Early Childhood Education Course Research Articles

Reading the Map: Locating and Navigating the Academic Skills Development of Pre-Service Teachers

This article reports on an action research project that was implemented to strengthen preservice teachers’ academic skills and competencies in a Bachelor of Early Childhood Education course. Strategies identified as effective included mapping assessment tasks to State and National Early Childhood Education Curriculum and Standards Frameworks and Graduate Teacher Standards and against the skills needed to complete assessment tasks. Tools and resources were developed by lecturers to identify students’ existing skill levels and then scaffold the required competencies into course teaching. The critical reflections of lecturers on their professional learning through this process were found to be integral to successful outcomes for students.

Differences of the emotional reading between sophomore and junior students of early childhood education course.

Differences of the emotional reading between sophomore and junior students of early childhood education course.

Developing the communication skills of early childhood teacher candidates: The case of advice

Teachers in their professional roles are often called upon to give advice, whether to their students, to their colleagues, to their administrators, or to parents of their students. In this article, we investigate advice giving by teacher candidates to parents of young preschool children and consider the implications of this research for early childhood education. This article is of importance in that it demonstrates the use of applied linguistics research in the classroom. Our purpose is twofold: First, we explore the discursive moves and patterns apparent in the major patterns that emerge from the data to understand how the advice giving is constructed and how this aligns with other similar research. Second, we consider how such information can be incorporated into early childhood education courses. We suggest that teacher educators can exploit research such as that presented here to combine content knowledge instruction with a focus on communication skills, skills important for teachers to be successful communicators within the school community. We explore directions for future research and recommend collegial partnerships between applied linguists and early childhood educators.

Reifying and Resisting Racism from Early Childhood to Young Adulthood

This article explores parallel findings from two critical ethnographies (Miller in Whiteness, discourse, and early childhood: an ethnographic study of three young children’s understandings about race in home and community settings. University of South Carolina, Columbia, 2012; Nash in Blinded by the white: foregrounding race and racism in a literacy course for preservice teachers. University of South Carolina, Columbia, 2012) of white early childhood teacher educators using a critical race stance as they researched race and racism in two contexts: an early childhood education course and home and community settings with the author’s own three young children. In each context, the researchers/authors found that participants used discourse to both resist and reify racism. The authors share these findings, offering implications and questions for critical reframing of the socially and historically located meanings of race and racism in early childhood education and teacher education.

Feeling Good about Teaching Mathematics: Addressing Anxiety amongst Pre-Service Teachers

Research regarding pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards teaching mathematics has revealed that many pre-service teachers experience high levels of mathematics anxiety about both the learning of mathematics and the teaching of the mathematics curriculum. Little is known about the particular characteristics of pre-service teachers that make them more likely to experience anxiety about mathematics in the early years. Addressing anxiety towards mathematics and the teaching of mathematics could effectively eliminate later problems in teaching. Teaching mathematics confidently is associated with teachers’ beliefs about their mathematical ability, which is their mathematical self-efficacy. This paper reports on an investigation into the anxiety of first- year pre-service teachers towards their future teaching of mathematics. 223 students enrolled in a first-year mathematics unit for birth to eight years, in the Bachelor of Education of Early Childhood and Primary Education Courses attributed their beliefs about mathematics to external—their past teachers—or internal factors: that one is either good at mathematics or not. The findings highlight the need for pre-service teacher’s anxiety about mathematics to be addressed within the university education classroom context so that pre-service teachers become capable and competent teachers of mathematics.

