Responding to children's answers: Questions embedded in the social context of early childhood education
This article presents analysis of question-answer sequences during problem inquiry between a teacher and two children in an early childhood creche in New Zealand. Conversation analysis is used to reveal which questions the teacher asks, how children answer the questions, and the teacher's responses to the child's answers. Although adults' 'effective' questions were identified and promoted in the REPEY study much less attention has been given to how adults respond to children's answers. It is imperative to investigate the sequences of talk which follow a question in order to establish how teaching and learning is co-constructed in context, one utterance at a time and as a joint project between teacher and child. The findings suggest that task problems and emotional problems are treated in a similar way during problem inquiry, highlighting the complexity of interactions when teachers are providing both emotional care and educational support for young children. (author abstract)
Reports & Papers
"NAEYC's key attributes of quality preschool programs" applied to the Jordanian kindergarten context
Jordan's education system is currently undergoing rigorous and comprehensive reform processes that focus on improving the status of educational policies and experiences for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Kindergarten education in Jordan has been dominated until recently, by the private-sector. For the past decade, the Ministry of Education has taken initiative to provide government-funded kindergarten programs. The main objective of this research was to evaluate program practices implemented by private and public-sector programs and examine their alignment with Developmentally Appropriate Practices. Using NAEYC's "Top 10 Signs of a Good Kindergarten Classroom" as evaluative guidelines, observational data was collected from 118 classrooms (50-private, 68-public). Demographic data were also obtained from classroom teachers; level of education, specialty, and years of experience. The results of the analysis revealed significant differences in application of the 10 NAEYC guidelines between public and private-sector programs. Ministry of Education kindergarten classroom practices were found to be closely aligned to best practices compared to private-sector programs. Also, teachers with bachelor's degrees and those with early childhood education backgrounds outperformed their counterparts in the application of Developmentally Appropriate Practices. Years of experience yielded no significant results for this sample of teachers. Reflecting on the results of this study, several recommendations were posed. (author abstract)
Reports & Papers
The effect of a classroom-based intensive robotics and programming workshop on sequencing ability in early childhood
This paper examines the impact of programming robots on sequencing ability during a 1-week intensive robotics workshop at an early childhood STEM magnet school in the Harlem area of New York City. Children participated in computer programming activities using a developmentally appropriate tangible programming language CHERP, specifically designed to program a robot's behaviors. The study assessed 27 participants' sequencing skills before and after the programming and robotics curricular intervention using a picture-story sequencing task and compared those skills to a control group. Pre-test and post-test scores were compared using a paired sample t test. The group of children who participated in the 1-week robotics and programming workshop experienced significant increases in post-test compared to pre-test sequencing scores. (author abstract)
Reports & Papers
How do early childhood education teachers perceive their expertise?: A qualitative study of child care providers in Lapland, Finland
Every preschool age child in Finland has the right to child care. Well-educated staff consists of all-round experts who work in versatile contexts with various children in a multi-professional collaboration. This staff is one of the strengths of the Finnish child care system. The aim of this article is to clarify the expertise of those early childhood education teachers, who have the competence of kindergarten teachers (n = 80) and discuss how the development of early childhood education teachers' expertise could be supported in a small country like Finland, and more specifically, in its northernmost part, the province of Lapland. This was a qualitative study. The data consisted of the early educators' stories of their growth toward expertise. The analysis method was content analysis. Four themes emerged from the analysis of the early educators' growth toward expertise. According to the informants, education, work experience, personal life history and personal attitudes toward work had been the most influential variables in the process of growth toward their expertise. This research showed that the development of early childhood education teachers' expertise necessitates new kinds of working methods and measures for educational planning. In addition, there is need for individual development plans as the work has become more and more collegial and it is necessary to expand a notion of individual expertise into the realm of collaborative and socially shared expertise. (author abstract)
Reports & Papers
Classroom Practices Frequency Scale
Instruments
Classroom Practices Teacher Survey
Instruments
Classroom Practices Observation Measure
Instruments
The longitudinal interplay of psychopathology and social competence during Chinese children's transition to preschool
The present study examined the longitudinal relations between psychopathology and social competence in a sample of 115 Chinese children during the transition to preschool initiated in their third year of life. Social competence was assessed by maternal reports at three months after preschool entry (T1) and at the end of the first (T2) and second (T3) preschool years. Internalizing and externalizing symptoms were assessed by maternal reports at T1 and T2. The results showed that T1 externalizing predicted rank-order decreases in social competence from T2 to T3. T1 Internalizing predicted rank-order decreases in social competence from T1 to T2 but growth of competence from T1 to T3 and rank-order increases in competence from T2 to T3. Rank-order decreases in internalizing from T1 to T2 also predicted rank-order increases in social competence from T2 to T3. These longitudinal relations held across gender and proved robust to the inclusion of broad individual and family process variables as covariates. (author abstract)
Reports & Papers
Early childhood education and care (ECEC) and reading acquisition in at-risk readers: Does quantity matter?
