Early Childhood Educators’ Wellbeing During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Early Childhood Education Journal - The importance of Early Childhood (EC) educators’ wellbeing has been brought into sharp focus during the COVID-19 pandemic, as educators have navigated...     

An Intervention to Increase Early Childhood Staff Capacity for Promoting Children’s Social-Emotional Development in Preschool Settings

This article describes the development, implementation, and outcomes of a pilot intervention designed to enhance preschool programs’ ability to support children’s social-emotional development. Working with two Head Start programs, the intervention included (1) restructuring existing early childhood mental health consultation services; (2) engaging programs in a mental health-specific strategic planning; (3) providing training to program staff in early childhood mental health best practices; and (4) implementing staff wellness activities to promote a healthy organizational culture. Research Findings: Results from quantitative staff surveys found significant improvement over time in terms of reduced staff stress, increased levels of understanding of best practices in early childhood mental health, and more evidence of a shared understanding of how best to meet children’s mental health needs. Results were strongest for management and teaching staff, compared to other staff types. Practice Implications: Head Start and preschool programs may benefit from institutionalizing strategies to ensure that continued attention is paid to their program’s mental health services through ongoing strategic planning, supporting staff wellness, and by effective use of mental health consultants. Mental health consultants may be most valuable when they focus on capacity-building activities such as staff coaching and training, and working with management teams to ensure a collective “mental health perspective”.     

What’s the Bottom Line? Corporate Involvement in an Early Childhood Initiative

Using data from a qualitative case study of a statewide early childhood initiative, this article critically examines the budding relationship between one states early childhood initiative and the corporate community. The analysis is situated within assumptions about the benefits of public–private partnerships and early childhood and childcare as vital to the nations current and future workforce. Early childhood stakeholders courted the business sector to gain support for the program, and their actions resulted in unintended consequences, including privileging the perspectives of businesspersons above those of parents, service providers, and other stakeholders.     

A Citespace Mapping-knowledge-domain Analysis of SLA from the Lin⁃guistic Perspective in China

Research papers in the field of SLA published between 2009 and 2019 are analyzed in terms of research status of domes?tic SLA researchers,research institutions,research frontiers and hotspots in the paper,and maps the knowledge domains of SLA re?searches.The data are retrieved from 10 core journals of linguistics via the CNKI journal database.By means of CiteSpace 5.3,an analysis of the overall trend of studies on SLA in China is made.     

Early Childhood Educators’ Well-Being: An Updated Review of the Literature

Researchers are increasingly recognising the connections between early childhood educators’ well-being and their capacity for providing high quality education and care. The past five years have seen an intensification of research concerning early childhood educators’ well-being. However, fragmentation along conceptual, contextual and methodological lines makes it difficult to clearly identify the most effective focus for future research. The purpose of this article is to identify trends in, and implications of recent research concerned with educators’ well-being. Attention is given to ways recent studies address concerns raised in a review of earlier literature (Hall-Kenyon et al. in Early Child Educ J 42(3):153–162, 2014, doi: 10.1007/s10643-013-0595-4), and what implications recent studies have for future research efforts concerned with educators’ well-being.     

Increasing Girls’ STEM Engagement in Early Childhood: Conditions Created by the Conceptual PlayWorld Model

Research in Science Education - As societal needs change and STEM solutions are offered, an increasing concern for the participation of girls in STEM has emerged. Research has consistently shown...     

‘Quality’ in Early Childhood Programmes — a contextually appropriate approach

This article concerns the basis for decision‐making about quality in early childhood. The rapid growth in programmes throughout the world sets a challenge for our understanding of what constitutes ‘quality’. An attractive starting point is universalist assumptions about children's nature, needs and development and about the environment that can best promote their growth. I challenge this view, arguing that quality is relative, but it is not arbitrary. Perspectives on quality depend on a framework of knowledge, beliefs and values about childhood and child development, especially the goals and functions of early childhood programmes. This framework is in turn shaped by economic, educational and cultural context. By drawing on the concept of developmental niche, there is scope for reaching a more contextually appropriate view on quality.

