Recently added articles from Australian Journal of Early Childhood:
Editorial.(early childhood education in Australia)(Editorial)
Mar 01, 2009; ... WE ARE EXPERIENCING a time of financial uncertainty around the world and reflecting on the results of natural disasters nationally. It is remarkable that the focus on early childhood education is holding its own in maintaining a place on political, academic and community agendas. Plans for ...
Improving the representation of Indigenous workers in the mainstream childcare workplace.(Report)
Mar 01, 2009; ... Introduction PROVIDING A SUCCESSFUL childcare program for Indigenous children and their families rests upon ensuring the availability of an appropriately skilled and willing workforce (the term Indigenous is used here to refer to those people who identify and are accepted as ...
Australian Indigenous perspectives on quality assurance in children's services.(Report)
Mar 01, 2009; ... Introduction THERE ARE TWO MAIN approaches to managing the quality of any given service: quality control and quality assurance. While these two approaches are closely related, they are different concepts. Quality control activities focus on finding defects within a service after ...
Readiness for school: a relational construct.(early childhood education)(Report)
Mar 01, 2009; ... Introduction Readiness for school is a contested and controversial term. Yet it is also a term invoked regularly in discussions on the transition to school. Parents and educators anguish over whether or not a child is ready for school as they try to make decisions they believe ...
A pathway to enhancing professionalism: building a bridge between TAFE and university early childhood qualifications.(professional development of childcare and early childhood school staffs, and the Tertiary and Further Education program)(Report)
Mar 01, 2009; ... Introduction IF DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATIONAL outcomes for early childhood-aged children in non-parental settings are to be optimised, it is essential to have well-qualified staff who are able to critically reflect on and inquire into their practice, constantly working towards ...
Neurobiology and child development: challenging current interpretation and policy implications.(Report)
Mar 01, 2009; ... ONTOGENIC KNOWLEDGE is the form of knowledge we use to take in information, interpret it and develop action as a result of our understanding (Billett, 1996). In other words, our ontogenic knowledge shapes our interpretation and action in the world. In understanding interpretation and ...
Developing an active play resource for a range of Australian early childhood settings: formative findings and recommendations.(Report)
Mar 01, 2009; ... Introduction APPROXIMATELY 20 PER CENT of pre-school children in Australia are overweight or obese (Wake, Hardy, Canterford, Sawyer & Carlin, 2006), with this proportion almost doubling in the past decade (Vaska & Volkmer, 2004). Child obesity is now considered one of the most ...
Improving processual quality in early education and care: process findings from the evaluation of the Benevolent Society's Partnerships in Early Education program.(Report)
Mar 01, 2009; ... THE QUALITY OF EARLY education and care (EEC) available to Australian children is gaining public and policy attention. A Treasury document on EEC, released in early 2007, focused largely on questions of cost, with 'quality' receiving only a brief mention (Davidoff, 2007). In contrast, the ...
Editorial.(Editorial)
Dec 01, 2008; ... IT'S AN HONOUR TO be invited to contribute an editorial to AJEC to mark 2008 as the year of Early Childhood Australia's 70th birthday. As noted on another birthday by Manjula Waniganayake (2001), AJEC and its predecessor, the Australian Preschool Quarterly, have indeed been the 'flagships' ...
The impact of early numeracy engagement on four-year-old Indigenous students.(Clinical report)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Introduction YOUNG INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIAN students continue to experience difficulties at school, especially in the areas of literacy and numeracy. Results from the National Report on Schooling, National Benchmarks for reading, writing and numeracy in Years 3, 5 and 7 ...
Bridging the gap: improving literacy outcomes for Indigenous students.(Report)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Introduction THERE IS EVIDENCE THAT children from socially and culturally diverse homes, including children from indigenous backgrounds, are 'at risk' of difficulties in learning to read (Lonigan, 2004; Zubrick, 2006). These difficulties arise, in part, because teachers of ...
Can norms developed in one country be applicable to children of another country?(Report)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Introduction LOCAL RESEARCH FINDINGS indicate that Hong Kong children are fatter and less fit than children in the previous decades (Fu, Nie & Tong, 2004a; Fu, Nie & Tong, 2004b; Ko et al., 2008; Lee, Cheung, Chung, Lau, Tam, 2007; Department of Health, 2006). According to Fu ...
The social attention skills of preschool children with an intellectual disability and children with a hearing loss.(Report)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Introduction ADDRESSING SOCIAL SKILLS in early childhood is regarded as a critical domain in the preschool curriculum (Blair, Denham, Kochanoff & Whipple, 2004). Most typically developing children naturally acquire and use sophisticated social skills (Kohler, Anthony, Steigher ...
Is all-day kindergarten better for children's academic performance? Evidence from the early childhood longitudinal study.(Report)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Introduction ALTHOUGH KINDERGARTENS in the United States have a history of more than 150 years, defining the most beneficial kindergarten program is an issue still to be settled. In early traditional kindergarten, the most beneficial program was identified as one that allowed a ...
Measuring what students entering school know and can do: PIPS Australia 2006-2007.(Performance Indicators in Primary Schools)(Report)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Introduction The first years of formal schooling are recognised as being the most important in terms of student development (Arthur, Beecher, Dockett, Farmer & Death, 2005; Louden et al., 2005; Rouse & Fantuzzo, 2006). Providing appropriate programs that cater for the needs of ...
Learning a music instrument in early childhood: what can we learn from professional musicians' childhood memories?(Report)
Dec 01, 2008; ... Background EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION is often the site for conflicting views on the importance of early learning. On the one hand, there are suggestions that children need to start learning specialised skills early, in order to attain mastery status in later years. On the other ...
Editorial.(Editorial)
Sep 01, 2008; ... AUSTRALIAN EARLY CHILDHOOD is at a pivotal point. For the first time in many years there is some recognition at federal government level of the importance of early childhood. For the first time in many years I have a feeling our voices are being heard. Change is in the air. But ...
Contextual factors affecting inclusion during children's transitions from preschool to school.(Report)
Sep 01, 2008; ... THE TRANSITION FROM preschool to school is an opportune time to investigate the process of inclusion, as this marks entry into the formal education system. Few empirical studies have focused on how children with impairments experience the transition to school. Those available indicate that ...
Teachers following children? Heteronormative responses within a discourse of child-centredness and the emergent curriculum.(Report)
Sep 01, 2008; ... Introduction TWO DECADES OF EXPERIENCE teaching, lecturing and researching in the early childhood education sector in New Zealand has shaped my view that sexuality is socially constructed, that children are sexualised beings, that early childhood centres are sexualised sites, ...
Enhancing environmental awareness through the arts.(Report)
Sep 01, 2008; ... Background YOUNG CHILDREN'S PERCEPTIONS of the natural world and their engagement with it (or lack thereof) are emerging areas of research in the early childhood field. Cutter-Mackenzie and Edwards (2006) highlight the relevance of the environment becoming deliberate content in ...