Showing papers in "Early Childhood Education in 2003"

Recognition? Trust? Support? Presence? What Really Counts in Early Childhood Leadership

Abstract: Nineteen school principals, twenty-one senior staff leaders (including assistant principals and advanced skills teachers) and one hundred and one Kindergarten to Grade 2 (K-2) teachers responded to a survey concerning the relative importance of thirteen attributes of early childhood leadership. Each participant was asked to rank in importance five attributes of successful school leadership from the thirteen aspects provided. Demonstration of trust and support for K-2 teachers was perceived to be the central aspect of successful leadership by both leaders and teachers. Ensuring adequate resourcing provisions for K-2 education was seen to be the second most important aspect of leadership by teachers, whilst leaders perceived helping to improve teaching practice to be the second critical aspect of successful leadership. Conflicting perceptions between the two groups were seen in relation to the aspects of sharing leadership with K-2 teachers and encouraging innovation by teachers, with leaders placing greater emphasis on these two aspects than teachers. Conversely, teachers perceived that demonstration of positive leadership presence in K-2 and possession of sound conflict and negotiation skills to be crucial to a leaders role in K-2.

Describing quality assurance in practice: developing a framework

Abstract: This paper reviews some of the ambiguities and tensions surrounding the concept of "quality" in early childhood settings. This leads to a consideration of the links between theoretical understandings concerning how children learn and grow, and observable practice, giving the background to the development of an early childhood descriptive framework that can begin to operationalise quality in a more readily articulated set of parameters. This framework and its potential use in practice are described and early findings are reported.

Effects of Types of Board Games on Spatial Abilities and Social Skills of Young Children

Abstract: This study examined the differences in spatial abilities and social skills of young children using two different types of board games. Subjects consisted of 57 four year old children and 60 five year old children. Fifty eight were assigned to strategy-based board games, and 59 were assigned to chance-based board games. The same type of board game was given to each group. Each child played the board game 30 times. The results show that strategy-based board games have positive effects on spatial abilities, as well as on social skills in young children; there are age differences but no gender differences in both abilities. The findings of this study suggest that the spatial ability and social skills of young children can be increased using strategy-based games. This study proposes that early childhood educators need to consider the use of chance-based board games with a dice and spinner in preschool settings.

Aesthetic Education for Young Children in Three Early Childhood Settings: Bank Street, Reggio Emilia, and Waldorf

Abstract: This study selected three early childhood schools that use the Bank Street, Reggio, or Waldorf approach, and investigated perceptions of aesthetic education by educators and the ways of implementing it in real classroom settings. The data sources included documents, observations, classroom artifacts, and formal and informal interviews with directors, classroom teachers, and art teachers. The overall findings revealed that educators at each school have a variety of perceptions of aesthetic education, consisting of some common Images of aesthetic education, but leading to very different implementations based on different images of child by educators. The findings suggest that each school`s unique interpretation and implementation of aesthetics in an educational context provides early childhood educators with numerous practical suggestions to embark on a comprehensive aesthetic education, while leaving open some Interesting issues in terms of theory and practice and inquiries for future research.

Reconceptualising fear in young children

Abstract: This paper is based on research with preschool-aged children, their parents and their caregivers about the fears they experience and how these fears are addressed, both in the home and in the preschool. Participants were asked to ~I!'.-1 0'\1 Ollendick's (1983) Fear Survey Schedule for Children and Spence's (1997) Measure of Anxiely S)Tl'lptoms in Preschoolers. From their responses and the researcher's observations, current fear categories are challenged. Early ohildhood fcor hU3 been rcconccptuo.1ioed into the following cntogorica: Fear of Separation from the Attachment Figure; Fear of the Unknown; Fear of Being Hmmed; Fear of Failure; Criticism and Embarrassment; Fear of Insects or Animals; and Fear oftbc J'ntangible,

Mixed-age interactions in long-day child-care : influences on the younger peer's emerging symbolic play

Abstract: The symbolic play of toddlers attending long-day child-care centers was examined to determine its frequency and complexity. Ninety-minutes of videotaped observations were collected of each participant`s free play in the outdoor environment in three conditions: same-age group play; mixed-age group play; and mixed-age dyad play. The participants` symbolic play was coded in accordance with the `Symbolic Play Scale` (Westby,1991). Results indicated that the toddlers exhibited symbolic play more frequently and at more complex levels when engaged in play with older, preschool-aged peers than when playing with their same-age peers. These findings suggest that the practice of mixed-age grouping is beneficial for the younger children`s emerging symbolic play.

Toward One Korea Examination of Early Childhood Education and Care in South and North Korea

Abstract: The two Koreas, the South and the North, differ drastically in what seem to be the most fundamental of ways, Many Koreans still, however, hold hope for a unified homeland and therefore important to examine the inevitably problematic issues in early childhood education and care that will be encountered when the two Koreas are unified. The institutions of early childhood education and care on each side of the DMZ evolved under different ideologies and organizational principles each ideology promoted. The issue of early childhood education and care, which is directly linked to every nation`s future, will be especially difficult to bridge between a North that uses early childhood education and care as one of its main tools for maintaining Its communist system and a South that understands early childhood education and care in a more private context as part of an open competitive system. Given these disparities, preparation for an early childhood education and care post-unification era framework must begin now. Therefore, this research presents a direction for post-unification early childhood education and care by comparing and analyzing how the systems were developed on both sides of the peninsula following the division of Korea. To this end, South Korean and North Korean early childhood education and care ideologies legal systems, administrative systems, management policies, enrollment rates, costs, early childhood, teacher, policies and operating practices are scrutinized,