Beginner Teacher and Early Education Eliza Mihaela Spătărelu
Journal of Educational Studies (Online),
12/2019, Volume:
1, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Open access
The changes in the level of preschool education that took place in 2019 were received differently by the teachers. Those who are in the beginning in this field are the most affected by this event ...because they do not yet have the stability offered by the experience. This research focuses on the attitude of beginning teachers, trying to identify the factors that could induce behavioural variations. Through quantitative actions interwoven with qualitative ones, we will try to draw objective conclusions.
Examines the extent to which curricular choice and incorporation of phonemic awareness (PA) into the kindergarten curriculum affects growth in kindergarten literacy skills and first-grade reading and ...spelling outcomes. Provides large-scale classroom support for findings on PA reported by the National Reading Panel. (SG)
The teaching beliefs and classroom practices of 54 kindergarten teachers were assessed using a Q-sort measure. Cluster analysis of the Q-sort responses revealed four instructional approaches that ...differed in their focus on literacy skills, social development and self-esteem. In addition, measures of emergent literacy skills, classroom behaviour and peer relationships were obtained for 162 low-income children attending these kindergarten classrooms. Children in classrooms emphasising emergent literacy skills demonstrated greater mastery of such skills than did children in classrooms emphasising social development. Moreover, literacy skill-focused teachers also reported fewer disruptive behaviour and peer problems among these children. These findings highlight the importance of integrating an emphasis on emergent literacy development into kindergarten curricula for promoting literacy development among low-income children, and also suggest that children's rates of problem behaviour may vary under different curricular approaches.
This study aimed to clarify research activities that formulated a plan to establish a course unit, “A New Kindergarten Home,” conducted by the Tokushima University affiliated Kindergarten in 1954 ...with reference to the related documents of the time. The following three steps were identified through the study. First, a survey was conducted focusing on the life experience of children. Second, based on the survey results, desirable abilities for five-year-old children were identified and refined curriculum content . Third, a “Table of Abilities of Five-Year-Old Children” was created by organizing these desirable abilities according to the children’s life experience and growth level in order to establish organized and systematic curriculum content in this kindergarten .This unit was planned to encourage children to acquire desirable abilities in an organized and systematic manner under the environment provided by a new kindergarten building along with play newly prepared based on children’s daily life.
The first year of teaching is extremely challenging. Many teachers are tempted to give up on the very first days. Some problems seem almost insurmountable. Many teachers begin to recover from shock ...only after the first three months of teaching. And during this time, they focus in particular on "surviving." Given the important challenges that teachers have to face in the first years of teaching, do they still have enough energy to worry about integrating the values assumed in the educational practice? Is this still an important topic for them? Perhaps focusing on survival consumes all the available work power. Beginner teachers are very vulnerable. Lack of experience, daily challenges, and pressures from parents are sometimes difficult to overcome. However, teachers keep the deep sense of their profession, become aware of the huge stake and choose to follow their great destiny, to be the creators of the new society and to send their present values in the future, through the children they educate.
Today, traditional annual events are believed to play an important role in early childhood education in Japanese kindergartens and nurseries. This paper examines how traditional annual events were ...introduced and established in kindergarten education in Japan and clarifies how the content of these events and ways of celebrating them were modified depending on the period. In particular, this paper focuses on the Doll Festival. With the adoption of the new calendar in 1873, the Meiji government abolished the “Gosekku” (the five seasonal festivals); accordingly, the Doll Festival declined. However, from the 1890sto the 1900s, the Doll Festival was revived against the backdrop of rising nationalism and as a commercial strategy for promoting the sale of dolls by department stores. For example, it was confirmed that Aisyu Kindergarten in Osaka started celebrating the Doll Festival around 1910. Then, from the Taisho to the early Showa period, the Doll Festival spread extensively in kindergartens throughout Japan. In the Meiji and the Taisho periods, the main purpose of the Doll Festival was to participate in the festival on March 3 and enjoy playing with dolls. Songs, plays, storytelling, and other activities related to the Doll Festival were only partially introduced into daily life. In contrast, after the early Showa period, traditional annual events, including the Doll Festival, were placed in the kindergarten curriculum, which implies that the educational value of the Doll Festival was formally recognized. As a result, kindergarten teachers tried to integrate various activities (manufacturing, songs, plays, storytelling, etc.) under the subject matter of the Doll Festival. In addition, along with the festival itself, the process of preparing for the festival also held educational value. The Doll Festival was planned so that children could take part in the preparation with enthusiasm and organize events in cooperation with their friends and teachers.
