This book opens with a study seeking to show how students and practicing teachers develop core professional competencies in the early childhood education department of the Levinsky College of ...Education in Israel. These competencies, such as relationships with children and adults, mediated learning experiences, and classroom management, are embedded in a small number of core practices that have been systematically and intensively incorporated into early childhood education studies, and sometimes integrated by the graduates into their daily practice. The authors also introduce a study examining the transformation in perceptions of learning-teaching processes of third-year student teachers in in the early childhood education program in Levinsky College of Education while implementing emergent curriculum. A multiple case studies (Yin, 2014) approach is used to reveal learning processes and challenges. Following this the authors show how student teachers at Levinsky College of Education implement an emergent curriculum approach (Jones, 2012; Rinaldi, 2001; Yu-le, 2004) and create bridges to diverse childrens homes, focusing on the rationale of the program, its implementation and childrens perspectives. To train student teachers in the early childhood education program, a simulation center was created in which videotaped simulations are used as a critical learning tool. Subsequent analysis of the students documented thoughts and feelings about the simulations revealed key insights regarding communication with parents. This compilation goes on to examine how early childhood education interns interpreted communication with parents and what difficulties and challenges preoccupied them, because the identification of these central difficulties and challenges may contribute significantly to the knowledge of family-school relations in a diverse and changing society. A subsequent study provides a careful investigation into the effects of a course on the parent-teacher relationship on student teachers and interns perceptions. This study was derived from the goal of preparing student teachers to cope effectively with relationships with parents. The authors examined teachers use of repeated narrative writing based on Pennebakers (Pennebaker &Evans, 2014) expressive writing method to cope with emotionally loaded incidents related to behavior problems in the preschool classroom. An analysis of sixty narratives written by two Israeli teachers revealed that repeated narrative writing helped them overcome helplessness, regulate negative feelings towards people and situations involved in the incidents, and develop self-efficacy and self-determination, as well as improve their classroom management competencies. The final chapter demonstrates an approach to elicit teachers ideas about teaching and their reflections on teaching practices. The approach of constructing a practical argument allows for analysis of teachers thinking in combination with their actions in the classroom.
•We meta-analyzed PD that focused on school readiness, social/emotional functioning through interactions, and language and literacy.•Most analyses revealed small positive effects of PD programs on ...child outcomes.•Stronger associations were found for outcomes related to the focus of the PD program.•Systematic review revealed more associations for longer programs with coaching.•Findings suggest that PD helps to shape children's learning.
Professional development (PD) appears to be an important lever for improving practice in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) programs. However, the availability of a large number of PD programs targeting different content areas makes it difficult to know where to invest limited resources. The primary goal of this review is to integrate the evidence on associations between PD programs targeting different content areas and outcomes that are conceptually linked to those content areas among preschool children. Where possible, PD mode of delivery, dose, study design, and author effects were also reviewed. Three electronic databases (Medline, PsycINFO, ERIC), websites of large datasets, and reference sections of all included articles, were searched up to February 5, 2018. Sixty-four studies of 30,209 preschool-aged children from 3327 classrooms in 1568 centers were included in the systematic review and 20 were included in meta-analyses. Over 400 unique child outcome measures were used. We conducted 13 meta-analyses on PD programs that targeted: School Readiness, Social/Emotional Functioning through Interactions, and Language/Literacy. Ten of the 13 meta-analyses were significant (effect sizes ranged from 0.07–0.26). Positive associations were identified when child outcomes aligned with the content of PD programs (e.g., Language/Literacy PD and identifying letters). The systematic review similarly identified more associations when outcomes were related to PD content and for programs that included a coaching component, were shorter, and used author-created outcome measures. Limitations, future research, and policy implications are discussed.
Early childhood educators (ECEs) play a critical role in promoting physical activity (PA) among preschoolers in childcare; thus, PA-related training for ECEs is essential. The Supporting PA in the ...Childcare Environment (SPACE) intervention incorporated: 1. shorter, more frequent outdoor play sessions; 2. provision of portable play equipment; and, PA training for ECEs. An extension of the SPACE intervention (the SPACE-Extension) incorporated only the shorter, more frequent outdoor play periods component of the original SPACE intervention. The purpose of this study was to explore the individual impact of these interventions on ECEs' PA-related self-efficacy and knowledge.
