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.
I researched the same site, and saw the same things you did. I also was interested that they focus so much on the emotional well-being of children and helping children create their self identities.
ReplyDeleteDear Julie,
ReplyDeleteThank you for making the Australian site so attractive. I enjoyed your detailed explanation and the resources available on the site. I need to go back and study the site as you have encouraged.Helpful resources for teachers and handlers of young children makes the work easy, because they learn how to grow in their profession and make positive impact on the young children based on research and practice. Play as an essential part of learning is gaining attention in nursery education, U.S. and Australia are in the forefront of this move, I am glad there are many resources that are useful to teachers in this important area.
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ReplyDeleteJulie,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this information. It is always important to grow and have an understanding of what is going on in education and child care around the world. Quality infant care is in high demand as it is very costly as well as a large liability. I found that interesting also that Australia is just lowering the teacher- infant ratio. Does the site mention any other regulation changes discussing teacher- child ratios?
Julie,
ReplyDeleteThe Early Childhood Australia website is a very resourceful site. I also enjoyed reading articles from the Research in Practice series. I found a great article about routines and procedures in early childhood classrooms. Thanks for sharing the resources you explored!