Re-visualising innovative online learning spaces in an early childhood teacher education programme

This paper presents a critical examination of the challenges and rewards of re-visualising and designing an innovative online space for a first-year Bachelor of Education (BEd) Early Childhood Education (ECE) course, Visual Arts in the Early Years. The perspectives presented are drawn from a collaborative project between the course lecturer and learning designer. Central to the creation of this online learning space were the underpinning values and philosophy of the early childhood curriculum Te Whāriki (Ministry of Education [MoE], 1996). With this as our guide, we set out to create a rich visual online learning experience that reflected the creative learning environments in early childhood education. The challenge was how to transform a dynamic and fluid face-to-face teaching and learning context into an online mode. This engendered considerable rethinking not only of the content, but the conceptual framework that informs best practice in e-learning. That is, the educational experience supported a conceptual framework that promoted social, cognitive and teaching presence (Garrison & Anderson, 2003). Key considerations for designing this learning experience were to incorporate strong visual provocations, multiple pathways to learning, opportunities for collaboration and reflection, as well as a holistic and integrated approach. In order to capture the unique nature of the course in the proposed design, it was essential to understand the underlying principles and values that informed the course. As Edwards, Gandini, and Forman (1998, p. 177) assert; “the space has to be a sort of aquarium that mirrors the ideas, values, attitudes, and cultures of the people who live within it.” It is argued that, without these beliefs being inherent in the design, the online learning environment that supports the depth of engagement and critical reflection by the learner is compromised.

FORMAÇÃO DE PROFESSORES DE EDUCAÇÃO INFANTIL: PERSPECTIVAS PARA PROJETOS DE FORMAÇÃO E DE SUPERVISÃO

This paper discusses the initial training theme and summarizes a research for the Master Program of Graduate Studies in Education of the Faculty of Science and Technology - UNESP. The objective was to investigate the problem of initial teacher training in Early Childhood Education Course from the Resolution CNE/CP 1/2006. As bibliographic and documentary research with a qualitative approach, it was identified the challenges posed to professional and public policies and also the precariousness of the Education Course. Also, highlighted the contributions of academic research in the state of knowledge about Early Childhood Education. As a result, we have identified training needs and assumptions indicated to illuminate a curriculum discussion regarding the teacher training in early childhood education with prospects for the realization of projects for training and supervision. http://dx.doi.org/10.14572/nuances.v26i0.2776

An analysis of early childhood education courses related to children with disabilities - With a view to the implementation of inclusive education -

An analysis of early childhood education courses related to children with disabilities - With a view to the implementation of inclusive education -

Inquiry-Based Early Childhood Teacher Preparation: The Personal Learning Plan Method

The purpose of this paper is to describe a Personal Learning Plan method used in undergraduate early childhood education courses as a specific case of learner-centered, inquiry-based instruction. A rationale for this approach to instruction, the instructional context in which the specific method was developed and used, the method framework (i.e., preliminary and final plans, activities, products, and reflections), and the evaluation process will be discussed. Finally, a discussion of the perceived benefits and challenges of the method as it has been implemented will be presented.

A Causal Structure Analysis of Ego Identity and Occupational Cognition of Junior College Students in the Early Childhood Care and Education Course

A Causal Structure Analysis of Ego Identity and Occupational Cognition of Junior College Students in the Early Childhood Care and Education Course

Teacher modeling of active citizenship via service‐learning in teacher education

A cacophony of voices is continuing to place mandates on education and yet the voices of teachers are seldom heard. Teacher education can attempt to address this issue by facilitation of advocacy experiences via service‐learning. The experiential and transformative nature of service‐learning is illustrated through three case studies in which graduate students, namely in early childhood education, address educational issues such as class size reduction, Universal Pre‐K and the No child left behind Act, through self‐determined advocacy efforts in early childhood education courses. The seven elements of service‐learning include integrated learning, student voice, high quality service, civic responsibility, collaboration, reflection and evaluation. These elements serve as a framework for structuring the data collected from students' written reflections. Selective highlighting is utilized to generate the emergent themes from the data. In these case studies, the students who engaged in advocacy efforts through service‐learning experienced transformations in their own perceived empowerment, the value of their voice, and their commitment to continued advocacy efforts.

