scholarly journals ‘We believe in every child as an individual’: Nursery school head teachers’ understandings of ‘quality’ in early years education

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (5) ◽  
pp. 1012-1025
Author(s):  
Naomi Rudoe
Keyword(s):  
Nursery School ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Head Teachers ◽  
School Head ◽  
Early Years Education

scholarly journals Relationship between Instructional Leadership and Implementation of Competency-Based Curriculum in Early Years Education in Nairobi City County, Kenya

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 476-488
Author(s):  
Roselynn Awili ◽  
Nyakwara Begi
Keyword(s):  
Instructional Leadership ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
Curriculum Implementation ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Theory Of Change ◽  
Head Teachers ◽  
Early Years Education ◽  
Competency Based ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Globally, learning institutions at primary school level experience a gap in instructional leadership that fosters curriculum implementation. Research has established that those instructional leaders (heads of schools) determine the impact that teaching and learning processes in school has on learners’ academic performance. This study was designed to establish the extent of implementation of Competency-Based Curriculum in early years education in public and private schools. The study was also to determine the relationship between instructional leadership and implementation of Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) in early years education in Kenya.  The study was guided by Michael Fullan’s Theory of Change. The dependent variable was implementation of Competency-Based Curriculum in early years education while the independent variable was instructional leadership. E-questionnaires and interview schedules were used to collect data which was analyzed using qualitative and quantitative methods. The results showed there was no difference in the implementation of curriculum between private and public primary schools. The relationship between instructional leadership and implementation of competency-based curriculum was significant at 0.05. The results also indicated that most head teachers focused more on administrative roles than activities that support curriculum implementation. It was therefore recommended that for effective curriculum implementation in early years education, head teachers needed to be intentionally trained on how to support teachers and learners in the related processes

Rethinking early years: how the neoliberal agenda fails children

Soundings ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 76 (76) ◽  
pp. 128-157
Author(s):  
Celia Burgess-Macey ◽  
Clare Kelly ◽  
Marjorie Ouvry
Keyword(s):  
Good Practice ◽  
Early Learning ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Formal Curriculum ◽  
Small Children ◽  
Children’S Learning ◽  
Early Years Education ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
Children's Learning

Early years education in England is in crisis. This article looks at what is needed to better provide the kind of education and care that young children need outside the home, from birth to school-starting age. It explores: the current arrangements and varieties of provision and approaches in England; educational and developmental research about young children's development and early learning; the current national early years curriculum and how it contrasts to other international models and pedagogical approaches; the importance of play-based learning; the role of adults in observing, recording, assessing and supporting young children's learning; and the holistic nature of children's learning - which makes education and care inseparable in young children's lives. Neoliberal governments have had little interest in these questions: they have been focused instead on marketising the sector, which has led to great inequality of provision; and they have been unwilling to provide the necessary funding to train staff and maintain appropriate learning environments; most fundamentally, they have engaged in an ideological drive to impose on very small children a narrow and formal curriculum that ignores all the evidence about good practice in the sector, and is focused on making them 'school ready' - that is, ready to fit into the rigid frameworks they have already imposed on primary school education.

scholarly journals Conceptions of Competency: A Phenomenographic Investigation of Beginning Teachers in Malaysia

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pauline Goh
Keyword(s):  
Beginning Teachers ◽  
Empirical Data ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Interpretive Research ◽  
Head Teachers ◽  
Behaviour Management ◽  
Critical Dimensions ◽  
Outcome Space

I use phenomenography, which is an interpretive research approach, to seek and to discover what beginning teachers in Malaysia conceive and understand as competence in relation to what they do everyday as teachers. Phenomenographic approach is used because of its potential to capture variation of understanding, or way of constituting, the conceptions of competency. The outcomes of this study, therefore, are: (a ) Categories of description which capture the critical dimensions of how beginning teachers in Malaysia understand the conceptions of competency, and, (b ) An outcome space that describes the relationships between the categories. The results show that beginning teachers’ conceptions of competence fall into five qualitatively different categories: (a ) Classroom and Behaviour Management, (b ) Knowing Subject Matter, (c) Understanding Students; (d ) Reaching out for Assistance and Support, and (e ) Possessing Values of Professionalism. The relationships between these categories are represented diagrammatically as the outcome space. The empirical data through phenomenography has provided a platform for teachers and teacher educators to ask: (a) " What are the implications, for beginning teachers, of their differing ways of understanding the conceptions of competency" (b) " How can teaching institutions better prepare pre - service teachers for their early years of teaching," and, (c) "How can appraisers (e.g., Principals, Head Teachers, Course Coordinators) use the outcomes to better plan any evaluations of competency?" I discuss each question in the article.

