The Changing Landscape of Early Childhood Education: Implications for Policy and Practice

Early childhood education is changing rapidly due to the dynamic nature of positive and negative trends affecting the profession. In this article, the changing landscape of early childhood education is discussed and analyzed. Both the positive and negative forces contributing to the changing landscape are examined. The focus of this discussion includes changing demographics, changes in early childhood curriculum and instruction, increased focus on accountability, advances in research that inform early childhood education, influences affecting teacher preparation and professional development, and global trends affecting early education and care. We relate these trends to the need for holistic systems-thinking, integrated curricula, child-centered pedagogical standards, deeper commitment to social justice and a corresponding moral vision capable of inspiring educational policy, practice and research in the midst of a competitive global economy and the commodification of early childhood programs and curricula. By discussing practical examples and research findings to illustrate current positive and negative trends, this paper serves as a meaningful resource for all stakeholders. Taking recent dynamics into account, we provide a vision for evaluating change and analyzing major trends. Both implications and responses to the changes in the early childhood landscape are discussed.     

Reclaiming Kindergarten: Part I. Questions about Theory and Practice

The purpose of this article is to describe the crisis that exists in kindergarten today related to maintaining developmentally and culturally appropriate practice while at the same time addressing the academic standards set forth by most states. In Part I, three questions are posed, the answers to which seek to elucidate possible solutions to this dilemma. The questions center on issues related to developmentally appropriate practice, intentional teaching, and assessment. Research and expert opinion associated to each of these areas are discussed, and examples of classroom practice are used to illustrate the effective implementation of these principles in a kindergarten classroom.     

Inclusive pedagogy and knowledge in special education: addressing the tension

There has been an increasing focus in policy and practice on adopting inclusive pedagogy as a way of reconceptualising how schools work with children with special educational needs (SEN). The paper considers the split between knowledge and pedagogy inherent in some dominant strains of inclusive pedagogy. Drawing on the ‘knowledge turn’ in curriculum studies, we argue that although an analytical distinction between knowledge and pedagogy may be useful, too strong a delineation between the two fails to best serve the needs of children with special needs. Specific implications for teacher education in relation to SEN in England are considered.     

Verbal aggression in violent and nonviolent marital disputes

Recent research suggests that verbal aggression may function as a catalyst to violence between spouses in marital disputes. Communication skills deficiencies may predispose spouses to rely upon verbal aggression in family conflict situations instead of more constructive forms of communication such as argumentation. This suggests a need to understand better the role of verbal aggression in interspousal violence. A study is presented which compared a sample of nonabused wives to a clinical sample of abused wives in terms of self‐reports of the use of verbal aggression by the husband and wife in their most recent dispute. While there were several differences between the two groups, of the ten types of verbally aggressive messages examined, character attacks most clearly differentiated violent from nonviolent marital disputes. Two hypotheses which predicted the degree of verbal aggression in violent and nonviolent disputes and the relationship between husband and wife usage were supported. Implications are discussed especially in terms of studying interspousal violence from a communication orientation.     

RESEARCH REPORT

Studies exploring school students' views about science have not always distinguished between different branches of science. Here, the views of 1395 secondary school students aged 11–16 about physics and, as a science comparator, biology were determined using a closed‐form questionnaire. Over the period of secondary schooling a decreasing proportion of students expressed a liking for physics, fewer thought it was interesting and more thought it was boring. These changes did not apply to biology. There was an increasing view that the study of physics, but not biology, required mathematical skills. Fewer students thought that physics, compared with biology, could contribute to the solution of medical or environmental problems. Suggestions that physics might offer good employment prospects did not influence students' liking of physics. Factor analysis suggested that the oldest group of students distinguished between physics and biology in terms of their general characteristics – to the detriment of physics.