Evaluating constructivist beliefs of teacher candidates

Teacher education programs that want their future teachers to embrace and employee constructivist principles must strive to provide opportunities for teacher candidates to develop an understanding of constructivism. The paper presents a structure for embedding constructivist principles into early childhood and elementary teacher education courses and the results of a pilot study at a Mid‐Western University. The results of the study demonstrate that teacher candidates believe that constructivist practices are very to extremely important. In addition, their responses indicated that the teacher candidates believe that their role in a constructivist environment is very to extremely important. The study reinforces the importance of providing experiences in teacher education programs that will result in positive views of constructivism. © 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Building relationships through cooperative learning

Based upon several years of team‐teaching intensive early childhood education courses, the authors discuss their experiences of building teacher‐learner relationships through cooperative and collaborative learning. After witnessing significant conflict occurring within groups over the years, the authors began to investigate, discuss and integrate notions of cooperative learning, collaboration, conflict and change within their early childhood courses. Considerations for limiting unproductive conflict and encouraging productive conflict among adult learners are highlighted. Guided by current research, the authors developed and applied several practices and strategies to support relationship building, promote respectful interactions, and to assist groups to negotiate conflict and work collaboratively on goals and projects.

Review of The organization of behavior: A neuropsychological theory.

DONALD 0. HEBB The Organization of Behavior: A Neuropsychological Theory Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2002, 335 pages (ISBN 0-8058-4300-0, us$39.95, Hardcover) Reviewed by RICHARD C. TEES It must be very unusual to review a book in 2002 that was published more than 50 years ago. Although The Organization of Behavior has remained one of the most influential books in fields of Psychology, Cognitive Science, and Neuroscience since its 1949 publication, it has been out of print since 1966. However, it continues to be highly cited in contemporary research publications (with more than 5,000 SCI citations since 1990) and be on the current reading lists of an extraordinary number of undergraduate and graduate courses in a wide variety of disciplines. It is hard to imagine that such an influential book would not be available for purchase on-line or in any university bookstore. Fortunately, two of our colleagues have come to the rescue. Richard Brown (Dalhousie University) and Peter Milner (McGill University) have organized a reprinting of The Organization of Behavior and the appearance of this new edition (2002) has solved this embarrassing problem of being unable to obtain a copy of one of the most highly regarded publications in science. Although scientists and philosophers had long speculated about the involvement of biological factors in psychological phenomena, it was not until the 20th century and the publication of The Organization of Behavior in 1949 that Physiological Psychology emerged as an active field of scientific research. The book also served as a launching pad for revolutionary developments in a wide range of other fields. It is on numerous milestone lists of revolutionary/ high-impact publications in the history of Biology, Neuroscience, Cognitive Science as well as Psychology. For example, the book is listed as the fourth (of 100) most influential publications in Cognitive Science behind those of Chomsky, Marr, and Turing. It is also high on lists of influential papers in Psychology, Biology, Philosophy, and Neuroscience. It has been translated into 11 languages and current courses throughout the world in Anatomy, Philosophy, Physiology, (Cognitive and Biological) Psychology, Neuroscience, Ophthalmology, Early Childhood Education, Computer Science (e.g., on Robotics), and interdisciplinary courses on Creativity, Language Acquisition, and Consciousness all reference The Organization of Behavior, both citing the book and its ideas, as well as requiring its reading. This new publication contains some interesting additional features appearing in the Foreword written by Brown and Milner. Their narrative was, in part, based on material from the McGill University archives and it provides a shortened biography of Don and a narrative on the origin of some of the ideas that appeared in The Organization of Behavior as well as their current status and relevance. For example, as the authors point out, the idea for the Hebb synapse first appeared in 1932 in his McGill MA thesis. Hebb's ideas for the book were initially outlined in five pages of notes written in June 1944, and the first complete draft of the book was finished in 1946. In the course of their 13-page narrative, Brown and Milner are also able to illustrate aspects of Hebb's character, his insightful eclecticism, and modesty. Brown and Milner also provide us with a list of all of Hebb's publications and the biographies and obituaries that have been published since his death in 1985. The Organization of Behavior's most central theme was that we needed to understand mind and behaviour not in terms of some metaphorical physical device from which principals can be derived by analogy, but rather, to explain them in terms of the machinery of the brain. In this regard, he proposed three key ideas. First, he argued that the synaptic connections between neurons of the cortex increased in efficiency in proportion to a degree to which there had been temporal contiguity in their pre- and post-synaptic physiological activity. …

