Predicting process quality from structural quality in preschool programs: a cross-country comparison

In this cross-national study, the relations between structural and process quality in preschool classrooms are examined and compared across four countries—Germany (n = 82), Portugal (n = 80), Spain (n = 55), and the United States (n = 288). Process quality was assessed using the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale and the Caregiver Interaction Scale. Structural quality variables include classroom, center, wage, and regional characteristics. A MANOVA found differences in levels of structural variables used in the different countries. Hierarchical regression, in which blocks of structural variables were entered according to their relative proximity to process quality, indicated that despite the diversity of the national systems, many of the same structural features have an impact on process quality. However, no one consistently powerful predictor of process quality was found, and there was no single block of variables with an overwhelming influence. The findings are viewed in terms of possibilities for improving process quality through manipulation of structural characteristics.     

The Preschool Learning Assessment Device: An approach to the dynamic assessment of young children

This paper describes the Preschool Learning Assessment Device, a dynamic assessment approach appropriate for use with children between the ages of three through five years. The approach is related to Feuerstein’s Learning Potential Assessment Device and to a general dynamic assessment paradigm. Research information from two studies investigating this procedure is described, and a specific case example is provided.     

Predictors of preschool process quality in a Chinese context

This study examined how well (i) structural measures which are monitored by the government such as the physical environment, Health/Safety, Staff qualifications and Staff–child ratios; and (ii) management-related measures such as administration/evaluation, and Staff–parent interactions predicted process quality of preschools in Hong Kong. Focusing on provision for 4-year-olds, 60 preschools, representative of the range of preschools in Hong Kong, were observed to determine process quality. Information about structural measures was obtained through interviews of principals/supervisors and complemented by observations. Results indicated significant intercorrelations among structural, management-related and process measures. There was considerable variability in process quality with higher process quality evident in preschools which exceeded government requirements for staff qualifications, space and equipment, and staff–child ratios. Structural and management-related measures significantly contributed to prediction of process quality and accounted for 27% of the variance in it. These findings have implications for increasing the stringency of regulatory requirements and training focusing on the management of preschools in Hong Kong.     

Thai preschool teachers' views about inclusive education for young children with disabilities

It is generally assumed that preschool teachers play a crucial daily role in the inclusion of young children with a disability in education settings. In many countries, however, there are little available data to inform such a view. Part of a larger project with 528 preschool teachers from northern Thailand, the aim of the study reported here was to examine Thai preschool teachers' views of inclusive education for young Thai children with disabilities. Twenty preschool teachers with a range of attitudes to the inclusion of young children with a disability were interviewed about their views and five themes developed from the interview analysis. Those themes were the current situation, teachers' knowledge and expertise, teachers' attitude towards inclusion and disability, collaboration, and challenges for future inclusion.     

Connecting digital elements with physical learning contexts: an educational escape-the-room game for supporting learning in young children

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the current study was to investigate students’ overall learning process during the implementation of educational escape-the-room games (EERGs) in classrooms. This study adopted a two-stage case-study methodology, namely single-case and multi-case designs. In the first stage, a well-designed EERG for a Chinese language class was developed on a web-based game platform. A total of 15 second-grade students from a public elementary school in Taiwan used tablet computers to engage in problem-solving tasks in the EERG. In the second stage, five schoolteachers from other elementary schools who had adopted similar EERGs in their classrooms in the previous academic year participated in the study to share their instructional experiences. The results indicated that students actively collaborated with their team members to address problem-solving tasks during the EERG activity. Positive collaborative learning experiences and learning attitudes towards the EERG were identified in the students’ self-reflection worksheets.     

Validation of an assessment centre process for the selection of school leaders in Chile

This study seeks to develop and validate an Assessment Centre (AC) tool for the evaluation and selection of school leaders, focusing on the identification of competencies that influence teaching and learning outcomes. International research supports the creation of Assessment Centres to select candidates for these roles, due to their superior predictive capacity over traditional methods. In this research, a model composed of four face-to-face instruments (an interview to assess competencies, a human resources exercise, a class observation exercise, and a strategic analysis exercise) was designed and validated which simulated the key tasks of a school principal. To establish the desired performance outcomes, three competencies and 15 indicators were selected, based on international and local standards. The analysis of performance results was obtained from a sample of 164 participants made up of teachers, school leaders and principals. The results suggest positive evidence for construct validity, concurrent criteria validity, and reliability between evaluators. Moreover, the data obtained from a sub-sample of principals, with three or more years of experience in their role, allowed for the association of their AC scores with the results of their school organisations, as measured by the National System for the Measurement of Educational Quality in the years 2013 and 2016.     

Learning in interactive science centres

The potential of informal sources of science learning to supplement and interact with formal classroom science is receiving increasing recognition and attention in the research literature. In this study, a phenomenographic approach was used to determine changes in levels of understanding of 27 grade 7 primary school children as a result of a visit to an interactive science centre. The results showed that most students did change their levels of understanding of aspects of the concept “sound”. The study also provides information which will be of assistance to teachers on the levels of understanding displayed by students on this concept. Specializations: informal science learning, science curriculum Specializations: science education, science teacher education, conceptual change, learning environments.     

