8083MOD 5 DISCUSS2

Katheryn Gonzales 

RE: Discussion 2 - Module 5

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For this discussion, I have chosen to look at early childhood assessment practices in China. Early childhood education includes public and private kindergartens, daycares, and early learning centers. Much like in the United States, early childhood education programs seek to provide high-quality learning environments for young children. More than half of the population in China live in rural areas and attend public kindergarten programs designed to get students ready for first grade. Unlike the United States, much of these early childhood programs occur for one year, which means children only receive a year of early childhood education before entering school. Private schools are also prevalent, but these schools do not receive government funding and are not obligated to be a part of quality rating systems. This is different then the United States because both public and private early childhood education programs are required to undergo quality ratings (Hu & Szente, 2009).  

Many children in China start school. However, only 80% graduate from elementary school. In the 1980’s a law passed that gave all children the right to 9 years in school. This means that all children were allowed to go to school up to the ninth grade. However, most children in rural areas never make it that far in order to find work to help families. Schools in the cities are better than in the country because they have an easier time getting money, teachers, and textbooks. Schools in the city also usually have students whose parents and families have more money (Hays, n.d.).

In China the state publishes regulations for kindergarten. These regulations touch on what is developmentally appropriate and promote holistic development and that play should dominate activities in kindergarten. Unlike the current practices in the United States, play is not the primary expectation for kindergarten. Teaching in the United States requires standardized tests and looks more like first grade then kindergarten.

 

Hays, J. (n.d.). CHINESE SCHOOLS: EXAMS, CURRICULUM, COSTS AND IDEOLOGY | Facts and Details. Factsanddetails.com. Retrieved May 1, 2022, from https://factsanddetails.com/china/cat13/sub82/item338.html#chapter-6

‌Hu, B. Y., & Szente, J. (2009). Exploring the Quality of Early Childhood Education in China: Implications for Early Childhood Teacher Education. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 30(3), 247–262. https://doi.org/10.1080/10901020903084330

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RESPONSE 2

Chukwunonyelum Eneje 

RE: Discussion 2 - Module 5

COLLAPSE

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Module 5-discussion 2-EDDD 8083-

Select a country other than your own and conduct independent research on their early childhood assessment practices. Look for terms like formal, informal, formative, summative, authentic assessment, and the like. Note similarities and differences between this country and your own

These are the early and learning and childcare practices, similarities and dissimilarities in Canada and United States of America.

In Canada and United States of America, assessing children in their young age (birth to age 8) can be challenging because it is the period when their developmental domains outpace progress rates at all other periods. Children in this age mentioned above learn in ways and at rates different from older children and adults, as educators we must tailor our assessments appropriately. The type of informal assessments used by the educators in United States and Canada is the use of observations. Observations are used to observe and watch how children play and learn during the activities in a natural setting, and same time they record the children’s behaviors, interactions, and other development. These observations support the educators to know how to tailor the programs and activities to meet the young children’s needs in various settings. The educators’ use the formal assessment such as test. The educators use the test results to place children in or out of kindergarten and preschools. Educators can use the formal and informal assessments to assess what things children already know and understand, what things could be understood with more practice experience, and what things are too challenging without additional groundwork.  Also, educators can use their assessments of children’s learning to reflect on their own teaching practices, so that they can adapt and modify program, classroom practices, and instructional activities that are unsuccessful.  The children and families are also essential spectators for assessment data collected as part of the teaching. Children benefit from seeing samples of their own work gathered over time and from being able to see their own progress. During the conferences, the educators are now actively engaging the children in sharing their accomplishments with parents. When educators document children’s work with accompanying assessments. It helps the families to learn about the program and suitable expectations, and their own child’s performance (National education goals panel, n.d.). The formative assessments used in Canada and United States of America have the same use such as the educators use them to know how to customize their practice to enhance learning, and to tailor their teaching to meet the children’s needs (EdCan Network, 2015; The center for American Progress, 2020).

The differences of early learning and childcare practices in Canada and United States of America are that in Canada summative assessments are used to openly report on children success while in United States of America use the summative assessments to provide data that show how well all children reached the state’s educational criteria that can be compared across various subsets (EdCan Network, 2015; The center for American Progress, 2020).

Post a summary of statistics ( i.e., number of children served, number in rural vs. inner city, number of teachers, etc). and issues in the country, and identify the strengths and weaknesses of their early childhood standards. Include a brief discussion of similarities and differences in their practices and practices in your country.

