Pre-packaging preschool literacy: What drives early childhood teachers to use commercially produced phonics programs in prior to school settings

Language-rich environments are key to overall quality in early childhood settings, including frequent child–staff interactions around picture books and dramatic play. In a language-rich environment, explicit teaching of literacy concepts, such as phonics, is embedded in authentic and meaningful situations where alphabet letters and sounds are taught in a context meaningful to the child. Recent research, however, suggests that the use of commercial pre-packaged phonics programs (such as Letterland and Jolly Phonics) is widespread in prior to school settings in Sydney, Australia. Little is known about why early childhood teachers choose to use such programs with children aged five and under. In the present study, thematic analysis of data from interviews with five early childhood teachers using commercial phonics programs found that their reasons were pragmatic rather than pedagogical. Motivations included the idea that the programs reduced their workload, provided tangible evidence to parents of their child’s ‘school readiness’, and served as a marketing tool to attract parents. Further analysis found that the teachers were unable to articulate what phonics and phonological awareness are and how they are learnt in early childhood.

Feeling the pressure: Early childhood educators’ reported views about learning and teaching phonics in Australian prior-to-school settings

Early childhood educators’ beliefs about literacy teaching can impact on the types of phonics experiences educators provide for children in prior-to-school settings. The Australian Early Years Learning Framework supports a play-based, intentional approach to teaching phonics, however little is known about what Australian early childhood educators believe is important in teaching phonics in the prior-to-school years. Using a qualitative content analysis, this research study investigates 115 early childhood educators’ views about how phonics should be taught and the use of commercially produced phonics programs (e.g. Jolly Phonics and Letterland) in prior-to-school settings. This study further investigates educators’ perceived pressures to include structured phonics lessons, as a way of addressing parental notions of ‘school readiness’. The results of this study indicate conflicting views were held about how phonics should be taught. Some educators also experienced external pressures to engage in literacy practices that may be in opposition with their own beliefs about how literacy is learnt. This study provides insights into the pedagogical practices early childhood educators believe are appropriate when teaching phonics. The educational implications are discussed.

Consultation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in early childhood education: The impact of colonial discourses

In Australian early years education, consultation and partnerships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are central to embedding Indigenous perspectives. Building sustained and reciprocal partnerships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people supports access to local knowledges and perspectives to inform curriculum planning, as well as protocols and community processes, and contemporary responses to colonisation. Drawing on data from a doctoral study about embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives in early childhood education curricula, this paper examines interactional patterns in consultations between non-Indigenous early childhood educators and Indigenous people in real and supposed form. Data is read through whiteness studies literature and related critiques to identify how the educators positioned Indigenous people in interactional patterns and how the mobilisation of colonial discourses impacted the potential for reciprocity and sustained partnerships, despite the best of intentions. Colonial traces of positioning Indigenous people as informants, targeted resources or knowledge commissioners were shown to be most salient in interactional patterns. While these findings are contextualised within Australia, I suggest they have applicability in examining approaches to embedding Indigenous perspectives in education curricula in other colonising contexts such as Canada and New Zealand.

Understanding Early Childhood Education and Care in Australia: Practices and Perspectives

A foundational text for pre-service teachers explaining the theories, policies and pedagogies that shape the provision of early childhood education and care in Australia. In order to effectively practise as an early childhood educator it is essential to understand the theories, policies and pedagogy that shape the discipline. Understanding Early Childhood Education and Care in Australia provides core foundational knowledge that is critical for best practice. Part One looks at concepts of childhood and the development of mass education before examining influential theories including developmental psychology, sociology, feminisms and critical theory. Specific approaches are also analysed including Reggio Emilia, Montessori, Multiple Intelligences and HighScope. Part Two focuses on the guiding frameworks and policies in Australia and explores in depth issues affecting Indigenous children and provisions for recognising diversity and the practice of inclusion. The final section examines teaching and leadership and considers curriculum, pedagogy and assessment, building relationships between staff and families, the care of babies and infants, the environment in which early childhood education takes place and the responsibilities and professional development of teachers. This essential reference will ensure pre-service teachers develop a sophisticated understanding of how theory underpins effective practice in early childhood education.

