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1 – 10 of 937Jane Strawhecker, Christopher Knoell, Paula Thompson, Nicole Shundoff and Angela Bardell
This mixed-method, collaborative study investigated parents’ perceptions of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) learning through use of STEM kits specifically…
Abstract
Purpose
This mixed-method, collaborative study investigated parents’ perceptions of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) learning through use of STEM kits specifically designed for in-home use by parents and preschool-age children.
Design/methodology/approach
Parents with a child attending a community-based childhood development center and ranging in age from three to four were invited to participate. Data were analyzed for the participants’ surveys, which were completed at two different times (pre and post) for this study.
Findings
After utilizing the STEM materials with their child over a two-week period, the parents’ perceptions of STEM content changed. The results indicate that regardless of the at-home STEM materials, positive outcomes for their child occurred, including the likelihood that their child would pursue additional STEM opportunities.
Research limitations/implications
With a small sample size and a short timeframe for conducting the study, the results lack generalizability. The findings add information about the effectiveness of STEM materials for preschoolers while providing insight into educational opportunities in home environments.
Originality/value
As the nation addresses workforce shortages in many areas, including STEM, rethinking STEM education during the first five years is important. The more opportunities for young children to engage in meaningful STEM, the greater the potential to pique interest and develop critical thinking skills.
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This paper aims to provide an overview of the development periods of home-based learning in Hong Kong during the COVID-19 pandemic, then discusses the differences in how the more…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to provide an overview of the development periods of home-based learning in Hong Kong during the COVID-19 pandemic, then discusses the differences in how the more affluent and well-educated middle-class parents and the economically and culturally disadvantaged working-class parents have dealt with the challenges of this new learning mode in their children’s education.
Design/methodology/approach
This research mainly adopted the qualitative research method, and used data from multiple sources, including online and offline participant observations, informal interviews and second-hand official reports.
Findings
The preliminary findings suggest that due to the closure of the formal schooling system, the impact of unequal family resources – such as tangible economic investment and intangible cultural and social support – on students’ academic performance has been exposed, thus reinforcing the pre-existing inequality between different social classes.
Research limitations/implications
The findings of this paper are primarily based on preliminary observations and informal interviews, and it needs more systematic studies, both qualitative and quantitative, are needed to provide further empirical evidence to demonstrate the impacts of digital, housing and knowledge divide between the middle- and working-class families on students’ academic performance.
Originality/value
The paper presents new empirical data concerning the class mechanisms underlying home-based learning during the class suspension in Hong Kong. It shows that home-based learning in this challenging time has exposed the existing inequality in education.
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The present chapter explicates urban and rural childhoods in India. It presents childhood as a dynamic product arising out of an intersection of children's experiences in…
Abstract
The present chapter explicates urban and rural childhoods in India. It presents childhood as a dynamic product arising out of an intersection of children's experiences in different familial–socio-cultural contexts, and children's positions within parent–child interactions and relations. These contexts and interactions tend to colour and shape the childhoods that children inhabit. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in urban and rural India, the chapter documents (1) nature of children's engagements and (2) parent–child relations, explicitly observed in parent–child interactions, provisioning warmth and care; parental control and supervision over children and children's participation in the overall fabric of family life and so forth. Forty-eight parents (24 urban and 24 rural) of children aged 7–11 years participated in the study. Qualitative data gathered through semi-structured interviews and home observations revealed distinctions in urban and rural Indian childhoods. Urban childhood is characterised by rights and privileges, and the centrality of academic pursuits, while rural childhood is featured with subtle induction into economic and social fabric of rural life. Although the world of ‘Indian childhood’ seemed plural, childhood playfulness and learning seemed to be the unifying themes. Geared to the fact that children have to make a living with limited means in the future, both childhoods were accelerated in preparation for future. Dwelling on the complexities in children's lives, this article appreciates diversity and multiplicity in childhoods.
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Cathy Nutbrown, Julia Bishop and Helen Wheeler
– The purpose of this paper is to report on how early years practitioners worked with the ORIM Framework to support work with parents to promote early literacy experiences.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to report on how early years practitioners worked with the ORIM Framework to support work with parents to promote early literacy experiences.
Design/methodology/approach
Co-produced Knowledge Exchange (KE) was used to develop and evaluate work with parents to facilitate their young children’s literacy. Information was gathered in discussion groups, interviews with parents and practitioners and feedback from all the parties involved.
Findings
Practitioners and families engaged with each other in the further development of an established literacy programme, and families demonstrated “ownership” of the co-produced knowledge after the end of the project.
Research limitations/implications
Project design in co-produced research and KE is necessarily flexible. The focus is on practitioners’ knowledge and ownership of the process, sharing knowledge with parents and enhancing children’s experiences.
Practical implications
Practices that can enhance parental engagement in their children’s early literacy are varied and multiple and ORIM can be used flexibly to plan, develop and evaluate innovative and community – (and family –) specific practices.
