Introduction to Early Childhood Education

Description

Unlike most other texts for Introduction to Early Childhood Education on the market, this one gives foundational coverage of the field, while also incorporating coverage of diverse learners and the importance of access to education and services throughout. The author focuses on the complementary needs of families, children, and professionals in nearly every chapter. The book is structured to support needed professional knowledge, skills, and dispositions to ensure equity and accountability for success while also supporting children’s knowledge, skills, and dispositions across the curriculum.

Contents

Brief TOC

1  Introduction to Early Childhood Education

2  History of the Field

3  Issues and Services in the Field

4  Understanding Development

5  Understanding Child Diversity

6  Understanding Family Diversity

7  Understanding Professional Pathways

8  Educational Philosophies and Curricular Approaches

9  Assessment

10  Supporting Social/Emotional through Guidance

11  The Learning Environment

12  Effective Teaching Practices

13  Program Planning and Evaluation

14  Moving Forward: Professional Responsibilities Shaping the Field and the Future

Features

• Focuses on the complementary needs of children, families, and professionals as opposed to a topic based approach—the needs of these three groups are embedded throughout the text.
  • Provides theory and application strategies for children, families, and professionals within each chapter.
  • Highlights access for children, families, and professionals to education and services, and provides strategies supporting equity, accountability, and success.
• Incorporates Issues of Access and Equity feature in each chapter—focuses on the issues of the day that impact the success and equity of children.
• Embeds Teaching and Learning Connections within each chapter to support student application of material.
  • Spotlights specific practices students can use within their classroom to complement and extend presented course materials.
• Ties in the content of the text to the NAEYC and DEC standards
• Includes two separate chapters on assessment--one describing methods for assessing children, and another describing the link between quality and program evaluation
• Provide extensive coverage (five chapters) on curriculum--Preparing professionals for effective curricular assessment, planning, and implementation.
  • Includes assessment, curricular models, supporting social and emotional development as the core of the curriculum, teaching practices, and program based assessment.  
  • Covers the curricular needs of children age birth through eight years.
• Provides ongoing presentation of professional development issues and strategies to support professional development over time.
• Provides extensive examples and chapter vignettes--bringing the field to life and creating meaningful connections.
• Presents materials in a way that supports scaffolded learning for both new and more seasoned professionals.
• Ends Chapters 5-13 with a case study—profiling either an infant/toddler, preschool, kindergarten, or primary grade classroom.  Tied specifically to the content in the chapter.
  • Exemplifies the materials presented and provides students with real-world examples.

Benefits to Faculty Members

• Structures the text to reflect diverse levels of professional experiences and needs.
• Focuses on connecting theory, planning, implementation, and assessments through both the structure of the text and the presentation of materials.
• Supplies chapter activities that complement student development and learning.
• Provides extensive supplemental materials, including instructor syllabi--Supportive of integration of course materials into the classroom environment
• Supports individual course creation through extensive online learning materials.
• MyEducationLab! To package this text with the course-specific version of MyEdLab use this ISBN: 0-136-10107-0

Author

Dr. Johnna Darragh has taught early childhood education courses at the associate, baccalaureate, and masters degree level.  She is currently a Professor of Early Childhood Education at Heartland Community College, and serves as faculty liaison to their inclusive Child Development Lab. Johnna is a member of several Illinois committees focusing on workforce development and inclusion, and is the Illinois Liaison to the National Professional Development Center on Inclusion. She is a member of the Illinois Professional Development Advisory Committee (PDAC) Steering Committee, and serves on the National Center to Mobilize Early Childhood Knowledge (CONNECT) Steering Committee. In 2008, Johnna was a participant in the 2008 Project Forum on Universal Design.  She has experience teaching infant/toddlers and preschoolers, and as a home visitor/family support specialist. Her recent publications and presentations focus on inclusion and Universal Design for Early Childhood Education. Johnna has a Ph.D. in Human and Community Development from the University of Illinois.