Research Around the World

1.     What are some of the current international research topics?

     Journal of Children and Poverty

a.   Teaching to learn and learning to teach

b. Research with children: three challenges for participatory research in early childhood

c. Assessing toddler language competence: agreement of parents' and  preschool teachers' assessments

d. Journal of the Institute for Children, Poverty, and  Homelessness

2.    What surprising facts/insights/new ideas about early childhood did you gain from exploring this international early childhood website?

In the journal Teaching to Learn and Learning to Teach, some researcher’s reviews have revealed that physical activities are very low in childcare centers as a result of higher sedentary activities. I found this to be a bit surprising, because in my program, we use the creative curriculum model to empower social emotional, physical, cognitive, and language development. The curriculum promotes learning through play; thus empowering children’s developmental milestones.  As Pramling Samuelsson (2010) noted in a previous editorial of this journal, ‘Accepting children as equal partners also means to make play visible, since play is supposed to be a great part of the child’s world and the way into children’s social life and learning’ (Waller, Sandseter, Wyver, Arlemaim-Hagsér & Maynard, 2011).  I can understand this more if the child was in kindergarten, because most schools focuses on learning standards and academic scores rather than learning through play.  Most three to five your olds do not have the attention span to spend a lot of time engaged in sedentary activities, this is why I found this to be insightful information.  

Another bit of insightful information I gained from this article was the fact that children who grow up in urban areas are prevented from playing freely in their neighborhoods.  I can understand this due to the increase in drugs and violence that is usually associated with these neighborhoods.   However, if play is now being minimized or alleviated during the preschool years, these children are being denied the opportunity to freely engage in meaningful play; thereby inhibiting their social emotional, cognitive, physical, and language development.    

3.What other noteworthy information did you find on this website?

Anyone can access a selection of popular and leading research articles for free!  Not only does the site offers free access to research articles, but it also  provides step-by-step instructions for publishing a journal article.  The website itself was a surprise to me because I didn’t know it existed before now.  I was also surprise to have free access to these journal articles, because usually there’s a charge to gain full access to well respected journal articles of this magnitude.  There are articles and books that provide limited access, but are available for purchasing on this website as well.

Reference:

European Early Childhood Education Research Association (EECERA): This international early childhood organization publishes a well respected journal. All back issues are accessible from this site and are fully searchable without charge.
http://www.eecera.org/

Waller, T.,  Sandseter, E. H., Wyver,, S.Arlemaim-Hagsér  E. & Maynard, T. (2011, May 29).   The dynamics of early childhood spaces: opportunities for outdoor play? Rutledge Publishing. Retrieved from http://www.informaworld.com/