早期学习与儿童幸福感国际研究项目概况及对我国学前教育评价的启示

早期学习与幸福感研究是21世纪以来教育领域的热点话题。介绍OECD早期学习与儿童幸福感国际研究项目(International Early Learning and Child Well-being Study,IELS)的基本情况,着重阐述IELS项目的测评框架、评估方法及在美国的应用效果,以此探寻促进我国本土化早期教育发展的可行性路径。IELS对我国学前教育评价的启示有:1)强调整体性的早期儿童发展观;2)开发全国统一的学前儿童发展监测框架;3)重视以真实生活情境为基础的评价工具的研发;4)关注家庭和家校沟通在儿童早期经历中的重要作用。     

Contemporary perspectives of the child in action: an investigation into children’s connectedness with,and contribution to,the world around them

Childcare within Australia has undergone significant reform as a result of the implementation of the nationally mandated Belonging, Being and Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework [EYLF] (Department for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations [DEEWR]. 2009. Belonging, Being and Becoming. The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia. Canberra: Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations). The EYLF articulates contemporary perspectives of the child through its principles, practices and learning outcomes. Educators are required to promote these principles, practices and learning outcomes with children aged from birth to 5 years. This paper reports the findings from a research project that sought to investigate how educators applied their understanding of learning outcome two of the EYLF (children are connected with and contribute to their world). The focus of this research was educators working with children aged two to three years within childcare centres operating on school sites, in metropolitan Western Australian. The research design was qualitative and situated within the interpretivist paradigm. Observations were used as the method for gathering data and these were analysed through a process of coding. This paper presents the observational findings of educators’ practices within learning outcome two. Composite vignettes from the voice of the child are included to present the observational findings. In centralising the voice of the child, contemporary perspectives are made explicit.     

Engaging with holistic curriculum outcomes: deconstructing ‘working theories’

International debates persist about what constitutes desirable outcomes from early childhood education experiences. The New Zealand early childhood curriculum brings together academic and social-pedagogic outcomes as interdependent holistic constructs named ‘dispositions’ and ‘working theories’. These constructs are complex notions that require interpretation by researchers and teachers in order to be recognised as outcomes by those with a vested interest in children's education: parents and policy-makers. This paper engages with the construct of working theories. It explains its genesis and outlines research activity thus far. The paper draws on findings from a two-year qualitative research project exploring children's interests, inquiries and working theories. The paper analyses two vignettes of working theories into mutually constitutive components of knowledge, skills and strategies, and attitudes and expectations. It argues that deconstructing working theories into elements able to be recognised by those outside early childhood education provides a way to demystify these innovative outcomes. Such scrutiny may assist parents and policy-makers to understand ways that the learning they value is present in the early years. Further, holistic outcomes are responsive to research and scholarship on appropriate pedagogy that encourages children to develop identities as learners, identities critical to living in the twenty-first century.     

Early schooling: its influence on reading comprehension at primary level / Escolarización temprana: su influencia sobre la comprensión lectora en primaria

Abstract

Early schooling may influence the future academic results of students. In spite of this, there are very few studies providing evidence to demonstrate such an influence, with children under three being included in the notion of early schooling, as is the case in this study. We analyse the influence of this kind of education on the reading comprehension of fourth year primary students in Spain, on the basis of the data obtained from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) of 2011. Given the type of sampling used with PIRLS, with its hierarchical structure, we estimate multilevel educational production functions. The results obtained indicate that early schooling, as well as the socio-economic and cultural background of families, has a positive effect on students’ results in reading comprehension. These results support proposals for widening opportunities for receiving free education in early childhood, at least for socio-economically disadvantaged families, in order to compensate for the lack of early schooling received by their children and the consequent effects this has on their reading skills.     

Reform,inequalities of process and the transformative potential of communities of practice in the pre-school sector of England

The integration of care and education across pre-school sectors of several European countries is currently a key policy priority. In England this necessitates reform aimed at re-modelling a traditionally hierarchical and divided workforce. Drawing on research with early years professionals, this article explores the micro-politics of reform with a focus on the extent to which workers in pre-school settings are engaging in new collaborative ways of working. In particular, the transformative potential of the communities of practice model in shaping changes to the early years workforce is discussed. Findings reveal the intersection of social class as labour-market position with several cross-cutting issues and their importance in perpetuating continuing inequalities of process. These present a challenge to the emergence of any new form of collaborative inter-professional working arrangements within the English early years context.     

Reanalysing children’s responses on shadow formation: a comparative approach to bodily expressions and verbal discourse

ABSTRACT

The present article contains a reanalysis of data resulting from a research project carried out on a group of five preschool-aged children. The data were collected from a class of 16 children participating in a pre/post research design that focused on the shadow formation phenomenon. The findings of the previous research project, based on a speech plus deictic gesture analysis, indicated that the five children had shown regression or no change in their reasoning. In the light of an embodied perspective into science teaching and learning, the current study examines whether we should use a bodily analysis to reassess the extent of knowledge about shadows among these five students. It demonstrates that most of the children selected improved their reasoning about shadow formation by using iconic gestures. Such conflicting results indicate that bodily expression has its own grammar and, to some extent, communicates a meaning that differs from that of verbal discourse.     

由“虐童”事件引发的思考

近期在媒体上曝出许多幼儿园幼教虐待儿童的事件,这些事件深深震慑着我们的心灵,我们在气愤、悲痛的同时,应该认真反思一下我国学前教育存在的问题,采取积极有效的措施,使学前教育不断完善。     

Strengthening early childhood and school sector continuities in producing the lifelong learner in Aotearoa New Zealand

Recent education policy analysis has revealed the standardisation of education systems and an intensified focus on learners and learning to meet the requirements of the global economy and neo-liberalism. In this paper we analyse the way that early childhood education in Aotearoa New Zealand has become increasingly entangled with school sector priorities and international discourses of lifelong learning as it has encountered these requirements. We trace the shift from an explict rejecting and countering of school sector pedagogy to the promoting of increasing continuity with school sector priorities. We draw attention to dynamic, contrasting and competing interests and entities that have shaped the construction of learning and learners and curriculum and assessment priorities. We argue the need to attend to the complex mix of constitutive forces at work in the formulation and enactment of early childhood sector priorities, in particular to these crucial entanglements with school sector priorities, international discourses of lifelong learning and neo-liberal economic rationalities.     

Parental experiences of the “Time Together” home visiting intervention: an Attachment Theory perspective

This paper reports the results of research into parental experiences of the Somerset (UK) “Time Together” home visiting intervention, with regards to its impact on the parent-child relationship. The research was carried out using an Attachment Theory lens in order to understand the qualitative experiences of seven parents of children in the early years who were identified as being socially isolated and/or having difficulties relating to their child. The key findings were that parents experienced a change within their notion of self, seeing their child as a separate self and seeing the world more through their child’s eyes. They experienced a wider range of play activities which brought about greater levels of attunement and enjoyment. The parent and home visitor relationship served to empower parents. A flow diagram was created to illustrate the processes of the research interactions and outcomes. This provides a model of how parents can be supported to experience greater enjoyment within their relationship with their child, and increase their level of social engagement.