Research Around the World

This week assignment allowed me the opportunity to to read and think about international early childhood research. Here are links to three influential international web sites dedicated to early childhood:

Early Childhood Australia: This is the Australian equivalent to the U.S. based NAEYC. You can access several links to early childhood research from the menu on the left side of the home page.
http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/

For this Blog Assignment, choose one of these links, and explore the available research. Let the following questions guide your search:

What are some of the current international research topics? Some of the research topics include:

• The Early Years Learning Framework-Getting Started
• Learning and Teaching through Play
• Everyday learning about responding to emotional need of children 

What surprising facts/insights/new ideas about early childhood did you gain from exploring this international early childhood website? After exploring the website this is what was so insightful, the following question was asked:

• Can we make our children smarter?’ On Sunday morning of May 6, 2012, the program 3Q aired on SKY asking this question.
  Pam Cahir, the CEO of Early Childhood Australia spoke to 3Q about the biggest improvements to early childhood education in 25 years.
  More Australian babies and toddlers are in childcare than ever before. And they’re there when their brains are laying down the pathways vital for later learning, intelligence and social capability.
  Pam Cahir tells 3Q how new national reforms are ensuring childcare centers provide a nurturing environment that will have a long-term beneficial effect on our future society.
  The website is very diverse and meets the needs of all of its reader, the website offers many early childhood topics. I also had never seen a web site that offers strategic goals for two years, this was a great idea to incorporate into a website. 
• What other noteworthy information did you find on this website? This website offered a wealth of knowledge and information about memberships, code of ethics, and research in practice series. All of the information was very informative.