This week I reviewed European Early Childhood Education Research Association (EECERA) website. at http://www.eecera.org/journal/ to answer the following questions:
What are some of the current international research topics? It was interesting to learn that many of the same topics that researchers and early childhood professionals are researching in the United States are also being examined in other countries. The issues of transitioning children, school readiness, the professionalism of child care, access and quality are being examined.
What surprising facts/insights/new ideas about early childhood did you gain from exploring this international early childhood website? While reviewing the website, I found a study that was completed in Greece about Parent Perceptions of Quality in Early Childhood programs. The study compared the results of the Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale Parent Questionairre (ECERSPQ) with the results of the ECERS-R that was completed by trained professionals. The study was large with over 500 parents participating. The results found that in general parent's perceived the program as being a higher quality than the trained observers. I was very interested in the ECERSPQ as a way to study parent perceptions of quality. A brief search for more information about this tool did not yield results. However it gave me some ideas to use as part of the research simulation on parent perceptions of quality in early care and education.
What other noteworthy information did you find on this website? The access to the journal articles on the website provided another source of information for my studies. It was a great to find these journal articles.
Wow! What an interesting study on parental perceptions on quality care. As I have told you before, I work for the QRS in Louisiana and I am going to go to this website and read about the results. I do believe just from my day to day work that parents are not as hard to please as the ERS assessors. Sometimes parents just want simple traits like children's happiness, and safety. Then sometimes the differences in opinion is because parents do not understand what "quality" is in early childhood.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this information. I know I will enjoy reading this article.
Mary Jo
I am interested in taking a look at this website in more detail. It sounds like it has some very interesting studies. Thanks for sharing this information!
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to know that the United States is doing as much or more as other countries are regarding research and development in relation to early childhood. Also, the study in Greece about parental perception was noteworthy and should definitely be one used in our country to understand what parents expect from the education process.
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