Early Rising

早起对我们的益处不止一个方面。首先,它有助于我们身体健康。我们都需要新鲜空气。但是空气并非总像早晨那么新鲜。此外,进行晨练可以使身体健康。其次,早起对我们的学习有益。早晨我们学习知识更快,会觉得更容易记住我们学习的东西。     

The Early Money

现在你的口袋里就可能装着印制精美的钞票,这些钞票看着漂亮,携带方便,而且兑换容易。但是,花钱的时候却很少[第一段]     

The Early Adolescent

The early adolescent (青春期青少年) seems to be in a state that is difficult for most adults (grown-ups) tounderstand.Parents, inparticular, are often at a loss for how to deal with someone they thought they knew but who seems to have changed.     

Get Up Early

Mike always gets up very late.One day,his father said,“Mike,don’t you know the motto that the early bird catchesthe worms?”     

The Early Adolescent

The early adolescent(青春期青少年）seems to be in a state that is difficult for most adults (grown-ups) to understand.Parents,in particular,are often at a loss for how to deal with someone they thought they knew but who seems to have changed.     

The Early Money

现在你的口袋里就可能装着印制精美的钞票,这些钞票看着漂亮,携带方便,而且兑换容易。但是,花钱的时候却很少     

The Early History of America

Nowadays people are beginning to use the term“Native Ameri-cans” rather than‘Indians’for the original people of America.Theyprobably crossed over from Asia while there was still a land bridge     

Early Practicum Experiences: Preservice Early Childhood Students’ Perceptions and Sense of Efficacy

The current study explored early practicum experiences (those occurring before student teaching) in an early childhood birth to kindergarten teacher education program. Undergraduates enrolled in practicum courses completed questionnaires about their overall practicum experience including: socio-emotional components (their perceived fit with their cooperating teacher and intrapersonal feelings while in the classroom), overall practicum satisfaction, and their sense of teacher efficacy. Results revealed that practicum students generally reported feelings of being energized and relaxed, though some practicum students reported feelings of frustration in their practicum classrooms. Feeling energized and relaxed and students’ perception of fit with their cooperating teacher were positively associated with practicum satisfaction and practicum students’ teacher efficacy. Feelings of frustration were negatively associated with students’ fit with their cooperating teacher, practicum satisfaction, and students’ teacher efficacy. Higher levels of practicum satisfaction predicted higher practicum students’ teacher efficacy. Findings highlight the importance of understanding early practicum experiences and what factors of the practicum experience contribute teacher efficacy. Implications for future research and practice for early childhood teacher preparation programs are discussed.     

A Planet from the Early Universe

If you thought your parents were old,getthis. Astronomers have discovered the oldestand most distant planet known in the uni-verse.The planet is so far away that it takeslight 7,200 years to get here from there. The new discovery is full of surprises.     

A Survey Study of Early Childhood Teachers’ Beliefs and Confidence about Teaching Early Math

This study reports on results from the Early Mathematics Beliefs and Confidence Survey, administered to 346 preschool teachers in a large public school system in the Midwest. Survey results depict a much more positive view of teachers’ beliefs and confidence in early math teaching than previously reported. Results also suggest that teacher confidence varies with specific types of math knowledge and teaching abilities, and assessing math learning is a specific area where teachers lack confidence. Examining confidence in their math abilities and in teaching early math, results indicate that teachers are more confident teaching math and remain confident in teaching even when confidence in their abilities is low. Implications of results for early math professional development are discussed.     

How Early Is Too Early to Begin Life Career Planning? The Importance of the Elementary School Years

The relationship of early and middle childhood experiences to life career planning is discussed. Life career planning is presented as a life skill beginning in infancy. The authors present five premises on which they have based their discussion: Life career development is a life-long, spiraling process; Life career planning includes a series of sub-skills; Career awareness and career exploration form the foundation for effective life career planning; Idiosyncratic factors influence the decision-making of each person; and Child development theory (e.g., Erikson, Piaget and Vygotsky) and career development theory (e.g., Super and Gottfredson) are interrelated. Implications for practice are included.     

An Early Bird or the Night Owl?

