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Research Findings: This study examined the consistency between early childhood teachers' self-reported curriculum beliefs and observations of their actual interactive behaviors with children in classrooms. Also tested was the hypothesized moderation by teacher and classroom characteristics of the association between beliefs and practices. A total of 58 preschool teachers completed a survey describing their professional backgrounds and curriculum beliefs. Their classroom practices were observed using a newly developed instrument that documented teacher interactions with children. Most teachers in this sample strongly endorsed child-initiated learning beliefs, although their beliefs about teacher-directed learning varied considerably. The most frequently observed teacher behaviors in the classroom were giving directions to children, responding to children's initiations, and engaging in non-interactive classroom management activities. Overall, teachers' curriculum beliefs and observed classroom practices wer...

This study examined the consistency of Chinese preschool teachers’ curriculum beliefs and self‐reported practices, similarities and differences between American and Chinese teachers’ beliefs, and associations between teachers’ personal, professional and socio‐cultural characteristics and curriculum beliefs. A total of 296 Chinese teachers and 146 American teachers completed the Teacher Beliefs Scale and the Teachers’ Background Information Questionnaire. Chinese teachers also completed the Instructional Activities Scale. Also, 10 teachers in each country were interviewed in depth. Principal components analyses revealed three reliable factors with similar structures for both Chinese and American teacher beliefs. However, a discriminant analysis indicated significant cross‐national differences in teachers’ level of endorsement of specific beliefs. Moderate associations were found between Chinese teachers’ curriculum beliefs and self‐reported practices. Chinese teachers’ general education, professional train...

The achievement of quality, affordability and availability — what has been called the ‘trilemma’ of child care — continues to pose relevant, moral challenges for administrators, teachers and parents. These three dimensions of the trilemma are directly related to questions of moral significance related to how the US child care structure affects the families, teachers, and administrators who are intimately involved in the care and education of children. An examination of the trilemma is made to clarify mutually dependent dimensions of this complex system and the inherent moral confounds that accentuate the intra- and interrelated flowing moral tensions. The moral orientations of justice and care are reviewed, not to the exclusion of one another, but to characterize each orientation, the tension between them, and the possibility of moral pluralism. The moral orientations of justice, care and moral pluralism are used as lenses through which to view the perspectives of the three study participants (i.e. a parent, teacher, and administrator) and their exploration, advocacy, and decision making on issues they find salient within the child care trilemma. The perspectives and insights shared by the participants in this study contribute to our understanding about the thinking, decision making and action that surround this inherent moral complexity of the trilemma.

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.

Newborns are endowed with gifts and abilities that attract responsive adults to care for and about them and allow them, in turn, to begin engaging in the back and forth, give and take of relating to others. It is in these early communications with parents and professional caregivers1 that young children begin to engage in a dance of relationships that teaches them lessons that can sustain them socially and emotionally for a lifetime (Shonkoff and Phillips 2000; Tronick 2007) (see Chapter 31). With a majority of young children – birth to age five – spending all or part of their days in early care and education programmes, it has become an essential role of professional caregivers, working alongside families, to engage positively with babies and young children as they develop an understanding of care (Howes et al. 1998). Children learn what it means to care, to be cared for, to be worthy of care, how to care for and about others, and that what they do is meaningful and its contribution valued; all necessary to achieve a sense of well-being (Raikes and Edwards 2009; Roberts 2010; Thompson 2014).

A team of researchers used a collaborative assessment protocol to compare the self-reported teaching beliefs of a convenience sample of preschool teachers (N = 57) to their documentable practices (i.e., practices that could be observed, recorded, and categorized using a deductive strategy). Data were examined from survey instruments, detailed classroom observations and time-sampling, curriculum materials, and program artifacts. Results indicated that when child-directed choice/play time, emergent literacy and language development activities were emphasized, teachers self-reported beliefs were more strongly aligned with developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) as a philosophy of practice. When consistent routines, organized classrooms, preplanned curriculum, and teacher-directed learning were the dominant behaviors, the teachers were found to report more “traditional” or academic-oriented beliefs.