Questions,Answers and Wait-time: implications for assessment of young children

While testing children for readiness to enter Kindergarten using the Peabody Individual Achievement Test-R and interview probes, a pattern of responses developed indicating that some of the children were continuing to process answers to questions and to formulate elaborations to statements long after the testing had moved to other questions and lines of inquiry. This development was then examined to determine whether young children should be given extended thinking/processing time in order to properly and completely demonstrate their abilities and knowledge. Consideration of validity and relevance must also be given to answers that may at first appear to be irrelevant to the latest question asked. The implications of the data for planning, developing, and implementing assessment as well as decisions regarding curriculum and instruction are discussed.     

Young learners: teachers' conceptualisation and practice of literacy in Australian preschool contexts

This paper examines how literacy is defined and enacted by teachers in early childhood programmes pointing to the differing ways views of early literacy impact practice. It is argued here that early literacy development during the years before school is dependent on children's experiences of having literacy activities modelled around them and the ways in which adults include them in their everyday literacy interactions. Early childhood teachers reveal differing understandings of early literacy during the years before formal school and this impacts their decisions concerning literacy activities and practice within their preschool rooms. Three early childhood teachers are presented here, through video clips and video-stimulated interviews around their literacy activities with preschool children. They demonstrate a range of practice which is shown to depend on their views of young children's literacy development. These vignettes have implications for further professional discussion and learning.     

Multimodal Learning Analytics research with young children: A systematic review

Learning Analytics and Multimodal Learning Analytics are changing the way of analysing the learning process while students interact with an educational content. This paper presents a systematic literature review aimed at describing practices in recent Multimodal Learning Analytics and Learning Analytics research literature in order to identify tools and strategies useful for the assessment of the progress and behaviour of children under 6 years old in respect of their learning. The purpose is to provide guidance for Multimodal Learning Analytics research with children under 6 years old to assess their engagement in a task, their emotions, attention, understanding and achievement of a goal. The current state of knowledge on Multimodal Learning Analytics research suggests how performance analytics, face and speech recognition systems, eye tracking, Kinect analytics and wristbands could be used with children. The results show the complexity of collecting data using non-invasive methodologies with children under 6 years old. Ethical implications related to multimodal data from audio, visual, biometric and quantitative measures of child behaviour are discussed.     

Self-concept assessment for young children: Development of a self-report, peer comparison measure

The present investigation concerned the development of the Primary Self-Concept Inventory (PSCI), a group-administered self-report self-concept inventory for children of ages 5 through 8. Replicated analysis of the factor structure of the PSCI data indicated that a seven-component pattern provides an appropriate fit. As a result of this analysis, seven subscales were formed. Acceptable test—retest reliability estimates were obtained for administrations separated by a 6-month interval. On the basis of these results, the PSCI was accepted as a research tool, and recommendations for further investigation of the inventory were made.     

Learning outcomes in professional contexts in higher education

With the policy of developing a, transparent and competitive European higher education sector, learning outcomes (LOs) are attributed a foundation stone role in policy and curriculum development. A premise for their implementation is that they bear fundamental similarities across national, institutional or professional/disciplinary contexts. In contrast, detractors suggest that LOs cannot communicate precisely across programmes or national boundaries. With this as a backdrop, this article analyses how LOs are used to communicate what students are to learn and the extent to which their use drives standardisation. The analysis is based on a case study of how LOs are formulated in study programme documents in two professional education programmes in Norway and the UK. The findings indicate that LOs can be considered to drive standardisation through the same presentation using bullet points. The study also finds that LOs are framed in different ways in the two countries and within the different study programmes and in a web of interconnected documents. This ‘local’ structural use of LOs disrupts their ‘foundation stone’ role as a vehicle for standardisation and weakens the establishment of sameness across institutions and nations.     

Reinforcing contingencies for sex-role behaviors in preschool children

Two groups of disadvantaged Afro-American children, a total of 30 boys and 25 girls, mean age about 42 months; and two groups of middle- and upper-middle-class children, most of them white, 35 boys and 31 girls, mean age about 44.5 months, were observed for patterns of sex-role-characteristic behavior and peer and teacher response to such behavior. At all times, the children in the two experimental groups were being taught by seven women and seven or eight men, about half of whom were Afro-American, half white-Anglo, and who were mixed in the two schools by race but evenly divided by sex. Boys engaged in 16% sex-characteristic behavior, 5.7% cross-sex behavior. The same figures for girls were 18 and 6%. There were no pattern or percentage differences by race or social status of children. Women teachers gave most of their sex-role connected rewards for feminine behavior to both boys and girls. Men teachers rewarded more equably, masculine behaviors for boys, feminine behaviors for girls. Children rewarded mainly their own sex, and gave rewards for sex characteristic behavior. The pattern was even clearer for boys than for girls. In Discussion, comparisons are made with other somewhat similar studies.     

浅议家庭中的学前儿童科学教育

家庭是学前儿童的第一所学校,是他们生活时间最长、影响最大的教育环境。家庭科学教育是学前儿童科学教育活动的重要组成部分,在家庭中开展科学教育活动对儿童的成长具有特别重要的意义。