Building a Literacy Community: The Role of Literacy and Social Practice in Early Childhood Programs

This article reports findings from two qualitatively based studies, one conducted at an urban preschool in Northern California and the other at a rural Head Start Center in the Midwest. By presenting detailed data from the two preschool sites, the article describes several ways to strengthen existing literacy practices for children, families, and teachers in both urban and rural early childhood settings. The studies focus on such critical aspects of child and family literacy development as ownership and inclusion, raising important issues for practice and policy in early childhood literacy and language education.     

低收入家长投入早期教育的若干问题探析

家长投入在儿童发展早期阶段具有丰富内涵,包括在家庭、学校、社区合作的情境下家长对早期儿童教育所做的一切贡献。家长投入对儿童,特别是低收入家庭儿童发展的积极意义主要表现在缓冲贫困的消极影响、促进儿童学业成功、改善家庭系统等方面。但低收入家长的投入方式、特点通常与教师预期不一致,其投入教育的动机与信念较弱,缺乏投入子女教育的机会和资源等,都阻碍了低收入家长投入。为此,需要教师、学校与政府将低收入家长作为支持儿童发展的重要资源看待,增强对低收入家庭特点的敏感度,采取适宜的多样化支持策略,与低收入家长建立真正平等的合作关系,共同促进处境不利儿童早期发展。     

幼儿早期识字教育研究

对于是否应该对幼儿进行识字教育,从20世纪初开始就是教育界争论的热点话题,至今没有人能给出一个明确的定论。笔者认为,婴幼儿时期是识字的关键期,幼儿大脑皮层已经具有了分析、综合能力以及幼儿识字所需具备的认知结构基础,在幼儿期可以开展识字教育。早期识字是早期阅读的重要内容,而识字教育本身就是一项全面而优越的智力活动,早期识字教育的实施可以促进幼儿智力的发展和大脑发育,激发幼儿学习汉字的兴趣,为幼儿的全面发展甚至幼儿的一生奠定良好基础。在实施过程中,教育者应该以幼儿的识字特点与认知规律为基础,采用游戏法、情景法,并在主题活动和创意阅读中进行渗透,对幼儿进行识字教育,促进幼儿的发展与提高。     

流动儿童教育中的家长参与研究

随着我国城市化进程的加剧,城市流动人口子女的教育问题日益突出,特别是义务教育阶段的流动儿童教育问题已经受到社会各界尤其是学术界的普遍关注,政府和教育部门相继出台了各种政策来解决流动儿童的教育问题.但是预期成效并未显现.本文试通过概述流动儿童的教育现状,以家长参与理论为主要依据,阐明家长参与流动儿童教育的重要性和必要性,以期为解决流动儿童教育问题提供可参考的途径.     

论早期读写的习得性

本文围绕“幼儿是如何学习读写的”这一问题,探讨了幼儿早期读写学习的特征。幼儿的读写具有“早期性”和“奠基性”,早期读写学习主要是以习得的方式进行的。早期读写的习得性主要表现在学习情境的真实性和学习目的的间接性,学习过程的互动性和创造性以及学习结果的经验性等方面。了解早期读写习得性的意义在于,幼儿园早期读写教育应当以创设真实的有意义的读写情境为原则,以整合读写教育和其他领域的教育、整合日常读写活动和专门读写活动、整合口语学习和书面语学习为基本教育策略。     

Technology-Mediated Writing Instruction in the Early Literacy Program: Perils,Procedures, and Possibilities

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine one kindergarten teacher's use of digital and multimodal technologies to mediate early writing instruction and explore the students' appropriation of that instruction to support their independent writing. Data sources included observations of writing instruction, as well as students' participation during independent writing time, student writing samples, and interviews with case study participants. Data were analyzed inductively using a semantic relationship analysis (Hatch, 2002). Results of the study revealed that the teacher used a range of technologies to demonstrate what it means to compose narrative texts and how young children could go about it. Students were attentive and motivated to participate in writing instruction and related activities, given their fascination with the technology and multimodal texts their teacher created. Students appropriated important concepts and strategies from their teacher's technology-mediated instruction, which they used to compose narrative texts during independent writing time.     

