A Rasch analysis of the teachers music confidence scale

This article presents a new measure of teachers’ confidence to conduct musical activities with young children; Teachers Music Confidence Scale (TMCS). The TMCS was developed using a sample of 284 in-service and pre-service early childhood teachers in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). The TMCS consisted of 10 musical activities. Teachers rated their confidence levels to conduct each activity on a scale from 1 (Not confident at all) to 5 (Very confident). An exploratory factor analysis retained a 10-item single factor that was replicated using confirmatory factor analysis procedures. All items of the TMCS fitted the Rasch model adequately. In-service teachers showed higher confidence levels to conduct several musical activities with young children than pre-service teachers. Implications of these findings for measuring teachers’ confidence to conduct musical activities with young children were discussed.

Problematic placement : pathways pre-service teachers’ perspectives on their infant/toddler placement

The inclusion of an infant/toddler placement in a ‘pathways’ early childhood teaching degree, where students already have qualifications and experience in working with young children, can be problematic. This pilot study investigated student teachers’ views on their infant/toddler (birth-to-two-years) placement. Sixty-six students completing their early childhood education degree at an Australian university responded to a survey seeking their perspectives on the effectiveness of the placement in developing teacher confidence, knowledge and skills, and the quality of the supervision they received. The participants had entered their degree with a two-year Diploma of Children’s Services. Responses indicated significant dissatisfaction with the quality of supervision, the absence of teacher-mentors, and the lack of opportunities to practise new approaches. Participants commented that they ‘already knew’ how to work with this age group, and that they aspired to work with older children. The results align with other findings on factors associated with positive placements, and raise questions about the effectiveness of the infant/toddler placement in its current form.

Learning to think, learning to learn : super teaching for super success

The early childhood years are a busy, exciting time. New discoveries, skills and competencies are a regular part of life for a young child. Early childhood teachers have the opportunity to optimise these amazing and important years. In this paper, I will discuss teaching strategies that can turn children’s possibilities into realities. The practices that will be discussed involve expanding thinking, problem-solving and developing hypotheses. These teaching strategies can build on children’s learning dispositions and their strengths and interests to put the ‘wow factor’ into learning.

Wonsa-ponna time. His stories, her stories and my stories : stories about teaching and learning

The article provides an example of a teaching story, embedded in a child’s learning story, makes connections to teacher identities and discusses the way that teachers can increase their professional self-awareness through critiquing their practice.

Play-based learning

This chapter develops themes providing insights into the meaning of play-based learning and what it means to practitioners working in a range of contexts with early learners in the age range of birth to eight years. Play-based learning is defined as young learners constructing knowledge as they explore, experiment, discover and solve problems in playful and unique ways. Development is linked to play and viewed as a pattern of continuous, interrelated changes that begins at birth and continue through life span whilst learning is a change in behaviour. In the early years it is through experience in play that learning occurs. The definition of curriculum in this chapter presents a context for young learners demonstrating how play-based learning is fundamental to the well-being of young learners, be they infants, babies, toddlers, pre-schoolers or school aged children.

The diversity of backgrounds of young learners is recognised and provision has to be made in the curriculum for a rich diversity of learners. The Chapter also considers how a socio-constructivist theoretical orientation in the curriculum can be created with children and adults co-constructing knowledge with play-based learning as the framework.

Young learners : teachers' questions and prompts as opportunities for children's language development

One highly regarded context for language learning is book reading, as teachers engage children in discussions around texts read. However, there is considerable variation in teachers’ patterns of talk that mediate this learning with preschool children’s oral language development dependent on the opportunities for engagement in language use provided by teachers. To explore the affordances of talk interactions within book reading a systematic analysis of teachers’ questions and children’s responses was undertaken. Results of this analysis show that the highest proportion of questions asked by this group of 18 preschool teachers were closed questions with a small proportion of open teaching questions asked. However, while open questions provided the most substantial opportunities for children’s extended talk, the range of questions asked provided opportunities for preschool teachers to extend children’s responses, support children’s understanding of the text, develop vocabulary and world knowledge, and to model more complex language structures.

Bend me, shape me, anyway you want me: constructing teacher identities across different learning paradigms

This article discusses one key finding from a qualitative study that investigated the experiences of overseas-born, ethnic minority early childhood pre-service teachers in New Zealand. Data were collected through interviews with recently graduated Bachelor of Teaching (Early Childhood Education) teachers and early childhood lecturers. Until they were supported to incorporate their cultural knowledges into their new learning, most graduate participants found there was little to which they could relate in the pedagogies and content of their teacher education courses. This article makes recommendations for the planning, preparation and delivery of early childhood teacher education.

Changing images of mother/mothering

This paper examines how representations of the mother and mothering practices have altered between a generation of mothers and daughter. It also discusses the varied configurations of mother/mothering which occur at different times in women's lives, in other racial and ethnic situations, and which have been opened up by medical science through reproductive technology. Taking a broad definition of mothering, the paper points to the hierarchical division that have been created between women who pay, and are being paid for the care and education of their children in their early years. It argues the difficult and complex task for early childhood education and care is to keep pace and grapple with the ever-changing cirsumstances of those who nurture and care for the young.

Mathematical thinking of preschool children in rural and regional Australia : research and practice

At what age do young children begin thinking mathematically? Can young children work on mathematical problems? How do early childhood educators ensure young children feel good about mathematics? Where do early childhood educators learn about suitable mathematics activities?

