‘It makes me a better teacher’: the benefits of outdoor learning for teachers

In this article, we explore inconsistencies in the implementation of outdoor learning across Australian early years’ education. The benefits of outdoor learning justify regular employment of this pedagogical approach in both early childhood education and primary school settings. Early childhood education services provide daily outdoor learning opportunities as required by Australian national policy documents. However, Australian primary schools are not subject to such requirements and teachers often face challenges regarding outdoor learning, thus regular implementation in primary classes can be a low priority. As children in the year before school and the first year of school have similar learning and developmental needs, we argue that the benefits of outdoor learning should be available to all children across the early years. We also recommend regular outdoor learning in the first year of schooling to promote continuity as children transition from early childhood education to primary schools.

A high percentage of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) show elevated challenges in learning to read. We investigated longitudinal predictors of reading skills in 41 children diagnosed with ASD. All children completed measures of precursor literacy skills at the age of 4-5 years, including phonological awareness, letter sound knowledge, rapid automatic naming, name writing, and phonological memory (digit span), along with measures of word- and passage-level reading skills in their first year of formal schooling. Nonverbal cognition and letter sound knowledge accounted for 53.4% of the variance in regular single word reading at school age, with letter sound knowledge a significant individual predictor. Overall, 18 children showed reading ability scores in the average range on a standardized test of passage-level reading ability, whereas 23 children performed below expectations. These groups differed significantly on all precursor literacy measures (at ages 4-5), except autism symptoms based on parent report. Group membership was significantly predicted by preschool receptive vocabulary, name writing, and rapid automatic naming, with high sensitivity and specificity. These results are discussed in reference to the literature describing early literacy predictors for typically developing children, highlighting key areas for future intervention and support. Autism Res 2018, 11: 1332-1344. © 2018 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: Children with autism are at increased risk of persistent reading difficulties. We examined whether preschool reading-related skills linked to later reading ability. Performance on the following three tasks administered at preschool predicted children who showed early reading success versus below expectations in their first year of school: vocabulary, name writing, and rapid naming of familiar objects and shapes. These results can inform future interventions.

The first year of primary school aims to be closely connected with early childhood education, yet this is often invisible in the curriculum of specific subjects. This paper sets out an approach that uses mathematical practices as a curriculum tool that reconceptualises school mathematics. Using the early childhood mathematics framework of Te Kākano, the strands of mathematical practices are important descriptors of mathematical activity for children. We describe examples of mathematical learning from both early childhood and the first year of school, and make a case for using mathematical practices as a conceptual tool for designing a mathematics curriculum in the first years of school.

Longitudinal associations between parental mathematics anxiety and attitudes and young children’s mathematics attainment

As part of the Victorian Early Numeracy Research Project, over 1400 Victorian children in the first (Preparatory) year of school were assessed in mathematics by their classroom teachers. Using a task-based, one-to-one interview, administered during the first and last month of the school year, a picture emerged of the mathematical knowledge and understanding that young children bring to school, and the changes in this knowledge and understanding during the first year of school. A major feature of this research was that high quality, robust information on young children’s mathematical understanding was collected for so many children. An important finding was that much of what has traditionally formed the mathematics curriculum for the first year of school was already understood clearly by many children on arrival at school. In this article, data on children’s understanding are shared, and some implications for classroom practice are discussed.

IntroductionThe first years of school are critical in establishing a foundation for positive long-term academic, social and well-being outcomes. Mindfulness-based interventions may help students transition well into school, but few...

