Teaching Practice Placement as a node in Early Childhood Education

The paper presents practical examples of developing the emotional intelligence of teacher-to-be students in seminars of self-knowledge and personal development focused on managing emotions on a personal level by developing the capacity of emotional self-control, the intelligence to manage positive and negative emotions, but also at the interpersonal level, by adjustment of the emotional exchanges between the main actors involved in teaching practice placements. The purpose of the research was to investigate to what extent students emotions can be managed effectively through learned emotional control strategies and to what extent these emotions predict changes in professional behaviours learned and experienced in the teaching practice placements of teacher-to-be students. Students were taught how to mobilize their psycho-nervous energy in an effective management of emotions, how to activate and restructure themselves from the point of view of energy fast enough to successfully cope with the exercise of teaching and overcoming obstacles to the effective control of emotions triggered by simulating the actual teaching situation. Students talked about their emotions at the start and throughout the teaching practice, about emotional blockages and obstacles.The conclusions of this paper highlight the praxiologic aspects of developing the emotional self-control capacity of teacher-to-be students, their ability to self-adjust emotions, to control and adjust emotional responses to stimuli, the tendency to consciously influence the course of the emotions experienced in teaching and training practice placements, as well as the way in which these are displayed, expressed, externalized.

Let's put a national child care strategy back on the agenda

Research Findings: Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) are operated with an assumption that early childhood education (ECE) providers will participate and increase quality to get more recognition and enrollment. However, few studies have examined whether and why ECE providers are motivated to increase quality in a QRIS. We explored ECE providers’ motivations and challenges in a QRIS using Expectancy-Value Theory (EVT). Phone interview data with 56 ECE providers participating in one U.S. state’s QRIS and 4 non-participants were analyzed using Applied Thematic Analysis. Results showed that ECE providers have different levels of perceived competence, values, and cost, which may be associated with whether they are motivated or discouraged to increase quality in a QRIS and whether they participate in a QRIS. Practice or Policy: The components of EVT can be useful to understand and interpret ECE providers’ motivation for participation in a QRIS. Examining ECE providers’ motivation can help QRISs tailor support for providers’ different needs, values, and challenges. We suggest that future research examine how ECE providers’ motivation across individual- and program-level factors may impact their decisions to improve quality in a QRIS. We also highlight the importance of examining ECE providers’ motivation, experiences, and perceptions for QRIS to support their efforts to improve quality more efficiently.

The 6th scientific-practical conference “World for a Child: Education Realities and Perspectives“, which was held in Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences on 17-18 September 2015, targeted at debates and fruitful discussions of relevant issues related to early childhood and primary education. The goal of the conference is to present the newest results of research on early childhood and primary education, to enable teachers-practitioners to exchange their accumulated experience, to reflect results of educational activities and to disseminate the good experience. The conference is the space, where actual prerequisites for change in evidence-based early childhood and primary education are created. Moreover, it is a perfect form of professional development. It should be pointed out that different insights acquired during scientific research and diverse experience of teachers-practitioners enabled an in-depth and comprehensive analysis of relevant issues of early childhood and primary education in the conference. For example, the researchers, who analyse the phenomenon of child’s play in the Play Research Laboratory at LEU, presented the trends in the analysed early childhood education through play and put forward practical recommendations about the impact of play on child’s self-regulation; particularly relevant problems of assessment of teaching/learning outcomes, the results of research on learners’ achievements and experience of application of standardised tests were analysed. The expectations for quality of research-based early childhood and primary education were expressed by all the participants in education. The work of the conference was organised in four sections: Integration of education curriculum; Didactic innovations and good practice of early childhood education; Didactic innovations and good practice of primary; Sociocultural contexts of child’s education. Key words: educational activities, early childhood education, primary education, scientific conference.

This paper reports the findings of a study that aimed to identify the music beliefs and values of educators in early childhood education and care settings in Australia. The aims of the study were 2-fold: to adapt and pilot a survey of music beliefs and values which might be implemented subsequently nationally in childcare settings; and, secondly, to identify the music beliefs and values held by early childhood and care educators concerning music in children's learning. The research questions that guided this component of the study were: What is the profile of early childhood and care educators? What beliefs and values for music engagement are held by early childhood and care educators? What shapes early childhood and care educators' music beliefs and values? Findings indicated that educators' beliefs and values on all items are above the mid-point indicating overall positive attitudes toward music despite the majority having no formal qualifications in music or a history of instrumental performance and/or singing. Given the overall positive attitudes toward music we suggest there is enormous potential within this population for further professional learning and development targeted at music and its potential wider benefits in young children's learning and lives.

