Trends in ECE

In continuing my research on policies and trends in early childhood education I have answered the following questions for this week.

 

What specific section(s) or information seemed particularly relevant to your current professional development?

There is a section on this website for publications. One of the current items I found which relates directly to my position at this time is helping children cope with change. Change happens around children all the time. Schedules change; families separate, deaths occur….the list could go on and on. I really liked that I saw advice for professionals. My favorite piece of advice was “Feelings matter!”. We so often forget to really listen and take in what children are feeling. When an event occurs in a child’s life that is a change it can really affect a child. As the website says “Children need to feel emotionally say they need to be able to predict what is going to happen around them.”

 

Which ideas/statements/resources, either on the website or in an e-newsletter, did you find controversial or made you think about an issue in new ways?

           

            This is not a new issue for me but one I did read into because I realized that this is more of a global view in early childhood education than just here in America….that topic is…building relationships with families. The British Association for Early Childhood Education has a program put in place called “P is for Partnership.”  The program has two goals as outlined below;

            1) To support parents’ involvement in their children’s learning to develop communication, language and literacy and mathematical thinking in their children, as well as promote personal, social and emotional development through improved motivation, self-confidence and self-esteem in both their child and themselves.

2) To support practitioners to work with parents to enable them to understand the importance of play and exploration in supporting their child’s developing communication , language and literacy as well as their mathematical knowledge and understanding and to show them how they can use simple resources to do this outside the formal education settings.

What information does the website or the e-newsletter contain that adds to your understanding of how economists, neuroscientists, or politicians support the early childhood field?

            “Influencing Decision Makers”…is the very first thing seen on the policy page of the website.  Politicians in England have put into place that every child who is three and four years old is entitled to 15 hours of free early childhood education. That is extremely different from what we have here in the United States because we are fighting for funding and programs to do just that for children.

        

What other new insights about issues and trends in the early childhood field did you gain from exploring the website or e-newsletter?

            Currently there is a lot of work being done to facilitate comprehensive regulations and standards. It is certainly on a common scope as what practitioners here are trying to do.  There also seems to be quite a bit of work being done to promote better relationships with families and children within the early childhood spectrum.

 

Resources:

The British Association for Early Childhood Education. http://early-education.org.uk/sites/default/files/Early%20childhood%20education%20in%20England%20summary.pdf

Sharing Resources

     Over the last week and a half now I have been researching early childhood education in England so that I can better understand the culture differences when I speak (hopefully!) with the contacts I am hoping to establish. There is a lot of information out there and it looks completely overwhelming to sort through. However, as in my post from last week I found it easier to view the British Association for Early Childhood Education’s website. If you’d like to visit, simply click on my link; http://www.early-education.org.uk/.

     The focus of the organization is to bring awareness to the importance of early childhood education in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. The organization believes that all children are competent learners from birth and they aim for practitioners to foster loving and caring relationships.  In the policy and issues section of the website the reader see’s “Influencing decision makers!” The organization provides a plethora of education, training, and materials for practitioners and parents to make well thought decisions in regards to voting. For practitioners the organization has a thought out set of standards/principals as well as a code of ethics stance.

     Most of the issues that are being dealt with right now are centered on reform. Although early childhood sees the most changes the United Kingdom started overhauling all education programs in 2008. I did notice that a common trend is the learning approach. It is very family centered and can be compared greatly to the Reggio approach.

               

Resources:

 British Association for Early Childhood Education. http://www.early-education.org.uk/.

Professionals Across the World

Find professional contacts across the world, how exciting! I decided to attempt to look on my own and I am glad I did. I have contacted Irene Gunning from the Early Childhood Ireland Association and Helen Snow from the British Association for Early Childhood Education. At the current moment I am awaiting a reply from both contact to finalize whether or not this will be possible for either of them. I am interested in learning about their particular approaches in education and care. I am very excited in building a professional relationship with these educators.

The website I choose to look thoroughly at the British Association for Early Childhood Education. The website is as follows; http://www.early-education.org.uk/. The website is pretty similar to NAEYC's. There is a lot of educational tools on the website and free publications professionals can view. There is of course a place for practitioners and other organizations to become members. I plan on subscribing to their version of Young Child. It's pretty exciting, in my opinion.