Australasian Journal of Early Childhood

This paper details three examples of technology education in process. The first case study highlights how an early childhood teacher comes to think about and plan for technology education. A series of diary entries are included to show the progression in thinking. In the second case study, a preschool teacher shows how very young children can participate in technology education. In the third case study a Year 3 teacher reveals how young children can become investigators in a simulated architects studio. The focus is on following the children's technological questions. All three case studies provide some insight into the sort of technological language that can be fostered in early childhood.

This paper reviews the theoretical and very limited research basis for common ‘practitioner advice’ given to early childhood teachers on the phrasing and presentation of rules. Displayed rule lists are the norm in classrooms and examples are given. Student participation in rule construction is difficult but possible for young children. Typical classrooms have more rules than the optimal four or five. Phrasing for generalisation is difficult to present, but assisted by key words. Omitting pronouns and modal verbs assists brevity and comprehension by young children. Positive phrasing may be unrealistic for very young children, who may need behaviourally specific prohibitions. Difficulties with pragmatic comprehension of abstract concepts are often overlooked. Picture support and possibly signing support for rules is likely to assist rule presentation for young children.

In June 1995 the Federal Government received the evaluation report on the national accreditation and quality improvement system for long day child care centres (Coopers & Lybrand Consultants 1995). The evaluation had been commissioned to investigate four issues: the quality improvements resulting from accreditation; the financial costs to centres of accreditation; the adequacy of resources provided to assist centres with accreditation; and any problems centres had encountered with the system. This paper focuses on the evaluation's findings with respect to the first term of reference, the exact wording of which was ‘to measure improvements in the quality of care attributable to the system’.

Workers in selected long day care centres in Sydney, Australia were surveyed on issues such as time allocated for written work, adequate staff-child ratio, inservice training, the process of accreditation, award wages and conditions, and attitudes to long day care. The aim of the survey was to find out if child care work conditions had changed with the implementation of accreditation. The results indicated that most of the respondents agreed that accreditation ensures high quality care but they found the process difficult, mainly due to lack of time. Work conditions over all had not changed as almost half of the respondents do not have allocated time for written work; half of the respondents did not agree with the staff-child ratio and three-quarters were not satisfied with their awards and wanted higher wages.

This paper describes a pragmatic approach using cognitive-behaviour therapy (CBT), aimed to assist professionals who work with young children and their families in the community. The primary emphasis is to strengthen confidence in parenting. Parents often have dysfunctional cognitions leading to unreasonable expectations of themselves or of their child. Restucturing such negative thoughts and attitudes of parents is considered as an essential step, in conjunction with improving parent-child communication and behaviour management of children. Behaviour management has three main components: focussing on the positive behaviour, ignoring negative behaviour if not dangerous, and the use of special time. Positive reinforcement is a key element that runs through all these strategies.

This article argues that improvements in the quality of young children's educational experiences could be assisted by greater use of fourth generation’ action research. A case is built for an increase in research for’ quality improvement in early childhood services as opposed to research ‘about’ quality improvement, through comparing and contrasting the implications for educational practice of the ethical and epistemological underpinnings of positivist, phenomenological and critical social science research traditions. It is argued that action research, informed by the ethics and epistemology of critical social science, offers one way of initiating such research.

Council of Australian Governments (COAG) proposed, in its discussion paper released in November 1995, that it develop a national framework for children's services in Australia. This is part of its review of intergovernmental responsibilities for the delivery of children's services. The review consists of two steps, the first being intergovernmental agreement on a national framework, and the second, bilateral agreements between the Commonwealth and each State and Territory to implement the national framework.

The Australian Early Childhood Association, Inc. (AECA) has prepared a submission which sets out its views on the objectives, outcomes, and features of a national framework for children's services. The Association strongly believes that the interests of children should be the paramount consideration in developing the national framework for a children's services system.