Preferred Models of Early Childhood Teacher Education

Early childhood teacher education in Australia continues to be a topic of contention. The erosion of specialized early childhood courses during the early 1980\u27s was indicated by Briggs (1984) in the face of then new shared structures with primary teacher education. Restructuring of courses at that time was brought about by amalgamations of many higher education institutions which provided courses for teachers. At that time, the tertiary education sector began what has become the most significant post-war re-arrangement of higher education Australia has witnessed. Course developments in 1984 were illustrative of the kinds of amalgamations which were taking place and attention was on rationalization of many courses within the college sector as it moved towards university designation

Assessing the quality of early childhood education and care

In December 2009 the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agreed to a unified National Quality Framework (NQF) for Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). The quality reforms—which include clear standards, streamlined regulatory approaches, an assessment and rating system and a national learning framework—are being implemented over the period 2012 to 2020 as an initiative of the National Early Childhood Development Strategy. The vision of the strategy is that \u27by 2020 all children have the best start in life to create a better future for themselves, and for the nation\u27 (COAG, 2009). The purpose of this Policy Brief is to consider the implications of current research and the role of quality assessment in delivering the National Early Childhood Development Strategy vision. Specifically, the Brief discusses the ECEC policy environment in Australia and outlines international evidence regarding the impact of ECEC quality components related to adult-child interactions and relationships.&nbsp

Trends in construction of transition to school in three western regions 1990-2004

The construct of school readiness that focuses on children's maturation and homogeneity of their attainment at school entry has been challenged by recent research. This research indicates that there are difficulties in assessing young children's abilities, and there are limitations to the concomitant practice of retention. These challenges have prompted attempts to re-conceptualise entry to school as a process of transition. However, transition has variously been conceptualised as: a set of teacher practices in a time-limited period around school entry; a process of establishing continuity from home to school; and a multi-layered, multi-year experience. An analysis of academic literature from 1990-2004 in U.S.A., Australia/New Zealand and Europe was undertaken to identify trends in the conceptualisation of transition to school. The analysis suggests a trend towards more complex understandings of transition emphasizing continuity of children’s experience, partnership with stakeholders, and system coherence across extended time periods. However, more limited constructions persist in the academic literature, particularly in U.S.A. and Australian/New Zealand

MAKITAB system of small group learning interaction analysis : a manual for researchers and coders

The MAKITAB system of small-group learning interaction analysis has been developed over a 4 year period. When data were gathered late in 1989 on the verbal interaction of Grade 5 students participating in small-group cooperative learning, we were faced with the problem of having to develop an appropriate analysis system. An initial system was created using inductive approaches. Following further data gathering across other grade levels and subject areas, the system has undergone successive refinements. The final instrument, as presented in this manual, has reached a state of consistency that enables coding of most verbal eventualities as they occur in the small-group cooperative learning context. Furthermore, the reliability and validity of the instrument seems to have been established. The MAKAITAB instrument should facilitate useful data gathering across a broad range of small-group cooperative learning settings

The sooner, the better: Early reading to children

As reading to children plays an important role in language development, primary caregivers are often encouraged to read to their children from a very young age. However, little is known about the age at which such reading should start. The linguistic skills of 104 children were assessed shortly before school entry. Their parents were asked how old their children were when they first read to them and how often they had read to their children. Almost half of the study children were read to before they were 6 months old. The age at which children were first read to was closely associated with family characteristics such as socioeconomic status, the frequency with which children were read to as preschoolers, and with children’s linguistic and cognitive competencies. The findings imply that reading books to very young children indeed contributes meaningfully to a favorable home literacy environment and supports children’s language development

The Sooner, the Better: Early Reading to Children

As reading to children plays an important role in language development, primary caregivers are often encouraged to read to their children from a very young age. However, little is known about the age at which such reading should start. The linguistic skills of 104 children were assessed shortly before school entry. Their parents were asked how old their children were when they first read to them and how often they had read to their children. Almost half of the study children were read to before they were 6 months old. The age at which children were first read to was closely associated with family characteristics such as socioeconomic status, the frequency with which children were read to as preschoolers, and with children's linguistic and cognitive competencies. The findings imply that reading books to very young children indeed contributes meaningfully to a favorable home literacy environment and supports children's language development

Too late and not enough for some children: Early childhood education and care (ECEC) program usage patterns in the years before school in Australia

This paper uses data from a major Australian longitudinal study to test the extent to which children recruited on the basis of attending an early childhood education and care (ECEC) setting when they were 3–4 years of age received an ‘optimal’ dosage of education and care. The idea of an optimal dosage is drawn from research literature on what level of dosage leads to improved learning and development outcomes for children. This dosage level is then compared with the actual level received by Australian children, through examining the age of entry of Australian children into ECEC and the number of hours of education and care they receive before school entry. Key predictors of the total hours of ECEC usage and the year of commencement in formal ECEC programs are reported, and demonstrate the variability and correlates of participation in ECEC programs. Patterns of ECEC usage were predicted by family advantage and disadvantage factors. Children from homes with less employment, and more siblings, tend to use fewer hours of ECEC before school and/or start later. The findings suggest sub-optimal levels of participation given the policy goal of improving learning and developmental outcomes for all children and particularly for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Policy implications are addressed

Genomic investigations of unexplained acute hepatitis in children

Since its first identification in Scotland, over 1,000 cases of unexplained paediatric hepatitis in children have been reported worldwide, including 278 cases in the UK1. Here we report an investigation of 38 cases, 66 age-matched immunocompetent controls and 21 immunocompromised comparator participants, using a combination of genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic and immunohistochemical methods. We detected high levels of adeno-associated virus 2 (AAV2) DNA in the liver, blood, plasma or stool from 27 of 28 cases. We found low levels of adenovirus (HAdV) and human herpesvirus 6B (HHV-6B) in 23 of 31 and 16 of 23, respectively, of the cases tested. By contrast, AAV2 was infrequently detected and at low titre in the blood or the liver from control children with HAdV, even when profoundly immunosuppressed. AAV2, HAdV and HHV-6 phylogeny excluded the emergence of novel strains in cases. Histological analyses of explanted livers showed enrichment for T cells and B lineage cells. Proteomic comparison of liver tissue from cases and healthy controls identified increased expression of HLA class 2, immunoglobulin variable regions and complement proteins. HAdV and AAV2 proteins were not detected in the livers. Instead, we identified AAV2 DNA complexes reflecting both HAdV-mediated and HHV-6B-mediated replication. We hypothesize that high levels of abnormal AAV2 replication products aided by HAdV and, in severe cases, HHV-6B may have triggered immune-mediated hepatic disease in genetically and immunologically predisposed children

Social Capital and Early Childhood Education

The claim that early childhood education benefits children, families and communities is of critical interest to educational leaders in schools and other community institutions. Indeed, a growing body of international research literature attests to its benefits for children’s learning, health and well-being (Ball, 1994; Pascal et al., 1999). An allied area of research focuses on the benefits of integrated services (within schools and other facilities) for children, families and communities, using a social capital framework (Tayler, Tennent, Farrell & Gahan, 2002; Tennent, Tayler & Farrell, 2002) . Premised on Morrow’s (2001) notion that social capital in a community impacts the well-being of its members, our construct of social capital includes micro-social individual behaviour and macro-social structural factors, thus setting “social relationships, social interactions and social networks in context‿ (Morrow, 2001, p. 4). Another theoretical dimension of our work is derived from the sociology of childhood (James & Prout, 1997; Mayall, 1998), where children are theorised as active social agents and reliable informants of their own experience, who construct and shape the social structures and processes of their lives (Clark, McQuail & Moss, 2003)