Analysis of the contents of textbooks is a meaningful way to examine individuals, groups and institutions, as they reflect social values, attention and interests of a society. Education as an institution reflects a society's social ideology, and examination of the sociocultural components of schools can reveal the cultural paradigm upon which a society is based. A content analysis of Korean undergraduate early childhood teacher education social studies textbooks was used to illuminate aspects of social change and dominant sociocultural beliefs in Korea. Specifically, textbooks written in 1993 and 2003 were examined in terms of how the authors treated Korean social concepts and pedagogical expectations of early childhood education, the needs of young children, and the roles of teachers over the two time periods, in light of the socio-historical demands of early childhood education in Korea. The primary focus of the textbook written in 1993 was the social and moral development of children, whereas the 2003 textbook stressed multiculturalism and preparation for living in a cooperative, global society. How the textbook authors' areas of emphases reflected the sociocultural realities and expectations of Korean society at the time they are written is discussed.

The purpose of this study was to examine what, if anything, caregivers and teachers of 3- to 5-year-old children from the U.S. (n = 412), China (n = 244), Taiwan (n = 222), Korea (n = 574), and Turkey (n = 214), had in common in terms of self-reported beliefs and self-reported practices related to the National Association for the Education of Young Children's (NAEYC) policy statement for developmentally appropriate practices (DAP). DAP is widely endorsed by early childhood education and care professionals in the U.S. and is assumed to have far reaching impact on curricular beliefs and practices throughout the world. Pearson correlations and one-way ANOVA were used to compare overall mean scores for beliefs measured by the Teachers Beliefs Scale (TBS) to those of practices measured by the Instructional Activities Scale (IAS) [Charlesworth, R., Hart, C. H., Burts, D. C., & Hernandez, S. (1991). Kindergarten teachers’ beliefs and practices. Early Child Development and Care, 70, 17–35]. Item-by-item analyses were conducted using factor analysis and χ2 analyses within and across countries. Similarities emerged related to, in particular, those beliefs and teaching practices associated with integrating across the curriculum, promoting social/emotional development, providing concrete/hands-on materials, and allowing play/choice in the curriculum.

In this cross-sectional study done in the United States, 19 female and 17 male children ( N =36) ranging in age from 30- to 36-months ( M =33 months, 8 days) were presented with two different search and retrieval type problems to solve. Examination of the data revealed clear age-related differences between children who fluidly and efficiently problem solve using symbolically mediated knowledge and those who do not. Younger children tended to rely on a trial and error, motor-based strategy for solving the problems presented, whereas older children consistently used symbolic strategies. This conclusion supports findings from other similar studies. Further analyses of the data, however, revealed an interesting phenomenon in the form of a patterned, non-random error. This error pattern, a perseverative-type error, and the other problem-solving strategies used by the two-year-olds and young threes in this study offer insight into how young children become efficient users of symbols. Facilitating the developmen...

Twelve early childhood teachers in kindergarten/primary grades who hold opposing philosophical beliefs about developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) were interviewed about their perceived barriers to effective practice. Specifically, they were asked to discuss work‐related “things that keep them from being the best teacher they can be.” All teachers selected scored as highly efficacious about education and themselves as teachers and had low occupational stress scores. Half strongly endorsed and engaged in behaviors closely aligned with DAP and half were highly traditional. Interesting differences in terms of the relative influence of preservice education and acceptance of inclusive practices were found across the two groups of teachers, but they united in concern for standardized testing as a barrier to effective practice. Listening to these teachers can and should inform those of us engaged in pre‐ and in‐service education and policy formation and point us in future directions for research i...