The country I chose is the United States of America. According to Kamerman & Gatenio-Gabel, (2007) it states that there is a broad variety of programs that are subsidized and provided in both the public and the private regions that are commercial sponsorships, social welfare and are intended sometimes with an emphasis on the core part of early learning and child care. And the number of children served in those programs mentioned above are in the preschool programs in 18 states in the United States that are subsidized public kindergarten, 80 % of 5 years old attended public kindergarten, ninety-eight percent of children attended the kindergarten before grade 1 at least a half-day, which the United States of America regarded as an important start to primary school. About 60 % attended a full school day program. There was some public kindergarten education that was subsidized in twenty-eight states. And the number of three years old children that were served was the same (Kamerman & Gatenio-Gabel,2007).

The similarities, practices and differences in the United States of America and Canada are

The similarities in the early learning and childcare practices in Canada and United States of America are that the early learning and childcare centers operate for both opening and closing, which is from 7:00am to 6:00pm for five days in a week annually. These centers are all supervised or approved by the provinces and states concerning educator-child ratio, health and safety principles, the number of children educators can work with each day, nutrition, and have at least annually evaluations. The differences between Canada and the United States of America are that in some provinces such as Alberta, some childcare centers are open 7 days a week for the full year. Some of these childcare centers open and close from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm. In addition to that, twenty-four hours of care for children as an extra option for families to accommodate their working hours is accepted too. These early learning and childcare centers offer care to children of different age group such as school age, preschool, infants and toddlers. Although it all depends on the age group they want to offer care for.

The issues in the United States of America are that the private sectors (non-profit and for-profit) play a key role in early childcare and learning. In two thousand and three, seventeen percent of registered five years olds attended programs that are managed by private and eighty-three percent attended kindergarten programs that are managed by the public. The nursery schools that are private have half of the five years olds. If you look at what is mentioned above, the private schools are the lead in the service delivery systems. Charitable organizations are main players in the policymaking arena through their support of research and novel programming, and religious establishments also play an important role in early childcare and learning service delivery. Also, the majority of the 3 years olds in preschools are in public ones while the 5 years old are mainly in private programs. These programs that are privately owned and supported by parent fees are more possible to serve children from all upbringings and their focus is more on the children than on offering assistance to the parents while the programs that are owned by the public normally serve children from families that are poor.

Additionally, in the big firms some of the employers that participate in early learning and childcare normally provide contacts with early learning and childcare information and referral services, and to a lower extent by becoming a provider of services to their staff. These organizations offer the early learning and childcare centers in the society some financial help, partake in the partnership locally to plan for later early learning and childcare needs, and offer employees supports for childcare.

The strengths and weaknesses of United States of America and Canada's early learning and childcare standards are:

The strengths of the United States of America and Canada's early learning and childcare standards are that they will enhance the children’s future school success, the families will be encouraged to bring their children to the childcare centers because the educators are educated and regulated, the childcare centers are monitored, child ratios, and the center's health and nutritional inspections.

The weaknesses of the United States of America early learning and childcare standards are that childcare and early education are developed independently, generally, and are still not well integrated. Also, through the years early education and childcare have continued to operate independently and are often seen as conflicting. In addition, many children are placed in low-quality care, some of which may be harmful to the long-term progress of the children. Another weakness is that throughout the states both inside and outside, the choice and depth of their curriculum used for the children are different.

The weakness of Canada's early learning and childcare standards is different from one province to another, with no national system guiding the childcare centers while the strengths of early learning and childcare standards in Canada is that those standards can help create equal opportunities for children from various socioeconomic upbringing by preparing them for school (Kamerman & Gatenio-Gabel,2007; Parliament of Canada, 2021).

 

 

References

EdCan Network. (2015, June 15). Assessment for learning across Canada. https://www.edcan.ca/articles/assessment-for-learning-across-canada/

Kamerman, S. B., & Gatenio-Gabel, S. (2007). Early childhood education and care in the United States: An overview of the current policy picture. International Journal of Child Care and Education Policy , 1 (1), 23-34.https://doi.org/10.007/2288-6729-1-1-23.

National education goals panel (n.d.). Principles and recommendations for early childhood assessments. https://govinfo.library.unt.edu/negp/reports/prinrec.pdf

Parliament of Canada. (2021, 03 03). Early Childhood Education and Care in Canada. https://lop.parl.ca/sites/PublicWebsite/default/en_CA/ResearchPublications/202107E

The center for American Progress. (2020, September 10). Student assessment during COVID-19.  https://www.americanprogress.org/article/student-assessment-covid-19/

 

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