scholarly journals Contemporary Relevance of Bertrand Russell’s Views on Early Childhood Education

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-37
Author(s):  
Runumi Sharma ◽  
Mamta Aswal
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Character Development ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Holistic Development ◽  
National Education ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Historical Method ◽  
Secondary Sources

Bertrand Russell’s educational thoughts significantly deal with reforming education for school going children and he also supported pre-primary education. He favored early childhood education for physical, intellectual and character development. His emphasis on character development of a child shows the significance of early years of life for development of an individual. This paper aims at exploring Bertrand Russell’s thoughts on early childhood education. It is an attempt to understand the significance of early childhood education for the holistic development of the children. Though there are early childhood education is prevalent in our country, but it was not mandatory to get early childhood education till the approval of National Education Policy (N.E.P., 2020). It has included early childhood education in compulsory school education for promoting better learning and well being of a child. It is a qualitative research in which historical method has been used where data has been collected from primary and secondary sources. The finding of the study shows that Bertrand Russell’sthought on early childhood education is relevant in present Indian context for developing good values, physical and mental development as well as in future learning. This shows that the encouragement to early childhood education and Bertrand Russell’s thoughts on early childhood education would be helpful for holistic development of children.

scholarly journals The status of early childhood education in Pakistan: Inside stories

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 310-317
Author(s):  
Mohammad Afzal Khan
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
Holistic Development ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
The Status ◽  
Approach To Teaching

This article analyses the status of early childhood education in Pakistan. The education systems in place in Pakistan are mainly framed within a didactic approach to teaching and learning, which addresses certain areas of education but does not teach the child as a whole. Domains of children’s holistic development such as social, ethical, cultural, intellectual, emotional and physical well-being, and some other key academic skills, are not fully covered. In this kind of education, students are taught to follow rules without question and do as instructed, which corresponds to an autocratic view of learning. In the context of early childhood education in Pakistan, teachers occupy dominant roles, which positions them as the imparters and sources of knowledge and children as dependent and the receivers of knowledge, rather than considering them as potential, curious and powerful learners with unlimited capabilities. The literature indicates that this approach to teaching and learning does not privilege the holistic development and well-being of children. In contrast, many developed countries use research-based contemporary approaches to children’s education and development, giving children a more central role in their learning to ensure that every child has the opportunity to develop to their full potential. This kind of approach reminds teachers to view all children not as needy or deficient individuals.

Sustainability Education in Early Childhood Education

Education ◽  
2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
Sustainability Education ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Education For Sustainable Development ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Childhood Education

Sustainability education is a comparatively new component of early childhood care and education. It has emerged in response to growing concerns about the state of humanity and the planet on which we depend, and in recognition of the early years as foundational in the establishment of dispositions related to ways of knowing, being, doing, and relating. Such dispositions can reflect key aspects of caring, learning, and acting in accordance to values that are life-enhancing for people and planet. UNESCO definitions of sustainability education recognize the interconnectedness of social, cultural, ecological, and economic justice as key dimensions in generating a world that sustains both human and more-than-human diversity. Sustainability education within the field of early childhood education similarly reflects the consideration that young children and their families are agentic and can act in ways that reflect a commitment to social justice and to protect planetary biodiversity at their local levels, as well as advocate for political changes in service of local and global well-being, such as policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. UNESCO, as the lead United Nations agency for education, science, and culture, has been mandated to lead education for sustainability since the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg in 2002. Within UNESCO discourse, the terminology used is “Education for Sustainable Development” in recognition of the tensions that exist between the “developed” and “developing” nations in that the former are over-utilizing the resources of the earth in an unsustainable manner, while many in the majority world struggle to live in ways that maintain their well-being. The current United Nations Sustainable Development Goals outline a program intended to address seventeen key areas, which include poverty, hunger, health and well-being, education, gender equality, life on land and in the water, climate action, and sustainable cities and communities. Goal 4.7 recognizes they key role that education plays in furthering the entire SDG agenda: “Target 4.7: By 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development” (UNESCO 2017, p. 7, cited under UNESCO Guiding Documents). This signals that all educators, from the early years and beyond, should incorporate such key focuses within the programs they offer. Beginning with some key UNESCO documents, the sections below cover some key texts and articles that provide guidance for sustainability education in early childhood settings.

scholarly journals Theorising child well-being: Towards a framework for analysing Early Childhood Education policy in England

2020 ◽  
pp. 1476718X2096984
Author(s):  
Martina Street
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Early Childhood Education Policy ◽  
Rights Of The Child ◽  
Desirable Outcome ◽  
Primary Goods ◽  
Measurement Practices

‘Well-being’ is increasingly used in child rights discourses and early childhood education (ECE) policy contexts as a desirable outcome for young children. In spite of its ubiquitous use, however, child well-being remains largely under-theorised, thereby contributing to implicit understandings within policy arenas. This paper contributes to attempts to address this gap by proposing a theoretical framework of child well-being. The framework is developed in stages. First, two prominent approaches to well-being are described: distributive and relational approaches. Distributive approaches are subdivided into primary goods theory and capability theory. These theories focus on differential approaches to resource distribution. Relational approaches to well-being are then considered. These focus on the intrinsic importance of the processes of well-being. Second, the concepts privileged by each of these well-being theories are further developed into a framework by reflecting on children’s rights to provision, protection and participation as promoted by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Following this, the framework is used to analyse ECE policy with a specific focus on the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum and measurement requirements. Academic literatures examining ECE policy is then reviewed to extrapolate understandings of the potential implications of this policy for young children’s well-being. The findings suggest that the EYFS theorises well-being in ways that are limited and may be limiting of young children’s well beings and doings. The associated measurement practices and curriculum goals, in particular, may undermine practice supportive of young children’s well-being.

eye brings you another batch of the latest products and books on offerAssessing Quality in Early Childhood Education and Care: Sustained Shared Thinking and Emotional Well-Being (SSTEW) Scale for 2-5 year-olds Provision by Iram Siraj, Denise Kingston, Edward Melhuish [ISBN: 9781858566580]. Paperback. £19.99. Published by Trentham Books/IOE Press; https://ioepress.co.uk Review by Dr Sue AllinghamTime to Move by Trudi Fitzhenry, Karen Murphy (ISBN: 9781472909503). £9.99. Paperback. Published by Bloomsbury. Tel: 020 7631 5600 www.bloomsbury.com/uk Review by Martine HorvathSummative Assessment in the Early Years by Carole, Wendy Cross and Diana Vennis (ISBN: 9781472913494). Paperback. £18.99 Published by Bloomsbury. Tel: 020 7631 5600; www.bloomsbury.com/uk Review by Martine HorvathPicture booksGetting it Right for Two Year Olds by Penny Tassoni (ISBN: 9781471807992). Paperback. £14.99. Published by Hodder Education. www.hoddereducation.co.uk Review by Martine HorvathLearning to Learn in Nature edited by Robin Duckett, Mary Jane Drummond (ISBN: 9780954282783). Paperback. £31.00. Published by Sightlines Initiative. www.sightlines-initiative.com Review by Mary FawcettInspiring Play Spaces by Susie Rosback, Natalie Coulson and Sally Featherstone (ISBN: 9781472913364). Paperback. £18.99. Published by Bloomsbury. Tel: 020 7631 5600 www.bloomsbury.com/uk Review by Martine Horvath

2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 46-48
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Education And Care

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 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.

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