Researchers, educators, professional organizations, administrators, parents, and policy makers have increased their involvement in the assessment and evaluation of early childhood education programs. This interest has developed swiftly during the last decades. The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and the National Association of Early Childhood Specialists in State Departments of Education (NAECS/SDE) developed a position statement titled, "Early childhood curriculum, assessment, and program evaluation: Building an effective, accountable system in programs for children birth through age 8," to address related trends, issues, guiding principles, and values. Appropriate and well-designed evaluations need to address several audiences including researchers, educators, policy makers, children, and parents. They need to encourage the implementation of a strong foundation that improves the quality of the children's education. Child assessment and program evaluation can lead to effective results and better accountability for preschool, kindergarten, and primary school programs. The purpose of this volume is to share a collection of research strands on contemporary perspectives on research in assessment and evaluation in early childhood education. It provides a review and critical analysis of the literature on assessment and evaluation of programs, children, teachers, and settings. The volume begins with a brief introductory chapter that presents the reader with a map of the area, laying out the issues and alternatives, and linking these to the chapters that follow. It addresses several areas including (1) understanding assessment and evaluation with young children, (2) schools and assessment implications, (3) teacher evaluation and professional development, (4) social relationships and assessment, (5) content areas in early education assessment, (6) technology and assessment, and (7) conclusion with future research directions in assessment and evaluation in early childhood education. The volume is of interest to researchers, educators, policy makers, university faculty, graduate students, and general readers who are interested in research on assessment and evaluation in early childhood education. The chapters are authored by established scholars in the field.

The Common Core's language standards can seem overwhelming-students need to learn specific, complex grammar rules at each grade level. The Common Core Grammar Toolkit to the rescue! In this comprehensive guide, author Sean Ruday shows how you can make grammar instruction fun and meaningful. You will learn how to... Teach the Common Core's language standards for grades 9-12 by presenting each grammar rule as a useful writing tool. Use mentor texts-excerpts from great literature-to help students understand grammar in action. Promote metacognition along the way, so that students become responsible for their own learning. The book thoroughly covers how to teach the Common Core's language standards for grades 9-12, on topics such as varying syntax for effect, using domain-specific words and phrases, analyzing nuances in word meanings, using semicolons to link related clauses, and more. You'll learn how to present each of these grammar rules to your students as tools that will help them improve their writing. You'll also find resources designed to provide you with extra support, including reproducible classroom-ready charts and forms, an annotated bibliography of suggested mentor texts for each grammar rule, and a guide for teachers and administrators interested in using the book for group-based professional development. With The Common Core Grammar Toolkit, you'll have a clear game plan for encouraging your students to use language more purposefully and effectively.

Found in Translation: Connecting Reconceptualist Thinking with Early Childhood Education Practices highlights the relationships between reconceptualist theory and classroom practice. Each chapter in this edited collection considers a contemporary issue and explores its potential to disrupt the status quo and be meaningful in the lives of young children. The book pairs reconceptualist academics and practitioners to discuss how theories can be relevant in everyday educational contexts, working with children who are from a wide range of cultural, ethnic, gender, language, and social orientations to enable previously unimagined ways of being, thinking, and doing in contemporary times.

The implementation of virtual environments in education has been rapidly increasing in frequency after the COVID-19 pandemic. As these technologies rise in popularity, it is essential to understand the roles digital technologies play in fostering connections and learning, the affordances of digital texts and spaces for virtual classroom experiences, the difficulties educators have faced and how these practices have been crafted to meet these challenges, and more. Innovations in Digital Instruction Through Virtual Environments advances knowledge about the pedagogical decisions and lived experiences of researchers and educators both before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. It features research from those who have worked to sustain and develop digital/media pedagogical practices. Covering topics such as active learning environments, emotional labor, and textual engagements, this premier reference source is an excellent resource for educators and administrators of both K-12 and higher education, pre-service teachers, teacher educators, librarians, researchers, and academicians.

