Research Around the World

This week I chose to view the website http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/ which is in Australia.   Some of the current international research topics are:

 

Children’s Behavior

Play based Learning

Teaching and Learning

      Language and literacy

Preschoolers

 

The Australian’s Code of Ethics is very similar to our NAEYC.   The latest early childhood research is Theory into practice and Advocacy and leadership. 

 

What surprising facts/insights/new ideas about early childhood did you gain from exploring this international early childhood website?

            I read about their day care center which is called the Long Day care.   It is daycare for children of working families as well as after school care.   I gained knowledge about The Research in Practices Series (RIPS).  This is an easy-to-read resource for the early childhood professional which offers effective new approaches for those challenging issues which arise in the care and education of young children (http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au).   This series covers a wide range of topics covered throughout the series.  These collections actually offer something to anyone who is interested in children’s early years (http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au).   

 

 What other noteworthy information did you find on this website?

            I viewed things on the site that are very similar to what we have here in the United States.   The Early Childhood Australia Online site actually sale journals on its site.  Most of the things that I viewed concerning how they educate their children is basically the same methods that we use in the United States.   This website was really interesting and I am sure that I will find something on this site that I can use to assist me with my research methods.

 

Reference

 

Early Childhood Australia http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/

Research that Benefits Children and Families - Uplifting Stories

          I have chosen to explore Option 2.  If I could choose any subject to research my topic of interest would be childhood diabetes.  The reason that I am choosing this topic is because my mother is a diabetic.  I am interested in finding out all that I can about diabetes because I have heard that diabetes can be genetic.    If it is genetic I would like to make certain that my brother who is seven years old is tested early on. 

            Since my research will not be restricted to certain rules and limitations I know that I will be able to come up with some great results.  My participants will be children who are from families that have diabetes.  This will assist me in figuring out whether diabetes is passed down from family members.  I will observe the diets of the participants and review medical records of family members of the participants.  This will give me some information on the risk that is involved in the children developing diabetes.  This study will be a long process because most diabetics’ are diagnosed because they have not eaten properly over a long period of time. 

            This research will make a positive contribution to the children and their families by determining whether diabetes is genetic or not.  If families know that diabetes is genetic they can then start to monitor what their children are eating and change their diets to assist them in a healthy way of eating.  This will be a positive outcome because we will all have healthier children because the awareness of childhood diabetes is now known.  Awareness is very important in childhood diabetes.  Research is very important and if it were not for research and researchers we would not know a lot the concepts, theories, and behaviors that are tied to Early Childhood Education.  As a researcher I will maintain professionalism and I will make certain that all of my participants are treated fairly.  I will not treat my participants as objects rather than subjects (Mac Naughton, Rolfe, & Siraj-Blatchford, 2010).

Reference

Mac Naughton, G., Rolfe, S.A., & Siraj-Blatchford, I. (2010).  Doing early childhood research

          International perspectives on theory and practice (2nd ed.).  New York, NY:  McGraw-Hill.

 

 

My Personal Research Journal

                My topic of interest is Cognitive Development.  I chose this topic because I have always been amazed with Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development.  I am fascinated with how children learn just as Piaget was years ago.  In the Effective Programs and Practices course we observed young children at various child care facilities throughout the course.  As I observed it became apparent to me that children were not less intelligent than adults, they just think differently than adults (Cherry, n.d.).  This was what Piaget’s thoughts were as well. 

            My personal experience with cognitive development came to true form as I observed the children in various preschools and child care facilities.  The knowledge that I gained from observing children learning proved that several of Piaget’s stages of cognitive development are indeed exactly what he theorized.  For example the preoperational stage which involves pretend play showed in several instances during my observations.  But the children still struggled with logic.   

            I have gained several insights from the course chapters for Week 1 and Week 2 as well as the research charts.  The course book outlines how to select a topic for research and how to design the research.  The research chart assignments has allowed me to become familiar with how to identify the participants involved in the research as well as how to locate the results of the research .  Knowing how to choose a topic and how to design your research is very important. 

            I am willing to share all of my resources to assist you, my colleagues, in whatever way I can to make certain that your research efforts are successful.  I am asking for your thoughts and/or opinions on my topic.  Any input you have will be greatly appreciated.  I am eager to hear from you.    

