Importance of Early Childhood Development Programs

¶ … education has been given more attention by researchers and educationists since the publication of the Brundtland report in the late 1980s. The report introduced the world to sustainable development as a key global concern. Since then even school curricula have made efforts to include such concepts as natural resources and climate change. Interestingly, not enough attention has been given to the manner in which early childhood development may be instrumental in the whole process. This paper discusses the place of early childhood education especially in ensuring sustainable development. It is apparent that early childhood education is part of a whole that is the entire education system and this implies that it has just as much a role to play in tackling the issues of sustainable development especially those that are to be brought to the fore in the educational system.

The role education plays in the endeavor is substantial. A large volume of literature has been written on the place of education in this issue especially as a means of preparing people all over the world to take action so as to create the needed change. The declaration of the past ten years as the Decade of Education for Sustainable Education cements the fact that education will be instrumental in reaching global sustainability (UNESCO, 2004). The declaration by the UN has been adopted by various players at the national and continental levels, for instance, the European UN Economic Commission and the Committee on Environmental Policy has put forth a strategy for sustainable development education in Europe (UNECE, 2005). It is therefore clear that the public and the politicians have the good will to ensure that education is critical to achieving these goals of saving the world. Nonetheless, not much attention has been channeled to the manner in which early childhood education will play a role in the process. This concern was raised during 'The role of early childhood education for a sustainable society' workshop that was organized in 2007 by Goteborg University and UNESCO. In the course of the workshop, several views on the place of early childhood education as a pillar of ensuring a sustainable world were put forth. The conclusion made was that early childhood education had the capacity to make major contributions to ensure education for sustainability. Some of the strengths put forth were the cultural experiences, professional competences, interdisciplinary knowledge as well as the participants that were personally engaged.

Early Childhood Education and Learning for Sustainable Development and Citizenship

As I was growing up and gaining education, I understood that neither education nor sustainable development should be viewed as only a national concern. The two concern cultural, economic, political and social events of global concern. A perspective that takes this into account is in harmony with the definition sustainable development has been given (Hugglund & Samuelsson, 2009).

When applying sustainable development definition to educational goals, emphasis is made on integrating social, environmental, value and economical dimensions. In this regard, the conceptualization of education for sustainable development draws parallels from citizenship education, values education, peace education as well as education for democracy. Together, they constitute education practice and research that clearly has normative signatures which imply that political and ideological criteria shall direct policy and practice. This implied to me that education for sustainable development should take into account values concerning solidarity, democracy as well as justice which are instrumental for the survival of humankind and the earth (Haggland and Samuelsson, 2009).

During my early childhood education graduate program, I learned that most children take part in preschool when little. Before they turn two, 84% of all kids have been to preschool. Education policy considers preschool part and parcel of the educational system. As experienced later in the professional field, I found out that changes that have impacted preschool development include the development of a national curricula as well as a teacher-training program that is university based. The changes can be associated to those changes that have been noted in the educational policies, including the labor market as well as those changes at the level of the family. In certain ways, I experienced that preschool has been seen to be advancing the agenda of various players instead of supporting the learning of the children. The umbrella aim of preschool is to support the child-care needs of parents, make a contribution to equality of men and women, and to provide all the children a chance to develop social and intellectual abilities (Hagglund and Samuelsson, 2009).

The concept of making use of a child's immediate environment as well as their everyday life to form learning references is an important pedagogical theory principle. From my professional experience, all the activities that take place inside the home like cooking or work in the kitchen, or wood work, and gardening formed the basis for learning. Taking such an approach is a means of coming nearer to the experiences of the child so as to use what is familiar to them to draw references to what needs to be learned. Learning, as pointed out by Frobel, should begin from what the children are already aware of. He also noted that differences existed between older and smaller children and proposed a pedagogical approach grounded on learning, work and play. According to him, the children ought to be active in mind and body so as to develop interest and respond appropriately to learning opportunities. Knowledge transmission hasn't been an issue in preschool. While varied qualities exist in practice, Wals opines that preschool pedagogy possesses its own qualities and tradition (Haggland & Samuelsson, 2009).

Furthermore I experienced that a significant trait noted is stressing that a child should be regarded as a whole individual. This means that learning and care have to be given equal weight. Hallden (2007) discusses the weight between the approaches. She makes an argument that seeing a child as an agent that is independent is very important. She however notes that such agency ought to be balanced by care given by the society and adults. She says that there is a possibility to lose care as we strive for knowledge transmission. Care is a very important facet of young children's learning. In the context of Early Childhood Development (ECD) context, it isn't easy including aspects of care as needed dimensions in the learning of solidarity, rights, and democracy (Haggland & Samuelsson, 2009).

For early childhood education, given the prevailing policy environment, educators have been requested to possess a deep comprehension of child development and issues concerning early education and to avail rich educational experiences for the children they care for. There is high accountability to results and the professional support resources are limited. The field therefore requires comprehensive studies from which professional development studies can be based (Sheridan, Edwards, Marvin & Knoche, 2009).