In the current standards-based, accountability-driven world of education, it is difficult for educators to use differentiated instruction to cater to the individual learning needs of each student. This book explains differentiating instruction in a way that connects to current standards and provides examples of challenging best practice lessons.

This book explores the significance of silence within and beyond pedagogical contexts. Silence is a complex and multidimensional phenomenon for everyday life: since schools mirror society, it is also significant in education. While silence can be experienced in a multitude of different ways, the author reflects on whether silence itself can bear a message: is there an aspect of dialogue in silence, or is it a language all of its own? This book examines a variety of silences essential for education, examining such topics as silence and aspects of power, silent students, and the relationship between listening and silence. Drawing on a range of empirical data, the author elucidates the significance of silence in pedagogical contexts.

Written under the guidance and with the support of Dylan Wiliam, Kate Jones writes about five formative assessment strategies in action in the classroom, with a foreword from Professor John Hattie. Building on the highly successful work of Wiliam and Siobhan Leahy, ideas are shared and misconceptions with formative assessment are addressed with lots of practical advice. Formative assessment in action focuses on five evidence-informed strategies that the teacher can use to support their learners to make progress. Formative assessment can help both the teacher and student understand what needs to be learned and how this can be achieved. During the learning process, formative assessment can identify students' progress as well as highlighting gaps in their knowledge and understanding, therefore giving the teacher useful insight as to what feedback and instruction can be provided to continue to move learners forward. Formative assessment takes place during the learning process. It continually informs the teacher and student as to how learning can move forward as it is happening. This is different to summative assessment, which focuses on the evaluation of student learning at the end of the process. There's a range of case studies from different subjects and key stages to show how formative assessment can be embedded across a curriculum successfully.

How do we get from helpless baby to knowing teenager? What impact do television, computers and iPads, the internet, video games and evolving technology have on the way children's minds develop? Is cognition a question of learning and environment or of heredity? How we learn to think, perceive, remember, talk, reason and learn is a central topic in psychology - and one that sees constant new research. In this very readable book, David Cohen discusses the latest studies and covers all the controversies that have dogged the subject for nearly 150 years. He examines the work of the 'greats' like Piaget, Freud and Vygotsky and shows how the issues that have intrigued psychologists relate to any child growing up today. This book is for everyone who lives with, works with or studies children. David Cohen examines the fundamental issues of how children learn to read and write, of how their intellectual abilities are measured and the development of their morality. He examines child crime and looks at how modern media affect the way the child's mind develops. This fully updated new edition of How the Child's Mind Develops, which incorporates new extracts from a mother's weekly diary, is an integrated and thought-provoking account of the central issues in child development. Parents, professionals and students will find it an invaluable introduction.

This book offers a detailed look into the how and what of mathematics instruction in Singapore. It presents multiple aspects of mathematics instruction in schools, ranging from the unique instructional core, practices that promote mastery, development of conceptual knowledge through learning experiences, nurturing of positive attitudes, self-regulation of learning and development and use of instructional materials for making connections across mathematical ideas, developing mathematical reasoning, and developing fluency in applying mathematical knowledge in problem solving.The book presents a methodology that is successful in documenting classroom instruction in a comprehensive manner. The research findings illuminate instruction methods that are culturally situated, robust and proven to impact student learning. It demonstrates how a unique data source can be analysed through multiple lenses and provides readers with a rich portrait of how the school mathematics instruction is enacted in Singapore secondary schools.

This monograph celebrates the 50th anniversary of Michael Young's iconic book "The Rise of the Meritocracy" by analysing the ideas behind meritocracy, citizenship and education and offering an extension to Young's initial findings.Young's iconic book "The Rise of the Meritocracy", not only coined the word meritocracy but contained a prescient warning about the dangers of pursuing the vision of a meritocratic society.This fascinating book takes this anniversary as its starting point for an analysis and critique of meritocracy, citizenship and education. Part I begins with two substantial chapters - the first discussing Young's book and its influence, and the second the revival of support for meritocracy under New Labour in the UK, with particular reference to its implications for education; the third chapter then examines and critiques the ways New Labour has interpreted the idea of active citizenship.Part II examines issues of continuity and change in New Labour policy on schools, the curriculum, and the professions (especially but not only the teaching profession).Issues raised in Part I are revisited in Part III, which is devoted to an analysis of policy responses to the problems of multiculturalism and their relation to immigration policy and ideas of a common civic culture in both Britain and overseas. In all the sections, the aim is to go beyond exposition to develop a sustained critique, particularly of New Labour's over-centralizing tendencies and the associated erosion of local and institutional democracy.

