scholarly journals Research Roundup: Paley’s Practice: Storytelling, Story Acting, and Early Learning

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 29
Author(s):  
Lisa M. Sensale Yazdian ◽  
Betsy Diamant-Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Early Learning ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Smoke Alarms ◽  
Children's Librarians ◽  
Story Acting

In the early years, children’s librarians traditionally lit a candle at the beginning of each storytime. The altered atmosphere helped transport children mentally to a land of stories. The candle was blown out at the end of the session, bringing them back to the library. Although this tradition has not endured (due perhaps to the invention of smoke alarms), storytelling remains an effective tool that can be used by librarians.

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.

Maximising Advantage in the Preschool Years: Parents' Resources and Strategies

2017 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 65-72
Author(s):  
Ciara Smyth
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Cognitive Development ◽  
Early Learning ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Critical Periods ◽  
Concerted Cultivation ◽  
Primary Schooling ◽  
Life Chances ◽  
Downward Shift ◽  
Infancy And Early Childhood

EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT HAS GAINED increasing importance in determining life chances. Parents hoping to secure a learning advantage for their offspring are increasingly focused on the preschool years. This downward shift from primary schooling has been prompted by the ‘first three years' movement, with its emphasis on infancy and early childhood as critical periods for development and learning. So what does this mean for early years parenting? Do parents try to secure a learning advantage in the preschool years and how do they do it? This paper highlights the four resource-dependent strategies Australian parents employ, both individually and in combination, to promote their child's early learning: ‘parenting for cognitive development’, outsourcing for cognitive development, ‘concerted cultivation’ and ‘redshirting’. By highlighting these resource-dependent strategies, this study highlights the socioeconomic gap in children's access to opportunities that parents believe give children a learning advantage in the preschool years.

Reviews10 Reasons to Love a Lion Catherine Barr, illustrated by Hanko Clulow ISBN 9781786031327 £9.99 Publisher Frances Lincoln Children’s Books/Natural History Museum Orders https://www.quartoknows.com/Frances-Lincoln/The Early Years Foundation Stage in Practice: Your guide to the key updates of the Statutory Framework and how to implement them in your setting Claire Hewson and Liz Wilcock ISBN 9781909280915 £21.00. Paperback Publisher Practical Pre-School Books Orders Tel: 0800 137201 (UK only); +44 (0)1722 716997 practicalpreschoolbooks.comWhy Don’t Children Sit Still? Parents Guide to Healthy Movement and Play in Child Developemnt Evelien van Dort ISBN 9781782505143 £7.99 Publisher Floris Books Orders florisbooks.co.ukCan You See Little Bear? by James Mayhew and Jackie Morris [£11.99 from Otter-Barry Books; ISBN: 9781910959367]Tusk Tusk by David McKee [£6.99 from Andersen Press; ISBN: 9781783446612]Millie’s Missing Ywan by You Jung Byun [£6.99 from Pavilion Children’s; ISBN: 97819781843653844]Fortunately, Unfortunately by Michael Foreman [££6.99 from Andersen Press; ISBN: 9781783447404]Please Mr Magic Fish! by Jessica Souhami [£11.99 from Otter-Barry Books; ISBN: 97819910959183]Through the Rainbow: A Waldorf Birthday Story for Children Lou Harvey-Zahra, illustrated by Sara Paririlli ISBN 9781782505075 £12.99. Hardback Publisher Floris Books Orders florisbooks.co.ukCreative Learning in the Early Years: Nurturing the characteristics of early learning Ruksana Mohammed ISBN 9781138635401 £19.99 Paperback Publisher David Fulton Orders www.routledge.com/education; orders via 01235 400400Let’s Sign: BSL Opposites for Family Learning Cath Smith ISBN 9781905913664 £5.99 Paperback Publisher Co-Sign Communications Orders http://www.deafbooks.co.uk

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 46-48
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Early Learning ◽  
Natural History Museum ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Children's Books ◽  
Children’S Books ◽  
Family Learning ◽  
History Museum ◽  
School Books

scholarly journals A photographic inquiry into Reggio inspired natural outdoor environments in Ontario early learning settings

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanya Farzaneh
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Early Learning ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Learning Spaces ◽  
Visual Research ◽  
Visual Research Methods ◽  
Green Areas ◽  
Outdoor Environments ◽  
Connecting Children To Nature ◽  
First Nature

This qualitative study explores the translation of Reggio principles in 20 Ontario natural outdoor early learning settings. Through visual research methods, digital images revealed the translation of the following principles: the image of the child, the environment as a third teacher and the hundred languages of children in the outdoor environments. Moreover, nature was a predominant element in two ways. First, nature was incorporated in the curriculum and natural spaces. Second, half the sites committed to connecting children to nature through frequent excursions in local green areas. This research positions the potential for practice in creating outdoor early learning spaces by merging both the principles of nature-based education and Reggio inspired pedagogy, in considering compatibility with the Ontario Early Years Framework. This research addresses the current gaps in the literature pertaining to quality outdoor environments, and provides recommendations for a proposed Outdoor Pedagogy for the Early Years.