This study describes trajectories of early literacy skill development of 99 children (n = 55 boys) in their first year of primary school in New Zealand (NZ). Children were assessed twice weekly for 8 weeks on Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS; Good & Kaminski, 2011) First Sound Fluency (FSF) and AIMSweb Letter Sound Fluency (LSF; Shinn & Shinn, 2002), with other early literacy and beginning reading skills assessed before and after progress monitoring. FSF and LSF growth trajectories were modeled separately. Multilevel modeling indicated improved performance; however, growth mixture modeling indicated 3 growth trajectories (i.e., latent classes; FSF and LSF, respectively): typical (77.6% of children, 65.7%), developing (10.8%, 14.6%), and limited progress (11.6%, 19.7%). Beginning of year screening was sometimes associated with latent class membership, whereas latent class membership differentiated mid- and year-end literacy skills. Results support progress monitoring of early literacy skills within the NZ context to aid earlier identification of children at-risk for difficulties with reading acquisition. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The purpose of this study was to investigate changes in anthropometrical characteristics during the last year (autumn-spring) in preschool and first year (autumn-spring) in school. Changes in anthropometrical characteristics during summer months were also studied (spring-autumn). The subjects were 130 boys and 122 girls, 6 years of age at the beginning of the investigation. The body height and mass were measured and the BMI (kg/m2) was calculated. In total, eight skinfolds, 10 girths and two bone widths were measured. In boys, the body height and mass were higher than in girls, while the skinfold thicknesses were thicker in girls. There were only very few significant differences between sexes in girth parameters. The width parameters were higher in boys. Our results indicated that there were more significant changes in skinfold thickness, girths and width parameters during winter in preschool in comparison with first year in school in boys, while there were only a very few significant changes during summer months in boys. In contrast, there were more significant changes in school in girls. The Spearman correlations between baseline and after 6, 12 and 18 months of study indicated that the tracking of body height was high in boys and girls. Body mass tracking was high in girls and moderate in boys, while BMI tracking was moderate in both groups. The tracking coefficients of skinfold thicknesses were relatively stable during the two years of study and mostly at the moderate level (r = 0.3-0.6). Tracking coefficients of girths measures were at moderate level, but lower in boys in comparison with girls. It was concluded that social changes and probably changes in the physical activity during transition from preschool to school slightly influenced the measured anthropometrical parameters.

Objectives: This study aimed to identify changes in the children’s happiness and in the paths from their academic performances, school adjustment after elementary school entrance, and the mediating effects of self-esteem and moderating effects of gender.Methods: Data from 400 children were used from the 8th to the 10th wave of the Panel Study on Korean Children. Children answered questions about their happiness and self-esteem, and their teachers rated academic performance and school adjustment. The latent growth model, path analysis, boot-strapping, and multi-group analysis were used with AMOS.Results: Children’s happiness showed the 2nd-year-change model. Gender was a significant predictor of their initial happiness values. Paths to children’s happiness were different based on grade. First-graders’ happiness was directly explained by school adjustment and indirectly explained by their academic performance through self-esteem. Second-graders’ happiness was affected only by their self-esteem; the school adjustment also showed significant direct effects on happiness in the third grade. The mediating effects of children’s self-esteem on academic performance and happiness were only evident in the first year of school. Finally, children’s gender didn’t have any significant Δχ<sup>2</sup> differences in the path of all the grades.Conclusion: Children’s happiness starts at different levels by gender and increase after the first year of elementary school. Children have different paths to happiness depending on the grade. Self-esteem fully mediates academic performance and children’s happiness in the first-year of school, and school adjustment directly affects children’s happiness. Paths to children’s happiness are similar between boys and girls.

BackgroundThe health and development of children during their first year of full time school is known to impact their social, emotional, and academic capabilities throughout and beyond early education. Physical health, motor development, social and emotional well-being, learning styles, language and communication, cognitive skills, and general knowledge are all considered to be important aspects of a child’s health and development. It is important for many organisations and governmental agencies to continually improve their understanding of the factors which determine or influence development vulnerabilities among children. This article studies the relationships between development vulnerabilities and educational factors among children in Queensland, Australia.MethodsSpatial statistical machine learning models are reviewed and compared in the context of a study of geographic variation in the association between development vulnerabilities and attendance at preschool among children in Queensland, Australia. A new spatial random forest (SRF) model is suggested that can explain more of the spatial variation in data than other approaches.ResultsIn the case study, spatial models were shown to provide a better fit compared to models that ignored the spatial variation in the data. The SRF model was shown to be the only model which can explain all of the spatial variation in each of the development vulnerabilities considered in the case study. The spatial analysis revealed that the attendance at preschool factor has a strong influence on the physical health domain vulnerability and emotional maturity vulnerability among children in their first year of school.ConclusionThis study confirmed that it is important to take into account the spatial nature of data when fitting statistical machine learning models. A new spatial random forest model was introduced and was shown to explain more of the spatial variation and provide a better model fit in the case study of development vulnerabilities among children in Queensland. At small-area population level, increased attendance at preschool was strongly associated with reduced physical and emotional development vulnerabilities among children in their first year of school.