This book explores childhood and schooling in late socialist societies by bringing into dialogue public narratives and personal memories that move beyond imaginaries of Cold War divisions between the East and West. Written by cultural insiders who were brought up and educated on the eastern side of the Iron Curtain - spanning from Central Europe to mainland Asia - the book offers insights into the diverse spaces of socialist childhoods interweaving with broader political, economic, and social life. These evocative memories explore the experiences of children in navigating state expectations to embody "model socialist citizens" and their mixed feelings of attachment, optimism, dullness, and alienation associated with participation in "building" socialist futures. Drawing on the research traditions of autobiography, autoethnography, and collective biography, the authors challenge what is often considered 'normal' and 'natural' in the historical accounts of socialist childhoods, and engage in (re)writing histories that open space for new knowledges and vast webs of interconnections to emerge. This book will be compelling reading for students and researchers working in education, sociology and history, particularly those within the interdisciplinary fields of childhood and area studies. 'The authors of this beautiful book are professional academics and intellectuals who grew up in different socialist countries. Exploring "socialist childhoods" in myriad ways, they draw on memories, and collective history, emotional insider knowledge and the measured perspective of an analyst. What emerges is life that was caught between real optimism and dullness, ethical commitments and ideological absurdities, selfless devotion to children and their treatment as a political resource. Such attention to detail and examination of the paradoxical nature of this time makes this collective effort not only timely but remarkably genuine.' -Alexei Yurchak, University of California, USA

As American educational reformers continue to find innovative ways to address the global achievement gap, many experts seem to agree that increasing instructional time is a viable option. In addition to extending the school day, some educational leaders have looked to modifying the traditional academic calendar to address some of the academic losses that occur when students have 8-10 weeks of summer vacation each year. Re-examining how students spend their summer vacation, although considered by many to be a cultural taboo, may be the answer to addressing global competition and decreasing the national achievement gap. The need for a two month break from schools harkens back to a pre-industrial time that no longer is pertinent for our students. Although an answer may be staring us in the face, are we willing to give up on the American tradition of summer vacation all in the name of reform and student success?

This book focuses on sustaining communities of practice in primary and secondary schools in Australia and internationally for the professional learning of all teachers, and particularly, early career teachers. Informed by the communities of practice research of Wenger-Trayner, it shows what factors are conductive to the sustainability of communities of practice, drawing particularly on a case study of an Australian regional secondary school, and explores how it has sustained support particularly for early career teachers over a three-year period. The first chapters of the book provide longitudinal perspectives using qualitative data and include perspectives from a variety of stakeholders, including the principal, the professional learning coordinator and the early career teachers who have experienced the school's Communities of practice over three or more years. It offers practical suggestions on how to implement and improve communities of practice in schools and highlights the increasing importance of online communities to support early career teachers. Policy-makers, school principals, teacher educators and teaching practitioners find the book useful for implementing and sustaining communities of practice in schools. Subsequent chapters explore the value of online communities, such as Twitter communities; the role of collegial support networks in supporting early career teachers in Flemish primary education; and professional learning in Northern Ireland pre- and in-service teacher networked communities.

