Research on the predictivity of activity settings, preschool teachers' activities, and children's activities for interaction quality is inconsistent and cannot be transferred easily to specific ...national preschool contexts. The present study addresses this issue by assessing the interaction quality of 185 children aged 3-5 years attending 61 preschools in Austria using the Individualized Classroom Assessment Scoring System (inCLASS). Activity settings and activities were captured using a time-sampling method. Having included control variables, regression analyses revealed that scaffolding was positively related to children's interactions with teachers, free choice was positively related to interactions with peers, and 'high-yield' activities were positively related to interactions with peers and task orientation. Teacher-led activities and scaffolding were negatively related to interactions with peers, and 'low-yield' activities were negatively related to interactions with peers and task orientation. Effect sizes ranged from small to medium. The findings indicate that opportunities to support children remain untapped.
High pedagogical quality in early childhood education and care (ECEC) is related to developmental outcomes in young children. This review summarizes findings from (quasi)-experimental studies that ...evaluated in-service training effects for ECEC professionals on external quality ratings and child development. The aggregation of findings at teacher level (including 36 studies with 2,891 teachers) revealed a medium in-service training effect on process quality (effect size ES = 0.68, SE = 0.07, p < .001). Furthermore, a subset of nine studies (including 486 teachers and 4,504 children) that provided data on both quality ratings and child development were analyzed, and they showed a small effect at child level (ES = 0.14; SE = 0.02, p < .001) and a medium effect at the corresponding classroom level (ES = 0.45, SE = 0.11, p < .001). Variance in effect sizes at child level was significantly related to in-service effects on quality ratings (53% explained variance). The results show that quality improvement is a key mechanism to accelerate the development of young children.
The article deals with the issue of practice as the basic format of training preschool teachers at the university. Certain issues are brought to the spot such as contradictions between changing ...cultural, economic, and social environment and traditional, to large extent old-fashioned, regulations in university professional training, the readiness of employers to host and participate in the management of practice activities, the willingness of the teaching staff to mentoring collaboration, the expectation of trainees. The necessity to renovate the system of training is vividly highlighted by the results of the survey held among all the participants of practice. Through the reflexive model of pedagogical practice as an element of the curriculum for training a preschool teacher at a university, we analyze the changes to be introduced in target, technological, content, methodological, and efficiency components.
The article substantiates the importance of communicative competency for a modern professional, the professional activity of a teacher and specifically a preschool teacher. The results of studying ...individual components of communicative competency among teachers of preschool educational organizations are presented. The deficiencies in its development are highlighted and the possibilities of the educational process in a higher educational institution and methodological support in a preschool educational organization in the development of this competency are shown.
This study comprehensively explores the intricate factors influencing the management of fostering and developing professional competence among preschool teachers in the Southeastern Region of ...Vietnam. Examining subjective factors (self-study, leadership roles, decentralization, and coordination) reveals individual perspectives driving effective teacher development. This study has 104 administrators. To ensure a representative sample, a random sampling method was employed for participant selection. The analysis underscores the significance of continuous self-improvement (M = 4.15, SD = 0.99), the pivotal role of school leadership (M = 3.40, SD = 0.79), and collaborative efforts (M= 3.99, SD = 0.87) in advancing professional growth. Simultaneously, the investigation of objective factors (socio-economic conditions, educational renovation, educational science, and institutional diversity) highlights broader systemic influences. The analysis underscores the importance of contextual considerations (M = 2.96, SD = 0.97), evidence-based practices (M = 4.12, SD = 0.82), and varied educational settings (M = 3.12, SD = 0.71) in shaping successful strategies for professional development. The synthesis of these results emphasizes the dynamic interplay between individual viewpoints and systemic forces in the realm of teacher training administration. This research not only enriches our understanding of the nuanced factors influencing professional competence development but also offers actionable insights for informed decision-making within the domain of early childhood education. By capitalizing on these findings, educators, administrators, and policymakers can collectively contribute to the cultivation of skilled preschool teachers, thereby fostering a more robust and impactful early learning environment in the Southeastern Region of Vietnam.
Neuroscience reveals how building design shapes our behavioral, brain, and body responses
I approach my research in an interdisciplinary manner because that is how my mind works. When I was growing ...up, I looked for patterns in my environment to help me make sense of my surroundings. When I was 2 years old, my parents took me on a car trip through Tasmania, an island state southeast of mainland Australia. I had not started speaking; yet, out of nowhere, I began singing “E-I-E-I-O” from the nursery rhyme Old MacDonald Had a Farm. This refrain turned into a reoccurring performance at random intervals, which caused my parents some confusion. Then they detected a pattern. The melody chimed from the backseat each time that we passed signage for a McDonald’s restaurant. Often, the melody alerted them before they had noticed the sign along the road. A few years later, my kindergarten teachers reported that I would spend hours creating my own environments with wooden building blocks. Unlike other children, who would flit between activities, I fixated on incrementally building my own world and filtered out all other distractions around me.
•A strong home-school collaboration is affecting the quality of inclusive preschool education.•An effective home-preschool collaboration improves learning of children with special ...needs.•Home-preschool collaboration is a dynamic and complex process.•Many challenges still await solutions for a quality collaboration.•Bioecological systems theory can guide the collaborative practice of many professionals.
The aim of the current study was to explore and describe preschool teachers’ experiences regarding home-school collaboration with a focus on children with special needs and their parents in inclusive education. We depended on descriptive phenomenological qualitative research and conducted focus group discussions with 24 preschool teachers. Theoretical thematic analyses have yielded five themes: (1) the components of home-school collaboration, (2) the vital role of parent and teacher involvement, (3) the contributions of collaboration, (4) the challenges from microsystem to macrosystem, and (5) suggestions and solutions. An effective home-school collaboration contributes significantly to the development and learning of children with special needs. However, many challenges still await solutions for a quality collaboration which has complex nature. The bioecological systems theory is a well-known theory that can guide the collaborative practice of many professionals and policy makers.
Social media creating a feeling of freedom in getting news, providing rapid access to information, and transforming its users into content producers in line with its usage purposes is a source of ...inspiration for many individuals from many professional fields. After the pandemic pandemic, teachers are among the user profiles that actively use social media. The purpose of this study is to examine the views of preschool teachers on the use of social media for professional development. The research was designed with the qualitative research method and case study. The sample of this study consists of twenty-five early childhood education teachers. The data were analyzed by descriptive analysis technique. As a result of the data analysis, it was found that preschool preschool teachers used social media platforms for professional development and benefited from these platforms effectively. Teachers emphasize that social media has an important contribution to their professional development, but they also state that one should be careful against disinformation. It is recommended that teachers be provided with media literacy training and that teachers should be conscious about acting in accordance with children's rights and ethical principles when using social media for professional purposes.
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