Children who participate in high-quality early learning programs are less likely to:
- require remedial education, social assistance, or correctional services
List four rationales that the case for access to universal EC is founded on:
- recognizing every child’s right to care, development and education
- Ensuring that every child has equal opportunities as a prerequisite for social justice
- Recognizing that EC is a critical period for learning and development
- Recognizing that investing in EC brings economic benefits to society.
List some benefits of Universal Child Care:
- More equal education outcomes
- increased labour supply and tax base
- fewer welfare recipients
- better health outcomes
- greater gender equality
- improved work/life balance
- reduced income disparities
What are the seven ingredients needed for effective EC programs?
- Equitable access
- Education and opportunities for continuous professional development
- Suitable programs
- Quality adult-child relationships
- Involvement of families
- Monitoring and evaluation systems
- Stable and adequate funding
What does the term “quality” refer to?
The term ‘quality’ refers to the extent to which settings exceed the meeting of minimal standards.
What is the ecological framework for early childhood environments?
- Microsystem –> Practices and interactions
- Mesosystem –>Collaboration between parents and practitioners
- Exosystem –> Organizational structures and policies, community
- Macrosystem –> Cultural values and laws
What is the microsystem centred around?
the developing child within his or her immediate settings- the family, the EC environment, or the peer group. Made up of the physical environment; the resources within it; the curriculum; the relationships among the parent, educator(s), and child; and the interactions among the children.
What is the mesosystem centred around?
Different microsystems are linked together through relationships, such as the educator-parent interaction, or through employment practices that affect the family, such as parental leave benefits. A critical factor is the need for the environment to be welcoming to all those who use it- the child, the parents, and the staff.
What does the exosystem represent?
Represents the social structures, both formal and informal, that influence the settings the child experiences. In this dimension, one must consider the roles and influences of parents’ jobs, government policies for the child and the family, the local economy, the media, the workplace, and the immediate community.
What does the macrosystem encompass?
the ideologies and patterns of culture, such as the economic, educational, legal, and political systems. Included here are attitudes toward the family and the role of mothers, and community definitions of environments for young children.
What do quality environments depend on?
- effective policies, appropriate and sustained funding, and infrastructure
- knowledgeable and committed leaders and educators
- Evidence-informed, age-appropriate programs and practices
- families who are partners in their children’s early learning
What does the ‘iron triangle’ consist of?
- the adult:child ratio
- the group size
- the staff’s professional education in child development
What does process quality refer to?
refers to the direct experience of the children, such as the warmth and quality of the relationship between adults and children, the quality of the interaction between the children themselves, and the quality of the relationships among the adults
What are the three ECE Quality Criteria proposed by Woodhead (1996)? (Number One)
- Entry indicators that establish the base for regulating quality standards. These reflect the areas in the program that are the easiest to define and measure, previously labelled structural quality elements. They include:
- The staff (qualifications, experience, wages and working conditions, adult:child ratios, etc)
- The buildings and surroundings (amount of space per child, heating, lighting, toilets, washing facilities, etc)
- Materials and equipment (furniture, learning materials, play equipment, etc).
What are the three ECE Quality Criteria proposed by Woodhead (1996)? (Number two)
- Process indicators that reflect the relationships and what happens on a day-to-day basis. As mentioned earlier, these elements can be the most difficult to identify and standardize. Some examples are:
- Children’s experience (variety, way it is organized, choices provided, play, rest, meals, etc)
- Approach to teaching and learning
- Styles of interactions
- Approach to guidance and discipline (setting limits, rules, managing the group)
- Relations among adults
Relations among staff, parents, and others (mutual respect, cooperation, awareness of differences)
What are the three ECE Quality Criteria proposed by Woodhead (1996)? (Number three)
- Exit indicators, which deal with the impact caused by the experience. This falls into the realm of efficiency and cost benefit can include:
- Children’s health (monitoring growth, record of illnesses)
- Children’s skills (motor coordination, language, cognitive aspects, social relations)
- Children’s adjustment to school life (transition challenges, progress through grades, school achievements)
- Family attitudes (supporting children’s learning, parental competencies)
What are the most influential factors to measure effective EC environment, listed in order of their impact?
- The contribution of families to the design and implementation of programs is vital in terms of children’s emotions, and for ensuring consistency between home and the EC setting.
- The program promotes positive relationships among all children and adults to encourage each child’s sense of worth and belonging as part of a community.
- Knowledgeable and responsive EC educators are a critical factor in quality EC programs.
- An explicit, clear, and relevant educational program in which general principles are fitting for all participants.
- Monitoring and evaluation systems for the program and for the children’s learning offer results that are taken into account when planning educational practice.
- Adequate and organized physical environments, with access to materials that enable children to explore, discover, and transform.
What are the four basic needs for children to be considered in designing physical space?
- Encourage movement
- Support comfort
- Foster competence
- Encourage a sense of control
What must educators consider when examining the impact of the environment?
- indoor and outdoor space
- overall design, size and layout of space
- availability of materials and equipment
- health and and safety needs of the children
Define: Provision rights
Provision rights mean children have the right to possess, receive, or have access to certain things and services, including life, EC services, health care, an adequate standard of living, education to develop to their fullest potential, and rehabilitative care.
Define: participation rights
children have the right to participate in society and in decisions affecting their lives, including “the right to express their views in matter affecting themselves”
Define: Protection rights
the right of children to be shielded from harmful practices and acts, such as discrimination or separation from parents, and the right to special protection if they are without a family.
What are the special rights of children?
- to protection from harm
- to promotion of their growth and development
- to participation in decisions affecting them according to their age and maturity.
What does ‘Social Policy’ refer to?
Social policy primarily refers to guidelines and interventions for the changing, maintenance, or creation of living conditions that are conducive to human welfare.
