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1.
In Australia and internationally, government policies aim to increase the supply of early childhood teachers and thus improve the quality of early childhood education and care services. In this paper, we suggest that such a policy-quality trajectory in Australia is not as straightforward as policy discourses suggest. From industrial relations and broader policy contexts, we argue that the early childhood profession is a profession on the margins and that this marginalisation complicates efforts to enhance numbers of early childhood teachers. Mindful of this marginalisation, we draw upon preliminary findings from a study exploring the motivations, beliefs and expectations of mature age postgraduate students to highlight practical issues pertaining to students and early childhood teacher education programs that further complicate policy drives to increase the supply of early childhood teachers. We propose that the success of such policy drives is dependent on a comprehensive addressing of the complexities raised in this paper.  相似文献   

2.
Over the last decade, research related to personal epistemological beliefs has offered insight into how to promote effective teaching and learning across educational settings. Personal epistemological beliefs reflect an individual's views about what knowledge is, how knowledge is gained, and the degree of certainty with which knowledge can be held. However, there has been no research that specifically investigates the relationship between such epistemological beliefs and early childhood practice. This paper draws together current research findings on epistemological beliefs and tertiary learning to provide a conceptual framework which can be used in early childhood teacher education programs to provide a basis for investigating early childhood teachers' understanding about their own learning and how they use this knowledge in their practice.  相似文献   

3.
The physical, social and temporal dimensions of the classroom environment have an important role in children’s learning. This study examines the level of support for child-centred learning, and its associated beliefs, that is provided by Hong Kong’s pre-service early childhood teachers. Two hundred and seventy-five students from a pre-service early childhood teacher training programme completed a questionnaire; in general, these students believed that teachers should create physical, social and temporal environments which are child-centred in early childhood education settings. Linear regression analyses showed that the students’ perceived importance of fostering children’s social and communication competence in early childhood programmes, and their belief in children’s competence in self-learning, were significant positive correlates of their level of support for all dimensions of child-centred learning environment. Their self-perceived competence in managing children’s behaviours was, however, a significant negative correlate of their level of support for child-centred social and temporal environment. This study then discusses the implications of these findings for pre-service early childhood teacher education.  相似文献   

4.
This paper examines teacher accountability and authority in early childhood policy. It reports on data from a study that investigated the influences affecting early childhood teacher decision-making at the preschool level in Victoria, Australia. Using a question raised by Ball ‘Where are the teachers in all this [policy]?’ provided a starting point for the critical discourse analysis into how forms of control, teacher authority, obligation and constraint within policies potentially influenced teachers’ curriculum decisions. The study found that despite no government-mandated curriculum framework at the time, teachers were held accountable for their curricular practice. Yet as professionals, early childhood teachers were denied public acknowledgement of their expertise as they were almost invisible in policy. In the four policies analysed, proprietors of early childhood settings and preschool agencies held authority over curriculum. Subsequently, teachers’ authority as professionals with curricular knowledge was diminished.  相似文献   

5.
This paper outlines the increasing cultural diversity of Australia’s education settings and explicates the global education movement and the new Australian Early Years Learning Framework. It discusses the implication of these factors for early childhood education practice and early childhood teacher education. The key research question considered in this paper is what prior learnings do early childhood educators utilise to consider global education? Data are presented on a research project that explores the prior learning of pre‐service early childhood educators at a major Australian university. The paper shows that, unlike primary and secondary pre‐service teachers, most early childhood education pre‐service teachers have significant professional experiences in educational settings. These prior experiences have a significant impact on pre‐service early childhood educators’ knowledge, beliefs and attitudes in the area of global education and align strongly with the global education curriculum movement and new national curriculum.  相似文献   

6.
Since 2003, the Vietnamese government has prioritised curriculum reform efforts and commitment to improving the quality of the national curriculum. The Vietnamese early childhood education renovation has encountered considerable changes and challenges, particularly in the area of pedagogical approaches. Many early childhood teachers continue to favour direct instruction over more appropriate teaching practices for early childhood. This paper reviews the implementation and renovation of the revised curriculum over the past 10 years in Vietnam, and examines the changing realities of early childhood teachers' work to explore ways to implement and sustain changes in pedagogy in Lam Dong Province, Vietnam. The paper explores how changing societal expectations and the changing educational philosophies and resultant pedagogy have impacted on the beliefs and practices of early childhood teachers. The teaching profession, as a whole, is facing ongoing change and challenge; not only are ongoing educational reforms redefining teachers' work, but increasing teacher attrition and turnover also creates problems for Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) in Lam Dong province. The paper concludes with suggestions for areas for future research in Vietnam in the field of ECEC.  相似文献   

