scholarly journals Understanding Early Childhood Science Education: Comparative Analysis of Australian and Finnish Curricula

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sari Havu-Nuutinen ◽  
Sarika Kewalramani ◽  
Nikolai Veresov ◽  
Susanna Pöntinen ◽  
Sini Kontkanen
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Science Education ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Science Curriculum ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Curriculum Framework ◽  
International Comparative

AbstractThis research is a comparative study of Finnish and Australian science curricula in early childhood education (EC). The study aims to figure out the constructivist components of the science curriculum in two countries as well as locate the similarities and differences in the rationale and aims, contents, learning outcomes, learning activities, teacher’s role and assessment. The curriculum analysis framework developed by Van den Akker (2003) was used as a methodological framework for the curricula analysis. Based on the theory-driven content analyses, findings show that both countries have several components of constructivist curriculum, but not always clearly focused on science education. The Australian Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) integrates children’s science learning within their five specific learning outcomes, whereas the Finnish national core curriculum for early childhood education and care has no defined learning outcomes in general. The Finnish curriculum more clearly than EYLF encompasses science and environmental education as a learning domain, within which children participate in targeted scientific activities to gain procedural knowledge in specific environmental-related concepts. More focus should be turned to the teachers’ role and assessment, which are not determined in science context in both countries. This international comparative study calls for the need of a considered EC curriculum framework that more explicitly has science domains with specifically defined rationale, aims, content areas, learning outcomes and assessment criteria. The implications lie in providing early childhood educators with tangible and theoretically solid curriculum framework and resources in order to foster scientific thinking in young children.

scholarly journals EARLY SCIENCE EDUCATION AND ITS RELEVANCE

2012 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-9
Author(s):  
Claudia Valentina Assumpção Gallian
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Science Education ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Scientific Concepts ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Early Science Education ◽  
And Mathematics

This text begins with a concern related to teacher education which will focus on early childhood education, specifically in regards into the sciences and knowledge relating to the axes undertaken to frame the curriculum of the first stage of basic schooling as nature, culture and society. Science for young children should be considered as the foundation of all later development and is clear that it is not understood as it should be. But now, it is being more discussed taking account that these children have their development in a holistic perspective (Johnston, 2009; Johnston & Tunnicliffe, 2008). It should be noticed that the approach of knowledge related to science in Early Childhood Education, discussed in this text, does not take place in an isolated way, should be developed on a proposal mainly integrating the different fields of knowledge, to explore, in the articulation of knowledge, the wealth of exploitation and appropriating the world by the children. According to Johnston (2011) science teaching should be encouraged in the early years, aiming at reaching a holistic sense, that is, seeking not only understanding the scientific concepts but also developing attitudes and abilities related to them. Thus, the understanding of scientific concepts is closely related to both the development of knowledge in other areas such as geography, history and mathematics and to the social skills, such as collaboration, cooperation, etc and attitudes such as enthusiasm, initiative, curiosity etc.

scholarly journals A Review of Early Childhood Education (ECE) in Bangladesh: Status and Impact

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 59
Author(s):  
Rafiath Rashid ◽  
Abdeljalil Akkari
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
School Readiness ◽  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
School Achievement ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Disaggregated Data ◽  
Child Learning

This literature review has evaluated the effort and promise of investing in early childhood education in the context of Bangladesh in terms of policy, access, quality and impact. The findings on access showed that with improved policies and provisions from government, there has been a dramatic increase in pre-primary enrolment where along with government other private providers have come up in the early-years education space contributing significantly in terms of providing access. The review could not find consistent and disaggregated data on the access and provisions for the younger cohort of children aged 3 to 5 years old who are supposed to be under early childhood education provisions according to the ECCD policy. The review found evidences of positive correlation between quality and child learning outcomes in the context of Bangladesh, however, the criteria, definition and interpretation of ‘quality’ for ECE is yet to be studied and implemented. It is quite evident from the review that there are variation of teachers’ qualifications and lack of materials and evidences of pedagogical practices in the ECE classrooms. Along with quality, this review found impact of ECE in two areas: school readiness and primary school achievement.

scholarly journals Impact of Effectiveness of Early Childhood Education on Students Learning Outcomes in Pakistan

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 32-39
Author(s):  
Asifa Nawaz ◽  
Ijaz Ashraf ◽  
Aisha Siddique
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
School Readiness ◽  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Monitoring And Evaluation ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Government Schools ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Structured Questionnaire

Learning occurs faster in the early years of life. Early Childhood Education (ECE) programs generally entail an acquisition of concepts, skills, and attitudes that lay the foundation for school readiness. This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of ECE on students learning outcomes and highlight problems related to the implementation of ECE program in District Faisalabad of Punjab province, Pakistan. All the teachers managing these ECE centres in Government schools of District Faisalabad were the population for the study. There were 313 ECE schools, and a sample of 173 ECE teachers was selected randomly (one teacher from each school). A well-structured questionnaire was used for data collection. The collected data was analysed through SPSS, and the results were interpreted. It was concluded that a lot of challenges existed. These include untrained ECE teacher, lack of financial resources, lack of learning and physical facilities, continuous mentoring and evaluation, and lack of awareness of the significance of ECE among people. These also have a significant influence on the effectiveness of the ECE program. In Consequence, the effectiveness of ECE programme has a significantly positive impact on students learning outcomes. It was recommended that emphasis should be placed to improve the provision of ECE and to address the problems related to its implementation. And That government should introduce a proper system for effective monitoring and evaluation to maintain a conducive environment for learning and for complete mainstreaming of the ECE program.