The SAGE Handbook of Early Childhood Research

Recent decades have seen an upsurge of research with and about young children, their families and communities. The Handbook of Early Childhood Research will provide a landmark overview of the field of early childhood research and will set an agenda for early childhood research into the future. It includes 31 chapters provided by internationally recognized experts in early childhood research. The team of international contributors apply their expertise to conceptual and methodological issues in research and to relevant fields of practice and policy. The Handbook recognizes the main contexts of early childhood research: home and family contexts; out-of-home contexts such as services for young children and their families; and broader societal contexts of that evoke risk for young children.

Key ideas, research and challenges in early childhood education and care

The Australian government has recognised the importance of early childhood education and care (ECEC) in recent years. With over one million Australian children accessing early childhood education provision every day (Productivity Commission, 2014), today’s children are a generation who spend a large part of their early years in some form of out-of-home child care. Early chapters in this text have discussed a range of people, theories and approaches that inform the development of ECEC. Early childhood pedagogical practice is an eclectic mix of these ideas. This chapter begins with an overview of the ways young children learn in early childhood education, highlighting play-based learning as a pedagogical response to our understandings about children. Next the chapter outlines areas that have more recently influenced ECEC including international models of early childhood education, neuroscience, studies of young children, economic research and social justice principles. Drawing on the reflections of educators working in various ECEC contexts, the chapter then presents four topics encountered by educators as part of their everyday work with diverse communities. These topics include: • the educational program for children in the early years • relationships and partnerships with diverse families • professional accountabilities, and • changing constructions of childhood.

Pre-service early childhood teachers and designers partnering for change at The Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary: An interdisciplinary education and design for sustainability project

This presentation discusses and critiques a current case study of a project in which Early Childhood preservice teachers are working in partnership with Design students to develop principles and concepts for the design and construction of an early childhood centre. This centre, to be built on the grounds of the iconic Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane , focuses on Education for Sustainability (EfS), sustainable design and sustainable business. Interdisciplinary initiatives between QUT staff and students from two Faculties (Education and Creative Industries) have been situated in the real –world context of this project. This practical, authentic project has seen stakeholders take an interdisciplinary approach to sustainability, opening up new ways of thinking about early childhood centre design, particularly with respect to operation and function. Interdisciplinarity and a commitment to genuine partnerships have created intellectual spaces to re-think the potential of the disciplines to be interwoven so that future professionals from different fields might come together to learn from each other and to address the sustainability imperative. The case study documents and explores the possibilities that the Lone Pine project offers for academics and students from Early Childhood and Design to collaboratively inform the Sanctuary’s vision for the Centre. The research examines how students benefit from practical, real world, community-integrated learning; how academic staff across two disciplines are able to work collaboratively within a real-world context; and how external stakeholders experience and benefit from the partnership with university staff and students. Data were collected via a series of focus group and individual interviews designed to explore how the various stakeholders (staff, students, business partners) experienced their involvement in the interdisciplinary project. Inductive and deductive thematic analysis of these data suggest many benefits for participants as well as a number of challenges. Findings suggest that the project has provided students with ‘real world’ partnerships that reposition early childhood students’ identities from ‘novice’ to ‘professional’, where their knowledge, expertise and perspectives are simultaneously validated and challenged in their work with designers. These partnerships are enabling preservice teachers to practice a new model of early childhood leadership in sustainability, one that is vital for leading for change in an increasingly complex world. This presentation celebrates, critiques and problematises this project, exploring wider implications for other contexts in which university staff and students may seek to work across traditional boundaries, thus building partnerships for change.

Early Childhood teachers’ work in a time of change

This article investigates teacher decision-making in a time of rapid educational reforms. Institutional ethnography is used to discover how teachers’ work is co-ordinated by the texts of a new national curriculum, and a system for the assessment and ratings of kindergarten, preschool and long day-care services in individual settings and across sites. The research draws on video recorded interview data gathered from five teachers working with three to five year old children in kindergarten classrooms throughout South East Queensland. Analysis shows the reported effects of policy regimes designed to improve the quality of learning young children experience, on classroom teachers’ work. Findings suggest that increasing levels of governance enacted through policy texts are creating an audit culture where teachers’ educational work with children is changing. The article argues that the reported workload associated with the production of evidence, and the focus on providing ‘proof’ of quality, is taking teachers away from time spent building educative relationships with children. Note: In Queensland, kindergarten caters for children aged three and a half to five years. This year is known as Preschool in some Australian states.

