Suchergebnisse

As part of a master's thesis on "Preschool Curriculum in the Swedish Preschool Education System" that challenged my research of preschool curriculum with my stay in Gothenburg (Sweden), as a preschool educator at Krumeluren 6 förskola Kindergarten. My goal is to give a complete picture of the important aspects of the preschool curriculum in Sweden as a quality model in the preschool education system.The preschool curriculum (Skulverket) in Sweden is designed to promote positive growth and development in the lives of all children, a holistic approach, to develop their social, physical, emotional and intellectual abilities. We know that every child is unique, and the special and positive experiences from early childhood are important for the overall development of the child in later life. The preschool curriculum in Sweden provides high quality education and care for children in a safe, respected and inclusive environment that builds a foundation for lifelong learning.Keywords: preschool curriculum, preschool education, preschool institutions, lifelong learning, democracy.

Adolescent problems in Hong Kong have brought questions about their moral development and mental health to light. Moral education for preschool children will be strategically important to address these issues because applying early educational interventions to preschool children will effectively enhance their personal development. This article highlights the inadequacy of the Hong Kong preschool curriculum guides in the promotion of moral development in children. The lack of a consensus about the values and character that preschool children should develop is a fundamental problem of implementing preschool moral education in Hong Kong. If moral education is regarded as a school curriculum, either formal or informal, the objectives, content and assessment should be closely adhered to one another. In addition, the learning and teaching activities should also be in line with student's developmental characteristics and experiences. The O-C-A model is then proposed for moral education in the preschool settings of Hong Kong. Advice has also been made for the promotion of moral education in Hong Kong's early childhood settings.

In its political ambitions and pedagogical spirit to address an increasingly diverse population, the Swedish national curriculum for the preschool contains contradictory or even conflicting goals. On the one hand, the curriculum stipulates openness to, tolerance for and appreciation of cultural, ethnic, religious and social differences, and respect for the unique background of children. On the other hand, it stresses universal human rights and the fundamental values of Swedish society. How preschool teachers work with and make sense of such contradictory or even conflicting goals in everyday practice is the focus of this text. The research questions are: (1) How do preschool teachers describe the challenges they face in their daily work when they attempt to honour the stipulations of the curriculum? (2) Which strategies do they describe as using to manage these challenges? The empirical material consists of 14 focus group interviews with 41 preschool teachers from two highly ethnically and culturally diverse urban areas of metropolitan Stockholm. Results suggest that there are a number of recurring preschool situations where cultural and religious differences lead to dilemmas and potential friction between children, preschool teachers and parents. Results also show that the preschool curriculum provides little guidance and instead the preschool teachers must develop their own strategies to handle children's and parents' expectations and demands, for instance by using the children as cultural intermediaries. Overall, the preschool teachers adopt strategies that enable them to avoid "difficult" situations, which in effect risks placing the challenges on the shoulders of the children.

In Sweden, the reception and education of migrant children is seen as a challenge for the school system, and the opinions concerning how to educate and socialize young migrant children differ. The educational system in Sweden, and elsewhere, has historically been given a double function. On the one hand, it is viewed as a mediator of dominant culture, language, and imagined nationality, and on the other hand, in an increasingly globalized world, it is seen as a promoter of values like multiculturalism and tolerance (Hjerm 2001; Lappalainen 2006; Tobin 2013; Mavroudi and Holt 2015; Allemann-Ghionda 2015). As Mavroudi and Holt (2015) point out, schools and preschools are often at the forefront in teaching children to be more accepting and tolerant of differences, as part of a democratic mission. However, at the same time they also remain key sites where national belonging and identity are taught. Both these aspects are at play in the Swedish preschool curriculum and practice. On the one hand, ideals of child-centeredness related to aspects such as tolerance, equality, egalitarianism, democracy and cooperative social relationships are emphasized (Einarsdottir et al. 2014). On the other hand, monolinguistic as well as a monocultural norms prevail in settings aimed for education of the future citizens, and previous research has shown that these norms concern specially immigrant children (Johansson and Pramling Samuelsson 2006; Johansson 2012; Lunneblad 2013). The paper explores how the tension between these different ideas is embedded in the preschool curriculum and how the ideas are interpreted and operationalized. This is made through the lense of everyday nationhood, and therefore specifically at how issues concerning language and culture are expressed in relation to the pedagogy formed around the migrant child. We consider preschool policy documents, educators' talk as they try to reinterpret the ideas, and everyday routines formed around migrant children. Questions asked are: What are the explicit and implicit purposes of the preschool education for migrant children? Who is the migrant child to be educated and to what ends?