7.
It is necessary for teachers to consider alternative means of evaluating their students. One method proving to be effective for gathering and organizing student productivity, growth, and development is the portfolio approach. This article describes the Early Childhood Portfolio Assessment Preparation (ECPAP) Model that was used to facilitate the use of student portfolios in two different early childhood education programs. The goals of the model, the six steps followed and the participants' responses to this project are discussed. This article may serve early childhood directors and supervisors who are preparing teachers to implement student portfolios as a supplement or an alternative to the existing assessment and evaluation programs. Also early childhood teacher education students can benefit from the design and implementation of ECPAP.  相似文献   

8.
Although studies on teacher identity have proliferated in recent years, and examinations of the said topic have been conducted under various educational contexts, limited focus has been given to teacher identity in the early childhood educational context. Drawing upon data from semi-structured interviews with five early childhood teachers, this case study aims to investigate how early childhood teachers make sense of their work and the type of professional identities constructed by early childhood teachers in mainland China. The five early childhood teachers reported strong disagreements with the babysitter metaphor for their teacher identities, and they had various role identities including ‘parents’, ‘teachers’, ‘friends’, ‘dancers’, ‘artists’, and ‘engineers’. The findings also show that they recognized the significance and value of their job as early childhood teachers. This paper concludes with implications for early childhood teacher education.  相似文献   

9.
10.
The use of drawings as representations of personal mental models or images is one method of analyzing personal beliefs. This article discusses the development of the Draw‐An‐Environment Test and Rubric (DAET‐R) for assessing the mental models or images of the environment held by pre‐service teachers. It also provides results of preliminary research using the DAET‐R to assess pre‐service teachers’ personal beliefs and understandings about the environment, as interpreted from their drawings. Results of this pilot study using the DAET‐R for scoring early childhood pre‐service teachers’ drawings of the environment suggest that the participants’ mental models of the environment are incomplete. Results of this study also show that the DAET‐R can provide information about pre‐service teachers’ beliefs about the environment useful to teacher educators in the development and delivery of environmental education.  相似文献   

11.
Service-learning is defined as a teaching/learning method that connects meaningful community service with academic learning, personal growth, and civic responsibility. In this study, conducted at an American University, we describe a cascading model of integrating early childhood teacher education and service-learning for preservice teachers who then implemented the combined model in their field classrooms with young children. Examples of the projects from the two cohorts of 25 and 26 undergraduate students are provided. We demonstrate that service-learning projects provide an instructional avenue for preservice students to teach in an integrated and/or experiential manner in their field classrooms and discuss why service-learning is an appropriate and meaningful strategy to use with preservice teachers and children.  相似文献   

12.
Abstract

The creation of caring classroom communities and a heightened focus on the central importance of partnerships between teachers and parents are two significant features of the revised guidelines for developmentally appropriate practices [Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs, revised ed., National Association for the Education of Young Children, Washington, DC]. This article reports findings from a study of preservice primary grade teachers’ understandings of caring in which participants developed negative, adversarial beliefs about parents during their initial field placement period. The findings in this study indicate that in order to prepare preservice teachers to meet our expectations for high quality early childhood teaching practices, we must create teacher education programs and coursework specifically aimed at developing commitments to caring community and to parent partnership.  相似文献   

13.
‘Partnership between parents and teachers’ is a taken-for-granted feature of the philosophy and practice of early childhood education. Yet, the literature suggests this rhetoric belies a more complex and problematic reality for teachers. Making connections with the families and communities they will serve may help teacher education students confront understandings of the realities of family lives and assist them to prepare for their professional responsibilities. Teacher education literature suggests that supported field experiences may assist student teachers to examine their beliefs and reflect on their practices with families. This paper reports on the experiences of student teachers who undertook a community placement in order to interact with children and families outside their normal range of teaching practice experience. Three themes of changes in student learning are discussed: (1) beliefs about partnerships; (2) notions of complexities within diversity; and (3) developing relationships with diverse families. The paper argues that the change in placement setting prompted student reflection in relation to these themes and shifts in beliefs, towards more authentic and complex understandings of partnership.  相似文献   

14.
Dominant constructions of professionalism in early childhood education can diminish early childhood teachers’ and educators’ undertaking of advocacy at the systems or political level. In this paper, we propose an ethically grounded construction of professionalism that provides space for professional practice to move beyond the classroom and into the political sphere. Findings from interviews with four early childhood teachers from Australia who undertake systems advocacy as part of their professional practice show that this work is driven by ethical influences that extend beyond the rule-based imperative, in ethical codes, that teachers should undertake systems advocacy. Findings highlight the value of considering systems advocacy as practice that emerges from an interplay of three theoretical foundations of ethics: deontology, utilitarianism and virtue ethics. Implications for teacher professionalism and the building of a teacher disposition that incorporates systems advocacy are considered.  相似文献   