The study used Social Cultural Theory as an analytical framework to understand the professional preparation of kindergarten teachers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). A multi-method approach to ...data collection was adopted, involving a questionnaire, interviews and documentary analysis of both the pre-school curriculum in KSA and the programme content. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches were therefore employed to achieve the research objectives. The research methodology was based on the interpretive approach and included a case study. The participants were student-teachers studying on the four-year teacher training programme at one of the universities in KSA. Responses to four hundred and nineteen questionnaires completed by student-teachers across the four years of the programme were analysed, and a detailed case study involving 32 student-teachers was carried out. These student-teachers were interviewed three times each over three terms, with a focus on the nature of their knowledge and beliefs. The quantitative and qualitative data were analysed using SPSS to summarise the results of the closed questions in the questionnaire and to compare the differences between the student-teachers’ perspectives in each study year. All interviews were taped and transcribed. The data were coded and recoded several times using the continuous comparative process. When broad categories/themes emerged, these created sub-categories. Similarly, the data gained from the questionnaire’s open-ended questions were also analysed qualitatively. The findings focus on the results from the questionnaire for each study year, followed by a direct comparison of student-teachers’ knowledge and beliefs across the four years. The findings from the interviews with student-teachers are presented separately for each study year in order that the development of their knowledge and beliefs over the four-year programme can be seen. The findings revealed that student-teachers’ beliefs and their knowledge were closely linked. Although student-teachers’ knowledge developed as a result of their learning, some of their beliefs about Early Childhood Education (ECE) in general seemed to remain stable over the period of their university course. Many factors influenced the training of the student-teacher within Saudi culture and practices, such as the cultural context, the society, national policy, religion, module content, styles of teaching, visits to kindergarten, self-learning, and others’ knowledge/experience and support. These others included friends, other student-teachers, and relatives who were studying on the kindergarten programme or worked in the field of ECE. The findings showed that student-teachers built their teaching identities on the wider social-cultural purposes of education in Saudi society, which were consistent with expectations of their roles in society. However, various constraints related to the university context, to the kindergarten context and to the social-cultural context influenced their preparation as teachers. The study indicated many limitations to the current apprenticeship approach, due to the predominantly transmissive style of education at university. Student-teachers were not progressively immersed in a more fully developed apprenticeship model in which teachers learnt about the cultures and practices of ECE within the contexts of practice. This study strongly challenges a system where student-teachers only have one term of teaching practice. It is argued that teaching practice should start much earlier in the programme and be extended. A model for developing professional preparation programmes of Initial Teachers (IT) in the field of ECE is presented. Implications arising from this study and recommendations which could improve Teacher Education (TE) in KSA are outlined. Finally, suggestions for further research are presented.
Today, traditional annual events are believed to play an important role in early childhood education in Japanese kindergartens and nurseries. This paper examines how traditional annual events were ...introduced and established in kindergarten education in Japan and clarifies how the content of these events and ways of celebrating them were modified depending on the period. In particular, this paper focuses on the Doll Festival. With the adoption of the new calendar in 1873, the Meiji government abolished the “Gosekku” (the five seasonal festivals); accordingly, the Doll Festival declined. However, from the 1890sto the 1900s, the Doll Festival was revived against the backdrop of rising nationalism and as a commercial strategy for promoting the sale of dolls by department stores. For example, it was confirmed that Aisyu Kindergarten in Osaka started celebrating the Doll Festival around 1910. Then, from the Taisho to the early Showa period, the Doll Festival spread extensively in kindergartens throughout Japan. In the Meiji and the Taisho periods, the main purpose of the Doll Festival was to participate in the festival on March 3 and enjoy playing with dolls. Songs, plays, storytelling, and other activities related to the Doll Festival were only partially introduced into daily life. In contrast, after the early Showa period, traditional annual events, including the Doll Festival, were placed in the kindergarten curriculum, which implies that the educational value of the Doll Festival was formally recognized. As a result, kindergarten teachers tried to integrate various activities (manufacturing, songs, plays, storytelling, etc.) under the subject matter of the Doll Festival. In addition, along with the festival itself, the process of preparing for the festival also held educational value. The Doll Festival was planned so that children could take part in the preparation with enthusiasm and organize events in cooperation with their friends and teachers.