     

The Influence of Teachers’ Efficacy and Beliefs Regarding Mathematics Instruction in the Early Childhood Classroom

This was a correlational study conducted with a population of prekindergarten educators from a large, metropolitan school district. The purpose was to examine if there were relationships between and among early childhood teachers’ sense of self-efficacy, their beliefs about the importance of mathematics, and their mathematics instructional practices. Examining teachers’ efficacy and beliefs can inform educational practice and help to differentiate between more and less successful instructional practices when teaching mathematics in the early childhood classroom. Data were collected on teacher efficacy and teacher beliefs about the importance of mathematics with two self-report questionnaires. The hypothesis that the teachers higher in efficacy will rate the importance of mathematics higher on the teacher-belief scale than the teachers with lower efficacy was found to be true with this sample, but the correlation was weak. The level of efficacy of the early childhood teachers in this sample confirmed that in assessing their capabilities, they rate themselves high in instructional strategies, classroom management, and student engagement. The early childhood teachers did not rate their belief in mathematics as high as their efficacy. Observations of mathematics instructional practices were conducted with twenty teachers. It was hypothesized that the combination of high teacher efficacy and high teacher mathematics beliefs would show alignment with the presence of standards-based mathematics instructional practices. The results were not statistically significant. No correlation signals a need for more research to explore what other personal or external factors relate to mathematics instructional practices in the early childhood classroom. The research may inform pre kindergarten teachers and teacher educators about effective instructional strategies and knowledge needed to launch early childhood students on a developmentally appropriate pathway to mathematical literacy.     

Universal Preschool’s Promise: Success in Early Childhood and Beyond

Fueled by a belief that early intervention can prevent a host of educational woes, efforts to provide universal, publicly funded preschool have the potential to radically change the way we think about our commitments and responsibilities in education. We call for the implementation of innovative, universal preschool programs that attend to developmental characteristics of learners, cultural and linguistic diversity, ecosystemic context, and the new mandates on teacher training. Universal preschool has the potential to go far beyond mere “day-care,” as it has the potential to establish the foundation for a lifelong love of learning and optimal social/emotional development. We also advocate for high-quality teacher training to populate preschools with high-quality teachers. If universal preschool is carefully planned and provided, K-12 education stands to benefit substantially.     

An Analysis of China’s Four Traditional Festivals from the Perspective of the Theory of Cultural Functions

This paper analyzes the cultural elements of China’s four traditional festivals from the perspective of the Theory of Cultural Functions, which presents in detail the forming of traditional festivals, varied festival traditions and good expectations held by people toward lives. This paper is also designed with the aim to further exert the functions of traditional Chinese festivals, which as a result, will contribute to the preservation of national characters and the inheritance of national spirits.     

The Influencing and Effective Model of Early Childhood Teachers＇Job Satisfaction in China

The purpose of this study was to explore the influencing and effective models of Chinese early childhood teachers＇ job satisfaction. Using a questionnaire of 317 teachers from 21 kindergartens in Shanghai, China, the present study established the influencing and effective structure model of teachers＇ job satisfaction. The results demonstrated that organizational climate and teachers＇ involvement in curriculum reform are the direct factors to affect teachers＇ job satisfaction, which is the important intermediate variable to influence on teachers＇ professional commitment, autonomy and burnout. It is also concluded that organizational climate improves teachers＇ professional commitment. What＇s more, involving in curriculum reform not only facilitates teachers＇ autonomy but also declines teachers＇ burnout.     

Examining Effects of Poverty,Maternal Depression,and Children’s Self-Regulation Abilities on the Development of Language and Cognition in Early Childhood: An Early Head Start Perspective

Early childhood poverty is a prevalent social issue, both in the United States and in the wider international community. It has been well established that factors associated with poverty, including familial income and parental education level, can negatively affect children’s language and cognitive development, which can result in academic achievement deficits that compound across the lifespan. Additional environmental factors, specifically maternal and children’s own social–emotional development, have also been shown to impact these sensitive early childhood developmental processes. Although individual components that relate to language and cognitive development in young children have been identified, additional examination of potential associative relationships between these components is warranted. Therefore, this study explored socio-economical, health, and developmental relationships between 122 caregiver–child dyads enrolled in an Early Head Start Program where children were 1–36 months old. Results indicated strong bidirectional correlations between children’s cognitive and language development. Multiple linear regression path analysis indicated that children’s cognition and social–emotional wellbeing have a significant direct effect on their language development. Additionally, language and fine motor development were found to have a significant direct effect and social–emotional wellbeing mediated an indirect effect through language on children’s cognitive development. In light of socioeconomic and sociocultural challenges, the importance of nurturing children’s social–emotional development in relation to language and cognitive development is discussed.     

On the Student-Orientation of Teachers’Beliefs from Cognitive Perspective

At present, teachers’belief is an exploring topic to the linguists, educationists, and psychologists. Teachers’beliefs not only influence the teaching’s attitudes and methods but also the student’s i...     

