The research study was determined by the fact that child development is important and that teachers/caregivers must acknowledge every child's level of development, age, individuality, social and cultural background when planning a program. Children are complex beings and therefore the literature study focused on pre-schooler, three to five years, child development during this stage and domains and principles of development. Semi-structured interviews were based on literature study and used to guide the interviews. After analyzing the data themes and sub-themes was identified and verified with literature. The teachers/caregivers were able to share knowledge, experiences, needs and concerns. To conclude recommendations were made to help teacher/caregivers to plan how to include child development in their daily program. / Social Work / M.Diac (Play Therapy)

The critical role of children’s play in the development of peer relationships, social and communicative skills is reviewed and discussed. The difficulties experienced by a pre-school learner in engaging in peer relationships, communicating successfully in a classroom situation and constructively using play materials was explained. This was done through the use of anecdotal records, checklists, questionnaires, photographic evidence and a semi-structured interview with the learner’s parent. A pre-school play programme, using blocks, dough and puppets (BDP Programme) was devised and used to assess its influence on the acquisition of social and communicative skills by a non-social and non-communicative learner. The study found the BDP Programme to be very successful in assisting this learner to develop peer relationships and communicative skills in the peer group and thus played a critical role in the social development of this learner. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (Psychology of Education)

The purpose of this research was to study the attitudes of Korean and American early childhood educators concerning gifted children and programs aimed specifically at meeting their needs. The study examined general attitudes towards giftedness and gifted education programs and factors that might affect those attitudes. The study also examined desirable environments for young gifted children. Twenty-item questionnaires were developed and logically divided into six sections (identification, teacher environment, classroom environment, parent environment, educational rights, and program). A systematic process of development, analysis, and refinement of the questionnaire was done. The questionnaires were given randomly to American educators attending the 1996 National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) conference. A random Korean sample included early childhood educators listed in the Korean Association for Early Childhood Education Directory (1995-1996) and the Korean Association for Child Care Directory (1995-1996). All subjects were members of one of three groups: (a) teacher educators, (b) teachers, and (c) administrators/directors. The surveys found agreement between Korean and American early childhood educators on the importance of knowing the strengths of individual gifted children, the need to stimulate higher order thinking skills, the rights of gifted children to an appropriate education, a perception of more work for the teacher to add these options, and a feeling that gifted programs would be difficult because of the large number of children in classes. The teachers also agreed that it is not difficult to assess or identify gifted preschoolers and having programs for the gifted is not elitist, but that parents should have the main responsibility for meeting the needs of gifted preschoolers and that many gifted strategies are good for all children.

In this interpretive phenomenological research study, making meaning of teachers and children's experiences of Reggio-inspired documentation takes center stage. Reggio-inspired documentation is a way of visually stabilizing and bringing meaning to experiences, ideas, thoughts and the daily interactions of children and adults (Bonilauri & Rubizzi, 2010; Filippini, Trancossi & Vecchi, 2009; Guidici et al, 2001; Rinaldi, 2006). Collecting research in The School of Inspiration elementary program brings to light the many experiences and possible meanings of Reggio-inspired documentation. The study's participants consist of 2 teachers, 45 children, and me, as a participant researcher, all developing the meaning over time. Utilizing observations, photographs, field notes, journal writing and interviews, I documented this research study over a number of months. During this time, I spent hours in the environment listening, observing and taking photographs and then reflecting back on the experiences. The many experiences developed into three essential themes, transformation and growth, noble lives, and connections. The documentation experiences and the beautiful representations of learning and relationships built layers and moments that scaffold upon each other. A deeper look inside these experiences revealed how each child and teacher fostered a relationship with documentation carefully considering their daily reflection. Reflection led to implications for possible futures in elementary education such as maintaining intentional reflection, developing an academic journey and designing and fostering group identity.

This study addressed the current status of early childhood curriculum design and implementation in the Texas Education Service Centers Seven and Eight. No Previous research about the characteristics of the preschool programs had been completed in those areas. This research established if preschool programs were receiving priority status in East Texas. The results yielded evidence regarding the characteristics of administrators, teachers, curriculum implementation, plus parent and community involvement. The information also provided insight regarding short-term and longitudinal effects on children who have attended preschool programs. Data were collected from a search of educational literature, regional service preschool directors, administrators, and teachers. The procedure used in designing the survey and interview documents was Michael Scriven's goal-free strategy. The main sources for the questions were the National Association for the Education of Young Children and Head Start. The study first directs attention to the common characteristics of national programs/standards, then discusses the level of implementation in local rural prekindergartens. The fifteen open-ended interviews yielded concise information relevant to the population of students served and administrative beliefs on current practices. Surveys were sent to a total of all preschool administrators in the Education Service Center Regions of Seven and Eight. A 51 percent response rate was received. The results of the analysis demonstrated the direction current administrators hope early childhood will take in the areas of 1) developmentally-centered curriculum, 2) parental and community input, and 3) professional development. The administrators' commitments and focal points were correlated with the national standards. Recommendations are made that should result in an overall increase of successful prekindergarten and high school graduates.