北京市孤独症儿童早期干预中家长参与情况及其影响因素

本研究采用自编问卷调查北京市孤独症儿童早期干预中家长的参与态度和行为,并初步探讨其可能的影响因素。研究调查了三所有代表性的孤独症康复中心和一所医院的47名家长,结果表明,在孤独症儿童的早期干预中,家长参与态度较积极(M=3.77),但行为频率较低(M=1.75),参与效能感也比较低(M=1.81)。很多因素影响着家长的孤独症知识水平,但影响家长参与的因素较少;只有家长学历、家庭收入和孩子是否参与过ABA(应用行为分析)这三个因素。     

上海市特殊儿童家长参与子女早期教育的现状调查

特殊儿童家长参与子女早期教育具有重要意义.对上海市特殊儿童家长参与子女早期教育的态度、现状和方式进行问卷调查和个别访谈后发现,目前存在着对家长参与的认识不到位、参与现状的总体水平较低、极少参与学校行政、信息化手段使用较少等问题.因此,采取一系列措施使家长更有效地参与到特殊儿童的早期教育中尤为重要.     

Father/Male Involvement in Early Childhood Programs: Issues and Challenges

Currently there is tremendous support in the U.S. for increased parental involvement in early childhood settings. In addition, societal attitudes have changed recently, so that men are now expected to be much more involved in childrearing activities than in the past. Taken together, these two shifts in societal attitudes suggest the time is right to encourage greater father/male involvement in early childhood programs. However, such outreach efforts will face challenges. Based on the Men & Kids project in Urbana, Illinois, this paper identifies several specific challenges early childhood educators face as they explore ways to encourage greater levels of father/male involvement in their programs, along with preliminary suggestions for overcoming them.     

The Jumpstart Model: The Contours of a New Force in Early Literacy

Jumpstart is a growing literacy program that is now active in 17 states in addition to the District of Columbia. The Jumpstart Model pairs children of low-income families with college mentors in the child's typical learning environment. Despite the prevalence and importance of Jumpstart, little has been written about either the general model of Jumpstart or the positive impacts the program has on both the children and the AmeriCorps members.     

Early cognitive and home environmental predictors of reading fluency and reading comprehension in Turkish-speaking children

In this study, we aimed to determine the early cognitive and home environmental predictors of reading in Turkish-speaking children. A total of 362 children participated in the study. We monitored the children for 3 years and assessed the home environmental variables and cognitive skills in kindergarten, reading fluency at the end of the first grade, and reading comprehension at the end of the second grade. We found that home literacy environment and socioeconomic status predicted early literacy skills in kindergarten as they also predicted reading fluency and reading comprehension through early literacy in later years. In addition, we found that phonological awareness, letter knowledge, and rapid naming predicted reading fluency, while language and verbal working memory predicted reading comprehension. The results of the study showed us that it is important to consider reading and reading comprehension in Turkish-speaking children holistically, together with cognitive skills and home environmental variables.     

国外关于残疾儿童早期干预中父亲参与的研究综述

父亲参与在残疾儿童的早期干预领域越来越受到重视.本文对1980年以来国外学者对父亲参与残疾儿童早期干预的相关研究进行综述.研究表明,父亲参与残疾儿童早期干预的程度较低;父亲在参与残疾儿童早期干预的过程中面临压力大小、压力种类和应对压力的方式与母亲有所不同;父亲参与早期干预对残疾儿童的语言能力和游戏能力有促进作用;残疾儿童本身、父母亲关系以及干预项目的设置会对父亲参与早期干预的积极性产生影响.当前研究中存在研究地域狭窄、研究方法单一和忽视父亲需求等问题,要多开展跨文化研究,尝试使用质性研究方法以及关注父亲的实际需求.     

