Journal of Childhood, Education & Society (JCES)
Not a member yet
162 research outputs found
Sort by
The impact of integrating Jolly Phonics Lessons application into English literacy lessons on UAE preschoolers’ phonics skills
Full text linkThe Jolly Phonics Lessons application is a digital tool that is designed to enhance the preschoolers’ reading and writing skills through synthetic phonics approach. This study examined the impact of integrating Jolly Phonics Lessons application into literacy lessons on the emergent reading and writing skills among kindergarten students, ages 4-6, in the United Arab Emirates through a comparative study between pupils (Group-A), whose literacy classes were integrated with the application, and pupils (Group-B) who were taught using the traditional method of teaching literacy. Mixed methods research design was followed to analyze the effects of integrating the application. The Phonemic Awareness Assessment Inventory (PAAI) tool, field notes, and artifacts were utilized to measure the development of students’ letter-sound identification, letter formation, phoneme blending and segmenting abilities. In addition, the paper compared the growth on phonics skills between students in Groups A and B. The results showed that students in Group-A outperformed pupils who received literacy instruction through traditional methods. The findings from the PAAI scores exhibited dramatic growth in letter-sound recognition and letter formation, and substantial increase in phoneme blending and segmenting abilities of Group-A. The T-statistic for differences between two means at 95% confidence revealed that there is a significant difference between the performance of students in Groups-A and B. Implications from this study highlight the positive impact of incorporating Jolly Phonics Lessons application into literacy classes on low-achieving students. On this bases, future research of Jolly Phonics Lesson application to support mixed-ability classes or students with dyslexia
Children’s everyday lifeworlds out of school, in Hong Kong, Melbourne, and Singapore: Family, enrichment activities, and local communities
Full text linkChildren’s everyday lives beyond school need to be considered holistically, in a way which moves beyond time use. In this article we draw on our adaptation of Sarah Pink’s (e.g. 2012) video re-enactment methodology for considering children’s out-of-school lifeworlds with Year 4 children (9 and 10 years old) in the global cities of Hong Kong, Melbourne, and Singapore. The data presented and discussed here was part of a larger Global Childhoods Project with children in the three global cities of Melbourne, Hong Kong, and Singapore. We use video re-enactment methodology to ‘think with’, to open up lines of inquiry and create conversations about children’s lives in and between the cities. Through these we consider the specifics of each city context, as well as socioeconomic and sociocultural contexts and factors that may impact differently on children’s everyday lifeworlds out-of-school within the same city. In order to focus the scope of the article, we consider family routines, enrichment activities and local communities, as aspects that we find useful to reflect on when exploring what children’s lives look like, in and across locations. We focus on these as we are interested in how they might add to the complexities of thinking about children in each location. We move between thinking about the re-enactments themselves and broader literature to explore children’s out-of-school lifeworlds in the three cities, painting a picture of children’s lives and considering the contexts which make particular activities and practices possible and desirable
Parenting young children with developmental disabilities: Experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S.
Full text linkHigh-stress events (e.g., natural disasters, political unrest, disease) significantly impact the lives of children and families. The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is one event that has brought numerous hardships to families and children with developmental disabilities (DD), likely exacerbating already heightened levels of stress. For this study, we interviewed mothers living in the U.S. (N = 14) of 2- to 8-year-old children with DD about how COVID-19 has affected their family life. The interviews examined how the pandemic impacted (a) their child’s educational, therapeutic, and medical services, (b) their stress and resiliency, and (c) their parenting role as an advocate, educator, and interventionist. The results of our thematic analysis of the qualitative data highlight four domains with themes that describe families’ experiences as indicated by the mothers interviewed. Voices of families are essential in the delivery of effective and ethical early intervention for young children with disabilities. Based on the data from these interviews with mothers, suggestions for family-focused intervention to support families during high-stress events are discussed. As the long-term effects of the pandemic remain unknown, suggestions for future research to continue to examine the impact of high-stress experiences on young children with DD and their families are also presented
Bilingualism matters: Early childhood teachers\u27 attitudes toward children\u27s creativity
Full text linkChildren can learn any language and acquire its skills at a very early age. Creativity is central to the curriculum. Early Childhood (EC) teachers should provide children with appropriate resources to individually spark their imaginations and encourage them to adopt different ideas. The objective of the current study was to determine the attitudes of EC teachers who are teaching bilingual students and integrating creativity into classroom activities. The study adopted the exploratory approach, where a total of 299 EC teachers in the western region of Saudi Arabia participated in this study by filling out a questionnaire. EC teachers believed that there are differences between bilingual boys and girls in creative competencies. Most teachers stated that they did not receive sufficient training and preparation to incorporate creativity into all subjects in EC schools. Teachers in private EC schools showed more positive attitudes toward creativity than teachers in government schools. These findings provide reliable evidence for international research on teachers\u27 attitudes and perceptions toward creativity in bilingual children. Policy makers can also benefit from these results and pay more attention to teacher preparation programs in order to raise their efficiency in supporting and enhancing the creative inclinations of learners
Children’s experiences outdoors: Education and community contexts
Full text linkChildren’s right to play is enshrined in Article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 1990). The early childhood period is a time when children’s values and dispositions towards outdoor play and environments are formed. Children have an intrinsic drive and natural curiosity to explore the world around them and outdoor environments are a key context for this exploration. Outdoor play and learning provide significant benefits for all aspects of children’s development - physical, cognitive, social and emotional (Brussoni et al., 2015)
Children’s participation in documentation processes in local outdoor spaces
Full text linkThis article describes a study that aimed to investigate how children perform and document Land Art in local places near their kindergarten and the visualization of their experiences through their drawings back in the kindergarten. Documentation is important for a kindergarten’s planning and evaluation of pedagogical practices and activities. Studies have shown that using visual methods, such as drawings and photographs created by children themselves, to provide information related to children’s perspectives, actions and attitudes is a way for children to communicate and make meaning of their experiences. Encounters with the natural world through the performance of Land Art offer children the opportunity to directly sense, interact with and know ‘the world of materials’. Children’s interactions correspond with natural materials and the environment. Participatory observation was used, following a group of twelve children, aged four and five years in a year’s period to their trips near a shoreline. Data consists of photographs, voice recordings, video, drawings, and narratives to explore ways children interact with and make meaning of place by performing Land Art. The results show that children’s photographs and drawings are ways to ‘communicate’ with their experiences and engage with, pay attention to and visualize their perspectives. The findings might have implications for new approaches to documenting children’s voices and experiences through performing Land Art and drawings
Playing outdoors: What do children do, where and with whom?
