Guidelines for Selecting Professional Development for Early Childhood Teachers

Engaging teachers of young children in effective in-service professional development is a critical component of establishing high quality early childhood education. However, not all professional development offerings are effective in imparting new knowledge, enhancing teacher practice, or improving child outcomes, making it difficult for teachers and directors to select professional development that will benefit their centers. This paper critically reviews the research literature on professional development for early childhood education to identify what features of professional development make a difference for teacher interactions and children’s learning and development. Guidance is provided for selecting professional development opportunities which meet the needs of children and teachers. Recommendations for how to create an ongoing professional development program within an early childhood center by creating a professional learning community are also made. Such an approach supports the center to become a place that values learning and continued education for all professionals

Force or Fraud: British Seduction Stories and the Problem of Resistance, 1660-1760, by Toni Bowers. (Review)

A review of the book Force or Fraud: British Seduction Stories and the Problem of Resistance, 1660-1760, by Toni Bowers is presented

Patient experience of health care performance

Patient-centred care, a fundamental tenet of quality healthcare, means delivering services which respond to and are sensitive to the needs and wishes of the consumers or patients. Without systematic ways of collecting information about patients’ experience of the health care system, a vital perspective is missing from efforts to improve the quality of care. Submissions to the draft National Primary Health Care Strategy identified that consumer satisfaction, holistic care, equity of access, and obtaining feedback from users are some areas which are appropriate for performance management via indicators

The Economics of Stomatal Development

Development is the result of a series of division, expansion and differentiation events, and the relationship between these events drives characteristics such as organ size and shape, patterning of tissues, and placement of specialised cells. Varying the rates of division, expansion and differentiation allows for plasticity in development. This plasticity means that there are often several routes to the same developmental outcome: for example, increasing cell division will increase the distance between specialised cells or increase organ size, and so will increasing cell expansion. Hence, a question arises: why do plants maintain a certain size or cell placement through a specific route, such as increasing cell expansion? The reason for this could be that one route is more energetically favourable than another, and so a calculation of economy is responsible for certain developmental decisions. Stomata are pores on the surface of the leaf which, in their opening and closing, regulate gas exchange and the movement of water vapour between the interior of the leaf and its environment. Stomatal development is a plastic developmental process which is governed by a series of specific cell division and differentiation events, and therefore provides a suitable model for exploring the relationship between changes in plastic developmental processes and energetic cost to the plant. The work described in this thesis uses a combination of experimental and theoretical methods to further understand the range of cell division, expansion and differentiation events which result in the spacing of stomata within the abaxial epidermis of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana and the economic costs of those processes, to develop an understanding of the economics of stomatal development

A Host-Host-Pathogen Model with Vaccination and its Application to Target and Reservoir Hosts

In this paper we present a simple theoretical framework which allows us to study the impact of constant vaccination rates in a system in which two species interact through a shared pathogen. We look at this firstly in purely theoretical terms to determine which equilibria will be stable for which parameter combinations. We then consider two special cases and determine the long term population dynamical consequences of differing vaccination strategies. In particular we describe systems for which there is a wildlife host reservoir and a domestic (target) host. We find that when the target host cannot maintain the disease alone, and the presence of the reservoir causes the target host to be eradicated by the disease, vaccinating the target species allows coexistence of the two species with the pathogen, but will not allow disease eradication. It is then shown that this result holds both when vaccination occurs at a fixed rate and when a proportion of the population is vaccinated at birth

Regionally-based needs assessment in Australian primary health care.

Needs assessments in primary health care provide information to plan and change services, with the ultimate goal of improving the health of a population. It is the first step in health care services planning, and involves identifying and analysing a region’s health problems and potential target group. For the purposes of this report, need was defined as “the population’s ability to benefit” as this lends itself most usefully to health services planning. This report also reflects on International and Australian models that may inform approaches to needs assessments in Australia

Communication with families: Understanding the perspectives of early childhood teachers

Communication between teachers and families in early childhood is a key aspect of successful teacher-family engagement. The goal of this exploratory study was to investigate how teachers communicated with families in early childhood classrooms and what they communicated about. This study of 31 teachers working with children birth to age five, primarily in the Midwestern U.S. examined how they described communication with families using semi-structured interviews. Findings indicated that teachers used multiple formats to communicate with families about children’s daily routines, developmental progress, and other relevant information. Teachers preferred in-person communication although challenges occurred due to classroom dynamics and the global COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. Technology such as apps and messaging emerged as an efficient way to reach most families, however difficulties facilitating reciprocal communication with families were described. Further research is needed to identify successful communication strategies for both teachers and families, thus building higher quality teacher-family partnerships