scholarly journals A photographic inquiry into Reggio inspired natural outdoor environments in Ontario early learning settings

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanya Farzaneh
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Early Learning ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Learning Spaces ◽  
Visual Research ◽  
Visual Research Methods ◽  
Green Areas ◽  
Outdoor Environments ◽  
Connecting Children To Nature ◽  
First Nature

This qualitative study explores the translation of Reggio principles in 20 Ontario natural outdoor early learning settings. Through visual research methods, digital images revealed the translation of the following principles: the image of the child, the environment as a third teacher and the hundred languages of children in the outdoor environments. Moreover, nature was a predominant element in two ways. First, nature was incorporated in the curriculum and natural spaces. Second, half the sites committed to connecting children to nature through frequent excursions in local green areas. This research positions the potential for practice in creating outdoor early learning spaces by merging both the principles of nature-based education and Reggio inspired pedagogy, in considering compatibility with the Ontario Early Years Framework. This research addresses the current gaps in the literature pertaining to quality outdoor environments, and provides recommendations for a proposed Outdoor Pedagogy for the Early Years.

scholarly journals Sexuality education and early childhood educators in Ontario, Canada: A Foucauldian exploration of constraints and possibilities

2021 ◽  
pp. 146394912110607
Author(s):  
Adam WJ Davies ◽  
Alice Simone-Balter ◽  
Tricia van Rhijn
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Sexuality Education ◽  
Professional Training ◽  
Early Learning ◽  
Early Childhood Educators ◽  
Gender And Sexuality ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Professional Practices ◽  
Sexual Diversity

Open conversations regarding sexuality education and gender and sexual diversity with young children in early childhood education settings are still highly constrained. Educators report lacking professional training and fearing parental and community pushback when explicitly addressing these topics in their professional practices. As such, gender and sexual diversity and conversations of bodily development are left silenced and, when addressed, filtered through heteronormative and cisnormative frameworks. Through a Foucauldian post-structural lens, this article analyses data from open-ended qualitative questions in a previous research study regarding early childhood educators’ perceptions on discussing the development of sexuality in early learning settings in an Ontario, Canada context. Through this Foucauldian post-structural analysis, the authors discuss forms of surveillance and regulation that early childhood educators experience in early learning settings regarding the open discussion of gender and sexuality. The authors explore how both the lack of explicit curricula addressing gender and sexuality in the early years in Ontario and taken-for-granted notions of developmentally appropriate practice, childhood innocence, and the gender binary – employed in discourses of sexuality education in the early years – regulate early childhood educators’ professional practices. The authors provide recommendations which critique the developmentalist logics – specifically, normative development – that are used to silence non-heterosexual and non-cisgender identities in the early years, while articulating the need for explicit curricula for educators in the early years regarding gender and sexuality in young children.

Families Can Do Coping: Parenting Skills in the Early Years

2014 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erica Frydenberg ◽  
Jan Deans ◽  
Rachel Liang
Keyword(s):  
Coping Skills ◽  
Research Programme ◽  
Early Learning ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Parenting Skills ◽  
Parents And Children ◽  
Pencil And Paper ◽  
And Coping ◽  
The University ◽  
Programme Outcomes

Parenting programmes are very much a part of the international landscape in Western communities. Coping skills provide a useful resource for parents and children in managing their everyday lives, both together and individually. Following a 5-year research programme with parents and children in an early years setting, Families Can Do Coping was developed as a comprehensive parenting skills programme that incorporates parents’ understanding of their own coping and that of their children. The programme was delivered with the twin aims of teaching communication and coping skills to parents. In 2012, five 2-hour sessions were delivered to 19 parents in an Early Learning Centre at the University of Melbourne. The five-session programme focused on providing parents with information regarding coping skills and the use of visual tools to assist parents to engage with their children in conversations about coping. Additionally, parents completed a pencil-and-paper coping skills evaluation for their child. The programme outcomes included perceptions of parents’ enhancement of their wellbeing, and development of proactive and productive coping skills in both parents and children. After a 3-month period three parents provided feedback on their progress and use of the new tools and strategies for maintaining helpful parenting.

scholarly journals Re-thinking ‘normal’ development in the early learning of number

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 136-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alf Coles ◽  
Nathalie Sinclair
Keyword(s):  
Mathematics Education ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Normal Development ◽  
Number Sense ◽  
Approaches To Learning ◽  
Early Learning ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Potential Significance ◽  
And Mathematics ◽  
Curriculum Organisation

In this article we suggest that, notwithstanding noted differences, one unmarked similarity across psychology and mathematics education is the continued dominance of the view that there is a ‘normal’ path of development. We focus particularly on the case of the early learning of number and point to evidence that puts into question the dominant narrative of how number sense develops through the concrete and the cardinal. Recent neuroscience findings have raised the potential significance of ordinal approaches to learning number, which in privileging the symbolic—and hence the abstract—reverse one aspect of the ‘normal’ development order. We draw on empirical evidence to suggest that what children can do, and in what order, is sensitive to, among other things, the curriculum approach—and also the tools they have at their disposition. We draw out implications from our work for curriculum organisation in the early years of schooling, to disrupt taken-for-granted paths.

