Getting to Know International Issues

World Forum Radio:  Episode 10 Suzan Lyon

http://worldforumfoundation.org/wf/wp/current-work/world-forum-radio/

Susan Lyon described the moment her passion was ignited by a child’s understanding of the word “city”.  The young boy stated that the word city was a small word for a big place. His concept of the word sparked her passion in learning how children think and understand how children view the world. Lyons brought The Hundred Languages of Children exhibit to San Francisco and created pilot programs in two local areas. The Hundred Languages of Children exhibit encourages participation of all education professionals, children, parents and the public to have mutual discussions about improving early childhood care.  The exhibit focuses on professional developments to teach strategies to cultivate children’s learning. Strategies promote practices that encourage professions to learn from children by listening to their interests and observing their actions.

                                                

Center of the Developing Child

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

Global Projects Influencing Excellence and Equality in Early Childhood Development

 Many studies have researched the benefits of early childhood education on children and families in developing countries. However, little research has been done on its impact on children in Sub-Saharan Africa.  Five organizations collaborated and started the Zambian Early Childhood Development Project.  The program is an anti-malaria initiative and it measures the effects early childhood programs in Sub-Saharan have on children’s development in Zambian.  

Un Buen Comienzo (UBC) means “A Good Start” and it is a project in Santiago, Chile aspiring to improve children’s early development and learning. The project encourages families to get involved in their children’s education, advance early childhood education with teacher development, and help decrease health issues to improve school attendance.  This is the first project of its kind in Latin America and Chile is the example for prompting quality education.

Brazil’s Global children’s initiative is using the science of children health and development to improve polices and investments in early education.   Núcleo Ciência Pela Infância is the first program outside of the United States to work with experts to improve programs that benefit children and families.

Sharing Web Resources

NIEER National Institute for Early Education Research

Website: http://nieer.org/

NIEER E-Newsletter Volume 11; Issue 11

Relevant Professional Development:

In the Hot Topics Section, Growing Up Bilingual talks about the study of literacy outreach for low income Latino families. Families participating in the study read to their children resulting in ELL (English Language Learners) children reading by the time they reached kindergarten. As I continue to learn best practices and improve my professional development in supporting my ELL population it is important to stay current with the results of new studies. Also learn strategies on how to establish communication with non-English speaking parents.

Link: http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/report/R_512JCR.pdf

 Adding to my understanding of economists and neuroscientists supporting the early childhood field:

The e-newsletter contains a link to an article “Early Learning Costs are Worth It”, written by Tim Kleisner Chairman of Hersey Entertainment and member of Pennsylvania Early Learning Commission. Kleisner affirms that investing in early education is critical. He describes the hiring process for young people in the summer to work in Hersey Park. People are selected based on their abilities to be courteous, pleasant and work well in a team. The fact that these are learned behaviors Kleisner believe that it is crucial to invest in early care to build problem solving skills, team work, communication skills, as well as language and math skills (Kleisner, 2012). He argues that science affirms that if children lack these positive learning experience it will affect their brain development, social development and academics (Kleisner, 2012). Investing in programs to reach economically at risk children under five will improve their skills before fourth grade. Investing in children early in life influences learning and development programs, save money and most importantly influence children’s lives.

Link: http://www.pennlive.com/editorials/index.ssf/2012/05/early_learning_costs_are_worth.html

Other new insights about issues and trends in the early childhood field

In the section, New on Preschool Matters…Today! An article examines the four states with the highest Pre- K enrollment. The four states are New York, California, Florida, and Texas. Although these states have the highest enrollment, quality is another issue. New York ranked best out of the four, meeting seven out of the ten NIEER Quality Standards. The other states met approximately three out of ten quality standards. The average NIEER Quality Standard Benchmark is at least eight out of ten.  As a kindergarten teacher in NY this sheds some light on the vast differences in school readiness skills among children exiting preschool and entering kindergarten. These issues made me think about the access to preschool programs in NY a little deeper, children may attend preschool but do not have access to preschools that offer quality early learning and development. This results in children not being equipped with the necessary skills to flourish in kindergarten and beyond.  What’s the point of children attending preschool without receiving services to develop their skills and abilities?  

Link: http://preschoolmatters.org/2012/05/15/fdrs-advice-to-pre-ks-big-four/

Resource:                                                                                                                   

http://nieer.org/publications/online-newsletters/volume-11-issue-11

Getting to Know International Issues

World Forum Podcast:

I decided to listen to the work of Delfena Mitchell, Director of the Liberty Children's Home in Belize. In Episode 3, Mitchell discussed her experiences with an abused boy transition into the home. When he first entered the home he did not talking at all and eventually he began to speak about the abuse he had encountered. Unfortunately child abuse is an issue that affects children worldwide. Organizations stepping in and taking a stand and stretching out a helping hand help mold and shape children to become healthy productive member of society.

Insights on poverty in China

1.       Poverty in China mostly affects children and families in urban communities and families of migrant workers.

2.      Many families in urban areas were laid off and struggle to find employment and depend on the government to meet their basic necessities.  

3.      98% of poor families believe that education is important and aspire to motivate their children to pursue higher education despite their economic situation.