Early Childhood Education (ECE) in India is a relatively new concept and has been gaining popularity in recent years. It is based on the belief that a child's formative years are the most important for his/her development. The focus of ECE in India is to provide children with a holistic, meaningful, and holistic learning experience. This experience is achieved through interactive, play-based activities that help the child to explore the world around them and develop their cognitive, social, emotional, and physical skills. In India, the Ministry of Education has been spearheading efforts to promote ECE. They have launched several initiatives and schemes such as the New Education Policy and the National Early Childhood Care and Education Scheme (NECCES) to promote access to ECE services. The government also provides financial assistance to schools, NGOs, and private institutions to open and run ECE centers. To ensure quality ECE, the government has drafted guidelines and regulations for ECE centers. These include standards for teacher qualifications, curriculum and assessment, physical infrastructure and environment, and safety and health standards. The government has also set up an accreditation system for ECE centers to recognize quality and ensure accountability. In addition to government initiatives, there are a number of NGOs, private institutions, and corporate organizations that are making efforts to promote ECE in India. These organizations are working to provide access to quality ECE and to raise awareness about the importance of early childhood education. Jammu and Kashmir have long been at the forefront of Early Childhood Education (ECE) in India.

The relationship between teacher qualification and the quality of the early childhood education and care environment

EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION IN Australia is currently undergoing a period of change and renewal. Times of change offer opportunities to revisit the perspectives of the past, to respond to current choices and challenges, and explore future opportunities within the national provision of early childhood care and education. Such opportunities also exist for the longstanding Australian television program for young children—Play School. This paper explores Play School's historical foundations and the responses made to changing perspectives in early childhood education both within Australia and beyond. It provides early childhood educators with the rationale for the choices and changes within the program and offers the opportunity to take a closer look at Play School's responses to contemporary perspectives and current and future challenges in early childhood care and education in Australia.

The article examines the transformation of German early childhood education from a predominantly care-based model to a modern educational-developmental system over recent decades. The aim of the study is to analyze the evolution of conceptual foundations of early childhood education in the Federal Republic of Germany and substantiate the significance of this experience for modernizing Ukrainian early childhood education. The research methodology is based on a comparative-pedagogical approach using methods of theoretical analysis, synthesis, comparison of regulatory documents, scientific works of German researchers, and systematization of practical experience of early childhood institutions functioning in German federal states. Key stages of evolution from Friedrich Froebel's ideas to contemporary federal initiatives for improving early childhood education quality are analyzed. Conceptual changes in understanding the role of kindergartens from simple childcare to full-fledged educational institutions ensuring comprehensive child development are examined. Special attention is paid to regulatory changes, particularly the adoption of the «Early Childhood Development and Education Act» (2008) and the Kindergarten Quality Act» (2022), which established the new status of early childhood education in the German educational system. Research results indicate the systematic nature of transformation encompassing conceptual, organizational, and practical aspects of early childhood institutions functioning. Key characteristics of this transformation include elevating early childhood education status to a full educational level, implementing competency-based approaches, professionalizing pedagogical staff, developing inclusive education, and creating high-quality educational environments. Conclusions confirm the importance of German experience for modernizing Ukrainian early childhood education, especially in the context of European integration. Key aspects of the German model for adaptation are identified: developing clear quality standards, improving pedagogical staff qualifications, implementing modern teaching methods, and developing inclusive education.