Early childhood education and care (ECEC), involving nonparental preschool supervision and programming for children in centre-based and school contexts, can influence academic outcomes during elementary years. We present preliminary findings identifying quantity and timing as important but relatively little investigated aspects of ECEC experience. We focus on associations among cumulative ECEC hours during the early preschool (birth to 24 months prior to the commencement of Grade 1) and late preschool (24 months prior to Grade 1) periods, and later growth in children's achievement in letter naming, decoding, and reading comprehension. Ninety-four children, aged 72 to 91 months at the outset, were examined across five testing occasions spanning the first two-and-a-half years of formal schooling. The quantity of ECEC in the early and late periods did not independently account for significant variance in initial status or growth in reading outcomes. However, differential influences of timing and quantity in children at risk of developing reading difficulty and in children experiencing family SES risk were found for decoding and comprehension. Results are consistent with a contextual support model of influence of ECEC quantity, and they indicate contextual circumstances in which ECEC experience may be a protective factor for early reading development. (author abstract)
Reports & Papers
Building the capacity of OST organizations through peer networking: Policy brief on the peer networking meetings of the Out-of-School Time Research Center (OSTRC) at the University of Pennsylvania
An examination of the operations and participant outcomes of peer networking meetings for out-of-school time program staff in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, based on meeting materials and interviews with meeting organizers
Reports & Papers
Early childhood education: Pathways to better health
An examination of children's health outcomes in early childhood education programs and of program features associated with positive health outcomes
Other
Key elements of a QRIS validation plan: Guidance and planning template
A guide and tools to ensure that child care quality rating and improvement systems accurately measure and rate quality
Methods
Measuring the quality and quantity of implementation in early childhood interventions
A discussion of the concepts of quality and quantity in the implementation of early childhood interventions, and an examination of the use of implementation data in early childhood intervention research, based on a review of 57 journal articles
Literature Review
Measuring implementation of early childhood interventions at multiple system levels
A discussion of measuring the implementation of early childhood interventions within multiple-level service delivery systems, with examples of tools for multiple-level assessments
Methods
Intervention dosage in early childhood care and education: It's complicated
A discussion of the concept of dosage in early childhood care and education interventions and its role in their implementation
Fact Sheets & Briefs
Optimal taxation, child care and models of the household
This paper presents for the first time the properties of optimal piecewise linear tax systems for two-earner households, based on joint and individual incomes respectively. A key contribution is the analysis of the interaction of second earner wage differences, variation in prices of bought-in inputs into household production in the form of child care, and domestic productivity differences as determinants of across-household heterogeneity in second earner labour supply. The analysis highlights the importance of the elasticity of substitution between parental and non-parental child care in determining the relationship between utility and income across households. A central result is that taking account of a richer and more realistic specification of household time use widens the set of cases in which individual taxation is welfare-superior to joint taxation. (author abstract)
Other
Trends in child care licensing: 2011
An examination of state child care licensing requirements and policies, including those related to monitoring and enforcement, ratios and group size, staff qualifications, parent communication, health and nutrition, emergency preparedness, and inclusion
Other
State child care licensing requirements to promote healthy weight
An overview of provisions in state child care licensing regulations related to nutrition, physical activity, and screen time
Other
Snapshot of parent's experiences of childcare and afterschool care
An examination of the child care perceptions and preferences of parents in Ireland, based on survey responses from 1,213 parents
Reports & Papers
Licensed child care questionnaire 2012 results
A study of the hours and days of operation, prices charged, wages paid, and finances of licensed child care providers in Ontario, Canada, based on survey responses from 3,459 licensed providers
Reports & Papers
Ready or not?: Assessing kindergarten readiness in Central Texas [Executive summary]
A summary of a study of the school readiness of Central Texas kindergarteners in four competency domains and of the relationship of school readiness to children's sociodemographic characteristics and early childhood program experiences, based on teacher assessments for a representative sample of 853 children
Executive Summary
Ready or not?: Assessing kindergarten readiness in Central Texas
A study of the school readiness of Central Texas kindergarteners in four competency domains and of the relationship of school readiness to children's sociodemographic characteristics and early childhood program experiences, based on teacher assessments for a representative sample of 853 children
Reports & Papers
Ready or not?: Assessing kindergarten readiness in Central Texas: Executive summary
A summary of a study of the school readiness of Central Texas kindergarteners in four competency domains and of the relationship of school readiness to children's economic status and prekindergarten attendance, based on teacher assessments for a representative sample of 913 children
Executive Summary
Ready or not?: Assessing kindergarten readiness in Central Texas
A study of the school readiness of Central Texas kindergarteners in four competency domains and of the relationship of school readiness to children's economic status and prekindergarten attendance, based on teacher assessments for a representative sample of 913 children
Reports & Papers
Research into Practices to Support a Positive Start to School: Report summary
A summary of findings from a project to support promising practices in the transition to primary school at 15 sites in Victoria, Australia, based on reflections and feedback from teachers, family focus groups, and child interviews
Fact Sheets & Briefs
