Research Around the World

The link that I chose to explore was the one for Early Childhood Australia.  Some of the current international research topics that are being discussed are published in the Australasian Journal of Early Childhood Education.  Several of the articles that I came across discussed the importance of play based learning and how teachers could incorporate intentional lessons along side the play. Another interesting topic that I saw was what it means to have  Culturally Strong Childcare Programs for Indigenous Children, Families and Communities.  I also noticed several articles that talked about the quality of early childhood and how Australia is working toward changes in this area to raise the standards.

Some information I came across that I thought was interesting was that Australia is moving to change early childhood practices and to raise standards in early childhood.  As of January 2012 they have changed the ratio for infants to teachers from 1 teacher to 5 infants to 1 teacher to 4 infants.  We have had the 1:4 ratio for a while here in the United States and I am glad to see that other countries are moving to a higher standard of care. Caring for infants is a demanding and rewarding job and I believe that we should raise the standard even more and go to a 1:3 ratio for an even better quality of care.  I know that many centers do not offer infant care because of the of the ratio and cost difference.  I was also interested to see a topic that I have not really heard about and that is Children and families being held in detention centers and early childhood supporters are calling for the government to allow these children to attend a quality childcare program so that they will not miss out on important developmental milestones and learning skills.  The children are refuges from other countries and I have not heard of the United States holding families in detention centers.

The web site was very informative and I liked how the site had a section called Research in Practice Series
that had great resource books for teachers with great topics and ideas to apply to their classrooms and children's learning.  Under the section called National Quality Standard Professional Learning Program I saw a lot of information that could be helpful for teachers and researchers.  The short video segments called Connecting with Practice have several great examples that early childhood professionals can learn from and discuss.

In general the web site had a lot of useful information and resources.  I would like to check back and see what new research articles have been released and other new information and practices they post on the site.
  

Outdoor Play: Research that Benefits Children

Children today are being pushed to meet academic standards so that they can succeed later in their academic  career and in life.  Sadly this affected how much outside free play a child is able to have where they can explore and learn as well.  I know that children treasure their outside time and want to play in the sandbox, ride a bike or climb a tree.  Many advocates are getting to word out to preserve outdoor play and that the natural outdoor playground can also be an extension to the classroom learning environment for all ages.  

Outdoor play is important to children's development at all stages.  I came across an advocacy group on line that has done research on the importance of nature and outdoor play for children.  The Children and Nature Network is working to reconnect children with nature.  They have an area on their site that has research that has been done to show how nature and the outdoors can positively affect children cognitively, socially, emotionally and spiritually.  In the Special Reports and Collection area there is a report that has a lot of research information that is called "Children's Contact with the Outdoors and Nature: a focus on Educators and Educational settings."  It is important that we remind parents, educators and policy makers that children need to be outdoors in a natural environment because this will affect their learning in a positive way.

I find the research on the positive affects on children who are able to play freely outdoors in nature information that can help me as an early childhood educator better advocate for outdoor playtime for children and natural playgrounds for children. Outside time should be a big part of a child's day and the environment should be planned to meet their interests.

Links to information on outdoor play for children:
Children and Nature Network 
7 Reasons why Kids need recess
Young Children and Nature

Personal Research Journey in Early Childhood Education

This week has been interesting in leaning some new terminology and the process is takes to get a research project started.  I have an interest in learning more about infants and since in the past classes we have discussed how early learning begins and how important it is for an infant to have a good healthy start in life I wanted to learn more about this.  I have decided to focus attachment between a child and their caregiver or parent.  The subtopic that I have chosen to focus on is, how does attachment affect how a child learns important cognitive, social and emotional skills?
Learning new research terms and using the research chart to write down in my own words what some of the terms meant has helped me understand the process of research a little bit better.  I am not as anxious about getting some experience in researching my question. I have been looking for articles that will fit into what my research question is and I have found some on attachment but I will have to use the information on how to read a research article to make sure it is information that I can use.
Has anyone else been able to find information specific to your topic in the Walden library?  Did you find that you had to use key words instead of the whole question?  I found that searching under Education may not always be the best route but that I needed to broaden my search and look under Behavioral studies and Psychology which had some helpful information as well.  
Good luck and I look forward to learning more about your topics.