Promoting Community in Early Childhood Programs: A Comparison of Two Programs

Every interaction within an early childhood program either promotes community or disrupts it. Therefore, excellent early childhood programs have in place a process that pulls the energies and abilities of all the members of the school community together so that everyone—children, educators, parents, and community members—develop well. In particular, healthy interactions between educators and families create the necessary conditions for the early childhood programs: (1) to impact the lifepaths of the families; and, in turn, (2) to engage the families in the work of improving the early childhood programs. In this article, research on the Jewish Early Childhood Education Initiative (JECEI) is presented. JECEI was selected for study because JECEI early childhood programs are characterized by healthy relationships, the capacity to successfully promote children’s learning and development, and the engagement of families in the work of school improvement.     

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.     

Children's Temperament and Behavior in Montessori and Constructivist Early Childhood Programs

This study tested the hypothesis that curriculum type (Montessori and constructivist) moderates the impact of temperament (specifically activity level and attention-span/persistence) on the classroom behavior of 3- to 5-year-old children. Mothers enrolled in Montessori and constructivist preschools filled out the Colorado Childhood Temperament Inventory. The children's teachers filled out the Preschool Behavior Questionnaire and the Preschool Adjustment Questionnaire. A near-significant trend suggested that temperamentally active boys were more likely to be perceived by their teachers as having behavior problems if they were enrolled in Montessori programs than if they were enrolled in constructivist programs. There was no such trend for girls. There was no evidence that temperamental attention-span persistence moderated the impact of curriculum type on either boys' or girls' behavior. The findings thus give modest support to the notion that parents should be advised to select constructivist early childhood programs especially for boys who are temperamentally predisposed to be highly modifying their teaching practices to better accommodate the needs of these children active. In addition, directors and teachers in Montessori programs may consider modifying their teaching practices to better accommodate the needs of these children.     

Creating a Climate of Self-Awareness in Early Childhood Teacher Preparation Programs

This article discusses the importance of helping preservice teachers develop a sense of self-awareness. This involves, in part, helping preservice teachers develop an ability to examine and identify the personal characteristics, beliefs and attitudes that make them who they are and influence the way they think about teaching and learning. The authors offer several suggestions for creating a climate in teacher education programs that will promote a developing sense of self-awareness in preservice teachers.     

计算机与幼儿园课程的整合

本文主要探讨了计算机整合于幼儿园课程的几个问题,包括怎样理解计算机整合于幼儿因课程的含义,将计算机整合于幼儿因课程的意义,以及整合的具体方式,并对整合过程中遇到的问题如教师自身的计算机基础、软件在课程整合中的作用等问题进行了简要探讨。     

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.     

Introduction to the Special Issue: Unpacking Quality in Early Childhood Programs

Life in culture is, then, an interplay between the versions of the world that people form under its institutional sway and the version of it that are products of their individual histories. It rarely conforms to anything resembling a cookbook of recipes or formulas, for it is a universal of all cultures that they contain factional or institutional interests. Nonetheless, any particular individual's idiosyncratic interpretations of the world are constantly subject to judgment against what are taken to be the canonical beliefs of the culture at large. Such communal judgments, though often governed by "rational" and evidentiary criteria, are just as often dominated by commitments, tastes, interests, and expressions of adherence to the culture's values relating to the good life, decency, legitimacy, or power. (Bruner, 1996, p. 14)     

发达国家幼儿教育师资供给与保障经验借鉴及启示

幼儿教育师资供给与保障是学前教育事业发展的瓶颈,在我国大力发展学前教育时期关注这一问题意义重大。发达国家一直比较重视幼儿教育师资队伍的建设问题,他们在幼儿教师的职前培养、入职标准、职后培训以及工作待遇保障等方面都有许多值得我们借鉴的经验。在充分比较分析的基础上,本研究提出幼儿教师职前培养:高中起点本科化,幼儿教师入职标准:严格把关体系化,幼儿教师职后培训:政策保障分层化以及幼儿教师工作待遇:政策倾斜吸纳优秀人才等一系列强化我国幼教师资供给与保障的具体做法,期望能对我国的幼教师资供给与保障提供借鉴与指导。     

Understanding and Building upon Children's Perceptions of Play Activities in Early Childhood Programs

Early childhood educators are in agreement that children should spend part of each day engaged in play activities. Play is generally viewed by adults as a time when children direct their own activity. However, little discussion has focused on how children and teachers in the same classroom perceive playtime. This article reviews research on the differences between children's and teachers' views of play and presents a continuum of activities from work to play. Based upon observations of how one child was redirected during free playtime, the author suggests ways in which teachers might respect and foster children's play.     

