Search

Approximately two-thirds of US birth-to-age-three-year-olds attend Infant Toddler Care and Education (ITCE) full- or part-time, making it the fastest growing segment of childcare. Despite widespread understanding of the importance of the first three years to lifetime learning and development trajectories, and recognition of the need for quality ITCE for families in the workforce and the US economy, ITCE remains underresearched. Too little is known about what qualifications and characteristics, pedagogical beliefs, and needs and motivations of ITCE professionals related to ensuring quality for children and families. Needed too, are valid and reliable tools to assess these attributes for use in pre- and in-service professional development of ITCE program administration and staff. Thus, the researchers developed and tested reliability and validity of a self-report survey – the Beliefs About Infant Toddler Education and Care (BAITEC). BAITEC items reflect NAEYC’s developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) principles for birth-to-age-three along with other widely adopted DAP-inspired guidelines for ITCE practice from major professional organizations including WestEd PITC, RIE, and ZERO TO THREE. Existing beliefs/practices instruments were used as models of survey language and structure. Reliability (internal consistency), and face, content, construct, and criterion related validity were tested using descriptive statistics, factor analyses, and hierarchical multiple regression. BAITEC was found to be a reliable and valid measure of ITCE teachers’ beliefs and education level moderated the relationship between beliefs and self-reported practices. Implications are identified for use in pre-and-in-service professional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study focuses on infants' sleep-wake states in group child care and relations of those states to infant-caregiver interactions. Qualitative case studies were conducted with four infants (3–7 months old) in an infant room at a child care centre. Video-recordings were the main format for data collection with the four infants and video recordings were made for a period of 3–5 h on each infant on a weekly basis for 11–12 weeks. Video recordings were transcribed using the InqScribe transcription software. Infant states identified in this research are important in the synchrony of infant-caregiver interactions, and have implications for caregivers' awareness of the impact of their actions associated with infant states. Caregivers took active roles in infant state modulation as it related to the infants' smooth or interrupted state transitions in the group care context. This research represents an effort to broaden and stimulate discussions on newer issues for enhancing infant child care practices and skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a qualitative descriptive design, researchers describe andidentify similarities and differences in the professional preparation of infant-toddler care and education (ITCE) teachers at university based teacher education programmes in Hong Kong China, Aotearoa New Zealand, and the USA. Researchers overview the ITCE landscape, describe statutory regulations, and consider major documents and prevalent ideas influencing ITCE teacher education in their respective countries. Key findings are presented from each researcher's analysis of the teacher education programmes at their own institutions and then summarised in descriptive narratives around four major themes: (1) country-specific values, (2) pedagogical elements, (3) curriculum focus, and (4) teaching practicum expectations. On the basis of a dialogic deliberative process, the three researchers then discuss the findings together by deliberating upon how culture in the forms of norms, values, prevailing beliefs, and expectations, appeared to – intentionally or unintentionally – shape the three different approaches to preparing students to become fully-qualified teachers of infants and toddlers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the authors explore the need for early childhood practitioners and scholars to engage in joint problem solving to create and support early childhood education and care (ECEC) professional development systems in which all constituents benefit. Primary constituent groups and principal decision-making bodies are defined and analyzed, and the interrelated influences within professional development systems are considered. At the heart of the discussion is how decisions made by all constituent groups are interrelated and affect all parts of the system. For instance, decisions made about professional qualifications have an impact upon pre- and in-service ECEC professionals, current ECEC professionals, children and their families, and individuals within ECEC businesses and communities. Although the discussion in this article is about these issues as they are played out within the USA, the authors believe that the implications raised may be usefully considered by ECEC professionals and those engaged in professional development in other cultures and contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]