育协会制定了幼儿职业准备标准,提出了“促进幼儿发展与学习”、“构建同家庭、社区的关系”、“对支持幼儿及其家庭的措施进行观察、建立档案、开展评估”、“开展教与学的活动的知识和能力”、“成为一名专业人士”等五项幼儿教师教育的核心标准,还提出了范围广泛的普通知识教育标准。为了适应我国幼儿教育发展的需要,我国应尽快制定专门的幼儿教师教育标准,美国幼儿教师教育标准为我们提供了镜鉴。     

美国《开端计划执行标准》评介

美国开端计划是由美国联邦政府制订并推行的一项主要针对处境不利学前儿童及其家庭的国家行动计划,作为扩大教育机会、保障教育公平的重要手段,为保证并促进其实施与质量,联邦政府自计划实施之初就为它制订了一套执行标准,并不断根据现实发展的需要对其进行修订.开端计划执行标准对开端计划涵盖的七种服务都作了详细具体的规定,其文本由标准概要、服务规划、社会服务标准、儿童健康和发展服务标准、个人教育项目服务标准、营养服务标准、家长参与服务标准、合作服务项目标准八大部分组成,并提供了多种运作方式供地方获权机构与授权办事处根据自身情况灵活选择与运用.此外,执行标准还强调组成包括政策理事会、政策委员会和家长委员会在内的开端计划治理机构,以加强对开端计划执行过程的监督与对其实施效果的监测和反馈,从而保证为处境不利儿童及其家庭提供高质量的多方面服务.     

Loving and Learning with Wemberly and David: Fostering Emotional Development in Early Childhood Education

Children enter the world with simple emotions and gradually add complex feelings to their repertoire of skills. As children grow and develop, they learn to label their emotions and regulate them in socially appropriate ways. Literature is one way early childhood educators can foster healthy emotional development. This article explains how emotions develop during the preschool years (3–5), shares why it is important for early childhood educators to understand the connection between emotional and literacy development, and suggests books and strategies that can be used to enhance young children’s emotional and literate lives.     

Exploring inclusive pedagogical practices in Hong Kong primary EFL classrooms

Social diversity is now commonplace in many communities in today’s globalised world. This diversity can be seen in any classroom of learners, and international studies have shown the complex ways in which disabilities, race, ethnicity, gender and social class can determine a child’s opportunity to succeed or fail in the education system. In Hong Kong, like in many educational contexts around the world, teachers are grappling with increasing diversity amongst their students, including teaching students with special educational needs (SEN) and non-Chinese speaking students (NCS) living in Hong Kong. This paper examines how three primary TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) teachers are constructing identities as inclusive practitioners as they grapple with enacting the inclusive education policy recently introduced into Hong Kong schools. The data are drawn from a small-scale collaborative reflective inquiry for teacher professional development. Drawing upon a sociocultural and critical framing of identity theory, we trace the three teachers’ identity construction as EFL teachers and inclusive education practitioners. We view the role of discourse, self-positioning and social context as key processes in teacher identity formation. Implications for furthering the development of inclusive education in EFL classrooms are offered.     

Paraprofessionals in early childhood classrooms: an examination of duties and expectations

Millions of dollars are expended, in the USA and elsewhere, to provide paraprofessionals or ‘teaching assistants’ for regular early childhood classrooms. However, little consistent information exists related to best practice in the use of paraprofessionals in these early childhood settings. This article describes a study employing the use of 159 teacher and 161 paraprofessional surveys and classroom observations in 23 randomly selected kindergarten and four-year-old classrooms. Paraprofessionals delivered large amounts of group instruction and frequently managed student behavior. Furthermore, it was found that a lack of understanding of specific duties and expectations related to the roles of paraprofessionals was characteristic of both teachers and the paraprofessionals themselves.     

Early childhood education and care educators supporting parent-child relationships: a systematic literature review

Building strong relationships between children and parents is vital for children’s social and emotional development. A majority of children attend early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings where they experience a range of relationships (educator–child, educator–parent, parent–child). Educators build relationships with children and parents, yet their influence on parent–child relationships is not well understood. Therefore, an evaluation of interventions/programs designed to promote parent–child relationships in ECEC settings (long day care, occasional care and preschool) and a range of settings (play groups, community groups and health centres) was conducted. The search revealed 21 peer-reviewed studies and seven interventions: two conducted in ECEC settings and five in a range of parent–child support settings. All studies reported intervention efficacy, yet none examined educators’ influence on parent–child relationships. Investigation into current educator practices is recommended to ensure educators are supported to promote and nurture parent–child relationships, consequently strengthening children’s social and emotional development.     

Why relationships matter: parent and early childhood teacher perspectives about the provisions afforded by young children's relationships

This study investigated the perspectives of early childhood teachers and parents regarding the importance of provisions afforded by child–teacher and peer relationships in early childhood centres. Participants were 200 parents and 71 teachers of children aged 0–5 years who responded to an online survey containing a series of relationship function statements that were rated according to their perceived importance. Results demonstrate that most functions were rated as more important in the context of child–teacher relationships than peer relationships, although statements reflecting the provision of friendship were regarded as more important in the domain of peer relationships. Ratings for particular provisions of infant relationships were significantly lower than those for older children; a result generated largely by variation in the ratings of teachers in comparison to those of parents. Findings are discussed in relation to differences between parent and teacher perspectives and implications for the development of inclusive, relationship-based pedagogies.     