Studies consistently find a discrepancy between teachers' self-reported beliefs about developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) and their actual, observable classroom practices. Teachers attribute the discrepancy to a variety of environmental/work-related stresses or institutional barriers. Some early childhood professionals, however, are either unaffected by, or able to cope with, these same obstacles and live out DAP beliefs in practice. What are the characteristics of teachers who both state a belief in DAP and engage in DAP practices in their early childhood classrooms? Although there were differences between preschool and primary teachers in this sample of 20 early childhood educators of children ages birth through 8, DAP beliefs overall were strongly correlated with practices at the p

(1997). The Effects of Early Childhood Academic and Professional Experience on Self Perceptions and Beliefs about Developmentally Appropriate Practices. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education: Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 55-68.

The understanding of the representational nature of symbols and the ability to actively internalize and use these symbols is a crucial developmental step in the emergence of reading and writing literacy. Information was obtained from a study briefly summarized in this report which confirmed that children become able to understand and exploit external physical symbols by age three. How symbolic problem solving fits into the emergent literacy picture and its importance in providing the careful observer with a glimpse into the overall symbolic capacity of the young child are considered. Implications for encouraging problem solving in young children are discussed, and it is concluded that an atmosphere in which children feel safe taking risks, an environment rich in materials that promote symbol use, and caring adults who act to encourage, rather than discourage are essential elements in the creation of competent, confident young problem solvers; active, creative thinkers; and efficient and motivated readers ...

(1993). Bessie head: A soft hand over her land. Women: A Cultural Review: Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 165-171.

"A play that never ended," is Athol Fugard's recollection, in a conversation with me in 1986, of the first performance of The Blood Knot: it went on for four hours "on a terrible little stage, only about six inches high at one end." The momentous event took place in Johannesburg in 1961 with Fugard and Zakes Mokae playing Morrie and Zach. The tiny rehearsal room of the African Music and Drama school in Dorkay House, a rundown factory in the automobile district, was packed on that suffocating summer's evening. Egg boxes were glued to one wall to shut out the noise of traffic, but through blacked-out windows on the opposite side came the beat of drums from a nearby mine compound. The play, I wrote in the London Times, gave South African theater international status. During that original South African run of The Blood Knot, Fugard spoke to me of his roots in the Karoo--a starkly beautiful region of semi-desert in the Eastern Cape where he was born, grandson of an Afrikaner patriarch, Veldkornet Potgieter. "So I think like an Afrikaner," he explained, "and believe that certain things about South Africa achieve their truest statement made from an Afrikaner background. The tragedy," he added, "is their love of country has become a passionate but shriveling emotion." In Johannesburg, while writing plays during the morning, Fugard earned a meager living at the African Music and Drama school. The students were part-time, with jobs as messengers, factory workers, cleaners, teachers--all living under apartheid's oppressive conditions. Yet the place hummed with enthusiasm as young singers and musicians aspired to emulate Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela, while for the sinewy, darkly bearded, intense Fugard, working in the rehearsal room meant, he told me, "continuity without the compromise that led to vulgarity." He also affirmed his belief that in his country the creative impetus must come from cooperation between the races. The humble surroundings of Dorkay House seemed peculiarly appropriate as a setting for Athol's magical performance in Krapp's Last Tape, which was directed in 1961 by his friend Barney Simon. The local tour of The Blood Knot and its London production enabled him to risk writing full-time. With his wife Sheila and their baby daughter Lisa he returned to the Eastern Cape, sharing a cramped apartment with his parents in Port Elizabeth. The early sixties were a time of intensified arrests throughout South Africa and he wrote to me--I was back in London--to describe a journey to Johannesburg to discuss his new play, People Are Living There: "I can't begin to tell you how important that trip was for me--just the trip, the twenty-four hours in the compartment going up, and again coming back. I think I came nearer to understanding my purpose than ever before. It is to love the ugly--the unloved because that is all that ugliness is. . . . Has this poor, blighted country ever been uglier? Is it possible for the stain of injustice on this earth to be deeper?" By December 1964 he was at last able to afford a small cottage on the coast and wrote happily, "The sea is at our doorstep. There is enough land and need for the highly moral activity of tree-planting and the beginnings of a vegetable patch. . . . I'd never realized fully how much of an Afrikaner I really am, until the moment when I kicked off my shoes and stood barefoot on the earth. I keep looking at my toes to see if roots haven't appeared." His sense of rootedness became a recurring theme. "I know that I have mastered the code of one time, one place," he confided in another letter. "My life's work is possibly to witness as truthfully as I can the nameless and destitute of this one little corner of the world." And so he wrote about Johnnie and Hester Smit living in a back street of Port Elizabeth and in the first production of Hello and Goodbye, directed by Barney Simon at the Library Theatre in Johannesburg, gave a poignant and wonderfully comic performance as Johnnie. …

