Assessing Quality In Early Childhood Education And Care

The sustained shared thinking and emotional well-being (SSTEW) scale is designed to consider some of the intentional and relational pedagogical strategies strongly associated with child outcomes. It considers practice that supports children aged between two and five years of age in developing skills in sustained shared thinking and emotional well-being, as well as developing strong relationships, effective communication and aspects of self-regulation. It is designed to be used for research, self-evaluation and improvement, audit and regulation. Using the SSTEW scale alongside other environment scales (including ECERS-E, ECERS-R or ITERS-R) gives users a more complete picture of what high-quality early childhood education and care can look like. It is aspirational in that it considers high quality pedagogy and practice. It can be used by researchers, heads of centers, managers, teaching staff and practitioners, as well as advisory staff and in professional development.

The assessment of young children's development and learning has recently taken on new importance. Private and government organizations are developing programs to enhance the school readiness of all young children, especially children from economically disadvantaged homes and communities and children with special needs. Well-planned and effective assessment can inform teaching and program improvement, and contribute to better outcomes for children. This book affirms that assessments can make crucial contributions to the improvement of children's well-being, but only if they are well designed, implemented effectively, developed in the context of systematic planning, and are interpreted and used appropriately. Otherwise, assessment of children and programs can have negative consequences for both. The value of assessments therefore requires fundamental attention to their purpose and the design of the larger systems in which they are used. Early Childhood Assessment addresses these issues by identifying the important outcomes for children from birth to age 5 and the quality and purposes of different techniques and instruments for developmental assessments.

ECERS-E is designed to be used with the Early Childhood Rating Scale-Revised (ECERS-R), an internationally recognized measure of quality in education and care written by Thelma Harms, Richard M. Clifford, and Debby Cryer. It not only complements the ECERS-R but extends the scales to provide additional insights into important aspects of literacy, mathematics, science and environment, as well as practices related to issues of diversity. Given the current focus on emerging literacy and numeracy skills, the ECERS-E provides unique guidance on the kinds of environments that enhance learning in preschool settings. The curriculum domains within the scales bear important relationships to children’s (age 3–5) cognitive and social/behavioral developmental outcomes. Using the ECERS-E alongside the ECERS-R gives users a more complete picture of what a high-quality early childhood education program can look like. It can be used by program directors, teaching staff, agency staff, and in teacher training programs. Convenient organization: Literacy Items: Print in the environment Book and literacy areas Adults reading with children Sounds in words Emergent writing/mark making Talking and listening Mathematics Items: Counting and application of counting Reading and representing simple numbers Activities: Shape Activities: Sorting, matching and comparing Science and Environment Items: Natural materials Areas featuring science/science materials Activities: Non living Activities: Living processes Activities: Food preparation Diversity Items: Planning for individual learning needs Gender equality and awareness Race equality and awareness

This book challenges received wisdom and the tendency to reduce philosophical issues of value to purely technical issues of measurement and management.

The sustained shared thinking and emotional well-being (SSTEW) scale is designed to consider some of the intentional and relational pedagogical strategies strongly associated with child outcomes. It considers practice that supports children aged between two and five years of age in developing skills in sustained shared thinking and emotional well-being, as well as developing strong relationships, effective communication and aspects of self-regulation. It is designed to be used for research, self-evaluation and improvement, audit and regulation. Using the SSTEW scale alongside other environment scales (including ECERS-E, ECERS-R or ITERS-R) gives users a more complete picture of what high-quality early childhood education and care can look like. It is aspirational in that it considers high quality pedagogy and practice. It can be used by researchers, heads of centers, managers, teaching staff and practitioners, as well as advisory staff and in professional development.

This book provides global perspectives on assessment and evaluation practices with young children in contemporary times within early childhood education systems. It critiques and evaluates current evaluation and assessment goals and tools in early childhood settings. The book also compares the different approaches to educational evaluations from different countries in early childhood education and care. It provides insights into different approaches, techniques as well as perspectives of micro and macro-levels of analysis. This book aims to create an international understanding about the thematic conceptions of assessment for early childhood education and care.

Clearly babies come into the world remarkably receptive to its wonders. Their alertness to sights, sounds, and even abstract concepts makes them inquisitive explorersâ€"and learnersâ€"every waking minute. Well before formal schooling begins, children's early experiences lay the foundations for their later social behavior, emotional regulation, and literacy. Yet, for a variety of reasons, far too little attention is given to the quality of these crucial years. Outmoded theories, outdated facts, and undersized budgets all play a part in the uneven quality of early childhood programs throughout our country. What will it take to provide better early education and care for our children between the ages of two and five? Eager to Learn explores this crucial question, synthesizing the newest research findings on how young children learn and the impact of early learning. Key discoveries in how young children learn are reviewed in language accessible to parents as well as educators: findings about the interplay of biology and environment, variations in learning among individuals and children from different social and economic groups, and the importance of health, safety, nutrition and interpersonal warmth to early learning. Perhaps most significant, the book documents how very early in life learning really begins. Valuable conclusions and recommendations are presented in the areas of the teacher-child relationship, the organization and content of curriculum, meeting the needs of those children most at risk of school failure, teacher preparation, assessment of teaching and learning, and more. The book discusses: Evidence for competing theories, models, and approaches in the field and a hard look at some day-to-day practices and activities generally used in preschool. The role of the teacher, the importance of peer interactions, and other relationships in the child's life. Learning needs of minority children, children with disabilities, and other special groups. Approaches to assessing young children's learning for the purposes of policy decisions, diagnosis of educational difficulties, and instructional planning. Preparation and continuing development of teachers. Eager to Learn presents a comprehensive, coherent picture of early childhood learning, along with a clear path toward improving this important stage of life for all children.