scholarly journals Finnish Pre-Service Teachers’ Perceptions of Perceived Competence in Early Childhood Physical Education

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (12) ◽  
pp. 6454
Author(s):  
Anne Soini ◽  
Anthony Watt ◽  
Arja Sääkslahti
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Teacher Training ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Motor Skills ◽  
Perceived Competence ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Linear Regression Models ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Childhood Education

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) teachers have a central role in supporting young children’s physical activity (PA) and overall development in the early years. However, the value of early childhood education teacher training (ECETT) programmes is not widely understood. This study aimed to investigate pre-service teachers’ perceptions of perceived competence when (1) supporting a child’s PA, (2) teaching PE, and (3) observing and assessing a child’s motor skills and PA. These self-evaluations were compared with a range of individual, educational, and behavioural characteristics. Final-year Bachelor degree pre-service teachers (n = 274; 54%) from seven universities in Finland participated in the self-report questionnaire. The results of the linear regression models showed that the relevant PE studies and previous experiences of pre-service teachers predicted higher perceived competence of supporting a child’s PA, teaching PE, and observing and assessing a child’s motor skills and PA. Thus, the study findings demonstrated how teacher training could positively influence perceptions and attitudes to increase a person’s perceived competence when implementing PE in the early years. Overall, results reinforce the importance of PE in ECETT, and the time devoted to this syllabus area should be maintained or increased.

scholarly journals Is infant belonging observable? A path through the maze

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 404-416
Author(s):  
Jane M Selby ◽  
Benjamin S Bradley ◽  
Jennifer Sumsion ◽  
Matthew Stapleton ◽  
Linda J Harrison
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Infants And Toddlers ◽  
Quality Outcomes ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Learning Framework ◽  
Video Recordings ◽  
Education And Care

This article evaluates the concept of infant ‘belonging’, central to several national curricula for early childhood education and care. Here, the authors focus on Australia’s Early Years Learning Framework. Four different meanings attach to ‘belonging’ in the Early Years Learning Framework, the primary being sociopolitical. However, ‘a sense of belonging’ is also proposed as something that should be observable and demonstrable in infants and toddlers – such demonstration being held up as one of the keys to quality outcomes in early childhood education and care. The Early Years Learning Framework endows belonging with two contrasting meanings when applied to infants. The first, the authors call ‘marked belonging’, and it refers to the infant’s exclusion from or inclusion in defined groups of others. The second, the authors provisionally call ‘unmarked’ belonging. Differences between these two meanings of infant belonging are explored by describing two contrasting observational vignettes from video recordings of infants in early childhood education and care. The authors conclude that ‘belonging’ is not a helpful way to refer to, or empirically demonstrate, an infant’s mundane comfort or ‘unmarked’ agentive ease in shared early childhood education and care settings. A better way to conceptualise and research this would be through the prism of infants’ proven capacity to participate in groups.

scholarly journals Leadership in early childhood education: The case for pedagogical praxis

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ioanna Palaiologou ◽  
Trevor Male
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Ideological Struggle ◽  
Education And Care ◽  
Curriculum Reforms ◽  
Predominately Female ◽  
Teacher Status

In this conceptual article, the authors examine the context of early childhood education and care in England and the underpinning predominant ideologies to explore how these impact on the framing of leadership. The English context entails several contradictions (antinomies) at ontological, epistemological and axiological levels, and is heavily influenced by an ideological struggle concerning the value of play within the sector as opposed to a climate of child performativity. Moreover, the predominately female workforce (a factor itself) has faced relentless changes in terms of qualifications and curriculum reforms in recent years. With the introduction of the graduate leader qualification (Early Years Teacher Status), a vast body of research has been seeking to conceptualise what leadership means for early childhood education and care. In this article, the authors argue that these attempts are helpful and contribute to this discourse of leadership, but it needs to be thought of not only abstractly, but also practically. Thus, the authors conclude, the (re)conceptualisation of leadership should locate it as pedagogical praxis after evaluating the inherent deep dispositions of leaders in conjunction with their history, surrounding culture and subjective perspectives/realities.

scholarly journals Didaktisk diskussion om barnträdgårdslärares möjligheter att arbeta med matematik i finländsk småbarnsfostran

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camilla Björklund
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Educational Practice ◽  
Early Years ◽  
School Teachers ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
School Activities ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
New Research

Title: Didactical discussion on pre-school teachers’ prerequisites for working with mathematics in Finnish early childhood educationAbstract: Finnish teachers encounter an increased focus on learning aspects and a revised legislation strengthens teachers’ professional role for early learning, which also has impact on pre-school teachers’ work in early childhood education (children 0–5 years). The paradigm in early childhood education in recent years emphasizes development, learning and teaching. Mathematics is one content area that has been given a lot of attention in Nordic discussions on education for early years. However, the Finnish national curricula and guidelines for early childhood education give limited support for developing stimulating and goal-oriented educational practice in so called academic fields of knowledge, for example mathematics. This article aims at pointing at some of the prerequisites for working with mathematics in Finnish early childhood education in relation to new research on mathematical development and didactics suitable for early childhood education. Three authentic examples of traditional pre-school activities with toddlers are taken as a starting point for the didactical discussion.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document