The Quality of Work Life in NAEYC Accredited and Nonaccredited Early Childhood Programs

This study assessed differences in the work environments of NAEYC accredited and nonaccredited centers. The sample included 5,008 directors, teachers, and support staff who worked in 60 accredited and 320 nonaccredited child care centers in 33 states. Individuals completed the Early Childhood Work Environment Survey assessing their perceptions of different organizational practices. Data were aggregated using the center as the unit of analysis. The results revealed that there were notable differences between accredited and nonaccredited programs relating to the quality of work life for staff. In 10 dimensions of organizational climate, there were statistically significant differences between accredited and nonaccredited programs. The four dimensions which together accounted for the greatest variation in differences were innovativeness, goal consensus, opportunities for professional growth, and clarity. Statistically significant differences were also registered in staffs level of job commitment, staff turnover, and teachers' current and desired levels of decision- making influence.     

Enhancing Early Childhood Development Through Arts Integration in Economically Disadvantaged Learning Environments

Education in the arts continues to struggle for inclusion in PreK-12 classrooms as public schools face increasing challenges from high stakes testing, Common Core politics, and endless budget cuts. Advocates point to the growing body of research linking art education to academic achievement as justification for arts’ continued inclusion in the curriculum. In its 2005 report, the National Association of State Boards of Education highlighted this research trend and called for stronger emphasis on arts in educational curricula (Meyer in Arts Educ Policy Rev 106(3):35–40, 2005). Yet despite the evidence, school districts across the nation have been slow to include more arts programming within the classroom. This study, however, examines one school district that did. In a collaborative project between a large urban school district and a local arts and science council, an arts integration program called Wolf Trap was implemented in economically disadvantaged pre-Kindergarten and first-grade classrooms at selected schools across the district. Objectives of the program were to: (a) improve school readiness skills among participants; (b) increase capacity of classroom teachers to learn and implement effective arts-based teaching strategies; and (c) increase the capacity of teaching artists to acquire and model effective arts-based teaching strategies. This study evaluates the effectiveness of the program using data from the teaching artists, classroom teachers, and the external evaluators. We discuss the program in detail and explain the methodology used in our evaluation. Finally, we present evidence that indicates the program’s success and we offer recommendations for program stakeholders.     

基于CIPP评价模型的国际学前教育指标体系研究

在我国"办好学前教育"背景下,构建一套具有本土立场和国际视野、能够系统引领和科学评价我国学前教育事业发展的学前教育指标体系已成为亟待解决的重大问题。本研究以在国际上具有重大影响的CIPP评价模型为理论分析框架,以美国、英国等6个主要国家的学前教育指标体系为比较对象,对世界各国有影响的学前教育指标体系进行描述和比较,并在此基础上为我国学前教育指标体系建设提出建议。     

欧盟国家发展私立学前机构的经验探究

欧盟国家发展私立学前机构的经验主要体现在四个方面:关注私立学前机构的三大功能,将其作为建设福利国家的重要手段;努力兴办"付得起"的学前教育,为私立学前机构提供政府拨款;通过加强学前教育立法,促进私立学前机构的健康发展;重视国家和地方政府之间的分工与合作.     

界定早期教育质量必须考虑的三个维度

上世纪70年代以来,早期教育质量一直备受研究者、家长和政策制定者的关注,但是这一领域却充满了争议,人们对早期教育质量是主观的还是客观的,谁有权力决定质量的内涵,以及如何测量质量等存在着不同的看法.未来的研究需要在具体的历史背景下重新建构早期教育质量的内涵,整合早期教育质量观在以上三个维度上的不同争议,并与幼儿的发展紧密联系起来.     

托幼机构教育质量评价的多元概化理论分析

探讨托幼机构教育质量评价的信度,对提高评价的科学性和权威性具有重要意义.本文运用多元概化理论,对某次托幼机构教育质量的评价数据进行分析.评价工具为《中国托幼机构教育质量评价量表(试用版)》,评价对象为浙江省不同地区的22个托幼机构的48个班级.分析结果表明:在六个子量表中,子量表一(空间与设施)的方差分量最大,子量表三(集体教育活动)的方差分量最小;子量表三与其他五个子量表的协方差相对较小;各个子量表的可靠性指数都在0.8以上,合成可靠性指数也在0.9以上;通过增加评价者人数可以提高评价的信度,但是提高的幅度在逐步减小.