ECEs from the SPACE (n = 83) and SPACE-Extension (n = 31) were administered surveys at all intervention time-points to assess: self-efficacy to engage preschoolers in PA (n = 6 items; scale 0 to 100); self-efficacy to implement the intervention (n = 6 items); and, knowledge of preschooler-specific PA and screen-viewing guidelines (n = 2 items). A linear mixed effects model was used to analyze the impact of each intervention on ECEs' self-efficacy and knowledge and controlled for multiple comparison bias.
The SPACE intervention significantly impacted ECEs' self-efficacy to engage preschoolers in PA for 180 min/day (main effect), and when outdoor playtime was not an option (interaction effect). Further, the interaction model for ECEs' knowledge of the total PA guideline for preschoolers approached significance when compared to the main effects model. Participants within the SPACE-Extension did not demonstrate any significant changes in self-efficacy or knowledge variables.
Findings from this study highlight the benefit of ECE training in PA with regard to fostering their PA-related self-efficacy and knowledge. Future research should explore the impact of PA training for ECEs uniquely in order to determine if this intervention component, alone, can produce meaningful changes in children's PA behaviours at childcare.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Early childhood professionals experience more adverse childhood trauma than other populations. How this trauma impacts job-related burnout, and is mediated by personality, is not known. This study ...explored the relationship between adverse childhood experiences, personality, and job-related burnout, and whether personality mediates between adverse childhood experiences and job-related burnout. Participants included 207 early childhood educators from the U.S. Results revealed a significant, positive correlation between adverse childhood experiences, and neuroticism and openness. Neuroticism and openness were found to mediate between adverse childhood experiences and burnout. Understanding this relationship has implications for the design of supportive infrastructures and professional development initiatives.
•Adverse childhood experiences significantly correlated with personality traits: neuroticism and openness.•Burnout was significantly correlated with extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness, and neuroticism.•Personality traits, openness and neuroticism, mediated between adverse childhood experiences and burnout.
•Even in a highly resourced early childhood program, staff turnover was 30% annually.•Survival analysis allowed for quantifying the timing of turnover.•Predictors of staying were a positive work ...environment and teaching infants/toddlers.•Teaching staff with more years of education were more likely to leave.•Some predictors of staying were different for teachers compared to assistants/aides.
This study of a large sample of classroom teaching staff at 23 early childhood schools across the U.S. serving children birth to age 5 used survival analysis to investigate both the timing of staff turnover and the characteristics associated with turnover. The data were collected from over 2,000 teachers, assistant teachers and aides between 2007 and 2019. Survival analysis allowed for investigation of both the timing of staff turnover and the time-varying and time-invariant characteristics associated with turnover. Over time, staff who were more positive about their work environment, had more years of teaching experience, taught in infant-toddler classrooms, or identified as Black were more likely to stay, whereas staff who had more years of education were more likely to leave. The probability of leaving was greatest in the first 2 to 3 years of employment. Some predictors of retention differed between lead teachers and assistants/aides, for example, the risk of leaving was greater for teachers with depressive symptoms but not for assistants/aides. While the results point to some areas where school leaders can effect practice changes to improve retention, the findings point to multiple areas where systemic and policy changes may be needed to reduce turnover.
•The lack of early education services for the children of asylum-seekers is a significant problem worldwide.•The study focused on community daycares in Israel, known as the 'Babysitters’.•It examined ...an intercultural early education consultation program for undocumented caregivers working in Babysitters.•The program was designed to enhance caregivers' knowledge, sense of belonging and caring skills.•Alliances between counselors and caregivers were important and enhanced caregivers’ sense of meaning and belonging.