The skills, practices and knowledge that I learned in my professional field state that in early childhood, education is a significant factor in evaluating the level of learning of young ones, as well as assisting with their preparation to get into the learning system. The educators are being requested to possess a deep comprehension of child development as well as issues of early education and so avail to the learners a richer learning experience even where resources are limited. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 highlights the significance of comprehending which qualities child educators should have. The individuals upon whom we shall place the care of our children should meet certain minimum requirements and also take steps to improve their skills and professional ability through professional development. (Martinez-Beck & Zaslow, 2006).

According to my experience, with more attention being given to early childhood professional development in the communities in charge of policy and practice, there is need to determine the aspects that work for various environments and people and the costs involved (Welch-Ross, Wolf, Moorehouse & Rathgeb, 2006). The research that I did during my graduate program on professional development in the field should cover more than the characteristics needed from caregivers, but also establish evidence theories ranging from the forms to the processes as well as the outcomes. The current standing of early childhood education means that professional development should be given a bigger podium to develop empirical and theoretical expertise so as to guide the planning as well as implementation of the reforms that have been fronted by various players in the field (Sheriden, Edwards, Marvin & Knoche, 2009).

Assumptions, Goals and Objectives of Professional Development

Components of Programs that have been of Value to Professional Development

Primarily, "professional development" in the early childhood programs that I studied is used to refer to the experiences for the promotion of training, education, and development opportunities for practitioners in early childhood who work with children under the age of eight and the families. During my graduate program, professional development was applied to the activities which try to heighten the skill set, knowledge base, and attitudes of practitioners (Havard Family Research Project, 2006). The ultimate objectives of the programs that were of particular value were facilitating the acquisition of certain social-emotional and learning competencies among the children, and also the promotion of significant family-specific abilities and attitudes to aid the development and learning of the children. This is to say that the long-term goals of initiatives aimed at early childhood professional development involve the enhancing of the communicative, behavioral, and cognitive domains and the measure of the success of these initiatives is the outcomes (Sheridan, Edwards, Marvin & Knoche, 2009).

Given another perspective, the professional development I achieved is done to achieve two main goals. First, it improved my skills and knowledge of the practitioners which is instrumental in ensuring that the quality of service is enhanced. Second was the promotion of a culture of continuous professional growth in myself. The first goal is concerned with the improvement of the dispositions, skills and knowledge of the practitioners. Practitioner knowledge is composed of facts, vocabulary, ideas, and concepts of educational factors as well as the best practice. Skills are composed of the aspects of action occurring in specific time periods and that can be observed and deductions made from. They are acquired directly from action, imitation, modeling, discovery, trial and error or various other means and their improvement comes from troubleshooting feedback or through drill, repetition, or continuous practice. Disposition, in my graduate programs on the other hand, referred to the tendency to consciously show a certain behavior pattern voluntarily and frequently. The behavior pattern is aimed at achieving a certain broad objective instead of short-term goal. The difference between dispositions and goals is the broader perspective and their tendency and the presence of motivation to put them into use. Contrast this to the fact that the possession of a skill can be coupled by a lack of desire to make use of it. The benefits that I accrued from professional development target skills, dispositions and knowledge are all elements that are made use of as the teachers interact with the children and their families. My teachers also made effort to meaningfully structure the learning environments in the classroom or home environment. The teachers made use of certain strategies to instruct given groups of children based on their perception of their abilities and phase of learning so as to realize the needed outcomes (Sheridian, Edwards, Marvin & Knoche, 2009).

The other goal of early childhood professional development in my graduate programs included the sustenance of high quality professional practices through the enhancement of individuals and systems to take part in activities which are growth-producing and self-sustaining. Involved in this process is the transfer of the responsibility for the delivery of services that are effective to the practitioners and individuals in the settings of early childhood education. A sense of responsibility as far as the sustenance of quality is concerned was imparted on me and they become accepting of continuous development and growth (Riley & Roach, 2006). Initially, professional development was expected to be influenced by players from the outside but now there is need for self-motivation from the practitioners themselves (Sheridan, Edwards, Marvin & Knoche, 2009).

The state of professional development in early childhood education suggests that not very much is known about the form and structure of professional development, or the processes involved. According to my professional experience in early childhood education, only a very small amount of empirical research has been done concerning the manner of the acquisition of skills and knowledge in the field. Much of the knowledge available leans more towards theory than practicality. I learned that there is need to carry out more empirical research, especially in the ways through which different forms of professional development influence knowledge, skill and dispositions of the professionals in early childhood. This is to say that beyond concerns of efficacy, there is need to consider what types of professional development, such as coaching at group or individual levels, have a positive impact on practice. Surely, aspects of implementation linked with various strategies of professional development (such as observation, feedback, practice, demonstration, guidance, collaboration, scaffolding, and reflection) deserve serious study as well as comparison. For instance, intensity and timing strategies like focused feedback and personal reflection seem important for a teacher of early childhood education to be taught but their importance is only starting to be comprehended (Hattie & Timperley, 2007).