Chapter objectives To examine major issues and problems experienced by young children and their parents during the transition to school. To identify specific strategies that you, the teacher (preschool or primary), can adopt to prepare and support children and parents as they face the many changes involved in the transition process. To provide a framework for the construction of the literacy program in the first year of schooling. This chapter examines how continuity from the early childhood setting to the primary school setting can be supported. It reviews research on the discontinuities that children can experience during transition to school and the research evidence on the most effective ways to avoid major mismatches in pedagogy and expectations. The issues of transition from early childhood education to primary school are explored and recommendations for the construction of the initial reading and writing program provided. The importance of the transition to primary school The transition from early childhood education, childcare and home settings to the primary school is a significant period in a child’s life and the experience can be very exciting and, at times, daunting for the child and his or her parents. This period of transition marks an important milestone and a new phase in a child’s life. Beginning school marks an era of growing independence for the child as he or she embarks upon the journey from preschool to primary.

Este trabalho investigou se a leitura em voz alta ou oral é uma prática marginal ou inexistente nos primeiros anos de escolarização do Ensino Fundamental em duas escolas municipais de Belo Horizonte. Para tanto, os professores, sujeitos da pesquisa, foram submetidos a um pequeno teste, em que, em um quadro, deveriam relacionar como trabalhavam a leitura em sala de aula. Os resultados evidenciaram, pois, que a leitura em voz alta ou oral é uma prática freqüente nos primeiros anos de escolarização. Contrariamente ao que se pensava, revelaram que essa prática é o "carro-chefe" do trabalho dos professores com leitura em sala de aula, pelo menos, até a 4a série. Em vista dos resultados, relacionamos e discutimos algumas hipóteses que pudessem justificá-los, assim como analisamos a concepção de leitura que permeia a prática de leitura dos docentes nas duas escolas investigadas.

Schools collect enormous amounts of data, including in children’s first year of formal schooling. Having ‘data’ has sometimes been seen as a panacea, enabling teachers and school systems to quickly get to know children transitioning from preschool to school. However, there are recognised negative effects of datafication, including the “schoolification” of early years education, time impositions on teachers, and the potential for data to create deficit views of children. We present research with teachers and policy officers in a School Authority in Queensland, Australia. Utopia as Method was used to understand the dangers and potentials of data as school staff worked to create systems supporting quality early years teaching. We make a case for disrupting taken-for-granted practices and assumptions about data in favour of listening to teachers’ needs and hopes as they consider how data can best support their teaching of diverse children.