The lack of early childhood education services for the children of asylum-seekers is a significant problem in many countries. The urgent need for childcare and the lack of national solutions often lead to temporary and unregulated childcare services. This paper examines the case of community daycares, known as the 'Babysitters,' for undocumented children of African asylum-seeking families in Israel. These centers are generally staffed by undocumented community members. The study examined the C-SMART program, an intercultural consultation program provided by counselors to enhance community caregivers' developmental knowledge and caring skills for infants and young children. The qualitative study, guided by a grounded theory methodology, examined the caregivers' experiences and perceptions of learning within the C-SMART program. Fifteen undocumented African migrant and asylum-seeking caregivers shared their experiences in semi-structured interviews. Caregivers indicated that the consultation process included cultural tensions alongside moments of connection when shared cultural meanings were created. When the counselors demonstrated a humble, curious, and enabling attitude, the caregivers had significant learning moments and felt a sense of meaning and belonging that enhanced their caring skills. These results have substantial implications for the development of intercultural services for the caregivers of children from refugee or asylum-seeking families.
•Well-being intervention aimed at improving teacher affect in the classroom.•Majority of teachers showed an increase in observed affect over time.•Level of participation particularly salient for ...those with higher ACEs exposure.•Decrease in affect for teachers with a history of adversity and lower engagement.•Early childhood education should promote health and wellness programs for teachers.
Children's social-emotional and cognitive development is enhanced when early childhood educators display positive affect and respond appropriately to children's needs. However, there is little research on factors that influence teachers’ positive affect in the classroom, such as past adversity exposure and promoting teachers’ well-being. The current study examined the interactive effect of teacher participation in a well-being program (Be Well Care Well; BWCW) and their exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on changes in observed teacher affect over time within the classroom setting. Participants included 95 early childhood teachers who completed the ACEs measure, a live classroom observation before participation in activities, and a post-intervention observation. Multilevel modeling estimated the interactive effects of teacher ACEs, participation in BWCW activities, and time on the dependent variable (i.e., teacher affect). Results from the three-level random intercept model showed a significant three-way interaction. Individuals with a higher number of ACEs and lower participation in the well-being program showed a decrease in positive affect over time. This effect was not significant for teachers who reported fewer ACEs. Results indicate that the degree of participation in the well-being program was particularly salient for teachers with higher exposure to past ACEs. Findings suggest that fostering teachers’ physical health and well-being can enhance their affect and enthusiasm in the classroom setting, particularly for those with higher levels of past adversity exposure.
Present-day early childhood educators face the challenge of producing their professional identities in highly neo-liberal contexts, negotiating contested discourses on professionalism, education ...quality and the overall purpose of early childhood education. While it has been suggested by critical scholarship that the early childhood workforce responds to these challenges by developing a unified professional identity, the author contends that particular contexts of practice (such as schools) and the schoolification of early childhood education may produce fragmentation within the workforce. This is crystallised in the figure of the school-based early childhood educator, whose professional practice lies somewhere between that of a kindergarten educator and a schoolteacher. As school-based early childhood education is not perceived as proper early childhood practice by kindergarten educators, school-based educators struggle to identify with this group of practitioners. Drawing on a psychoanalytically informed qualitative study with early childhood educators, the author discusses some of these tensions and proposes the notion of liminal identity (an intermediate space of becoming where identities – among other possibilities – may be examined and reimagined) as a starting point for the exploration of this emergent type of professional subjectivity in the context of an increasing provision of early childhood education in school settings. The author calls for a destabilisation of oversimplified understandings of the relation between educators and their contexts of practice, and the acknowledgement that educators experience and respond to the struggles of the profession in diverse and complex ways.
Early childhood education settings play a critical role in offering opportunities for children to develop physical literacy. The purpose of the present study was to investigate if Movement for Life! ...(M4L), a physical literacy education program for adult caregivers of children ages 0-6, translated to change in the provision, knowledge, and understanding of physical literacy by early childhood educators (ECEs). Using a pre and post-test design 84 ECES completed two measures: the Physical Literacy Environmental Assessment (PLEA; Caldwell et al., 2020), and a survey regarding personal behaviours for providing physical literacy development opportunities. In addition, six childcare centre directors completed the Physical Activity Self-Assessment for Childcare (Ward et al., 2008). The results demonstrate that the participation in the M4L program has a positive impact on the physical literacy environment of early childhood care centres. Additionally, ECEs believed it was important to provide physical literacy development activities. They reported increased confidence to provide effective physical literacy development activities from pre-test to post-test and reported significantly decreased difficulty providing effective physical literacy development activities from pre-test to post-test, although some barriers were suggested to still exist. The results indicate the M4L program was effective and successfully implemented with ECEs.
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