scholarly journals Turkish Children in Germany Learning Grammatical Categories in Turkish as a Mother Tongue

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 47-57
Author(s):  
Хрісто Кючуков ◽  
Баріш Гірай
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Nursery School ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Intercultural Education ◽  
Childhood Development ◽  
Eine Analyse ◽  
Turkish Children ◽  
Grammatical Categories

The paper presents and discusses findings from a recent empirical study involving 40 Turkish children aged between 4 and 6 years attending two kindergartens in Berlin in the districts of Wedding and Neukölln. They were tested for their knowledge and comprehension of different grammatical categories in Turkish. Children from Wedding were found to be much better in their knowledge of the grammatical categories in their mother tongue. The differences are statistically significant F (1, 32) = 6. 6258, p = 0. 01488 (p< 0.05). The children from the kindergarten in Neukölln demonstrated lower results in Turkish grammar comprehension and thus their achieved literacy in L1. References Bagdoshvili, S. (2010) Turkish Migrants in Germany. Unpublished MA Thesis. Tbilisi: Institute of European Studies. Barac, R., Bialystok, E. (2012) Bilingual effects on cognitive and linguistic development: role of language, cultural background, and education. Child Development, 83(2), 413-422. Çakir, M. (2002) The use of Turkish as the mother tongue in multicultural settings in Germany. Anadolu University Journal of Social Sciences, 2(1), 39-58 Cummins, J. (2001). Bilingual children’s mother tongue: Why is it important for education? Rights and responsibilities of educators of bilingual-bicultural children. In: Making a Difference in the Lives of Bilingual-Bicultural Learners, (pp. 15-20). L.D. Soto, ed. New York: Peter Lang. Cummins, J. (2016) Intercultural education and academic achievement: a fraimwork for school based policies in multilingual schools. Intercultural Education, 26(6), 455-468. Haug, S. et al. (2009) Muslimisches Leben in Deutschland. Nurnberg. Horrocks, D. and Kolinsky, E. (1996) Turkish Culture in German Society Today. Oxford: Berghahn Books. Johnston, J. (2015) Factors that influence language development. In: Encyclopedia of Early childhood development [online], Tremblay, R. E., Boivin, M., Peters R. De V., (eds.). Retrieved from: http://www.child-encyclopedia.com/language-development-and-literacy/according-experts/factors-influence-language-development. Schmitz, Anke and Olfert Helena (2013): Minderheitssprachen im deutschen Schulwesen – Eine Analyse der Implementierung allochthoner und autochthoner Sprachen. Zeitschrift für Fremdsprachenforschung, 24(2), 203-227. Skutnabb-Kangas (2005) Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove (2005). Linguistic Genocide. In: Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity, 3 Volumes, (pp. 653-654). Shelton, D. (ed.). New York: Macmillan Reference, USA. Treffers-Daller J., Sumru Özsoy, A., Roeland van Houtet, R. (2007) (In)Complete acquisition of Turkish among Turkish German bilinguals in Germany and Turkey: An analysis of complex embeddings in narratives. The International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 10(3), 248-276. Yazıcı, Z. (1999). Almanya ve Turkiye’de Anaokuluna Devam Eden 60-76 Aylar Arasındaki Turk Cocuklarının Dil Geli’imi ile Okuma Olgunlugˇu Arasındakiıliskinin Incelenmesi [Investigation of connections between language development and reading readiness ofTurkish nursery school children aged 60-76 months in Germany and Turkey]. Ph.D. thesis, Gazi University. Yazıcı, Z., İlter, B., & Glover, P. (2010). How bilingual is bilingual? Mother-tongue proficiency and learning through a second language. International Journal of Early Years Education, 18(3), 259-268.

Building a Learning Community Online

2011 ◽  
pp. 309-321
Author(s):  
Tessa Owens ◽  
Petra Luck
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Community Of Practice ◽  
Student Evaluations ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Early Years Education ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
E Learning

This chapter reviews a pilot e-learning project at Liverpool Hope University Col-lege. It will illustrate an approach to online learning aimed at students working inthe early years education and care sector and attempts to demonstrate the devel-opment of a “community of practice.” This chapter will discuss how the contextinformed the rationale for the approaches taken by the staff team and providescommentary from student evaluations highlighting their experiences.

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