BackgroundEarly childhood social and emotional development underpins later social, emotional, academic and other outcomes. The first aim of this study was to explore the association between child, family and area-level characteristics associated with developmental vulnerability, amongst Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children in their first year of school. The second aim was to quantify the magnitude of the social and emotional developmental inequalities between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children and the extent to which differences in socioeconomic disadvantage and perinatal characteristics explained this inequality.MethodsThis retrospective cohort study used cross-sectoral data linkage to identify and follow participants from birth to school age. In this way, social and emotional development was examined in 7,384 Aboriginal and 95,104 non-Aboriginal children who were included in the Australian Early Development Census in their first year of full-time school in New South Wales (NSW) in 2009 or 2012 and had a birth registration and/or perinatal record in NSW. The primary outcome measures were teacher-reported social competence and emotional maturity as measured using the Australian version of the Early Development Instrument.ResultsThe mean age at the start of the school year for children in the study sample was 5.2 years (SD = 0.36 years). While 84% of Aboriginal children scored favourably - above the vulnerability threshold – for social competence and 88% for emotional maturity, Aboriginal children were twice as likely as non-Aboriginal children to be vulnerable on measures of social development (RR = 2.00; 95%CI, 1.89–2.12) and had 89% more risk of emotional vulnerability (RR = 1.89; 95%CI, 1.77–2.02). The inequality between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children was largely explained by differences in the socioeconomic and perinatal health characteristics of children and families. Thus, after adjusting for differences in measures of socioeconomic advantage and disadvantage (Model 2), the relative risk was attenuated to 1.31 (95% CI: 1.23–1.40) on the social competence domain and 1.24 (95% CI, 1.15–1.33) on the emotional maturity domain. Child, family and area-level characteristics associated with vulnerability were identified.ConclusionsMost of the gap in early childhood social and emotional development between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children can be attributed to socioeconomic and early life health disadvantage. Culturally safe health and social policies addressing the socioeconomic and health inequalities experienced by Aboriginal children are urgently required.

This article explores value of listening to and heeding student voice. By doing so, teachers learn about life experiences of students, and about how these contribute to more formal learning environment of classroom. They also learn importance of explicitly articulating and adopting a relevant learning theory that acknowledges classroom as a learning community, and so enables learning. Introduction The ability to listen to student voice is, I believe, most significant enabling factor for building of caring, empowering relationships in development of a learning community. In this article, I discuss this belief in context of emerging contemporary world view and related understandings of and contextualisation. I also discuss a theory that understands learning holistically. This is enactivism. The theory of enactivism emanates from an ecological world view. This theory is useful, because an ecosystem and a learning situation exhibit similar characteristics. Belief in importance of truly listening to student voice emerged from my research in a Year 7 classroom. Year 7 is first year of secondary school in Victoria, Australia. It usually coincides with a move by student to a school different from that in which he/she completed seven years of primary schooling (the first year of schooling is called Prep: Preparatory Year). After presenting relevant literature, I include stories of students as they communicate them--because they speak so powerfully about experience we call learning in a connected environment (for more detail see Hamilton, 2005). Relevant literature Emerging contemporary world view Until second half of twentieth century, physical world was conceived as a series of contained entities arranged in a hierarchical order (Edwards, 1999; Macy, 1983; Morwood, 1997). The emerging contemporary world view understands everything as being interconnected. This world view does not see physical life as disconnected, separate entities, but as entities that are interrelated. As Macy (1983) puts it: What had appeared before as separate entities dissolve into flows, and are seen to be patterns in these flows--patterns that sustain each other by means of their relationships and exchanges. Atoms, cells, plants, people, societies.... All are dynamic patterns, or open systems within systems. They influence each other so deeply that it is hard to decide where one leaves off and other begins. (p. 119) Macy describes all of these systems as manifesting flexibility and intelligence, as they integrate and differentiate in order to survive. This involves a process that all must embrace in order to develop (Capra, 1996, 2003; Macy, 1983). Part of this interdependent process is to engage and enhance their own and each other's capacities (Macy, 1983, p. 31). The importance of is also emphasised in complexity theory, which states that systems, while consisting of parts, are best studied as wholes, since new properties emerge that cannot be predicted by an analysis of (Capra, 1996, 2003). As whole exhibits properties that are not evident in any of parts, the nature of whole is always different from mere sum of its parts (Capra, 1996, p. 29). Each element is described in terms of its relationship to other elements. All are connected and interdependent, and terms connectedness and interdependence are further developed by psychologists and educationalists. Connectedness and contextualisation Contemporary psychologists have developed term connectedness for expressing an essential ingredient for human living (Bernard, 1997). Discussion and debate continually returns to concept, and understands its enaction as absolutely essential, if schooling is to be effective (Bernard, 1997; Hill & Russell, 1999). …