<table id="announcementDescription" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Guest editors: Dr. Fikile Nxumalo (University of Texas at Austin) and Dr. Nikki Rotas (University of Alberta)</strong></p><p>A growing body of work has illustrated the importance of situating environmental education in current precarious times that disrupt idealized notions of both childhood and nature/environment. Drawing inspiration from feminist scholarship and from the environmental humanities, several scholars have critically engaged with ways in which the notion of the Anthropocene, as a current epoch marked by devastating human impact on the earth, necessitates a turn away from romantic conceptions of children and nature (Pacini-Ketchabaw & Taylor, 2015; Malone, Truong & Gray, 2017; Ritchie, 2015). This work supports an orientation towards critical and generative pedagogies that are firmly situated within the messy anthropogenic worlds that young children co-inhabit, and that take seriously the inseparability of nature and culture. Importantly, this work has also taken up the Anthropocene as a contested political marker of current times rather than a neutral scientific fact (Lloro-Bidart, 2016; Colebrook, 2016; Saldanha & Stark, 2016; Tuck & McKenzie, 2014). Taking up the political signification of the Anthropocene in early childhood education includes challenging the figure of the developing human child as future steward – a common trope of nature based education that is rooted in instrumental approaches to teaching and learning (Blaise, 2013; Lenz Taguchi, 2010; Taylor, in press). In addition, methodological attention to ‘how’ Anthropocene discourses manifest in early childhood settings and across disciplinary frameworks is important. How, for example, do environmental education practices materialize in schools and communities? In what ways do current environmental education practices affirm the capacity of students and/or reiterate deficit racialized discourses in schools? How might creative and critical practices ‘presence’ (Simpson, 2011) Indigenous land and communities in present place and time? </p><p>Building from these and other insights on the potential invigorations of bringing interdisciplinary perspectives into conversation with early childhood environmental education, this special issue invites further critical and creative interventions into questions of research and practice in early childhood. In this special issue, we invite papers that reconceptualize environmental education in ways that situate teaching and learning within current environmental precarities, intervene into dominant child-nature discourses, trouble normative methodologies, and unsettle the universalisms and omissions of the Anthropocene. In this regard, submissions are invited that are animated by, but not limited to:</p><ul><li>Black studies + environmental education + childhood</li><li>Black/immigrant childhoods in the Anthropocene</li><li>Indigenous land education + environmental early childhood education</li><li>Decolonizing place based early education</li><li>#WaterIsLife + childhood</li><li>Toxic pollutants + childhood entanglements</li><li>Discard studies + environmental education + childhood</li><li>Critical disability studies + environmental education + childhood</li><li>Queering childhood-nature relationships</li><li>Speculative practices + creative methodologies in environmental education</li><li>Material Technologies + Environmental Education + Childhood</li><li>Arts-based early childhood pedagogies for the Anthropocene</li><li>Climate change + environmental early childhood education</li><li>STEM + the environmental humanities in early childhood education</li><li>Multispecies relations + childhood in the Anthropocene</li><li>Affect + Environmental Education + Childhood</li><li>Urban education + the Anthropocene</li><li>New Material feminisms + environmental early childhood education</li></ul><p>We seek submissions that push current boundaries of environmental education with young children by engaging interdisciplinary perspectives in critical, creative and generative ways while disrupting anthropocentric, deficit images of children and families. We welcome submissions in multiple formats, including qualitative and post-qualitative research articles, conceptual essays, digital media pieces, aesthetic works, reviews, and interviews. We also encourage submissions from educators working in early childhood settings for the <a href="/index.php/jcs/about/editorialPolicies#sectionPolicies">Ideas from Practice</a> section of the journal. </p><p>Submissions are due August 1, 2017. Please see the <a href="/index.php/jcs/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions" target="_blank">author guidelines</a> for submission preparation instructions. Please contact Fikile Nxumalo (fnxumalo@austin.utexas.edu) and Nikki Rotas (rotas@ualberta.ca) with any questions. </p><p> </p><p>References</p><p>Blaise, M. (2013). Activating micropolitical practices in the early years: (Re)assembling bodies and participant observations. In R. Coleman and J. Ringrose (Eds.) <em>Deleuze and research methodologies,</em> pp. 184–200. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UniversityPress.</p><p>Colebrook, C. (2016). ‘A grandiose time of co-existence’: Stratigraphy of the Anthropocene. <em>Deleuze Studies, 10</em>(4), 440-454.</p><p>Lenz Taguchi, H. (2010). <em>Going beyond the theory/practice divide in early childhood education: Introducing an intra-active pedagogy</em>. New York, NY: Routledge.</p><p>Lloro-Bidart, T. (2016). A feminist posthumanist political ecology of education for theorizing human-animal relations/relationships. <em>Environmental Education Research, (23)</em>1, 111-130.</p><p>Malone, K., Truong, S., & Gray, T. (2017). <em>Reimagining sustainability in precarious times</em>. Singapore : Springer.</p><p>Pacini-Ketchabaw, V. & Taylor, A. (2015). (Eds.) <em>Unsettling the Colonialist Places and Spaces of Early Childhood Education.</em> New York: Routledge.</p><p>Ritchie, J. (2015). Social, cultural, and ecological justice in the age the Anthropocene: A New Zealand early childhood care and education perspective<em>. Journal of Pedagogy, (6)</em>2, 41- 56.</p><p>Saldanha, A. & Stark, H. (2016). A new earth: Deleuze and Guattari in the Anthropocene. <em>Deleuze Studies, 10</em>(4), 427-439.</p><p>Simpson, L. (2011). <em>Dancing on our turtle’s back: Stories of Nishnaabeg re-creation, resurgence, and a new emergence</em>. Winnipeg: Arbeiter Ring Publishers.</p><p>Taylor, A. (in press) Beyond stewardship: Common world pedagogies for the Anthropocene, <em>Environmental Education Research</em>.</p><p>Tuck, E. & McKenzie, M. (2014). <em>Place in research: Theory, methodology, and methods.</em> New York: Routledge.</p></td></tr></tbody></table>