The study focused on the relationships between selected personality factors and burnout in day care workers. The results indicated that caregivers who experienced emotional exhaustion and depersonalization tended toward lower self-esteem and learned helplessness. Burnout did not, however, include a reduced sense of personal accomplishment in this population.

SUMMARY The nuclear lamina is a protein meshwork associated with the nucleoplasmic surface of the inner nuclear membrane, that is suggested to be important for organizing nuclear envelope and interphase chromosome architecture. To investigate the structural organization of the lamina, we have analysed rat liver nuclear envelopes by various chemical extraction procedures. From these studies, we have defined conditions that yield a nuclear envelope subtraction that is both highly enriched in the lamina and devoid of pore complexes. This fraction contains mostly lamins A, B and C, the three major lamina polypeptides that are apparently arranged in a polymeric assembly. Our chemical extraction studies also indicate that lamin B has a stronger interaction with nuclear membranes than the other two lamins, and support the possibility that lamin B is important for attaching the lamina to the inner nuclear membrane. We have examined the synthesis and assembly of the lamins during interphase in tissue-culture cells to investigate lamina structure by a second approach. We found that all three lamins are synthesized at similar rates throughout the cell cycle in synchronized Chinese hamster ovary cells, and that their biosynthesis is not temporally coupled to DNA replication. Our studies indicate that newly synthesized lamins are rapidly assembled into an insoluble lamina structure but that the apparent half-time for lamina insertion differs for individual lamins. We have also observed that lamin A is synthesized as an apparent precursor molecule that is converted to mature lamin A only after integration into the lamina structure. The lamina is reversibly depolymerized during cell division, a process that may be mediated by enzymic phosphorylation of the lamins. To investigate this possibility further, we have analysed charge-altering modifications of the lamins on two-dimensional gels, and have found that phosphorylation is the only detectable modification of these proteins that occurs specifically during mitosis. Furthermore, we have determined that when the lamins are disassembled during metaphase, each lamin has approximately 2 moles of associated phosphate/mole lamin, a value that is four to sevenfold higher than the average interphase level. Considering this information, we discuss a model by which depolymerization and reassembly of the lamina can regulate the reversible disassembly of the nuclear envelope during mitosis.

This article describes a student-led, community-participatory project focused on reducing the burden of childhood lead poisoning in rental housing. A multidisciplinary group of students and faculty worked with community members. We compiled the social, public health, economic, and policy information on the human and fiscal costs of childhood lead poisoning. This analysis was done for community advocates to use to persuade policymakers to enact a local law strengthening the prevention of childhood lead poisoning in rental property. In conducting this work, the students gained experience in qualitative research methods, quantitative data analysis, the health consequences of lead exposure, health policy, urban health, science writing, and public presentation.

One can be free externally and yet be internally unfree—that theme from your article in Index struck me powerfully. You spoke of visitors to Prague who asked how you could exist as a writer since you are not allowed to publish, and you remarked that these people probably never asked how did a writer exist who, while free to publish, actually had nothing to say, or for one reason or another desisted from saying it. To which I scribbled a note in the margin = me.