An exploratory study of early childhood coaches’ practices and professional learning needs

Coaching is increasingly being used as a mechanism to improve the quality of early childhood education. Yet, for coaching outside of researcher-controlled interventions, limited information details coaches’ reports of their practices’ professional learning needs. We addressed this gap via an exploratory study utilizing online questionnaires of 91 coaches working with educators in a Midwestern US state across 12 coaching initiatives. Most participants had less than 5 years of experience working as an early childhood coach. Almost a third coached for multiple initiatives. Coaching occurred via multiple formats and often addressed behavior management and social emotional development regardless of the coaching initiative. Coaches identified challenges regarding scheduling and working with difficult learners and reported that peer support and being coached themselves were the most beneficial learning experiences. Findings suggest that the perspective of the coach is important in informing training and professional learning for both coaches and educators

Models of patient enrolment

This Policy Issue Review is an overview of enrolment models relevant to Australian primary health care. A predetermined report structure was designed, reflecting the dimensions of the study questions, and searching was targeted, seeking information sources to answer specific, predetermined questions. Google, Google Scholar and Pub Med were used to locate information sources and supplemented by existing PHC RIS resources and bibliographic references

What Is the Landscape of Early Childhood Coaching in Nebraska?

Background on Early Childhood Coaching in Nebraska Coaches have become an integral component of supporting teachers and adults working with young children and families nationally (Schachter, 2015). In the state of Nebraska, early childhood (EC) coaching has increasingly become important for this type of work (Jayaraman, Knoche, Marvin, & Bainter, 2014). Indeed, multiple initiatives within the state utilize coaches as a mechanism for supporting change in adult learners that leads to positive outcomes for young children and families. In general, coaching is a unique form of professional development that is relationship-based, whereby coaches work one-on-one or in small groups with adult learners to improve knowledge, skills, and dispositions (Aikens & Akers, 2011). Coaching can take place in adults’ immediate context and tends to be ongoing rather than a single, one-time training (Joyce & Showers, 1980; Rush & Shelden, 2005). As such, coaching has the potential to provide high-quality learning experiences for adults to support high-quality experiences in EC. Based on this growing use of coaching across the state, key stakeholders have collaborated to develop mechanisms that support coach training and development. Since this collaborative work began in 2009–10, a semiannual coach training was developed to provide foundational coaching skills and competencies relevant for all coaching initiatives, such as developing relationships and facilitating coaching conversations. The collaborative group also came to understand that coaches needed ongoing support and initiated the offering of regular “booster” sessions to support coaches’ professional development once they are in the field and actively serving coachees. In efforts to better understand who was coaching and perceptions of the training coaches received, stakeholders conducted an initial survey in 2014 (Jayaraman et al. 2014). Results of this survey (n = 35) revealed that coaches liked the work of coaching and, in particular, coaches commented that they enjoyed building relationships with coachees and observing positive changes. Although these coaches were generally positive about the training they received, myriad challenges were also reported, particularly with regards to the coaching process and their own training and professional development needs. Present Study Since the 2014 study, coaching in various EC initiatives has grown across the state. In 2018, the Nebraska Early Childhood Coach Collaboration team was interested in reassessing the process of coaching in Nebraska. This included understanding who is doing the work of coaching, what constitutes the coaching process, how coaches perceive their work, and how coaches were prepared to do their work. Thus, a new survey was created to understand more about coaching in the state of Nebraska. It contained a variety of questions consisting of both fixed-choice and open-response comments. Data collection was led by Dr. Schachter from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and was reviewed by the Institutional Review Board. Participants were invited by email to complete an online survey that took approximately 20 minutes to complete. The survey was emailed to key stakeholders in the Spring of 2018 with requests that the survey be forwarded to anyone doing the work of EC coaching in Nebraska. In total, 101 individuals completed the survey. Importantly, all participants self-identified as a “coach.” Participants were able to enter into a raffle to win one of five iPad minis. Survey responses were analyzed descriptively. Next, we present our findings regarding who are the coaches, what is the content of coaching, how coaches perceive their work, how coaches know that coaching is working, and how coaches were prepared. We conclude with recommendations for advancing the work of coaching in the state of Nebraska