scholarly journals Institutional Pedagogical Intervention in Early Years of Life on the Path of Lifelong Learning / Institucionalna pedagoška intervencija u ranim godinama života na putu cjeloživotnog učenja

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nataša Cvijanović ◽  
Danica Mojić
Keyword(s):  
Child Development ◽  
Lifelong Learning ◽  
Preschool Education ◽  
First Grade ◽  
Early Learning ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Speech Communication ◽  
Pedagogical Intervention ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Relationship

The research presented in this paper focuses on establishing the relationship betweeninstitutional pedagogical interventions in early years of life, such as the programmebefore going to school, and early learning of children.This relationship is observed through established outcomes that definedevelopmental changes of a child in all aspects of his development: physical,emotional and cognitive, and development of speech, communication and creativity.The task of the research was to determine the correlation between attending thepreschool curriculum and the growth of certain developmental aspects in childrenas an indicator of early learning, while observing preschool education and educationas a fundamental process for developing lifelong learning competence.Evaluation of the aspects of child development is carried out with the use of theScale for determining developmental aspects of children, with the teachers whoperformed the evaluation of children starting the first grade also recording the dataon attending preschool institutions.1,439 children were monitored in 18 schools, which represents about 14% of thetotal population of children who attend the first grade in the Republic of Srpska,one of the entities in Bosnia and Herzegovina.The results of checking the relationship between involving children into thecurriculum before going to school and the developmental aspects of children showthat children who were involved in the curriculum have more expressed aspects ofdevelopment, which also reflects onto more developed abilities for lifelong learning.Key words: aspects of child development; lifelong learning; preschool curriculum.-Istraživanje predstavljeno u ovom radu fokusira se na uspostavljanje odnosaizmeđu institucionalnih pedagoških intervencija u ranim godinama života, poputpredškolskoga programa i ranoga učenja djece.Ovaj odnos promatran je kroz uspostavljene ishode koji definiraju promjene djetetau svim aspektima razvoja: fizičkom, socioemocionalnom i kognitivnom aspektu terazvoju govora, komunikacije i kreativnosti.Cilj istraživanja bio je ispitati vezu između uključenosti u predškolski kurikul ipoboljšanja određenih razvojnih aspekata djece kao indikatora ranoga učenja,prilikom promatranja predškolskoga obrazovanja i obrazovanja kao temeljnogaprocesa za razvoj kompetencije cjeloživotnoga učenja.Evaluacija aspekata dječjega razvoja provedena je upotrebom Skale za utvrđivanjerazvojnih aspekata djece, a provodili su je učitelji koji su procjenjivali djecu napočetku prvog razreda, također bilježeći podatke o pohađanju predškolskihinstitucija.U istraživanje je bilo uključeno 1439 djece iz 18 škola, što predstavlja oko 14 %ukupne populacije djece koja pohađaju prvi razred u Republici Srpskoj, jednomod entiteta u Bosni i Hercegovini.Rezultati istraživanja odnosa uključivanja djece u predškolski kurikul i njihovihrazvojnih aspekata pokazuju da djeca koja su pohađala vrtić imaju izraženijerazvojne aspekte, što se također odražava na razvijenije sposobnosti cjeloživotnogaučenja.Ključne riječi: aspekti dječjega razvoja; cjeloživotno učenje; predškolski kurikul.

scholarly journals Exploring early childhood educators’ notions about professionalism in Prince Edward Island

2019 ◽  
pp. 20-36
Author(s):  
Alaina Roach O'Keefe ◽  
Sonya Hooper ◽  
Brittany A.E. Jakubiec
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Prince Edward Island ◽  
Qualitative Methodology ◽  
Daily Practice ◽  
Early Learning ◽  
Early Childhood Educators ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Curriculum Frameworks ◽  
Negative Impacts

Despite policy changes in a growing number of countries to increase the quality of early years education through the introduction of national curricular frameworks, conceptualizations of early childhood professionals remain distinctly variegated. Early learning curriculum frameworks have become embedded into the 21st-century early learning movement, creating a shift in professional deliverables and system expectations. This study explores how early childhood educators (ECEs) in Prince Edward Island (PEI) understand the concept of professionalism in their everyday practice. The researchers used qualitative methodology and a variety of methods, including workshops, interviews, and field notes, to gain insight into how ECEs understand professionalism. The data was analyzed through thematic analysis and understood through the lens of sociocultural theories of learning that embrace communities of practice as a positive way to promote professional learning. Primary findings explore (1) how ECEs understand professionalism in PEI, (2) positive and negative impacts on their understanding of professionalism in their daily practice, and (3) professional development opportunities that impact professionalism in the early childhood field.

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