Supporting inclusion in early childhood settings: some possibilities and problems for teacher education

Aotearoa New Zealand, like other countries, has legislation and policies that support inclusion and promote the participation of all children and families in early childhood education. We might expect therefore to see a culture of inclusion resonating through policy and practice in early childhood settings. There are early childhood teachers who support such legislative and policy goals, who are committed to inclusion, and who are developing more inclusive early childhood services. Yet, it is also evident that discrimination and exclusion is experienced by many. Teacher education plays an important role in supporting inclusion and assisting teachers’ development of knowledge, skills and attitudes that will support them to teach all children. In this paper, we write as a group of teacher educators and demonstrate the challenges we took up to move beyond traditional approaches to inclusive education and to open up theoretically and practically diverse possibilities for thinking and doing inclusion differently in early childhood teacher education.     

Principles under pressure: student teachers' perspectives on final teaching practice in early childhood classrooms

Global concerns about what constitutes an appropriate curriculum and pedagogy for young children inevitably raises questions for teacher educators and the content of teacher education programmes. These concerns have been particularly visible in England following recent policy initiatives and the resultant ‘academic shovedown’ and ‘high stakes’ performativity culture in schools. Against this background, this article reports on a qualitative study of student teachers' experiences of their final teaching practice, identifying pressure from a range of sources to deliver a more formalised curriculum than they were prepared for in their university-based courses. Drawing on Bronfenbrenner among others, we consider the socio-political and -cultural sources of pressure linked through human agency, and the implications of these for teacher educators. The study argues that student teachers of young children may be faced with cognitive and emotional dissonance between the content of university-based training on the one hand, which promotes a developmentally appropriate, play-based approach in keeping with the Early Years Foundation Stage (the statutory curricular framework in England), and the reality of pedagogical practice in early years settings on the other.     

Mentoring and Professional Development in Rural Head Start Classrooms

The objective of this project was to develop and pilot a small-scale professional development program that incorporated substantial group and one-on-one mentoring aimed at preparing rurally based preschool teacher assistants to earn the Child Development Associate (CDA) credential. Using a framework that emphasized the relational, developmental, and contextual elements of mentoring, this qualitative case study examined both the participants’ and mentors’ perceptions of the program. Results of this study revealed overlapping themes across teacher assistants and their mentors, including readiness for the CDA credentialing process, mentoring support/relationship-building, and mutual respect.     

Assessment in play-based kindergarten classrooms: An empirical study of teacher perspectives and practices

Kindergarten education is changing. Current reforms have increased accountability structures requiring teachers to integrate assessments throughout their instruction to support academic learning while retaining developmentally appropriate pedagogies such as play-based learning. Despite these reforms, comparatively little research has been conducted on teachers' assessment practices within play-based instructional contexts. The purpose of this study was to explore teachers' approaches to assessment in play-based kindergarten education and specifically to examine how assessment practices differed based on teachers' conceptions of the purpose of play in student learning. Data were obtained from 77 Ontario kindergarten teachers via (a) an electronic survey, (b) in-depth interviews, and (c) classroom observations. Overall, data from this study suggest a misalignment in teachers' perspectives of the purpose of play and what teachers assess during periods of play.     

‘Baby teachers’: how pre‐service early childhood students transform their conceptions of teaching and learning through an infant practicum

This qualitative study explores how working with infants changed pre‐service early childhood students’ thinking about important aspects of early childhood education. Through a qualitative analysis of four pre‐service early childhood students’ weekly dialogue journals during a required, one‐semester infant practicum, the authors discovered how the course provided a context for challenging students’ previously held notions about early childhood teaching and learning. Their findings showed that infants’ ways of being were a powerful influence on pre‐service early childhood students’ sense of themselves as teachers and emphasized the value of hands‐on experiences with infants as an important component of early childhood professional preparation.     

Analyzing teacher narratives in early childhood garden-based education

Learning gardens can provide dynamic learning and developmental experiences for young children. This case study of 12 early childhood teachers explores how teachers describe (1) learning across numerous school readiness domains and (2) how to support this learning by promoting opportunities for autonomy, relatedness, and competence. Participants worked at a university-affiliated early education program with a learning garden in the midwestern United States. Data included 19 narrative, photo-elicitation interviews during two growing seasons. Iterative qualitative analyses informed the creation of a Gourd Tee-Pee Model that describes learning across multiple domains and integrates self-determination theory into early childhood garden education. This framework can inform the design and evaluation of early childhood garden education programs.     

Turkish prospective early childhood teachers’ emotional intelligence level and its relationship to their parents’ parenting styles

The current study explored Turkish prospective early childhood teachers’ emotional intelligence scores in order to determine whether levels indicated differentiations according to grade level, and parenting style. Participants responded to the Turkish version of the Parenting Style Inventory and Emotional Intelligence Scale (EIS). EIS also contains the Perception of Own Emotions (POE), Understanding Others’ Emotions (UOE) and Regulating Emotions (RE) subscales. Study findings revealed that participants had moderate scores on the POE, UOE, and RE subscales and for whole emotional intelligence. Significant differences in total emotional intelligence and some subscales were found among grade levels and parenting styles. However findings showed that prospective teachers’ EI level did not increase as their professional education level increases. Also, prospective teachers with neglecting parents obtained the lowest mean scores from the total scale and every subscale for EIS. The study concluded that teacher education programs should support emotional development too.     

Science Education in Early Childhood Teacher Education: Putting Forward a Case to Enhance Student Teachers' Confidence and Competence

New Zealand is moving towards increased qualification requirements for early childhood educators. There is an underlying assumption that there is a correlation between quality early childhood education, teacher qualifications and quality practices in teaching and learning. Two fields of literature, early childhood pedagogy and science specific pedagogy, are reviewed briefly to provide a framework with which to consider why student teachers' attitudes, misunderstandings and misconceptions in science can limit their ability and willingness to create quality teaching and learning opportunities. The study reported in this paper highlights, in general, that early childhood student teachers' subject knowledge in science was poor. It also emerged that the student teachers were unaware of how little they knew and how this might affect their ability to provide appropriate science experiences for young children.