A good early childhood start in mathematics is critical for later mathematics success. Parents, carers and early childhood educators are teaching mathematics, either consciously or unconsciously, in any social interaction with a child.

Mathematical Thinking of Preschool Children in Rural and Regional Australia is an extension of a conference of Australian and New Zealand researchers that identified a number of important problems related to the mathematical learning of children prior to formal schooling. A project team of 11 researchers from top Australian universities sought to investigate how early childhood education can best have a positive influence on early mathematics learning.

The investigation complements and extends the work of Project Good Start by focusing attention on critical aspects of parents, carers and early childhood educators who care for young children. Early childhood educators from regional and rural New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria were interviewed, following a set of structured questions. The questions focused on: children’s mathematics learning; support for mathematics teaching; use of technology; attitudes to mathematics; and assessment and record keeping.

The researchers also reviewed research focusing on the mathematical capacities and potential foundations for further mathematical development in young children (0–5 years) published in the last decade and produced an annotated bibliography. This should provide a good basis for further research and reading.

Based upon the results of this investigation, the researchers make 11 recommendations for improving the practices of early childhood education centres in relation to young children’s mathematical thinking and development. The implications for policy and decision makers are outlined for teacher education, the provision of resources and further research.

From a Chinese kindergarten: A personal journey

How do Chinese kindergarten teachers understand their teaching practices? How are these influenced by cultural, political and economic forces? What do their classrooms look like from the perspective of a Chinese New Zealander?
This paper is based on interviews with Chinese kindergarten teachers in ChangChun City following two days of classroom observation in June 2011. With the guidance of YingHui Qu, an early childhood education (e.c.e.) professional development facilitator, it is written from the perspective of a Chinese émigré, Karen Guo, whose professional knowledge about e.c.e. has been largely constructed in New Zealand over the past ten years as a mother, teacher, postgraduate student and lecturer. YingHui Qu’s input included setting up the visit and interviews, providing information about Chinese e.c.e. context, as well as planning the paper and reviewing the text.

The role of the educational leader in long day care – how do they perceive their role?

National reforms introduced into the early childhood education and care sector across Australia have created a requirement for each service to appoint an ‘educational’ leader to provide curriculum direction to ensure that children achieve quality care and education to lead to positive outcomes. Leadership in the early childhood has often been contested and complex, but the addition of a new leadership for building pedagogy and practice has created additional complexities. This paper reports the findings of a small-scale qualitative research study investigating how a small number of educational leaders working in long day care settings in urban Australia perceive their role. The study identified that these educational leaders came to the position unwillingly and felt poorly prepared and supported to meet the challenges presented.

Making learning visible – parents perceptions of children's learning outdoors

Parents as partners in their children's learning is predicated by a notion of a mutual understanding of the learning as shared by educators. Documenting learning in early childhood education and care (ECE & C) settings has evolved from more traditional developmental approaches to include photographs, artefacts and social stories to make learning visible for parents. However, while educators are using these approaches to document learning in ECE & C settings, the shared understanding of the learning for parents is not always mutually understood. The paper presents a small-scale case study, which examined the way parents in one long day ECE & C service which had recently redeveloped an outdoor play area to bring in more natural affordances to support the children's learning and development. The paper reports on the perceptions of two parents with children attending this centre in how the educators were making visible the learning and development afforded the children through engaging in this newly designed space. The study found that while educators were using a range of documentation approaches, the parents had little shared understanding of their children as engaging in this space.

Child learning and development: concerns and perceptions of Chinese urban mothers

Child development is deservedly dominant in the discourses on education. In populated communities such as China’s, awareness of the prevalent ideas about child development within families is particularly important. Drawing on a series of conversations between parents and teachers through synchronous online text chat, this paper investigated the perceptions and concerns of Chinese urban parents on child development. The participants were mothers of three to six year old children from Changchun, China. Results were presented in terms of the nature of the questions the mothers raised and what they talked about when discussing their questions. Analyses of the mothers’ texts revealed their concerns on those elements of child development which challenged their roles in parenting, such as inappropriate social behaviours or regulated emotions. Data from the study provided insights into key characteristics of contemporary Chinese preschool children’s learning and development within families that might identify issues and trends of early childhood education on a larger contextual scope.

Educação infantil, distorções e crescimento econômico

O objetivo deste trabalho é entender, pela ótica da educação, a divergência da renda per capita e a convergência dos anos de escolaridade entre os países da África Subsaariana e os países europeus entre 1960 e 2010. Para tanto, o presente trabalho utiliza um ferramental de equilíbrio geral, no qual existem dois setores na economia e consumidores homogêneos que escolhem consumo, educação formal e educação infantil. De acordo com os resultados do trabalho, apesar da educação infantil para os países subsaarianos ter evoluído entre 1960 e 2010 os países subsaarianos em 2010 não alcançaram a educação infantil que os europeus tinham em 1960. Além disso, a produtividade total dos fatores e a expectativa de vida foram fatores importantes para compreender esse aumento da distância da renda per capita entre os países subsaarianos e os europeus. Por fim, o principal resultado em termos de política educacional é que políticas de incentivo à educação infantil são mais eficazes em impactar a renda per capita do que políticas de incentivo à educação formal.