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.     

Discussion Forums for Expectant Fathers: The Perspectives of Male Educators

This article describes the perspectives of men recruited to be educators and to facilitate all-male discussion forums for expectant fathers within antenatal education programs. The 8 participants indicated their general satisfaction with the recruitment process and the preparation for and support of the role. They also expressed their support for the overall concept and design of the forum. Suggestions were made regarding areas for improvement in the design and management of the forums. Results from this study may provide an operational framework to assist service providers in the development of male-facilitated programs for expectant fathers.     

Examining Gifted Students Who Are Economically At-Risk to Determine Factors that Influence Their Early Reading Success

The aim of this study was to determine whether the Frequency with which parents read to their children, Preschool Exposure and the initial Age that students “who are economically at-risk” were first exposed to significant literacy activities at home or in a preschool setting affected their reading grades. Students “who are economically at-risk,” for the scope of this study, are those students whose family incomes qualify them to receive either free or reduced lunches. The criteria set forth by the United States Department of Agriculture’s School Lunch Program and Child Nutrition Web site (United States Department of Agriculture, 2005) was used to determine whether families were qualified to receive reductions in the price of their school meals. Parents of students from six southeast Alabama schools were selected to participate in the study. All six schools administered the Questioning, Understanding, Enriching, Seeking and Thinking (QUEST) program for gifted or academically successful students. The subjects were 84 parents/families with public school children who are economically at-risk and participated in the QUEST program. Data were gathered using a questionnaire developed by the researcher. Instructional implications for this research study are to (1) improve reading instruction for economically at-risk students within our nation’s elementary schools; (2) equip parents with teaching tools and theories for providing critical pre-reading skills to their young children and (3) to provide sound research for teacher educators to base their instruction to preservice teachers preparing to teach students who are economically at-risk.     

What Parents Need to Know About Counseling and Psychotherapy

Today's college and university students find mental health services far more available and acceptable than did students in their parents' generation. But even bright and well-educated people still tend to attach stigma to getting help with emotional problems and the considerable developmental challenges of the college years. Parents are advised to acknowledge their sons and daughters needs to grow psychologically and to try to reduce the stigma. Practical information about services is provided, major kinds of crises-including sucicide threats, substance abuse and psychotic breakdown- are discussed, and psychotherapy is described as a process of experiential learning. In conclusion, some results of college student psychotherapy are noted.     

How Parents Feel About Their Child’s Teacher/School: Implications for Early Childhood Professionals

The purpose of this article is to describe the effects that parent perceptions of their relationships with teachers have on parent involvement. After providing a brief review of literature identifying the importance of parent–teacher relationship formation, the authors provide suggestions for early childhood educators that will help them establish and maintain productive relationships with the families that they serve.     

幼儿教育小学化倾向的表现、原因及解决对策

幼儿教育小学化倾向在我国仍然普遍存在,主要表现为:在教育内容上,重视智力教育,轻视德、体、美、劳教育;在教育方法上,重视知识传授,轻视幼儿自主学习;在教育评价上,重视结果评价,轻视过程评价.幼儿家长、教师以及行政主管部门的利益诉求是造成幼儿教育小学化倾向的直接原因.为改变这一现状,需要积极开展家园共建活动,形成幼儿教育合力;需要遵循幼儿成长规律,做好幼小衔接工作;需要加大教育主管部门的监管力度.     

幼儿教育的财政投入体制改革亟需理性设计

现行的幼儿教育投入结构中,政府投入其实很少,但公众经常会对其公平性产生质疑.于是,许多地方政府都和深圳市政府一样有改革的冲动.幼儿教育投入体制的改革虽然所涉数额并不大,但因为事关社会福利体系重构这样的大问题,政府在试图解决公平性之前,首先要界定好政府的责任,否则无从谈论公平,也无从评论改革的"对"或"错".在渡过了最初的经验式改革后,财政投入领域的改革需要系统化制度设计,财政投入改革要建立在基本制度的约束之上.深圳市幼儿教育财政投入体制改革的案例揭示了改革冲动与依法治国之间的矛盾,为"大胆闯式"改革亟需转变为系统化制度设计提供了现实的注解.     

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。     

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.     

What Teachers Need to Know About Augmented Reality Enhanced Learning Environments

Augmented reality (AR) enhanced learning environments have been designed to teach a variety of subjects by having learners act like professionals in the field as opposed to students in a classroom. The environments, grounded in constructivist and situated learning theories, place students in a meaningful, non-classroom environment and force them to collaborate with each other in order to solve an ill-defined problem. AR content, accessed via a mobile broadband device (MBD) such as a phone or tablet, is used to guide the learning experiences. Student participants have reported an increased interest in the settings of the experiences and have expressed a positive attitude towards this innovative form of instructional delivery. Using newly available software loaded on MBDs, teachers and/or students can design and share AR enhanced learning environments that are tied to unique places in their communities.     

