Learning about the international early childhood field

After learning the issues and trends in the early childhood fields and discussing with international early childhood educators, I have learned that every countries has their own issues, and some are very common in most countries. I have also become more familiar about the cultural difference and the impact it has to young children and their learning and development. I have become more aware of different cultures and tried to involve different cultures into my program as much as possible. I am glad that I can get into contact with international early childhood educators and learned from them about the issues and trends in the early childhood field in their own countries.

One goal related to international awareness is that I need to be more aware of the impact of diversity and how diversity has influenced children's learning and development. Every culture has its own style so by discussing with early childhood educators from different cultures and combining the useful information together, we can better support our children in their growth internationally.

Getting to know my international contacts part III

As I talked with my Israeli colleague Naama, she believed that quality program is very crucial for children’s development and learning. Children learn through play, and they also learn through imitating their closed adults. Besides spending time with their family members, children spend most of their daytime with their teachers at school. As a result, high-quality teachers are very important to high-quality programs (Personal conversation, 2012). The indicators for quality teachers are experience and education. Experience can help teachers shape their teaching styles and it helps teachers learn things that schools don’t cover. It’s all about practical knowledge so with lots of experience, teachers gain valuable information to support children’s learning (Personal conversation, 2012). Of course education is also very important in turns of theoretical knowledge. A high-quality teacher should have both the practical and the theoretical knowledge so that children can benefit the most from them. For professional development opportunities, Naama attends workshops about early childhood education at least once a year to keep her knowledge up to date. She enjoys learning with children as well.

Week 6 blog entry

When I clicked on some links, they led to different areas of early childhood education. One led me to the past issues in early childhood field and I checked out what technology was like back in 2003. At that time, computer was not yet a common tool for teachers and often teachers have many concerns about using technology with young children. Some concerns included if the computer was effective in children’s learning, how it was effective, and the influences on children in the future. Some of these concerns have always been concerns over the past ten years but lots of myths about using technology have been solved.  I searched the “Teaching Young Children” section and found 10 tips that encouraged family-friendly teaching skills. Some of these practices are very practical, for example, “form parent advisory groups to allow parents to share new ideas and common concerns” and encourage parents to use their strength to support the program. One thing that I find reachable is to have extra staff at the end of the day to ensure all parents get the opportunities to talk to the teachers. However, as teachers we need to make sure that every staff communicates with parents in a professional way. I have seen teachers saying improper things to parents, for example, telling parents who the child was that bit their child. This is really unprofessional in dealing with parents. As a result, not only that we should have more staff at the end of the day to communicate with parents, and we also need to make sure the quality of communicating.

Getting to know my International Contacts Part II

When we discussed this topic, my Israeli colleague mentioned that there were different kinds of early childhood education in Israel. Some focus more on academic area while others focus on religious study (Personal conversation, 2012). In Israel, school readiness is also a big topic for debate as teachers use standards/assessments to measure children’s abilities when they enter kindergarten. As an early childhood professional as well as a mom, she doesn’t like the education system there. She believes children should enjoy their childhood and they can learn everything while playing, if teachers provide the provocation and opportunities for them to explore (Personal conversation, 2012). For those schools who offer religious/Jewish studies, they let go all the other important pieces in children’s life and only teach children religious piece. The government doesn’t pay lots of attention in early childhood education and the voice for changing early childhood education is so low that no one can hear that. Moreover, the quality of the teachers is not satisfied thus good early childhood programs are rarely seen in Israel. She is very disappointed about the education there.

After discussing with her, I learned that early childhood education varies in different countries. Depending on the countries’ cultures, early childhood education changes accordingly. One thing in common is that the quality of the early childhood professionals is very important because it is the base of a good program. Moreover, the support from the government is always crucial, no matter what countries there are.