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
Thanks for a great review of the website. I am often surprized at similarities in efforts around the globe.
ReplyDeleteI loved the point made about how feelings matter. So many times when we are trying to help those around us with a dramatic change we spend a great deal of time saying "it's ok, let it go and move on," or even shh-ing a child's cry. While our intentions are often good, this piece of advice made me really think about making sure I give proper time to those I am trying to comfort and really listen to what they have to say and how they are feeling.
ReplyDeleteNicole,
ReplyDeleteI think it is wonderful to focus on feelings and validate them. To go a step farther also to understand what causes our feelings, how to cope with our feelings, and allow understanding the differences in feelings such as anger, sadness, secondary emotions and primary emotions. I realize this may seem overwhelming to teach to children, but in actuality it can be simplified and taught at very young ages.