Integrating Visual and Verbal Literacies in the Early Childhood Classroom

Young children have the strong desire to use all of the communicative tools their cultures and families offer them. They want to be able to do all of the things that the powerful people they admire can do, including talking, writing, drawing, using the computer, and otherwise creating and sharing ideas, memories, solutions, even jokes and feelings. Today, we live in a time when the communicative tools are changing rapidly, practically exploding before our eyes in terms of the formats and media available to us in complex combinations not seen before. What do these technological changes mean for how we can support children's development toward literacy? An integrated arts curriculum has long been favored by many educators, but today there are more reasons than ever to implement such a philosophy. From communications theory comes a new understanding of how modern technologies demand that children learn to "read" and "write" messages involving complex combinations and integrations of visual and verbal formats. From psychology come insights about intelligence being multiple not unitary, as well as ecological perception theory offering a well-accepted framework for analyzing the affordances and expressive possibilities of different media. From education come fresh approaches to integrated curriculum, including a philosophy and pedagogy from Reggio Emilia, Italy, that combines well with current thinking by North Americans. Altogether, we have many rationales and exciting strategies at hand for launching young children toward an integrated visual and verbal literacy that involves substance, challenge, and discipline, as well as innovation, creativity, and freedom.

A summative evaluation of a HIV/AIDS Early Childhood Care, Education and Development Teacher Training Workshop in Mongu, Zambia

Objective. To conduct a summative evaluation of an Early Childhood Care, Education and Development (ECCED) Teacher Training Workshop in Mongu, Zambia by assessing changes in knowledge, attitudes and intent to use the information. ^ Study design. A matched cohort survey design was used with additional qualitative data collected by structured observation of workshop sessions, daily facilitator and participant debriefs and participant interviews. ^ Results. Matching pre and post tests were completed by 27 individuals in addition to daily debriefs, structured workshop observation and participant interviews with 22% of the group. The participant population was predominantly female individuals aged 15-44 years old that had completed high school and additional post-secondary training, been teaching children aged 0 – 8 years for 2-5 years in the Western Province and received other HIV/AIDS and ECCED education. Pre-tests indicated a strong understanding of ECCED principles and misconceptions regarding HIV transmission, prevention and the disease's impact on early childhood development. The workshop was found to significantly increase the participants' knowledge of topics covered by the curriculum (paired t-test, N=27, p = 0.004, 95% CI 1.8, 8.6). Participants began with a more limited understanding of HIV/AIDS than ECCED, but the mean gain was much greater at 7.4 +/- 12.3 points. Significantly more participants believed at post-test that HIV/AIDS education should increase for future educators. The 77.8% of participants that increased their knowledge scores at post-test expressed significantly less fear of having a child with HIV/AIDS in the classroom (Independent Samples t-test, N= 27, p = 0.011). Overall participant fear decreased 15.5%. 92.6% and 88.9% of participants planned at post-test to respectively use and share the taught information in their daily professional lives and reported on innovative strategies to communicate with the community. ^ Conclusions. Teacher training workshops can significantly increase HIV/AIDS awareness and promote positive attitudes in educators working with children affected by HIV/AIDS. Using participant suggested teaching techniques such as poems and songs and translating the materials to the local language could assist future facilitators to both culturally and professionally relate to the workshop audience as well as increase participant capacity to share the information with the local community. ^

Need for systematic synthetic phonics teaching within the early reading curriculum

Both the New Zealand Ministry of Education's Literacy Experts Group and the Australian National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy have recently acknowledged the centrality of systematic instruction in synthetic phonics to early reading instruction, but this conclusion remains contentious in some circles. This paper briefly summarises empirical research in basic psychology and evidence-based evaluation studies supporting the inclusion of systematic synthetic phonics instruction within the early reading curriculum, allowing practising psychologists to develop an informed opinion on this issue.