Parental perceptions of life context variables for involvement in their young children's education

The purpose of this study was to discover Turkish parents’ perceptions of life context variables, including personal knowledge and skills and personal time and energy for involvement activities in their young children's education. The scales used in this study were based on parents’ self-report, and included: (1) Parental Perceptions of Personal Knowledge and Skills for Involvement Activities and (2) Parental Perceptions of Personal Time and Energy for Involvement Activities. Moreover, a demographic survey was developed and used as the second instrument in this study. The results suggested that parents as a group tend to have positive perceptions of life context variables for involvement in their young children's education and their income is the strongest predictor of these perceptions.     

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。     

美国早期儿童示范项目的特征与启示

在考察学前教育对儿童发展的积极影响时,人们引用最多的是美国佩里幼儿园项目、芝加哥儿童家长中心、卡罗莱纳初学者项目等示范项目.然而,事实上这些示范项目都主要是针对低收入家庭儿童的,其产生的显著效果并不具普遍性.借鉴这些示范项目的成功经验,我国政府在学前教育领域的政策与投入应加大对社会处境不利儿童的关注;应充分考虑文化背景对教育效果的影响机制,而不能一味照搬这些示范项目;应审慎对待这些示范项目的研究结论,引导公众建立对幼儿教育的合理期待.     

What Schools Need to Know About Fostering School Belonging: a Meta-analysis

Belonging is an essential aspect of psychological functioning. Schools offer unique opportunities to improve belonging for school-aged children. Research on school belonging, however, has been fragmented and diluted by inconsistency in the use of terminology. To resolve some of these inconsistencies, the current study uses meta-analysis of individual and social level factors that influence school belonging. These findings aim to provide guidance on the factors schools should emphasise to best support students. First, a systematic review identified 10 themes that influence school belonging at the student level during adolescence in educational settings (academic motivation, emotional stability, personal characteristics, parent support, peer support, teacher support, gender, race and ethnicity, extracurricular activities and environmental/school safety). Second, the average association between each of these themes and school belonging was meta-analytically examined across 51 studies (N?=?67,378). Teacher support and positive personal characteristics were the strongest predictors of school belonging. Results varied by geographic location, with effects generally stronger in rural than in urban locations. The findings may be useful in improving perceptions of school belonging for secondary students through the design of policy, pedagogy and teacher training, by encouraging school leaders and educators to build qualities within the students and change school systems and processes.     

STEAM教育对我国幼儿艺术教育的启示

STEAM教育作为一种新的教育范式,被全世界各个国家采用。近年来,幼儿教育界也掀起了STEAM教育风潮。目前,我国的幼儿艺术教育正在经历着转型时期,STEAM教育为我国艺术教育提供了借鉴:加强教育的跨学科性和融合性、注重教育内容的生活化和情境性、扩展艺术教育的内涵和外延、树立坚定的STEAM教育理念。     

Parent involvement in early childhood: a comparison of English language learners and English first language families

This study evaluated parents’ communication, involvement and knowledge of their children’s abilities in reading and mathematics among parents who spoke English as a first language (EL1) and those who were English language learners (ELL). Forty‐two kindergarten‐aged children, their parents and their teachers participated in the study. Results indicated that EL1 parents communicated more frequently with the teacher than ELL parents. However, there were no language group differences in parents’ involvement in their children’s education (as rated by the teacher). For both groups of parents (EL1 and ELL), parents’ ratings of their children’s abilities in reading did not predict children’s reading scores. However, parents’ ratings of their children’s abilities in mathematics did predict their children’s mathematics scores. Further analyses indicated that this relationship was not mediated by parents’ communication or involvement. It is concluded that parents’ accurate knowledge of their children’s abilities in mathematics may be the result of their involvement at home and particularly for ELL parents, their greater understanding of and emphasis on mathematics learning.     

Examining the Reggio Emilia Approach to Early Childhood Education

Reggio Emilia, a prosperous region in Northern Italy, is the site of one of the most innovative, high-quality city-run infant-toddler and pre-primary systems in the world. The Reggio Emilia Approach to early childhood education draws from the ideas of many great thinkers, yet it is much more than an eclectic mix of theories. With that in mind, the following points concerning the learner, the instructor, and knowledge serve to guide the Reggio Emilia Approach to educating young children: the learner possesses rights, is an active constructor of knowledge, and is a social being; the instructor is a collaborator and co-learner along with the child, a guide and facilitator, and a researcher; and knowledge is viewed as being socially constructed, encompassing multiple forms of knowing, and comprised of meaningful wholes.