Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 PDF Download

Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309324882
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 706

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Book Description
Children are already learning at birth, and they develop and learn at a rapid pace in their early years. This provides a critical foundation for lifelong progress, and the adults who provide for the care and the education of young children bear a great responsibility for their health, development, and learning. Despite the fact that they share the same objective - to nurture young children and secure their future success - the various practitioners who contribute to the care and the education of children from birth through age 8 are not acknowledged as a workforce unified by the common knowledge and competencies needed to do their jobs well. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 explores the science of child development, particularly looking at implications for the professionals who work with children. This report examines the current capacities and practices of the workforce, the settings in which they work, the policies and infrastructure that set qualifications and provide professional learning, and the government agencies and other funders who support and oversee these systems. This book then makes recommendations to improve the quality of professional practice and the practice environment for care and education professionals. These detailed recommendations create a blueprint for action that builds on a unifying foundation of child development and early learning, shared knowledge and competencies for care and education professionals, and principles for effective professional learning. Young children thrive and learn best when they have secure, positive relationships with adults who are knowledgeable about how to support their development and learning and are responsive to their individual progress. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 offers guidance on system changes to improve the quality of professional practice, specific actions to improve professional learning systems and workforce development, and research to continue to build the knowledge base in ways that will directly advance and inform future actions. The recommendations of this book provide an opportunity to improve the quality of the care and the education that children receive, and ultimately improve outcomes for children.

Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309069882
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 610

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Book Description
How we raise young children is one of today's most highly personalized and sharply politicized issues, in part because each of us can claim some level of "expertise." The debate has intensified as discoveries about our development-in the womb and in the first months and years-have reached the popular media. How can we use our burgeoning knowledge to assure the well-being of all young children, for their own sake as well as for the sake of our nation? Drawing from new findings, this book presents important conclusions about nature-versus-nurture, the impact of being born into a working family, the effect of politics on programs for children, the costs and benefits of intervention, and other issues. The committee issues a series of challenges to decision makers regarding the quality of child care, issues of racial and ethnic diversity, the integration of children's cognitive and emotional development, and more. Authoritative yet accessible, From Neurons to Neighborhoods presents the evidence about "brain wiring" and how kids learn to speak, think, and regulate their behavior. It examines the effect of the climate-family, child care, community-within which the child grows.

Author: Chris Pratt
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351386549
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
First published in 1986, this authoritative book contains a selection of original, research based, reports of studies conducted in Australia and New Zealand in the field of Child Development. The topics have been arranged into four major sections – cognitive issues in development, language and reading development, perpetual motor development and social aspects of development. Both pure and applied research issues are presented, and the chapters cover child development from infancy to adolescence. The book’s special strength lies in the diversity of topics tackled and the range of developmental research represented. Theoretical viewpoints are raised and empirical questions answered in the studies reported. The editors have systematically drawn together important contributions which reflected contemporary topics in child development at the time. Although no one common theoretical or empirical theme unites either each section or the whole book (which reflects the general scope and diversity of child development in the 1980s), the contributors in general see the child as developing through active interaction with his or her environment. This interactionist position is clearly preferred by most researchers, who realised that simplistic genetic or environmental models are inadequate to explain the complex development of the child. The editors were all active researchers in the area of child development at the time and each co-authored a chapter in the book. All published regularly in national and international journals and books, and were aware of current developments in their main areas of expertise. All those interested in issues in child development will find this book important reading, as it provides the reader with an excellent and diverse selection of studies, bearing on a wide range of empirical research.

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309388570
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 525

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Book Description
Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.

Author: Children's Issues Coalition
Publisher: Ian Randle Publishers
ISBN: 9766371288
Category : Action research
Languages : en
Pages : 145

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Book Description
Caribbean Childhoods: From Research to Action is an annual publication produced by the Children s Issues Coalition at the University of the West Indies, Mona. The series seeks to provide an avenue for the dissemination of research and experiences on children s health, development, behaviour and education, and to provide a forum for the discussion of these issues.

Author: Lois Wladis Hoffman
Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
ISBN: 161044647X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 558

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Book Description
Makes a major contribution to current research on children by providing a broad view of up-to-date, authoritative material in many different areas. Contributors have selected and interpreted the relevant material in reference to the practitioner's interests and needs. The chapters, written by prominent specialists, cover various topics in child development from early periods of socialization to the development of higher mental processes, and include two chapters dealing with genetic and neurophysiological bases of behavior.