Reference

Cherry, K. (n.d.).  Piaget’s stages of cognitive development: Background and key concepts of                   Piaget’s Theory.  Retrieved from http://www.about.compsychology.

Week 8 Final Blog Issues and Trends in the Early Childhood Field

Week 8 Final Blog Issues and Trends in the Early Childhood Field

            I have fostered and shared my professional growth by listening to podcasts and exploring websites pertaining to Early Childhood Education.  I have even gained knowledge from reading my colleagues blog links concerning Early Childhood Education in international countries.  There are several consequences of learning about the international Early Childhood field.  My personal and professional development has been enhanced by reading articles from the websites of Save the Children.  I have gained so much knowledge from the issues in Africa such as poverty, stunting, malaria, and HIV.  All of these issues have changed my personal perspective of children in Africa.  These issues have shown me that our government and our nation are in a better predicament than that of Africa.  Even though poverty exist in the United States we are far better off than in Africa. 

            The second consequence is that most of the international countries that my colleagues have shared information on in their blogs share some of the exact goals, and mission statements in the field of Early Childhood Education as that of the United States.  Some of the countries are also a little different because that put more emphasis on investing in their programs of Early Childhood Education.  They invest because they expect great returns in the future.   The last consequence of learning about the international Early Childhood Education field is that I can now bring or raise awareness to other Early Childhood Education professionals about the importance of Early Childhood Education in other countries and how we can advocate to our policy makers to bring our standards of our own Early Childhood Education programs to meet the standards of the international countries.  In other words we can advocate to receive better funding for our Early Childhood Education programs so that we can compete with the international countries around the globe.

            The one goal that I hope for is that we will all learn from each other and that we will collaborate together to advocate for better standards and more high quality programs that will improve our young children’s growth and development so that they may reach their full potential and become productive citizens no matter what part of the world they live in.

           

 

 

International Early Childhood Issues Week 7 UNESCO

The three insights that I have gained from viewing the UNESCO’s website in Week 6 is:

·         UNESCO’s Quality childcare programs

·         UNESCO and Access and Equity

·         UNESCO’s Education in the 21^st Century

The UNESCO’s high quality childcare programs especially for the kids in the low-income households and the families that are at various disadvantages promote cognitive and linguistic development and school readiness (http://www.unesco.org).  Active involvement from parents and communities and relevant play and learning materials ensure that early childhood services remain relevant to the needs of the children and all other stakeholders and increases sustainability (http://www.unesco.org).  This statement ties back to one of my goals which is to instill in parents the importance of parental involvement.  Parental involvement is vitally important to the development of children in childcare programs.  Building positive relationships with the students as well as the parents is very important.  UNESCO is dedicated to promoting quality childcare programs.

In dealing with Access and Equity some countries have made a commitment to expand and improve early childhood care and education.  This is especially true for low-income and disadvantaged children. The government was urged to expand equitable access to quality early childhood services underscoring the importance of instituting policy in favor of the poor (http://www.unesco.org).  Alternative services are usually promoted to the poor children with limited or no access to mainstream the early childhood services.  This often raises concerns about sustainability and quality.  In some cases the government may have limited resources so they use what is called a pro-poor policy that allow them to redistribute some of the resources by reducing the state support for the more privileged children http://www.unesco.org). According to this article the government must ensure equitable distribution of resources among the different populations especially those who are in the disadvantaged regions.  Vulnerable children need equal access.

UNESCO’S mission to educate is one of its principal activities to achieve.  They are committed to a holistic and humanistic vision of quality education worldwide.  The objectives are to support the achievement for all (EFA) to provide global and regional leadership in education, to strengthen education systems worldwide for early childhood to the adult years (http://www.unesco.org).  They focus on increasing access and equity as well as improving quality.  They work with the governments and a wide range of partners to make education systems more effective through policy change (http://www.unesco.org).

Reference

All Information retrieved from http://www.unesco.org

Sharing Web Resources Week 6

            When I followed some of the outside links for Harlem Children’s Zone it lead me to the Harlem Children’s Zone College Success Office.  This office assists the students who have graduated from high school to enroll in appropriate colleges.  It not only assists them in getting in the colleges it also helps them throughout their college years (http://www.hcz.org).  Statistics from the Harlem Children’s Zone shows that over 642 of the students who attended the after school programs enrolled in college (http://www.hcz.org). 