The role of *language in early childhood mathematics

Math literacy is imperative to succeed in society. Experience is key for acquiring math literacy. A preschooler's world is full of mathematical experiences. Children are continually counting, sorting and comparing as they play. As children are engaged in these activities they are using language as a tool to express their mathematical thinking. If teachers are aware of these teachable moments and help children bridge their daily experiences to mathematical concepts, math literacy may be enhanced. This study described the interactions between teachers and preschoolers, determining the extent to which teachers scaffold children's everyday language into expressions of mathematical concepts. Of primary concern were the teachers' responsive interactions to children's expressions of an implicit mathematical utterance made while engaged in block play. The parallel mixed methods research design consisted of two strands. Strand 1 of the study focused on preschoolers' use of everyday language and the teachers' responses after a child made a mathematical utterance. Twelve teachers and 60 students were observed and videotaped while engaged in block play. Each teacher worked with five children for 20 minutes, yielding 240 minutes of observation. Interaction analysis was used to deductively analyze the recorded observations and field notes. Using a priori codes for the five mathematical concepts, it was found children produced 2,831 mathematical utterances. Teachers ignored 60% of these utterances and responded to, but did not mediate 30% of them. Only 10% of the mathematical utterances were mediated to a mathematical concept. Strand 2 focused on the teacher's view of the role of language in early childhood mathematics. The 12 teachers who had been observed as part of the first strand of the study were interviewed. Based on a thematic analysis of these interviews three themes emerged: (a) the importance of a child's environment, (b) the importance of an education in society, and (c) the role of math in early childhood. Finally, based on a meta-inference of both strands, three themes emerged: (a) teacher conception of math, (b) teacher practice, and (c) teacher sensitivity. Implications based on the findings involve policy, curriculum, and professional development.

The Effects of the Project Approach on Children in Inclusive Early Childhood Classrooms

Research on the impact of the Project Approach on young children with disabilities or children who are at-risk is limited. Mixed methods were used to study the impact of the Project Approach on the social interactions, challenging behaviors, and language development of eight focal children in two inclusive classrooms. Child participants were two children with IEPs and two children identified as at-risk from each class. Adult participants were six professionals who received high quality supports to implement the Project Approach. Adults were interviewed prior to the beginning of the study and again mid-, and post-implementation. Choice time observations were videotaped twice per week over 14 weeks to assess the impact of the Project Approach on play levels and MLUm. Results revealed that social interactions, challenging behaviors, vocabulary, MLUm, were positively impacted following implementation of the Project Approach. Limitations of the study and suggestions for research and practice are discussed.

"Going outside": discussing the connection between pedagogical practices with digital tools and outdoor learning in early childhood and primary education

Technology has an important role in children's lives and education. Based on several projects developed with ICT, both in Early Childhood Education (3-6 years old) and Primary Education (6-10 years old), since 1997, the authors argue that research and educational practices need to "go outside", addressing ways to connect technology with outdoor education. The experience with the projects and initiatives developed supported a conceptual framework, developed and discussed with several partners throughout the years and theoretically informed. Three main principles or axis have emerged: strengthening Children's Participation, promoting Critical Citizenship and establishing strong Connections to Pedagogy and Curriculum. In this paper, those axis will be presented and discussed in relation to the challenge posed by Outdoor Education to the way ICT in Early Childhood and Primary Education is understood, promoted and researched. The paper is exploratory, attempting to connect theoretical and conceptual contributions from Early Childhood Pedagogy with contributions from ICT in Education. The research-based knowledge available is still scarce, mostly based on studies developed with other purposes. The paper, therefore, focus the connections and interpellations between concepts established through the theoretical framework and draws on the almost 20 years of experience with large and small scale action-research projects of ICT in schools. The more recent one is already testing the conceptual framework by supporting children in non-formal contexts to explore vineyards and the cycle of wine production with several ICT tools. Approaching Outdoor Education as an arena where pedagogical and cultural dimensions influence decisions and practices, the paper tries to argue that the three axis are relevant in supporting a stronger connection between technology and the outdoor.

Promoting reflective assessing practices through narratives: An action research project in early childhood

This project aims at describing the use of Action Research in the development of more structured assessment practices in Early Childhood Portuguese contexts. The teacher had always observed young learners’ activities and progress, and registered them in the form of “critical incidents”. This reflective process structured through this type of narratives helps “tune” the Class Curriculum firstly designed without much knowledge about the kids and so, difficultly responding to their specific needs and interests. The results achieved suggest kids become better prepared to face further education and life. Being early childhood assessment felt by most Portuguese kindergarten teachers as an innovative procedure, the project was seen as the launching of roots for “new” practices.