Resources:
http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/index.php?action=chipactivities-nat
http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/index.php/action=documentfeed/doctype=pdf/id=83/
http://worldforumfoundation.org/wf/wp/current-work/world-forum-radio/

Sharing Web Resources

NIEER National Institute for Early Education Research

Website: http://nieer.org/
                 
The NIEER newsletter, volume 11 issues 10, focuses on a variety of issues affecting children, families and professionals in the early childhood field. It is outlined with five sections. Hot Topics: provides information about funding issues and its influence on quality early education, resources to improves program practices, information encouraging family involvement, mental health, language development and nutrition.  New On Preschool Matters…Today: highlights professionals and organizations making a difference in children lives by researching, advocating and investing in early education. The Calendar displays upcoming national events for professional developments such as National Conference for, Principals and Child Care Directors and many more. Early Education News Round Up provides news about the field in different states and lastly Resources provides further reading on selected topics in the newsletter.

Under the Hot Topics section, I read A Legal Right to Early Education? It was a summary of the profile on state funded preschool programs, The State of Preschool Yearbook. I was shocked to learn that in American only 28% of four year olds were enrolled in state funded programs in the 2010-2011 school year. It is imperative that children have access to quality early education. I was also surprised to learn that 7 states do not offer preschool services.

 Newsletter Link:

http://nieer.org/publications/online-newsletters/volume-11-issue-10

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

This week attempting to locate and contact two professionals outside of the United States was a bit challenging. I started my quest by asking my friends and colleagues to help me find someone to network with. I am waiting to hear from someone who relocated to Paris and is currently working in education. I then turned to social networking and emailed a moderator of an online community I was introduced to in my undergrad studies and I am waiting for a reply.  I explored the website World Forum Radio, in the meantime, I am going to attempt to contact professionals from the website and listen to the broadcasts so that I am able to participate in upcoming class discussions.

I decided to study the National Institute for Early Education Research website, because it offers research based advice in various issues in the early childhood field. It also conducts research supporting quality early childhood education and I can learn information specific to the state I live in.  I aspire to start my own day care center and as I immerse myself in the early childhood field it is important to stay up to date with issues and changes in the field. There are many valuable website and resources but I would like to take a deeper look at the resources this website has to offer. It also has a Pinterest application, an online pin board where I can follow the site’s interests and read articles from my phone.

I look forward to learning about the issues and trends in the early childhood field and I am also excited about sharing experiences and learning from my colleagues.

When I Think of Child Development...

Infants and young children are not just sitting twiddling their thumbs, waiting for their parents to teach them to read and do math. They are expending a vast amount of time and effort in exploring and understanding their immediate world. Healthy education supports and encourages this spontaneous learning
David Elkind

"Free the child's potential, and you will transform him into the world."

- Maria Montessori

"The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows."

- Sydney J. Harris                       

Testing For Intelligence

 

I believe that it is important to view young children holistically by viewing “the whole child”. Young children develop rapidly and their parents/support systems are their first teachers. When children enter school they bring their experiences and culture with them. It is important to recognize children’s cultures and build upon their knowledge and experiences.  Since young children are advancing through various developmental stages and domains I think it is essential to measuring their progress. To ensure children are meeting milestones and provide support for children that may be delayed. It is also essential to monitor children’s learning to drive instruction and diagnose learning or developmental problem to provide a plan to meet their needs.

I decided to continue to learn about various aspects of Africa and their culture therefore, I decided to learn how school age children are assessed in Africa.  In Africa there has been a long two decade effort to improve the quality of their education systems through the use of assessments. School age children are assessed in four categories of assessments; public examinations, national assessments, international assessments, and classroom assessments.  Public examinations have a long standing in Africa’s education system, it is geared towards assessing the level of students’ achievement and cognitive processing skills. One benefit is different methods are used to test higher order of thinking skills academically and in situations outside of school. The results drive the teaching practices and expectations.  A disadvantage to the assessment is many of the teaching practices are centered on the exam. Quality of education may suffer because learning is limited to only what is being assessed. National assessments are fairly new in Africa but spread throughout the nation to focus on the success of sub groups instead of individual children. It is designed to measure learning achievements among sub groups and inequalities in the education system. One benefit of national assessments is that it is policy oriented which provides information to policy makers to improve the education system. One disadvantage of national assessments is the data is rarely used to influence the government or education reform in many countries in Africa. International assessments are very similar to national assessment but it compares students’ achievement and education systems with more than one country. A disadvantage is not many African countries participate in international assessments. But the data from the national assessment can be used in many cases to evaluate students’ success internationally. Last but not least, classroom assessments are ongoing and monitor children’s behavior, educational performance and response to instruction. It is designed to evaluate children’s current knowledge, understanding, and skills. Also it identifies problems children may have and evaluate the learning taking place in the classroom. A disadvantage is some teaching practices lack higher order cognitive skills and children are reciting from memory oppose to reflecting on knowledge.

  Many schools systems in Africa hope to replace public examinations with school based assessments. They believe that the only ways to authentically assess students’ achievement are with assessments specified to education systems curriculums. But the problem they face is motivating the teachers to effectively change their practices. Teachers are afraid it will drastically change the schools’ culture and students’ success will be at risk. Many believe that any efforts made to reform Africa’s education system will be in vain if the teachers are not willing to understand the benefits of improving children’s success.   Change is a part of life and “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”- Ghandi  

I believe that it is important to assess children’s development and learning. I also think it is equally important to monitor and assess schools and programs to ensure they are providing children the best education and services possible.

References:
http://toolkit.ineesite.org/toolkit/INEEcms/uploads/1089/Monitoring_Performance_Assessment_Examinations.pdf
http://quotations.about.com/od/stillmorefamouspeople/a/MahatmaGandhi1.htm