Moments That Matter In The Learning And Development Of Children

Moments that Matter in the Learning and Development of Children: Reflections from Educators explores the significant moments that unfold for young people in their schooling from the perspectives of teachers and school staff. Educators often reflect on “moments” as being a critical piece of their work with children. They can help make things better for students and produce a difference in lives. They are meaningful for young people, as well as consequential for teachers and school staff as they reflect on the outcomes of their efforts. Yet, as they are difficult to define and capture, these moments often are not studied for the value they offer. This book promotes awareness of these moments, as well as their connected meanings and possibilities. Recognizing the significance of moments extends an opportunity to situate schooling in broader contexts and to understand learners as whole embodied beings, engaged in social interactions, making sense of their surrounding world, and generating transformations in it. When educators reflect deeply about the possibilities connected to the moments they share with children, they recognize the multitude of opportunities that support their learning and development. They become “awake” to some of moments’ promises.

Moments that Matter in the Learning and Development of Children: Reflections from Educators explores the significant moments that unfold for young people in their schooling from the perspectives of teachers and school staff. Educators often reflect on "moments" as being a critical piece of their work with children. They can help make things better for students and produce a difference in lives. They are meaningful for young people, as well as consequential for teachers and school staff as they reflect on the outcomes of their efforts. Yet, as they are difficult to define and capture, these moments often are not studied for the value they offer. This book promotes awareness of these moments, as well as their connected meanings and possibilities. Recognizing the significance of moments extends an opportunity to situate schooling in broader contexts and to understand learners as whole embodied beings, engaged in social interactions, making sense of their surrounding world, and generating transformations in it. When educators reflect deeply about the possibilities connected to the moments they share with children, they recognize the multitude of opportunities that support their learning and development. They become "awake" to some of moments' promises.

Children are already learning at birth, and they develop and learn at a rapid pace in their early years. This provides a critical foundation for lifelong progress, and the adults who provide for the care and the education of young children bear a great responsibility for their health, development, and learning. Despite the fact that they share the same objective - to nurture young children and secure their future success - the various practitioners who contribute to the care and the education of children from birth through age 8 are not acknowledged as a workforce unified by the common knowledge and competencies needed to do their jobs well. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 explores the science of child development, particularly looking at implications for the professionals who work with children. This report examines the current capacities and practices of the workforce, the settings in which they work, the policies and infrastructure that set qualifications and provide professional learning, and the government agencies and other funders who support and oversee these systems. This book then makes recommendations to improve the quality of professional practice and the practice environment for care and education professionals. These detailed recommendations create a blueprint for action that builds on a unifying foundation of child development and early learning, shared knowledge and competencies for care and education professionals, and principles for effective professional learning. Young children thrive and learn best when they have secure, positive relationships with adults who are knowledgeable about how to support their development and learning and are responsive to their individual progress. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 offers guidance on system changes to improve the quality of professional practice, specific actions to improve professional learning systems and workforce development, and research to continue to build the knowledge base in ways that will directly advance and inform future actions. The recommendations of this book provide an opportunity to improve the quality of the care and the education that children receive, and ultimately improve outcomes for children.

This report presents data and outlines best practices and policies that can put governments on the path to providing every child with the best start in life. It outlines the neuroscience of early childhood development (ECD), including the importance of nutrition, protection and stimulation in the early years. And it makes the case for scaling up investment, evaluation and monitoring in ECD programmes. The report concludes with a six-point call to action for governments and their partners to help maximize the potential of the children who will build the future – by making the most of the unparalleled opportunities offered by the early moments in life. [Testo dell'editore]

Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.

Anti-bias education begins with you! Become a skilled anti-bias teacher with this practical guidance to confronting and eliminating barriers.

Today we often look to our leaders in business, government, or the social sector, to make effective decisions in a complex world. Whether they are asked what steps to take to improve competitiveness in a global economy or to make tough ethical choices, well-trained leaders are critical to organizational effectiveness. Although we know much about leadership development for individuals after they take their first job, we know relatively little about their earlier experiences that contributed to their interest in leadership or subsequent effectiveness as leaders. This volume brings together researchers who explore leadership at different points before individuals enter the workforce and asks important questions surrounding definitions of leadership behavior, necessary leader skills and age-related leader tasks, factors contributing to development of leader identity, and ways to improve the process of leader development. With contributions from well-known leadership researchers such as Robert Sternberg, Howard Gardner, Bruce Avolio, and Susan Komives, the volume shows research evidence for factors such as early childhood and youth experiences on leadership development, which have implications for the way we understand and train leadership in today’s organizations.

This book introduces current theories and research on disability, and builds on the premise that disability has to be understood from the dialectical dynamics of biology, psychology, and culture over time. Based on the newest empirical research on children with disabilities, the book overcomes the limitations of the medical and social models of disability by arguing for a dialectical biopsychosocial model. The proposed model builds on Vygotsky’s cultural-historical ideas of developmental incongruence, implying that the disability emerges from the misfit between individual abilities and the cultural-historical activity settings in which the child with impairments participates. The book is a theoretical contribution to an updated understanding of disability from a psychological and educational perspective. It focuses on the first years of the life of the child with impairment, and travels through infancy, toddler, preschool and early school age, to track the developmental trajectories of disability through the dialectical processes of cultural, social, individual, and biological processes. It discusses a number of themes that are relevant for the early development and support for children with various types and degrees of disability through the lens of Vygotsky’s cultural-historical developmental theories. Some of the themes discussed are inclusion, mental health, communication, aids and family life.