Curriculum can be defined in a variety of ways. It might be viewed as a body of knowledge, a product, or a process. Curricula can differ as they are conceptualized from various theoretical perspectives to address the needs of teachers, students, and the context of schooling. One reason to study curriculum is "to reveal the expectations, processes and outcomes of students' school learning experiences that are situated in different cultural and system contexts. ... further studies of curriculum practices and changes aremuch needed to help ensure the success of educational reforms in the different cultural and system contexts" (Kulm & Li, 2009, p.709). This volume highlights international perspectives on curriculum and aims to broaden the wider mathematics education community's understandings of mathematics curriculum through viewing a variety of ways that curricula are developed, understood, and implemented in different jurisdictions/countries. Within this volume, we define curriculum broadly as the set of mathematics standards or outcomes, the messages inherent in mathematics curriculum documents and resources, how these standards are understood by a variety of stakeholders, and how they are enacted in classrooms. The focus is on the written, implied, and enacted curriculum in various educational settings throughout the world.

Private schools resurfaced in China after 1978 when the Chinese government embarked on an economic reform for modernization. This book offers a comprehensive review of the development, characteristics, issues, and problems of private schools at primary, secondary and university levels, especially elite private schools for children of very wealthy families.

Based on fieldwork at about 40 private and public schools in China, this study also critically examines social response and government reactions to private education development, and ends with reflections on its significance and future prospects, touching on issues concerning social equality, efficiency, public school reform, and democratization in China.

All students enter our math classrooms with ideas worthy of discussion. Some of the most effective breakthroughs come from short, intentional talks between students and teacher, yet planning for these moments can seem daunting. In her innovative book, Conferring in the Math Classroom, Gina Picha focuses on simple and transformative ways teachers can use math conferences, short conversations between teachers and small groups of students at work, to guide instruction, assess understanding, and build strong math thinkers. Inside you'll learn how to: Facilitate math conferences to listen to students, encourage them to share their math thinking, and build on their strengths Ask exploratory questions to gain insight into their math reasoning and plan the next steps for instruction Provide differentiated instruction based on the individual and group needs Picha includes teacher questioning guides, If-Then charts organized by grade level and math topic, and note-taking templates to help you get started with math conferring right away. This practical and accessible approach can help students deepen their math understanding, build confidence in their math abilities, and connect learnings between math subjects.

As anyone who lives, works, or spends any time with teenagers knows, adolescence can be both the best of times and the worst of times. Teenagers are undergoing miraculous, world-altering shifts. In light of these changes, how can society help adolescents move safely from teen to adult? How can adults and adolescents engage with each other in ways that are positive and mutually beneficial to one another's journeys?

In "We Reap What We Sow," author Dr. Anne W. Nordholm blends philosophical and educational approaches to demonstrate how you can cocreate an abundant future and help you guide a young person toward an engaging and meaningful adult life. She first describes what it means to know ourselves and the difference that knowledge can make. She then offers strategies that, when modeled by adults, adolescents absorb not from what we say but how we behave.

Every person must figure out a life that is individual, is connected to a community, and has a particular historical context. This guide explores how we know and connect to our communities and how historical consciousness assists us in finding and creating meaningful work. It also considers how we can be better guides to the next generation via skilled and disciplined communication and reconsiders the institutions we've established for adolescent learning to better reflect what we understand as effective adult maturation.

Through the strategies presented in "We Reap What We Sow," adults can help youth navigate adolescence to become healthy, thriving human beings.

The history of American education is a vital and productive field of study. This reference book provides factual information about eminent people and important topics related to the development of American public, private, and parochial schools, covering elementary and secondary levels. In addition to major state and regional leaders and reformers, it includes biographies of significant national educators, philosophers, psychologists, and writers. Subjects embrace important ideas, events, institutions, agencies, and pedagogical trends that profoundly shaped American policies and perceptions regarding education. The more than 350 entries are arranged alphabetically and written by expert contributors. Each entry closes with a brief bibliography, and the volume ends with a list of works for further reading.

Entries were drawn from a review of leading history of education textbooks and the "History of Education Quarterly." These topics were further refined by comments from leading authorities and the contributors. Most of the contributors are established scholars in the history of education, curriculum and instruction, school law, educational administration, and American history; a few also work as public and private school teachers and thus bring their practical experience to their entries. The period covered begins in the colonial period and continues through the 1990s.