Early Childhood Educators’ Self-Efficacy in Science,Math, and Literacy Instruction and Science Practice in the Classroom

Research Findings: Quality early science education is important for addressing the low science achievement, compared to international peers, of elementary students in the United States. Teachers’ beliefs about their skills in a content area, that is, their content self-efficacy is important because it has implications for teaching practice and child outcomes. However, little is known about how teachers’ self-efficacy for literacy, math and science compare and how domain-specific self-efficacy relates to teachers’ practice in the area of science. Analysis of survey and observation data from 67 Head Start classrooms across eight programs indicated that domain-specific self-efficacy was highest for literacy, significantly lower for science, and lowest for math. Classrooms varied, but in general, engaged in literacy far more than science, contained a modest amount of science materials, and their instructional support of science was low. Importantly, self-efficacy for science, but not literacy or math, related to teachers frequency of engaging children in science instruction. Teachers’ education and experience did not predict self-efficacy for science. Practice or Policy: To enhance the science opportunities provided in early childhood classrooms, pre-service and in-service education programs should provide teachers with content and practices for science rather than focusing exclusively on literacy.     

Investigating the Use of Vicarious and Mastery Experiences in Influencing Early Childhood Education Majors’ Self-Efficacy Beliefs

This study investigated the effectiveness of an Early Childhood Education science methods course that focused exclusively on providing various mastery (i.e., enactive, cognitive content, and cognitive pedagogical) and vicarious experiences (i.e., cognitive self-modeling, symbolic modeling, and simulated modeling) in increasing preservice elementary teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs. Forty-four preservice elementary teachers participated in the study. Analysis of the quantitative (STEBI-b) and qualitative (informal surveys) data revealed that personal science teaching efficacy and science teaching outcome expectancy beliefs increased significantly over the semester. Enactive mastery, cognitive pedagogical mastery, symbolic modeling, and cognitive self-modeling were the major sources of self-efficacy. This list was followed by cognitive content mastery and simulated modeling. This study has implications for science teacher educators.     

Should Science be Taught in Early Childhood?

This essay considers the question of why we should teach science to K-2. After initial consideration of two traditional reasons for studying science, six assertions supporting the idea that even small children should be exposed to science are given. These are, in order: (1) Children naturally enjoy observing and thinking about nature. (2) Exposing students to science develops positive attitudes towards science. (3) Early exposure to scientific phenomena leads to better understanding of the scientific concepts studied later in a formal way. (4) The use of scientifically informed language at an early age influences the eventual development of scientific concepts. (5) Children can understand scientific concepts and reason scientifically. (6) Science is an efficient means for developing scientific thinking. Concrete illustrations of some of the ideas discussed in this essay, particularly, how language and prior knowledge may influence the development of scientific concepts, are then provided. The essay concludes by emphasizing that there is a window of opportunity that educators should exploit by presenting science as part of the curriculum in both kindergarten and the first years of primary school.     

Teachers’ Literal and Inferential Talk in Early Childhood and Special Education Classrooms

Research Findings: This study examined preschool teachers’ literal talk (LT) and inferential talk (IT) during shared book readings in early childhood education (ECE) and early childhood special education (ECSE) classrooms. We aimed to characterize and compare teachers’ LT and IT in these 2 classroom contexts and determine whether differences in LT and IT are predicted by classroom type, teachers’ educational background, or children’s average language skills. We examined the shared book reading activities of 52 teachers (26 ECE classrooms, 26 ECSE classrooms). Results revealed that ECSE teachers used significantly more LT and showed more variability in their LT and IT than ECE teachers. ECSE classroom type predicted teachers’ use of LT when we controlled for teacher education and children’s language skills, whereas teacher education predicted teachers’ use of IT when we controlled for classroom type and children’s language skills. Practice or Policy: These findings have implications for best practice guidelines and policies, particularly for ECSE environments.     

African American Fathers' Contributions to Children's Early Academic Achievement: Evidence From Two-Parent Families From the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Birth Cohort

Research Findings: This study utilized a large sample (N = 750) of 2-parent families from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Birth Cohort to examine the contributions of African American fathers' home literacy involvement, play activities, and caregiving at 24 months to children's reading and math achievement in preschool. After family characteristics and child characteristics were controlled for, both mother and father characteristics predicted child achievement. Mother age predicted math achievement but not reading. Furthermore, even after mother predictors were entered into the hierarchical regressions, fathers' education and home literacy involvement also significantly predicted achievement. African American fathers who engaged in more frequent shared book reading, telling stories, singing songs, and provided more children's books in their homes at 24 months had children with better reading and math scores in preschool. Practice or Policy: These findings support growing evidence that fathers contribute to child development. Implications for research on early academic achievement in ethnically diverse samples are discussed.