In my classroom management course at the university, we learn how children must have their basic needs satisfied prior to establishing an attitude where learning can be nourished and supported. When we think of basic needs, we usually think of food, water, shelter, safety, etc. However, there are basic needs in the classroom, as well. Those basic needs include: security, association, belonging, dignity, hope, power, enjoyment and competence. Teachers need to routinely ask themselves, "Do my students feel safe? Can they associate with others comfortably and do I make them feel like they belong to the group? Do I treat them with respect? When they are here, do they feel hope associated with learning new things? Do they help make decisions so they feel a measure of power in my class? Do they enjoy being in our classroom and do they feel success on a regular basis."
Sometimes we educators are so consumed with teaching the appropriate skills that we forget there needs to be a fertile ground for those new sprouts of knowledge to grow. If the child feels uncomfortable about any part of the school day, he may not be learning at his capacity. In fact, he most assuredly is not. I hope those of us who work with children will take this holiday break to rejuvenate ourselves and be committed to creating the optimal learning environment. One where the children have basic needs met while expanding with new skills and knowledge.
As it’s nearly Christmas, it must be time for the annual round-up of major developments and new research published in the children’s sector during the last year. After all, you might have missed some of these the first time round…
What you can’t have failed to miss was the change of government following the general election in May, with the Department for Children, Schools and Families being rebranded as the Department for Education. Labour did manage to squeeze out a final piece of legislation before leaving office in the form of March’s Children, Schools & Family Act, as well as introducing a new Common Core of Skills and Knowledge for all those who work with young children, while the new government has so far passed the Academies Act (concerned with the flagship policy of ‘free schools’) and published a white paper on the future of education in the UK.
The autumn Spending Review regarding public services also had many implications for the children’s sector. The ICT agency Becta was closed (though its website is still online until the end of January), and the QCDA will be closed at the end of March, with its functions transferring to the Department for Education. In addition the GTCE was due to be wound up in ‘the autumn’ (though it still seems to be functioning at the moment), and in November it was announced that the Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC) would have its funding withdrawn, although it intends to continue as a sector skills body; the School Food Trust faces a similar uncertain future. To see how some in the children’s sector reacted to these changes, have a look at this previous post.
In ongoing projects, the Millennium Cohort Study continues to produce information on childhood in the modern UK, while the link to the latest edition of Social Trends has picked up a lot of visitors for this site from search engines! The annual Joseph Rowntree Foundation report on Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion also has plenty of useful information regarding child poverty.
Picking out a few reports to highlight from the hundreds that are featured on here each year is tricky but here goes… an Ofsted report in September picked up headlines for claiming that thousands of pupils are wrongly labelled as having special educational needs; the thinktank Demos published Born Creative in November, which called for greater emphasis on creativity in the Early Years Foundation Stage; How Fair is Britain? was the title of a report with many interesting sections for childhood and family professionals from the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Closer to home, Birmingham’s children’s services received a poor inspection report in July; a link to a 1940s video on progressive education seemed popular with site visitors. And a major CfBT Education Trust report examined the effectiveness of 28 different early education programmes around the world; this is particularly relevant at the moment, given Dame Clare Tickell’s current review of the EYFS, which is due to publish its recommendations in the spring.
And that’s your lot for 2010. All that remains is to wish all site users a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
It's easy to be baffled by research... Take the example of Sure Start - the programme has been featured numerous times on this site, with some reports concluding that it has had huge benefits for young children, while other publications have been more critical of its achievements, and others still saying that it is successful, but not necessarily for the children that could benefit from it most. Confusing stuff for even more experienced researchers...
Anyway, the latest study into Sure Start has argued that the programme and other similar early years initiatives introduced over the last decade have had little impact on children's early language and numeracy. Researchers from Durham University tracked data from test scores at 472 state primary schools over 8 years to reach their conclusions.
The findings are published in an article entitled 'Changes in Children's Cognitive Development at the Start of School in England 2001 - 2008'. This features in the Oxford Review of Education, which UCB students can access via the InformaWorld service.
Two new reports which should be of interest to many of the site's visitors:
Last week saw the release of The Children Left Behind, a UNICEF publication which compares inequality in child wellbeing in 24 of the world's richest countries. The report argues that child poverty in the UK could best be addressed by tackling low wages, and concludes that countries like France and Germany are more successful in improving the lives of disadvantaged children.
To read the full text, click here.
Recently I've noticed an increase in the number of searches being carried out using the EYES service (see right hand side of page). Hopefully you're all finding it useful, though as I rarely get given feedback it's hard to tell! Anyway, I've just updated EYES by including some new sites and removing one or two older ones, so this should improve its results a little. For a full explanation of what EYES is and how it can be useful, click here for a user guide.
A bumper post today, to reflect the number of interesting studies that have come out in recent days. Without further ado...
Sobran las palabras gracias a este magnífico trabajo de Esther Cuadrado.
TODOS SOMOS DIFERENTES, TODOS TENEMOS LOS MISMOS DERECHOS:
Last week saw the publication of the latest monthly batch of DfE research reports. Here are some of the highlights:
