Rhianna K. Thomas, Ekaterina Strekalova-Hughes, K. Nash, Margaret Holley, Connor Warner, Britney Enochs, P. Prendergast, Marcelena Ricklefs
{"title":"The learner profile: piloting a tool to support contextualized understanding of the learner","authors":"Rhianna K. Thomas, Ekaterina Strekalova-Hughes, K. Nash, Margaret Holley, Connor Warner, Britney Enochs, P. Prendergast, Marcelena Ricklefs","doi":"10.1080/10901027.2022.2047840","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10901027.2022.2047840","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Deficit discourses in early childhood education position families of color, bilingual families, and families who are experiencing poverty as culturally and educationally deficient and are often reiterated through teacher education that relies on approximation of practice as modeled by a mentor teacher. Learning Teaching as an Interpretive Practice (LTIP) (Hollins, 2015) provides an assets-based framework for teaching that relies instead on a contextualized understanding of learners. Here, we examine our attempts as teacher educators to implement LTIP in our urban Midwestern early teacher education program. We focus on implementation of a tool for understanding individual children, the Learner Profile. Through case study, we analyze twenty learner profiles completed by five teacher candidates over the course of three semesters. Our findings suggest the Learner Profile guided teacher candidates toward more nuanced understandings of learners including multiple perspectives and unique aspects of lived experiences rather than over prescriptive developmental stages and categories. Still, we found understanding was highly mediated by the field placement context, teacher candidates’ own worldviews, and our facilitation as teacher educators. We conclude with implications for teacher educators who are interested in implementing the Learner Profile Tool and other tools for teacher education.","PeriodicalId":45981,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2022-03-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45711073","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The student perspective on Maryland’s associate of arts in teaching degree","authors":"Anita T. Weisburger","doi":"10.1080/10901027.2022.2043961","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10901027.2022.2043961","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper investigates the student perspective on Maryland’s Early Childhood Education/Special Education Associate of Arts in Teaching (AAT) degree: the factors that affected their experience, especially with the transfer process, and whether their experiences differed by institution. Viewpoints were gathered through focus groups and individual interviews of 18 community college students in their final semester before transferring and in their first semester at a Maryland university to complete their BA and teaching certification. This study reports that participants had positive feedback about their programs but agreed on the need for more practical experience, especially regarding special education content. A clear concern about online coursework in Early Childhood Education was also expressed. Factors affecting the student experience included misadvising and confusion around transfer that continued after moving to university programs. Administrators and faculty also acknowledged a number of challenges associated with advising, programming and implementation. Students highlighted differences between institutions but noted that most issues could be resolved through better communication, collaboration, and coordination. This study is important to two-year programs working to improve retention and transfer, as well as universities working to support transfer students. Further research is needed beyond Maryland on the student experience and potential solutions.","PeriodicalId":45981,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2022-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44903707","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Novice early childhood teachers’ perceptions of their professional development experiences: an interpretive phenomenological approach","authors":"Alison Hooper, C. Potts, Melissa Walton","doi":"10.1080/10901027.2022.2043495","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10901027.2022.2043495","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Professional development is an important tool for supporting early childhood teachers in implementing developmentally appropriate practices and child-guided instruction in the classroom. This phenomenological study explored five U.S. novice early childhood education teachers’ experiences with professional development. Specifically, we explored how these teachers’ perceptions of their professional development experiences were interwoven with individual-level characteristics and organizational-level features. Findings suggest that participating teachers’ self-efficacy and perceptions of school climate strongly influenced their perceptions of professional development. Participants described valuing hands-on learning opportunities and social support. All reported feeling unprepared for certain aspects of their role as an early educator; however, participants responded to these feelings differently. Findings have implications for improving induction and professional development for novice early childhood educators.","PeriodicalId":45981,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2022-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42769530","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Lois A. Yamauchi, Caroline L. Soga, Stéphanie Char
{"title":"Professional development to improve interactions with culturally and linguistically diverse children: Reflections on practice","authors":"Lois A. Yamauchi, Caroline L. Soga, Stéphanie Char","doi":"10.1080/10901027.2022.2032491","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10901027.2022.2032491","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper presents reflections on 12 years of school-wide professional development at a university-based preschool. The professional development focused on the Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence (CREDE) Standards, Vygotskian strategies that emphasize assisted performance, joint activity, and verbal interactions. Both formal and informal professional development were used. A study investigated whether educators’ use of CREDE practices were sustained 12 years after initial professional development and the influences of the professional development on the school’s institutional identity. The educators were observed interacting with children and interviewed about their practice. Documents from the preschool were also analyzed to determine the extent to which CREDE was integrated into its institutional identity. Results indicated that all of the teachers used the CREDE practices, although some of the newer teachers were not familiar with CREDE terminology. Informal professional development and administrators’ support appeared to sustain the practices. The Center’s institutional identity changed over time to incorporate CREDE and this coincided with the professional development and educators taking more ownership of the CREDE practices and how they could be applied in their settings.","PeriodicalId":45981,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2022-02-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41354449","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Toward a higher education playfulness pedagogy (HEPP) for pre-service early childhood Work Integrated Learning courses","authors":"Elise Hunkin, Julie Carmel","doi":"10.1080/10901027.2021.2012542","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10901027.2021.2012542","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In this “Reflection on Practice” paper we reflect on an early childhood Work Integrated Learning course redesign that explored new ways of developing and applying playfulness theory to higher education instructional approaches. Our experience was that the higher education students required more support to deepen their understanding of course content. In response, we engaged with emerging playfulness pedagogy theory to develop a Higher Education Playfulness Pedagogy instructional model that reflects the principles of pleasurable, immersive intellectual engagement and risk-taking. The focus was on creating the conditions in which students can risk-take amid an environment of academic rigor and authentic engagement. First, we outline the Higher Education Pedagogy of Playfulness model that was developed for the course rewrite, then provide information about the course redesign with the view that others may replicate some of our practices or approaches. Last, we draw on anonymous student survey responses to discuss the potentials of HE playfulness pedagogy for early childhood Work Integrated Learning programs, and suggest areas for future study and exploration.","PeriodicalId":45981,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2022-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44402480","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Examining conceptions of assessment among a social media-based sample of early childhood professionals","authors":"S. Kenny, Claire E. Cameron","doi":"10.1080/10901027.2022.2025959","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10901027.2022.2025959","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Education professionals’ conceptions of assessment can influence how they enact assessment with children. In this study, we explored the factor structure of a previously validated survey instrument, Brown’s Conceptions of Assessment Questionnaire (COA-III), when administered to a social-media-based sample of 241 U.S. early childhood professionals. We then used these results to examine participants’ conceptions and how these conceptions relate to one another. In common with prior research, the exploratory factor analysis yielded a 3-factor model of the participants’ conceptions of the purposes of assessment: assessment improves educational outcomes, assessment is irrelevant, and assessment as an accountability measure. Thus, the COA-III offers promise to educational researchers, policymakers, and professional preparation programs seeking to understand what early childhood professionals think and believe about the purpose of assessment. Further analyses—namely evidence of conflicting assessment beliefs—confirmed some of the complexities of assessing young children; such findings hold important implications for assessment-related training, policy, and practice.","PeriodicalId":45981,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2022-01-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47347742","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Editorial","authors":"","doi":"10.1080/10901027.2022.2050029","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10901027.2022.2050029","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45981,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43042229","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Benjamin L Bayly, Eleanor Dizon, Gitanjali Shrestha, Crystal Lederhos Smith, Senait Tekle, Brittany Rhoades Cooper
{"title":"Leveraging Self-Determination Theory to Understand Which Preschool Teachers Benefit Most from a Professional Development Intervention.","authors":"Benjamin L Bayly, Eleanor Dizon, Gitanjali Shrestha, Crystal Lederhos Smith, Senait Tekle, Brittany Rhoades Cooper","doi":"10.1080/10901027.2020.1818652","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10901027.2020.1818652","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Effective professional development (PD) interventions that promote high quality teacher-child interactions are important mechanisms to support social-emotional and cognitive development in early childhood. One PD intervention that has shown to be effective is MyTeachingPartner (MTP); however, previous research has suggested that both teacher and contextual factors may moderate the effectiveness of PD interventions like MTP. In the current study, we used a self-determination theoretical (SDT) framework to identify subgroups of teachers (<i>N</i> = 401) through latent class analysis based on the fulfillment of their three basic needs: competence, autonomy, and relatedness. We found three latent classes of teachers: 1) Unconfident and Unsupported; 2) Unconfident but Supported; 3) Confident and Supported. We tested the effect of MTP, latent class membership, and the MTP by latent class interaction on the quality of teacher emotional and instructional support to identify which teachers benefitted most from the MTP intervention. While MTP benefitted teachers on emotional support similarly across classes, MTP was most effective for instructional support for teachers from the Confident and Supported class. As these were the only teachers who had all their basic needs met our results suggest teacher and contextual factors in concert are important in optimizing the effectiveness of PD.</p>","PeriodicalId":45981,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/10901027.2020.1818652","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10825843","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Hilary Horn Ratner, Lucy McGoron, Kathryn Gray, Beverly Weathington, Anna Miller
{"title":"Promoting Sense of Community in an Early Childhood Care and Education Consortium.","authors":"Hilary Horn Ratner, Lucy McGoron, Kathryn Gray, Beverly Weathington, Anna Miller","doi":"10.1080/10901027.2021.1962442","DOIUrl":"10.1080/10901027.2021.1962442","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Continued professional development is important for promoting quality early childhood care and education (ECE) programs. One approach to fulfill this need for professional development is through the creation of a community of practice, which brings together professionals with similar interests. In this investigation, we report the evaluation results for one CoP, called the Early Childhood Consortium, that included ECE center directors and teachers. We examine if members of the consortium formed a Sense of Community (SOC). Factors that may relate to SOC were also considered for both teachers and directors, including trust in information shared, workplace characteristics (e.g., perceived support, hours worked), and Consortium members' professional agency. Trust in the information exchanged within the Consortium and workplace characteristics within member centers were related to SOC, but differences, supported by t-tests, between director and teacher SOC did occur. SOC also significantly correlated with survey and activity measures of professional agency within the Consortium in that those endorsing stronger SOC said they would be more likely to share and adopt knowledge with one another. SOC also positively correlated with participation of center staff within the Consortium, but not with individual levels of involvement, suggesting that directors and teachers influence one another's participation in professional development activities. CoP leaders should be intentional in supporting directors' abilities to promote SOC within their own centers and to connect CoP professional activities with classroom practices.</p>","PeriodicalId":45981,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9122342/pdf/nihms-1733884.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10516168","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Resources for preparing early childhood teachers to assist children in disasters: reflections on current events","authors":"J. Szente","doi":"10.1080/10901027.2021.2005190","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10901027.2021.2005190","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper revisits the 2019 JECTE Theme Issue entitled “Preparing early childhood teachers to assist children who are caught in disasters” in light of current world events. Unfortunately, since the publication of that issue, our world has been experiencing another type of disaster, the COVID-19 pandemic, thus revisiting and connecting the 2019 Theme Issue with our 2021 Theme Issue seemed especially helpful. More specifically, this article highlights some additional resources for teacher educators in the areas of 1) preparing early childhood teachers to meet children’s needs in disasters, and 2) utilizing educational technology with children and families effectively amid the current pandemic. Additional implications for early childhood teacher preparation are also provided.","PeriodicalId":45981,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2021-12-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47606819","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}