            In my search the one area that I have admired the most is the Early Childhood programs and how they recognized the importance of the first three years of a child’s life and how critical it is to their development (http://www.hcz.org).  They have three fantastic programs for early childhood education.  The first one is the Baby College.  This program has workshops for expected parents and those that may be raising children up to age three (3) (http://www.hcz.org).  This is a way for expected parents to gain knowledge about parenting before their babies are born.  All of these services are free of charge to all communities (http://www.hcz.org). 

            The second program is the Three Year Old Journey.  This program assists parents on Saturday’s for several months.  It focuses on child development, language building skills, and parenting skills (http://www.hcz.org).  The third program is the Harlem Gems.  This program is designed to prepare pre-kindergarteners for kindergarten.  The classes teach English, Spanish, and French.  This program includes 3 sites which serve 200 children.  It seems to me that the HCZ places a lot of focus on the Early Childhood programs because they know that the returns will be worth every effort they put forth to educate the children. 

            I applied for the newsletter but I have not received any correspondence back from the HCZ.  Each time I have checked the newsletter sign-in I get a message that states that it takes 2-3 business days for the process to be completed.  I am still hopeful.  The website does contain information that adds to my understanding of equity and excellence in early care and education because it provides education, social-services, and community building programs to children and their families.  The three barriers that we have discussed in this week’s assignment Awareness, Accessibility, and Responsiveness are barriers that the HCZ are eliminating on a daily basis.

            Each time I view the Harlem Children’s Zone website I gain new knowledge as it pertains to the early childhood field.  This week I was overwhelmed when I read about Harlem’s Single Stop program.  This program brings about awareness concerning people, securing benefits, access to legal guidance, and even domestic violence.  These sessions are one-on-one sessions (http://www.hcz.org). 

Reference

http://www.hcz.org

Getting to know Your International Contacts Part 2 Week 5

I am discussing the alternative from the Center on the Developing Child from Harvard University.  The Global Children’s Initiative center draws on lessons from our work in the United States.  It seeks to advance the center’s core mission globally by implementing a compelling research, public engagement and leadership development agenda in child health and development that is grounded in Science and engages researchers, public leaders, practitioners, and students from a wide range of institutions around the world (http://developingchild.harvard.edu). 

            I have gained several insights about Early Childhood systems around the globe.  The first insight that I have gained is how the first goal of The Global Children’s Initiative is designed to reframe the discourse around child health and development in the global policy arena by educating high-level decision-makers about the underlying science of learning, behavior, and health beginning in the earliest years of life (http://developingchild.harvard.edu).  I find this very important because if the decision-makers are educated in science, behavior, and the health of children from the very beginning of life then they will make the decisions in the interest of EVERY child and no children will be left behind.

            The second insight I gained was the information pertaining to (UBC) Un Buen Comienzo “A Good Start” which is a collaborative project in Chile which is to improve the quality of education in four to six year olds in language development through teacher professional development.  It is also designed to assist with health issues that would normally keep children from attending school.  This will help by improving the children’s health which will improve their school attendance.  The (UBC) also seeks to get and keep parental involvement from their parents.

            The Third insight I gained was how this article talked about how some studies have been successful in investigating the impact of Early Childhood experiences on children’s developmental, health, and educational outcomes in developing countries.  In Zambian Africa there is little evidence available on Early Childhood development.  Because of this several organizations along with Harvard University came together collaboratively to launch a project which is called the Zambia Early Childhood Development Project.  It is designed to measure effects of Anti-Malaria on the children in Zambia.  A test called the (ZamCAT) was created which is an assessment tool to assess physical, socio-emotional, and cognitive development before and throughout the children’s schooling (http://developingchild.harvard.edu).

            The Global Children’s Initiative is preparing future and current leaders to build and leverage knowledge that will promote the healthy development of children and families and bring high returns in all of society (http://developingchild.harvard.edu).

Reference

http://developingchild.harvard.edu/initiatives/global_initiative