Social implications
Where parents have more knowledge of children’s early literacy development they are in a better position to support them; for learning communities there are implications in terms of future development of work with families to support early literacy development.
Originality/value
This paper contributes an original approach to the co-production of research with early years practitioners. It also identifies specific issues around the ethics of ownership in co-produced research.
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Kristen E. Darling, Deborah Seok, Patti Banghart, Kerensa Nagle, Marybeth Todd and Nadia S. Orfali
The purpose of this paper is to examine Conscious Discipline’s (CD) Parenting Education Curriculum (CD PEC), the parenting component of CD’s research-based social and emotional…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine Conscious Discipline’s (CD) Parenting Education Curriculum (CD PEC), the parenting component of CD’s research-based social and emotional learning program. CD aims to change child behavior by changing how adults understand and manage their own behaviors and emotions. Researchers explored CD PEC’s association with improved parenting skills, parent–child relationships and child behavior and emotion management.
Design/methodology/approach
During pre- and post-site visits, parents in four Head Start programs completed the Attentive Parenting Survey (n=25) and interviews (n=19); and 20 staff were also interviewed.
Findings
Parents reported that CD PEC shifted their perspectives and practices for managing children’s challenging behaviors, improved parent–child relationships and resulted in decreased child behavior problems.
Research limitations/implications
The study was correlational, based on self-report, and had a small sample with no comparison group.
Practical implications
This study supports CD PEC as a means of shifting parenting practices, relationships and child behavior by focusing on adult social-emotional skills and self-regulation.
Social implications
This study provides preliminary evidence that addressing the social-emotional needs of adults is a viable step to helping children improve their social skills, emotion regulation and general behavior, which have all been linked to later academic and life success.
Originality/value
The paper studies improvements in parents’ emotion recognition and self-regulation before disciplining their children.
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Agostino Cortesi, Carlotta Berionni, Carina Veeckman, Chiara Leonardi, Gianluca Schiavo, Massimo Zancanaro, Marzia Cescon, Maria Sangiuliano, Dimitris Tampakis and Manolis Falelakis
The European H2020 Families_Share project aims at offering a grass-root approach and a co-designed platform supporting families for sharing time and tasks related to childcare…
Abstract
Purpose
The European H2020 Families_Share project aims at offering a grass-root approach and a co-designed platform supporting families for sharing time and tasks related to childcare, parenting, after-school and leisure activities and other household tasks. To achieve this objective, the Families_Share project has been built on current practices which are already leveraging on mutual help and support among families, such as Time Banks, Social Streets and self-organizing networks of parents active at the neighbourhood level and seek to harness the potential of ICT networks and mobile technologies to increase the effectiveness of participatory innovation. The aim of this paper is to present and discuss the Families_Share methodology and platform, as well as the results obtained by several partecipating communities in different European countries.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper discusses how the Families Share approach (CAPS project, Horizon 2020) is bringing the sharing economy to childcare. Families Share developed a co-caring approach and a co-designed digital welfare platform to support parents with sharing time and tasks related to childcare, after-school and leisure activities. Families Share conducted two iterative pilot experiments and related socio-economic evaluations in six European cities. More than 3,000 citizens were engaged in the co-design process through their local community organizations and more than 1,700 parents and children actively experimented with the approach by organizing collaborative childcare activities. The authors discuss the challenges and solutions of co-designing a socio-technical approach aimed at facilitating socially innovative childcare models, and how the Families Share approach, based on technology-supported co-production of childcare, may provide a new sustainable welfare model for municipalities and companies with respect to life––work balance.
Findings
The authors discuss the challenges and solutions of co-designing a technological tool aimed at facilitating socially innovative childcare models, and how the Families Share approach may provide a new sustainable welfare model for municipalities and companies with respect to work–life balance.
Originality/value
As a main difference with state-of-the-art proposals, Families_Share is aimed to provide support to networks of parents in the organization of self-managed activities, this way being orthogonal with respect either to social-network functionalities or to supply and demand services. Furthermore, Families_Share has been based on a participative approach for both the ICT platform and the overall structure.
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The study explores government primary school students' remote learning experience during school closures due to COVID-19.
Abstract
Purpose
The study explores government primary school students' remote learning experience during school closures due to COVID-19.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative approach and semi-structured interviews were employed for data collection. The study used a snowball sampling procedure to select 24 participants.
Findings
This study shows that students experienced setbacks in learning due to not having access to resources. Besides, online classes were expensive as they were not able to buy devices, internet package and other resources to participate in the remote classes. Since many students were unable to access digital media and get parental and teacher support for education, students' engagement in learning was very low. Moreover, the paucity of learning due to school closures has lowered students' motivation for learning. The study also contributed to understanding children's emotional attachment with the schools and how the closure affected their well-being. The results indicate that the students, teachers and parents did not have a positive experience with remote teaching–learning and the modalities did not contribute to continuing with meaningful learning.