There is only so much time in the day.If you want to get more done,you really have two choices...Stay up late.Or get up early.Which are you...an Early Bird or the Night Owl? Productive Birds of a Feather     

Early childhood and elementary preservice teachers’ beliefs

Abstract

In this study we examined 382 preservice teachers’ perceived efficacy, their beliefs regarding teaching and learning, and the relationship between these two variables by analyzing quantitative and qualitative data using a modified version of the Gibson and Dembo Teacher Efficacy Scale and six open‐ended questions. A general linear model analysis revealed that several factors differ across certain preparation programs. Preservice teachers’ efficacy beliefs increased at the end of these two different teacher education programs. Qualitative analyzes revealed variance in preservice teachers’ beliefs about teaching and learning between the two majors and in the two locations which they were studying. Most ending‐level preservice teachers had adopted the views of the way teachers are supposed to teach promoted by the particular teacher education program. The internal program coherence, program structural contexts, program's goals, and learning experiences in the program may act as important factors on preservice teachers’ beliefs. © 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.     

Remember to Start When It’s Early

A little boy ran to the bus stop at the full speed at 8 o’clock in the morning.When he got there,he was out of breath.The conductor told the boy the bus had left and he missed it.What~① disappointed the boy was!The conductor said to the boy,"My boy,if you run more fast~②,you can catch the bus.""I’ve already run as fast as possible,"said     

Caregiver’s Mind-Mindedness in Early Center-based Childcare

Recent studies suggest that mind-mindedness is an important element of caregiver–child interactions in family and childcare context. This study investigated caregivers’ mind-mindedness in a nationally representative Dutch sample and its relation with structural quality factors (i.e., group size, caregivers’ education and work experience, group type, and situation) and caregivers’ interactive skills. Participants were 99 caregivers recruited in 50 childcare centers. Mind-mindedness was assessed with observations during free-play and lunch situations in infant, preschool, and mixed-age groups (0–4-year-olds). Caregivers’ appropriate and nonattuned mind-related comments were coded as individual (over/toward one child) or group related (over or toward more than one child). Caregivers’ interactive skills were assessed using the Caregiver Interaction Profile (CIP) scales. Research Findings: Caregivers generally refer to children’s desires, thoughts, and emotions in about 10% of their verbal interactions, with a low incidence rate of nonattuned comments (< 1%). Mind-mindedness was found to be significantly associated with structural quality characteristics and caregivers’ interactive skills. Caregivers with greater interactive skills produced fewer individual and more group appropriate mind-minded comments in mixed-age groups. Practice or Policy: We discuss the relevance of mind-minded comments at individual and group level for the future study of mental-state talk in early childhood education and care.     

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.     

Adult–Child Relationship Processes and Early Schooling

This paper highlights the importance of social processes in early school outcomes. Child-adult relationships are a social context with particular salience for the development of a number of social and academic outcomes in early childhood. Research on both child–parent and child–teacher relationships is reviewed. Measurement technologies are described and conceptual perspectives based on dyadic systems models are advanced as heuristics for future research. Practice implications are drawn with respect to assessment of relationships and implications for conceptualization of early childhood outcomes.     

Changing Values? Early retirement and the new universities

Abstract

This article examines the potential impact of the recent changes to the Teachers Superannuation Scheme (TSS) and the resulting wave of early retirements, on the nature of academic work and cultures in the ‘new’ universities. In doing so it considers the potential for one externally driven initiative, implemented outside of the control of organisational managers, to have a quite extraordinary effect on workers across a whole occupational sector. It assesses the force of an early retirement programme as a catalyst for increased managerialism, relative to other recent pressures, drawing upon the literatures of organisation culture, strategy and labour process; and utilising new empirical research concerning academic careers, culture, change and security. Findings indicate that academic staff in new universities may be insulated from the effects of managerialism, albeit that this may vary between and within institutions. It speculates on whether the effects of large‐scale early retirement will have an impact on academic cultures through the ‘releasing’ of staff with old values and the ‘buying’ of replacements who have new values. Further, it argues that because the TSS changes affect only the new universities, the resultant changes may differentiate them from the pre‐1992 universities, making at least some of them more similar to the managerially focused further education sector, and reinforcing the binary divide within a supposedly unified university sector.     

Early retention: Are there long-term beneficial effects?

The purpose of this study was to examine whether retention of kindergarten and first-grade children is associated with long-term beneficial effects. Thirty-one children who had been retained were compared to 31 children who had similar grades but had never been retained. The dependent measures were grade point average in the second through fifth grades and four teacher-assessed areas of functioning in the fourth and fifth grade: social competence, cognitive competence, externalizing problems, and internalizing problems. The results indicated that retention was not associated with long-term beneficial effects but rather, especially for White children, appeared to be associated with poorer academic and social functioning. Implications and limitations of the study are discussed.