15.
The present study examined the relation between teachers’ cultural backgrounds, their beliefs regarding group processes, their actual support of group processes, and children's behavior in center-based childcare in the Netherlands. For this purpose, 57 teachers of native Dutch and immigrant Moroccan-Dutch, Turkish-Dutch, Surinamese-Dutch, and Antillean-Dutch backgrounds were interviewed about their teaching beliefs and observed while engaging in a constructive play activity with small groups of children. Clear cultural differences in beliefs and corresponding behavior were found. In the interviews, the Turkish-Dutch and Moroccan-Dutch teachers mentioned concepts relating to group processes more often than the Dutch and Surinamese- and Antillean-Dutch teachers did, and they showed higher support of group processes during play. Moreover, the degree to which teachers expressed beliefs in group processes was significantly correlated with support of group processes by the teacher and with levels of collaboration and cognitive engagement in children's play. Structural equation modeling was applied to test direct and indirect effects, confirming the hypothesis that comparatively elaborate beliefs of teachers on group processes result in practices supporting group processes as well as more collaboration and cognitive engagement in children's play.  相似文献   

16.
Abstract

This study describes early childhood teachers’ own beliefs and concepts of aesthetic experience in young children. The teachers involved in this study were directly engaged in preschools for 4 and 5 year‐olds where arts and aesthetic education are a primary consideration of their integrated curriculum. These teachers identified a variety of features of aesthetic experience in three dimensions, which develop in a dynamic, non‐linear cycle. This study suggests that early childhood teacher's awareness and knowledge of aesthetic experience is critical to support the high quality of young children's learning through the arts. It concludes with implications for both teacher education programs and early childhood teacher educators. © 2005 Published by Elsevier Inc.  相似文献   

17.
The purpose of this study was to identify the root metaphors of secondary classroom teachers and to observe ways in which these constructs influence teachers’ work with their students and their environments. Specifically, five case studies of novice teachers were presented. Results indicated that the metaphor of life as a tree was the most common view and that all five participants held a similar childhood metaphor in which they tended to idealize childhood. Overall, the data showed the persistence of ideas that beginning teachers bring to their university preparation and those beliefs extend into actual classroom practice. Teacher development seemed to be more influenced by the schooling environment rather than the pre‐service preparation the teachers received. Furthermore, these novice teachers felt conflict between their held beliefs and the reality of teaching and schooling. Implications for teacher educators and future research are included.  相似文献   

18.
An ever-increasing number of children with and without disabilities are attending early childhood programmes and learning together. Early childhood inclusion considers all children with and without disabilities, and their families as full members of the early childhood community. Although many early childhood teachers accept the educational rights of children with disabilities and the core principle of inclusion – that early childhood learning programmes should provide for the needs of all the children in their centres, regardless of ability and disability, there remain significant barriers in terms of teacher professional knowledge in achieving these goals. In this article, we report a study on Thai preschool teachers' knowledge of inclusive early childhood education. Quantitative data obtained through a questionnaire were supplemented by teacher interviews. Both the quantitative and qualitative data focused on the teachers' assessment of their professional knowledge. Findings from this study can inform effective professional development programmes in preparing early childhood teachers for successful inclusive practices.  相似文献   

19.
Abstract

This article reports on a longitudinal study spanning over 5 years, involving the design and implementation of an early childhood teacher education program model that engages a critical-ecological theoretical approach, a funds of knowledge perspective, and design-based methodology. This project aimed to promote equitable education for all children, and especially for young immigrant children encountering situations of oppression within the national and local educational contexts in Arizona. In this teacher education program, families, community members, researchers, pre-service teachers and teachers worked together to develop new modes of curricular activity, new spaces, new relationships, and new forms of movement among participants, as well as new circulations of literacy artefacts.  相似文献   

20.
Hong Kong launched the Pre-primary Education Voucher Scheme (PEVS) in 2007 to promote the “3A's” of early childhood education (ECE): affordability, accessibility, and accountability. The PEVS has three unique features: discriminating against profit kindergartens, promoting teacher professional development, and limiting parents’ choice to only non-profit schools. To understand the voucher scheme's perceived impacts, this study conducted stratified random sampling to include 10% of Hong Kong kindergartens and surveyed their parents, principals, and teachers. A total of 380 completed questionnaires were collected and analyzed, and the results indicated that (1) the majority of the respondents perceived positive impacts on the 3A's of ECE; (2) significant effects of stakeholders (parents, teachers and principals), school types (profit or non-profit), eligibility, and familiarity were found in between- and within-group comparisons; (3) the parents and especially those from non-profit/eligible kindergartens tended to perceive more positive impacts than others; and (4) the principals and teachers reported some implementation difficulties. Implications for voucher reform in others countries are discussed.  相似文献   

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