幼儿科学素养培养方法探析

幼儿科学教育是科学启蒙教育,学习科学的过程是幼儿主动探索的过程。幼儿科学素养培养方法的科学合理性至关重要,直接影响幼儿科学素养培养的成效。对科学素养内涵的认知和幼儿园科学教育的目标解析是幼儿科学教育方法的基础。观察法和模拟实验法是幼儿期孩子科学素养培养的主要方法,这些方法的实施必须遵循安全性、兴趣性、时空性和持续性原则。     

Exploring parental involvement in early years education in China: development and validation of the Chinese Early Parental Involvement Scale (CEPIS)

This study developed and validated an instrument, the Chinese Early Parental Involvement Scale (CEPIS), that can be widely used in both local and international contexts to assess Chinese parental involvement in early childhood education. The study was carried out in two stages: (1) focus group interviews were conducted with 41 teachers and 35 parents in Hong Kong and Shenzhen. Teachers and parents were found to hold different perceptions of parental involvement. Responses further revealed that Chinese parents practiced more home-based involvement than preschool-based involvement, and that Chinese parents also have layers of responsibilities that limit their level of involvement in children's early development; (2) items of the CEPIS were developed using focus group responses. To validate the scale, 319 parents were asked to complete the new CEPIS. Results from principal-components factor analyses established that the resultant 26-item CEPIS consists of six parental involvement dimensions. Further analyses revealed that parental involvement differed as a function of parents' marital status and employment status. The major findings, implications and limitations of this research are discussed, together with directions for future research.     

The Need to Distinguish Between Quantity and Quality in Research on Parental Involvement: The Example of Parental Help With Homework

ABSTRACT

Parental involvement research has greatly expanded over the past decade, but findings are mixed, reflecting in part the conceptual and methodological limitations of many studies. On the basis of longitudinal questionnaire data from 1,685 sixth-grade students, the authors studied parental help with homework because it is the most common and most controversial type of parental involvement. Distinguishing between the quantity and quality of parental homework involvement, the research shows that completely different conclusions about the effectiveness of parental homework involvement will be reached if its quantity is assessed instead of its quality: How often parents helped with homework was negatively associated with the development of achievement, whereas homework help that was perceived as supportive had positive predictive effects, and homework help perceived as intrusive had negative effects. Moreover, the results show that effect sizes would be overestimated if students' prior achievement and family background were not controlled.     

A Literacy Program for Fathers: A Case Study

A case study approach was used to document the literacy experiences of 25 fathers and their children who participated in a family literacy program. It explored the effects of a literacy intervention that was designed to assist fathers of five-year-old children to develop their children’s literacy learning in a family environment. The findings indicated that the fathers promoted their children’s literacy development when they learned literacy strategies and activities in the program. Although all fathers were provided with the same literacy content, they differed in their use of literacy strategies. Themes were identified and described based on the literacy strategies, interactions, materials, and activities that the fathers used.     

A Model for Involvement of Fathers in Literacy Development with Young At-Risk and Exceptional Children

Early involvement in literacy activities can provide many benefits for at-risk and exceptional children and their fathers. These benefits include development of children's reading and writing skills, increased bonding, and positive self-esteem of fathers. Early childhood professionals can foster male involvement by describing benefits, suggesting appropriate activities, materials and expectations, and by providing ongoing feedback. A model for getting fathers involved in literacy activities with their young at risk and exceptional children is described. The four major approaches in this model are early social interaction, reading books, incidental preliteracy activities, and school involvement.     

学前教育阶段儿童父母参与状况的实证研究

父母参与对幼儿的发展起着重要的影响。研究发现,父母参与整体上处于相对较高的水平,较高的父母参与水平反映在侧重于家庭的父母参与上,侧重于幼儿园的父母参与水平相对不高;在家庭内部,母亲的参与水平明显高于父亲;社会经济地位和父母参与之间的关系是不确定的,父母对男孩的参与程度高于女孩。     

美国“智力启动”计划与早期儿童教育中的“家长参与”

美国20世纪60年代的“伟大社会”改革推出了诸多计划,但一直运转良好和不断扩大的项目则不多,而“智力启动”计划是幸存计划之一。家长参与的特征使“智力启动”计划伴随着巨大政治压力的同时,也成为该计划幸存的关键因素。     

Emergent Literacy in an Early Childhood Classroom: Center Learning to Support the Child with Special Needs

A child with special needs will flourish and benefit from an early childhood environment that empowers learning. Center learning empowers a child to be actively engaged in self-directed learning based on strength, ability, and interest. Center learning can enhance interactive language, story response, art, reading and writing-like behavior, collaboration, buddy activity, and independence. All of these empowering areas of development are strongly related to the child's emergent literacy development. The variety of center learning experiences is limited only by the imagination; this article provides a selection of start-up ideas for the early childhood educator.