Using technology to help preservice teachers construct knowledge about young children's classroom environments

In an effort to help teacher candidates understand early childhood classroom environments, a website was constructed for use in a foundation in early childhood education course. This website, based on constructivist teaching practices uses technology in a unique way to assist students as they come to know, understand, and use the principles associated with room arrangement and management of early childhood classrooms.

Effects of Teacher Preparation Experiences and Students' Perceptions Related to Developmentally and Culturally Appropriate Practices

A case study of 23 university students in an early childhood education course on cultural diversity was conducted. The study inquired into how a teacher preparation course can be structured to prepare prospective and beginning teachers to develop their awareness and understanding of cultural diversity issues and raise their competencies in working effectively with minority students and their families. The Developmentally and Culturally Appropriate Practices (DCAP) Teacher Preparation Model developed by Hyun (1996) and derived from the notions of multicultural education, culturally congruent critical pedagogy, and anti-bias education was implemented in the course. Pre and post surveys and students' reflections were analyzed. The data results indicated that students perceived that they had made gains in their understanding of cultural diversity issues and were affected positively through their teacher preparation experiences.

保育専攻短大生の保育者効力感に及ぼす教育実習の影響

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of teaching practices in kindergartens and day care nurseries on perceived pre-school teacher-efficacy (PTE) by longitudinal method. In a preliminary study, a PTE scale was administered to 161 junior college students in an early childhood education course in order to examine changes between pre- and post-teaching practices. The results revealed that the subjects were inclined to increase their PTE scores after their teaching practices. In a primary study, a revised PTE scale was administered to 142 junior college students. The main results were as follows: 1) The PTE scale proved to have satisfactory internal consistency. 2) High validity was shown in a correlation of the PTE score with other measures, such as generalized self-efficacy, locus of control, self-evaluation concerning teaching practice and performance scores evaluated by the guidance teacher. 3) The PTE scores increased significantly after the teaching practice. These results showed that the teaching practice experience enhanced the PTE. 4) The perceived “sense of harmony with the kindergarten” concerning teaching practice had an effective relation to the PTE.

Effect of Clothing, Sex, and Sex Role Stereotypes on Behavioral Expectations of a Preschool Child

An experimental design was used to investigate the effect of sex-typed clothing, sex of child, and sex-role stereotype of subject on impressions of a preschool child's competencies and likelihood of engaging in sex-typed behaviors. Sex type of clothing and sex of child were manipulated using four black-and white photographs. Subjects were 100 females enrolled in an introductory early childhood education course. Data were analyzed using analyses of variance and the Neuman-Keul's test. The preschool girl was rated as more socially competent than the preschool boy. None of the independent variables influenced ratings of nonsocial competencies. For impressions of likelihood of engaging in sex-typed behaviors, subjects indicated that a female child was more likely to engage in feminine sex-typed activities than a male child and that a male child was more likely to engage in masculine sex-typed activities than a female child.

The effects of specialized education and job experience on early childhood teachers' knowledge of developmentally appropriate practice

Seventy-three early childhood teachers participated in this study which examined teachers' knowledge of developmentally appropriate practice as related to: education /academic degree; supervised practical experience; content areas covered in child development /early childhood education (CD/ECE) courses taken; and years of employment in child care/education. Knowledge of developmentally appropriate practice was assessed by a measure, based on responses to 12 vignettes, developed for this study. The results indicated that knowledge of appropriate practice is dependent upon academic training in CD/ECE and supervised practical experiences, as well as the number of content areas covered in CD/ECE courses. Length of employment in child care and education situations does not have a significant effect on teachers' knowledge of appropriate practice. Implications for teacher training and public policies are discussed.