Sharing Web Resources

The organization I have chosen to learn more about is The British Association for Early Childhood Education. Early Education began its existence in 1923 and was formerly known as Nursery Schools Association. It is guided by a set of principles and code of ethics. They support families and early childhood practitioners across all early childhood education settings in order to deliver effective learning and care in the United Kingdom. The site can be found at: http://www.early-education.org.uk/.

One issue that caught my attention as I toured the website was the early years campaign group (more information can be found here: http://www.early-education.org.uk/policy-and-campaign/earlyyearspledge). The group was formed to promote the importance of early years provision throughout the 2014 local election campaigns in England. There was a letter that Early Education wrote to the Guardian Newspaper which can be found on http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/feb/21/early-years-provision-protected-children. In the letter, they called on candidates in the forthcoming local elections in England and Northern Ireland to stop cutting early years provision and pledge their support for the high-quality provision that will benefit young children and their families now, and for years to come (Early Education, para.2).

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

PART 1

This week, we have been asked to establish professional contact with an early childhood professional from other parts of the world. I emailed five professionals from other parts of the world to establish professional contact with them. And I did this by visiting the website of Global Alliance for the Education of Young Children and I used my Walden email address so they know am a student with the university. Most of the mails I sent failed as they said user unknown.

I chose professionals from Nigeria, South Africa, Singapore, Ireland, Kazakhstan, and China.

For the professional in Nigeria, I also called her on phone and I was able to make contact with her. She said she won’t mind to be my contact but when I start to email her questions she is sorry that she might not be able to respond as at when due and that my instructor might not believe that I have established contact with her. I tried calling the professional in South Africa but it went to voice mail, so I will try again later. I also used my LinkedIn to contact early childhood professional and so far I have been able to get connected to one professional in the US.  
I am crossing my fingers to get positive response from him soon.

Has anyone been able to establish a contact yet? I will appreciate how you went about that.

PART 2

For part 2 this week I looked at different educational website and I subscribed to most of them. But I have decided to narrow my choice on the British Association for Early Childhood Education and the Early Childhood Australia. I chose these two because their early childhood curriculum is in a way in terms of the area of development and I work in a school that runs the British curriculum. I have subscribed to their newsletters and am hoping to receiving them quite soon.

Quotes About Children

Some quotes about children that I like are:

• If education is always to be conceived along the same antiquated lines of a mere transmission of knowledge, there is little to be hoped from it in the bettering of man's future. For what is the use of transmitting knowledge if the individual's total development lags behind?

Maria Montessori

• “Look at children. Of course they may quarrel, but generally speaking they do not harbor ill feelings as much or as long as adults do. Most adults have the advantage of education over children, but what is the use of an education if they show a big smile while hiding negative feelings deep inside? Children don't usually act in such a manner. If they feel angry with someone, they express it, and then it is finished. They can still play with that person the following day.” ― Dalai Lama XIV

 

• “While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.”
  ― Angela Schwindt

 

Assessing Holistically Vs Standardized Test

I believe that assessing children holistically is the best way to get know children as it enables us to learn a lot about them. And in order for assessment to be effective, it should use multiple approaches that are appropriate for the child’s competency. It should take place continually, in more than one activity or setting to generate a more accurate picture of each child’s ability. Assessment helps us to identify children who may benefit from special support/intervention. Holistic assessment helps make children’s learning visible to themselves through the evidence of their learning as well as promoting children’s belief in their ability and setting challenging learning goals. Holistic assessment helps early childhood professionals develop a strong picture of the child’s learning across all outcome areas.

The school I teach in Nigeria is a private school and it runs the British curriculum. Assessment in the early years is done using what we call the Learning Journey which is a portfolio. When they turn 5, they write a test – NFER in Numeracy and English as well as the Phonics Check. Children from the ages of 7 are made aware of where they are in terms of the learning goals. Once they have achieved that goal, they know what is expected of them for the next goal. Parents, school authorities and, policy makers want to know the performance of children and they use standardized test in most cases. I have had some parents ask me if their child of 4 years will be writing exams or why we don’t indicate children’s position(1st, 2nd, etc.) in their end of term report cards. For some of them, they want to justify that the huge school fees they are spending on their children is justified.

In Nigeria, the education system is called 6 – 3 – 3 – 4 that is, the school age for most children in public schools start at age five in the primary for six years. Then three years of junior secondary and three years senior secondary. Children write national tests at each stage especially for those in public schools.

Looking at how school-aged children are assessed in other parts of the world, I chose Australia. School-aged children are assessed nationwide annually in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9. The test (National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy- NAPLAN) is made of tests in four areas- reading, writing, language conventions and Numeracy.

It saddens my heart as I look at how children are being assessed in other parts of the world with public school and most private schools in my country. Most if not all are only assessed using standardized tests which in most cases does not give the true picture of what a child knows.

References:

ACEI, "On Standardized Testing: A Position Paper of the Association for Childhood Education         International." Childhood Education. Spring, 1991. pg. 130-142.

http://www.education.vic.gov.au/Documents/childhood/providers/

htt://www.naplan.edu.au/