This paper determines the relationship between early childhood education and primary school academic achievement in Solomon Islands. By identifying factors within early childhood education programmes that influence children’s primary school academic achievement, this study seeks to offer additional understanding about the relationships between early childhood and primary education that may be utilized by educators, policy planners at all levels, and by the communities and families themselves. Several conclusions may be drawn from the findings. First, early childhood education is positively related to primary school academic achievement in reading in Solomon Islands. Second, early childhood education experiences contributed to higher performances in specific skill areas in both reading comprehension and mathematical concepts and applications. Third, kindies and prepatory classrooms that had a large variety of age-appropriate learning materials and teachers with early childhood education training were associated with better performances on both reading and mathematics examinations.

This chapter explores the development of Early Childhood Education in the UAE, focusing on the period between birth and compulsory school age. A distinction is made between Early Childhood Care and Education, focusing on the age group birth to four and Early Childhood Education, focusing on the age group four to six. The contexts of public and private education are explored across the age range, including in-home care, public nurseries, federal nurseries, public kindergartens and kindergarten provision in private schools. Investments in early childhood give children enhanced opportunities for success later in life. Progress has been made in the UAE for the age range four to six years in terms of enhancing quality through rigorous inspection frameworks based on international best practice, as well as in terms of curriculum reform in public schools for that age group. However, for the age range of birth to four years, there has been limited progress in terms of service provision for the age range birth to four years. Quality assurance standards have been raised, but there is still no national curriculum framework in place in the UAE for the early years. The importance of this embodiment of a society’s educational aims and purposes appears well understood for school age children as the nation continues to refine and reform curriculum. The development of a curriculum framework for early childhood care and education is of critical importance in terms of reflecting broad societal values and aspirations and achieving the vision of the UAE.

ABSTRACTDrawing on cognitive science, child psychology, education and economics literature, this paper investigates the significance of early childhood development and highlights the value of investment in early childhood education (ECE). The young child requires adequate psycho-stimulation for the optimal development of the brain, which subsequently helps her to accomplish at school and achieve in adulthood. It has been previously emphasized that for all young children who start life at an equal footing, governments should provide equal opportunities for ECE and care where families are not able to provide. In this paper, we contrast the current status of early childhood and pre-primary education in Turkey with that of Nordic countries, which have advanced far in this level of education. Despite the striking evidence on affirmative effects, early childhood and pre-primary education is not considered a priority in the education system in Turkey and has a lot of room for improvement.

Stage 1: Survival During Stage 1, which may last throughout the first full year of teaching, the teacher's main concern is whether she can survive. This preoccupation with survival may be expressed in questions the teacher asks: "Can I get through the day in one piece? Without losing a child? Can I make it until the end of the week? Until the next vacation? Can I really do this kind of work day after day? Will I be accepted by my colleagues?" Such questions are well expressed in Ryan's enlightening collection of accounts of first-year teaching experiences (3).

Much of the public discussion of early childhood education policies has focused on particular policy initiatives, rather than considering more broadly what should be the role of the state in relation to young children’s education and upbringing. The roles that the state chooses to play are political decisions that are influenced by constructions of childhood and preferred policy approaches. In turn, these policy approaches help shape the nature of early childhood education. This article analyses changing models of state responsibility for New Zealand kindergartens to highlight their repercussions on kindergartens and the wider early childhood education sector. It argues that the state needs to take a supportive and responsible role in provision of early childhood care and education, to support a move away from a market model, and to resolve inequities in children’s access and teacher employment conditions that continue to beset the sector. The article ends by setting the discussion within an international context and suggesting policy challenges for early childhood education in New Zealand.