Esta pesquisa tem por objetivo analisar a presença e as demandas da educação infantil no Conselho Municipal de Educação de Ribeirão Preto (CMERP), levando-se em consideração a garantia do direito à educação das crianças de zero a cinco anos. Dessa forma, foi realizada a análise de documentos pertinentes a partir dos seguintes aspectos norteadores: atuação de profissionais da EI no CMERP; atuação do CMERP na definição de políticas públicas deste município e a postura da Secretaria Municipal de Educação tendo em vista as questões discutidas nas atas das reuniões ordinárias e extraordinárias. Estes documentos foram estudados à luz das normativas e do que a literatura apresenta sobre o tema. Com isso, pretendeu-se explicitar como a EI tem sido abordada em um órgão participativo, como o CMERP. O avanço da gestão democrática no Brasil refletiu na crescente presença de fóruns participativos e, com isso, aumentou-se o número de pesquisas a respeito que apresentam como estas instituições têm mediado a relação entre a sociedade civil e o Poder Público. No entanto, percebemos que a discussão proposta neste trabalho, envolvendo o Conselho Municipal de Educação e a primeira etapa da educação básica, tem sido pouco abordada em pesquisas acadêmicas. Com isso, justificamos o presente tema para o qual realizamos a análise das legislações e dos dados retirados das atas das reuniões do CMERP, do Plano Municipal de Educação de Ribeirão Preto e das entrevistas que envolveram membros deste Conselho. Assim, pudemos constatar que o CMERP é um conselho em funcionamento que tem cumprido com suas atribuições determinadas em seu Regimento Interno e que há representantes da EI que garantem a discussão a respeito. Porém, a presença do Poder Executivo ainda ocorre de maneira muito marcante e percebemos que ela se configura como um dos desafios para a garantia de direitos em meio a uma gestão democrática / This research aims to analyse the presence and demands on early childhood education and the Municipal Education Council of Ribeirão Preto (CMERP- in Portuguese), taking into account the guarantee of the right to education of children from zero to five years old. Therefore, the analyzes of pertinent documents were carried out based on the following guiding principles: the performance of EI professionals at CMERP, CMERP performance in defining public policies of this city and the position of the City Bureau of Education in view of the questions discussed in the minutes during the ordinary and extraordinary meetings. These documents were analysed under the rules and from what the literature presents on the subject. Hence, it was intended to make explicit how EI has been brought up in a collaborative organization, such as CMERP. The advance of democratic management in Brazil reflected in the growing presence in participative forums and, therefore, the number of researches related to how these institutions have interfered the relation between the civil society and the Public Power have increased. However, we realize that the discussion proposed in this project, involving the Municipal Education Council and the first stage of basic education, has been little discussed in academic researches. Hence, we justify the present subject for which we carry out the analyzes of legislations and data taken from the minutes of the meeting at CMERP, the Local Plan of Education of Ribeirão Preto and from the interviews that involved members of this Council. Thus, we could verify that CMERP is a functioning council that has accomplished its assignments determined in the Internal Regulation and there are EI representatives that guarantee the discussion about it. However, the presence of the Executive Power still occurs in a very remarkable way and we realize it is arranged as one of the challenges to guarantee the rights in the midst of a democratic management

O atendimento á infância na maioria dos países ocidentais encontra-se ainda em estágio crítico. Os serviços oferecidos são fragmentados, inflexíveis, incoerentes e segregados, refletindo cisão entre as ações de cuidar e educar a criança pequena. Essa tese é o resultado de um longo percurso em busca de possíveis determinantes desse quadro e de elementos que pudessem conformar um modelo de atendimento unificado e responsivo às necessidades, interesses e potencialidades das crianças e suas famílias. Assim, um modelo de sistema unificado de cuidado e educação infantil foi sendo construído a partir de premissas lançadas em estudo anterior (Haddad, 1991) e ampliado com visitas de estudo a países da Europa ocidental, o contato com o trabalho desenvolvido pela Rede Européia de Atendimento Infantil e, mais especificamente, o conhecimento dos sistemas de atendimento infantil dos países escandinavos. Partindo do pressuposto de que um sistema unificado de atendimento infantil deve apoiar-se numa perspectiva de desenvolvimento humano, suficientemente ampla para incluir as forças provenientes dos ambientes sociais, econômicos e culturais que afetam o desenvolvimento, a teoria ecológica do desenvolvimento humano de Urie Bronfenbrenner (1996) passou a constituir-se a referência básica desse estudo. As informações reunidas nesse trabalho assinalam a coerência entre os aspectos filosóficos, políticos e práticos, a responsabilidade partilhada entre família e poder público, unidade de objetivos e funções, profissionalização, universalização do atendimento, diversidade, continuidade e flexibilidade nos serviços oferecidos como as principais características que compõem um sistema unificado de cuidado e educação infantil. / In most Western countries, the public child care is still in a critical stage. The services offered are fragmented, inflexible, incoherent and segregated, reflecting the division between care and education of young children. This thesis is the result of a long search for possible determinants of this picture and for elements that could comply with a unified model for child care and early childhood education that would meet the needs, interests and potentialities of children and their families. Hence, a model for unified system of care and education has been constructed from the premises launched in previous study (Haddad, 1991) and has been enlarged by study visits to Western European countries, the contact with the work developed by the European Childcare Network, and more specifically, by learning about the Scandinavian child care systems. Starting from the presupposition that an integrated system of care and education must be supported by a broad perspective of human development which includes the strengths forthcoming from social, economic and cultural environments that affect the development, the ecology of human development of Urie Bronfenbrenner (1996) became the basic reference to this study. The data gathered in this work signalizes the main characteristics of a unified system of care and education for young children: the coherence between philosophical, political and practical aspects; the shared responsibility between family and public power; the unity of objectives and functions; professionalism; universal aims, diversity, continuity and flexibility in the services offered.

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