Author: Barbara Hanna Wasik
Publisher: Brookes Publishing Company
ISBN: 9781681252766
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
For more than fifty years, the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute has conducted groundbreaking research that revolutionized the field of early childhood care and education. Based on presentations made at FPG's 50th anniversary symposium, this essential reference looks back on the Institute (TM)s trailblazing history, analyzes contemporary issues in child development, and recommends critical new research directions. More than a dozen high-profile contributors thoroughly examine the three themes of the anniversary symposium: early care and education, diversity, and children with disabilities and their families. Readers will learn from in-depth chapters on: understanding the social, cultural, educational, and political forces that affect children (TM)s outcomes meeting the challenge of serving diverse populations as U.S. demographics shift preparing practitioners to work with young dual language learners improving connections between the knowledge base and professional practice strengthening the early childhood workforce through effective professional development analyzing decades of research and policy and examining ways to support continuous improvement A celebration of progress and a compelling call to action for the next generation of professionals, this important volume is a must for researchers, policy makers, and faculty. Whether used as a textbook or a reference, this book will help shape the future of the early childhood field--and improve outcomes for tomorrow's young children and families.

Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309068363
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 464

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Book Description
Clearly babies come into the world remarkably receptive to its wonders. Their alertness to sights, sounds, and even abstract concepts makes them inquisitive explorersâ€"and learnersâ€"every waking minute. Well before formal schooling begins, children's early experiences lay the foundations for their later social behavior, emotional regulation, and literacy. Yet, for a variety of reasons, far too little attention is given to the quality of these crucial years. Outmoded theories, outdated facts, and undersized budgets all play a part in the uneven quality of early childhood programs throughout our country. What will it take to provide better early education and care for our children between the ages of two and five? Eager to Learn explores this crucial question, synthesizing the newest research findings on how young children learn and the impact of early learning. Key discoveries in how young children learn are reviewed in language accessible to parents as well as educators: findings about the interplay of biology and environment, variations in learning among individuals and children from different social and economic groups, and the importance of health, safety, nutrition and interpersonal warmth to early learning. Perhaps most significant, the book documents how very early in life learning really begins. Valuable conclusions and recommendations are presented in the areas of the teacher-child relationship, the organization and content of curriculum, meeting the needs of those children most at risk of school failure, teacher preparation, assessment of teaching and learning, and more. The book discusses: Evidence for competing theories, models, and approaches in the field and a hard look at some day-to-day practices and activities generally used in preschool. The role of the teacher, the importance of peer interactions, and other relationships in the child's life. Learning needs of minority children, children with disabilities, and other special groups. Approaches to assessing young children's learning for the purposes of policy decisions, diagnosis of educational difficulties, and instructional planning. Preparation and continuing development of teachers. Eager to Learn presents a comprehensive, coherent picture of early childhood learning, along with a clear path toward improving this important stage of life for all children.

Author: Jeanne Brooks-Gunn
Publisher: Teachers College Press
ISBN: 0807743364
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 449

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Book Description
This single-volume resource provides detailed information on current large-scale and longitudinal research studies focusing on early childhood development--the situations and experiences of young American children. Twenty-eight studies are profiled addressing such issues as early childhood interventions for children in poverty, neighborhood characteristics and residence patterns of children and their families, the role of fathers in families, school readiness and the transition to school, and maternal employment issues including child care and welfare reform.

Author: Jess Prior
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317384040
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 309

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Book Description
Practical Research with Children is designed to help the reader understand techniques for research with children, based on real world experience. The book describes a wide range of research methods, focusing equally on quantitative and qualitative approaches, and considers how different methods can be integrated. It highlights the benefits and challenges of each method and gives emphasis to best practice, with expert guidance on how to avoid potential pitfalls in order to obtain valuable insights into how children develop. The volume includes fifteen chapters arranged over three sections. Each chapter explores a particular method, or combination of methods, and discusses both theoretical and practical issues, using a diversity of domains, including different ages, cultures, populations and settings. Uniquely, the book includes newer methods (such as eye tracking and digital technologies) alongside well-established behavioural methods which are used for research with children. With contributions from internationally renowned researchers and practitioners from a range of disciplines, the book will be indispensable reading for a wide audience, including for students in psychology, education and nursing undertaking research projects with children, and also for anyone looking to understand the research behind current theories in child development.