Full text linkThere is an increasing interest in outdoor play, both in research and in policy. However, in (re)designing, planning and managing the public space, there is still limited attention for children’s actual playing behavior. A lot of urban planning decisions are based on adults’ perceptions of children’s playing behavior and focus on formal play spaces, rather than on their actual behavior and on other, more informal, play places children might also use. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore where children play outdoors, with whom and what kind of activities they are performing there. Between February 2022 and March 2023 1,127 – mainly primary school - children were systematically observed after school in three post-war residential districts in three cities in The Netherlands. The majority of the children were between 5-8 years old (50%). Above the age of 8 years, substantially more boys (70%) than girls (30%) were playing outdoors. Most of the children (79%) were playing with other children, 8% were playing alone. The playground was the most popular play space (36% of the observed children were playing there), followed by public sports fields (14%) and sidewalks (13%). With respect to the type of activities, relaxing (21%) was the most common activity, followed by ball sports (14%), climbing or hanging (11%), swinging (10%), and riding on wheels (9%). This study showed differences in play behavior by gender, age, district and play space and stress the need for a broader definition of play, and for focusing on formal as well as informal play spaces
‘What are the goals of kindergarten?’ Consistency of teachers’ and parents’ beliefs about kindergarten goals
Full text linkThe teachers’ perceptions of the curriculum or their beliefs about how children learn can influence the quality of the teaching activity and its final outcome. Furthermore, the importance of an extended cooperation and mutual understanding between the actors involved (kindergarten teachers – parents) seems to be a crucial issue in order to establish a supportive framework. The research is structured in two dimensions. We seek the beliefs of kindergarten teachers (K-teachers) and parents, as well as their mutual perceptions of each other’s beliefs, i.e., K-teachers for parents and parents for K-teachers, about the importance of kindergarten goals. The study was conducted in Greece, specifically in the region of Central Macedonia, in June 2021, after the re-opening of schools due to the Covid-19 pandemic. A sample of 330 K-teachers and 419 parents from public and private schools responded to closed-ended questionnaires, rating –on a 5-point Likert scale- the importance of 14 Kindergarten goals. We found that K-teachers generally underestimated parents’ beliefs about kindergarten goals relative to their own beliefs and overestimated parents’ beliefs about the ‘academic’ curriculum goals; a trend that was not confirmed by the parallel survey of parents’ beliefs. In contrast, parents appeared to express a more balanced perception between their own beliefs and those they perceived K-teachers to hold. We also found evidence of differentiation between private and public schools. According to the findings, a harmonized perception of kindergarten goals by K-teachers and parents in private versus public schools is apparent
Re-defining silence in unvoiced dialogues in storying-play: The sound of affects
Full text linkThis article chronicles three stories selected from a post-intentional phenomenological study conducted by the first author. The authors aim to investigate affective connections in children’s silent play by addressing three research questions: (a) How do children engage in dialogue with the teacher, their peers, and the material environment without words? (b) What emotions are produced in silent play? and (c) What changes in children’s affective connections occur through silence? We drew on the notion of intentionality in post-intentional phenomenology to illuminate meanings of the phenomenon for individuals about what they felt and experienced. With a focus on intentionality, we delved into the ways children meaningfully communicated with others and connected to the environment in their unspeaking moments. We also took on a posthuman notion of intra-actions to rethink silence as an inaudible yet sensible sound communicated between children and things. The prior studies showed that children’s silence was a mode of expression. Through storying the silent play-stories, we offered two alternative meanings of silence––intra-active communication with people and things and inaudible inner wellbeing, in addition to a mode of nonverbal expression as identified in prior studies. The findings are significant in enriching and renewing our understanding of children’s silence in inclusive ECE environments. Silence is re-defined as a mode of embodied communication and affective connections. This article invites researchers and educators to genuinely “listen” to children’s stories, even in silent play
Is there a place for children in the making of public policy? Insights from the research evidence
Full text linkArticle 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child stipulates that children have a right to express their views with this article being one of the most frequently cited principles in the convention. This scoping review summarises the existing research evidence on how children participate in the making of public policy. This paper concludes that a plethora of practical guidelines and gray literature are available addressing children as policy-making partners, but the empirical research around the subject is very rare. Children’s participation should be planned prior to any planned public policy reforms – and to be supported by appropriate academic research integrated into the different stages of the policymaking processes. If policymakers are willing to develop mechanisms for children’s participation in the policy cycle, children’s role and agency will be clarified. It seems that there is a need for new sensemaking in terms of how adults treat the value of children´s participation and how to include children in the policymaking process around the subjects that matter to them. Participatory practices should be co-created with children, not for them