ALGOLITTLE is an EU funded Erasmus+ KA203 project seeking the ways of integrating algorithmic thinking skills into preschool education to cultivate future's code literates starting from the earliest years. When we consider the COVID-19 outbreak process, while a transformation has been being experienced in every field, education has also been digitalized in a tremendous way. These developments promise the systems digitalized in a more global scale. Therefore, it becomes important to raise individuals with the skills allowing them to keep up with the expectations of the 21st century business world. ALGOLITTLE project consortium consists of 6 partners: İzmir Democracy University (Turkey), Scuola di Robotica (Italy), University of Maribor (Slovenia), University of Rijeka (Croatia), Instituto Politecnico de Viseu (Portugal) and Educloud Ed-Tech (Turkey). The consortium has been developing a curriculum and teaching materials to equip early childhood education undergraduates with the new skills which modern world demands and support them to become competent to meet the requirements of their future professions. Algorithmic thinking skills are defined as thinking about the steps to achieve a determined objective in a clear and detailed way (Brown, 2015). This term was suggested for the first time by Wing (2006) and is based on the studies of Seymour Papert (Papert, 1980, 1991). Wing (2006) claims that algorithmic thinking requires "solving problems, designing systems and understanding human behaviour by benefiting from the basic concepts of computer science". And this becomes an opportunity in teacher education to ensure undergraduate students gain contemporary and innovative skills. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Machine generated contents note: What is Pre-School Television? -- Safe at Home: The Origins of Pre-School Television as a Public Service Project -- Growing Up: The Rise of the Global Market in Pre-School Programming -- The Contemporary Pre-School Television Market: Channels, Niches and Sub-Niches -- Mapping Creative Development and the Production Process -- Players in the Production Sector -- Spinning Off Profits: Ancillary Rights Exploitation and the Power of Retail -- Policy Interventions, Funding and the Crisis in Advertising -- Between Culture and Commerce: Production Ecologies and Programme Content -- Joined-Up Thinking for the Digital Age: Little Kids' TV in a Multiplatform World -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

"Around the world small children are captivated by programmes produced especially for them - from stalwarts like Sesame Street to recent arrivals such as Teletubbies. Focusing on the UK and US, this book shows how the pre-school television sector has shifted from a small localised industry to a complex, commercially-driven global business"--Provided by publisher

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to consider evidence on the effectiveness of preschool social and emotional interventions in preschool contexts and focuses on the application of an implementation framework described in relation to the Preschool Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) curriculum. Active parent involvement and engagement were not included in the implementation but preschool establishments spontaneously involved parents or parents sought involvement, creating innovations in delivery and context. The need for structured parent involvement and its impact are considered in relation to evidence on integrated programmes and different models of parent involvement.Design/methodology/approach– This paper reports on an interim evaluation of practitioners' and parents' experiences of the implementation processes, focusing on the involvement and engagement of parents.Findings– Evidence for the rationale for parent engagement in this context is substantiated. The Preschool PATHS curriculum is known to impact on children's social competence, problem behaviour and, in the early school context, attainment. However the programme does not target parent skill directly or address parent behaviours that may affect children's social competence and behaviour. It is suggested that the programme needs to be extended to provide structured input for parents via training and information similar to that provided for practitioners. A pilot study using integrated parent training material and supported by an implementation framework is advised.Originality/value– The paper describes a flexible, evidence-based framework supporting replicable processes useful to service providers across programmes and contexts. An "innovation" (a term used to describe deviations from programme fidelity or implementation standards) is explored which affected the creation of parallel parent involvement strategies but not the delivery of the programme itself which was carefully monitored. While adaptations and deviations are inevitable, some flag up areas where development or issues of contextual fit need to be addressed and might, as in this case, inform better integration of evidence and practice development.

Within the last decade, the pressures of implementing state mandated early learning guidelines and meeting the requirements from federal, state and local agencies, have taken their toll on many preschool programs. In the present study, preschool programs were given a chance to voice their opinions about how curriculum standards and other external mandates were directly and indirectly influencing curriculum planning, teaching practices, and child activity. A brief survey was sent to 90 preschool directors in a region in Massachusetts, 28 directors completed this survey. A sample of nine directors, from the survey respondents, volunteered to be interviewed. In two separate interviews the researcher asked a series of questions to obtain data from the participants. These interview questions focused on how the participants made sense of the mandatory integration of early learning standards and other external mandates into their preschool program and their concerns based on their role as a preschool director. The results of the study revealed that external guidelines set forth by the state and federal government were a great concern to the preschool directors. These directors agreed that curriculum mandates were necessary yet the amount of work, time and expenditure needed to meet the demands of these mandates could be quite overwhelming. Concerns were particularly relevant in the areas of obtaining or maintaining NAEYC accreditation and the push for a standardized curriculum and/or a standardized assessment tool. To recieve specific types of funding, a program must be using a standardized assessment tool. Many funding sources also require that a program be accredited by NAEYC. The financial and physical expense of both of these requirements was prohibitive . The results were analyzed with respect to child development and early childhood education principles. The findings indicated that curriculum mandates focused primarily on young children's cognitive development to the detriment of social and emotional competence. The findings also indicated that children were being pressured to spend more time on narrow academic skills and less time on play. Yet play has been found to provide children with opportunities to interact socially, express and control emotions, and develop symbolic thinking skills (Nicolopoulou, 2010).