Originality/value
The remote learning experience shared in this study can be used to inform policymakers, educators and stakeholders exploring remote learning solutions in low-resource contexts. This study contributes to understanding the skills and competencies teachers require to support children's learning during any crisis.
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Ismail Celik, Muhterem Dindar and Hanni Muukkonen
This study aims to explore Twitter posts of Turkish government agencies and the public under a specific hashtag, #NotHolidayButDistanceEducation, specifically related to online…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore Twitter posts of Turkish government agencies and the public under a specific hashtag, #NotHolidayButDistanceEducation, specifically related to online distance education during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a thematic analysis on 22,547 original tweets posted by 6,970 users during the first month of online distance education in Turkish K-12 schools. Based on like and retweet counts, the study further explored the extent of stakeholders’ engagement with the observed themes.
Findings
The findings showed that government agencies and citizens used Twitter to provide technical and psychological support, appreciate and motivate stakeholders, demonstrate sample distance education activities, share information and offer suggestions about the ongoing online distance education. It was also observed that the hashtag has been used for expressing negative views about online distance education and for political purposes. A positive relationship was found between social media engagement and providing technical support or sharing information for online distance education.
Practical implications
This study highlights the role of social media in providing practical and emotional support to education stakeholders in times of crisis. Thus, governments can use social media to provide evidence-based psychological and physical health support to their citizens during a pandemic. Social media can serve to improve education practices in schools through the interactions between the public and policymakers.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study can be considered unique because it demonstrates the civic use of social media for educational crisis management. This study highlights the influence of social media in educational policy and practice development in the contemporary era.
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Elina Aaltio and Sirpa Kannasoja
While studies on service users’ participation and their perceptions on the quality of services exist, agreement between family members’ and practitioners’ assessments of the…
Abstract
Purpose
While studies on service users’ participation and their perceptions on the quality of services exist, agreement between family members’ and practitioners’ assessments of the family’s situation has received less interest. The purpose of this paper is to investigate agreement and its effect on outcomes by comparing the viewpoints of three groups of informants (children, mothers and practitioners) in the context of statutory child protection in two study groups – one applying a systemic approach (SPM) and a service-as-usual control group (SAU).
Design/methodology/approach
A quasi-experimental repeated-measures study design was applied. Outcome data comprised 112 cases (SPM cases n = 56 and SAU cases n = 56) at three sites. Data was collected from all participants at baseline and six months later.
Findings
First, practitioners’ analyses of a child’s need for protection did not meet family members’ expressed need for help. Second, child–mother agreement on the need for service intervention at T1 predicted a decrease in practitioner-assessed abuse or neglect from T1 to T2. In this sample, no differences were found between the two groups.
Originality/value
This study highlights the importance of making explicit the viewpoints of children, parents and practitioners in casework and research to improve understanding of how their perspectives differ over the course of the process and how possible initial disagreements affect outcomes.
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A.K. Hasith Priyashantha, N. Pratheesh and P. Pretheeba
Many countries around the world were compelled to adhere to rigorous practices of school closures due to the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). During the lockdown…
Abstract
Purpose
Many countries around the world were compelled to adhere to rigorous practices of school closures due to the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). During the lockdown period, distance teaching and learning have become the only form to keep students on track. Reports have revealed that during this period, parents and students have strived hard to cope up with the learning method, which is new to the school education system in Sri Lanka. Against this background, this study explored the perceptions of parents in distance learning and homeschooling of their children during the COVID-19 pandemic in Sri Lanka. In addition, this study also attempted to assess the success of such educational practices in the country during the pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative research approach was used, and data were collected using a structured questionnaire. The questionnaires were distributed via Google Forms to a sample of 587 respondents through snowball sampling across Sri Lanka.
Findings
According to the collected data, about 52% of participants positively responded to the current distance learning practices adopted in school education. Meanwhile, about 57% of parents were negatively concerned about current practices. The respondents had negative concerns about the new role of teaching at home, difficulties in balancing work-from-home activities, too many distractions and unfamiliarity with the teaching methods and the subjects. Further with regard to depression, the majority of respondents have moderate depression which could be led to not favouring or being active in teaching. Accounting overall fact, the success of distance learning and homeschooling was higher with parents who have a good educational and socioeconomic background. The impact of these education systems appears to be long-lasting and may contribute to rising disparities.
Research limitations/implications
This study will help to pay close attention to the constraints and implications of distance learning activities, along with homeschooling and its adaptation in the future as a matter of urgency.
Originality/value
Several studies described obstacles encountered by students and academics in the higher education sector. However, this study helps to understand the existing difficulties experienced by parents/guardians with homeschooling and the introduction of distance education via the virtual platform in the primary and secondary education system in Sri Lanka. The findings highlighted the importance of developing sufficient information technology infrastructure facilities throughout the nation before hosting such virtual teaching and learning across Sri Lanka.
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