Describes the goals of assessment in early childhood education programs, suggesting that assessment plans should focus on knowledge, skills, dispositions, and feelings. Argues that the younger children are, the more errors are made in assessment, and that efforts should therefore balance global and specific assessments. Suggests assessment…

The quality of early childhood programs can be assessed from the top down, through the viewpoint of an adult observer, or the bottom up, through the viewpoint of a child in the program. Questions that can be asked from each perspective are listed. (LB)

Discusses four approaches to assessing the quality of early childhood program: top-down, which focuses on the adult's view of setting, equipment, and the program; bottom-up, focusing on children's experience; outside-inside, emphasizing the family's view; and societal, in which agencies and communities assess programs. (LB)

Premature academic instruction may undermine a child's learning tendencies or dispositions. Informal small-group interaction can strengthen dispositions and set the context for acquisition of knowledge, skills, and feelings. Teachers should focus on learning goals rather than performance goals. (SH)

Noting that early childhood professionals around the world have a great deal in common with each other and often understand one another better than persons in their own countries who do different kinds of work, this paper explores how quality early childhood programs might meet the needs of all children. The paper first explores trends affecting…

Recent classroom emphasis on boosting self-esteem by encouraging self-congratulation and appealing to children's consumer instincts is misguided. Many of the self-oriented activities prompt responses of the form "what I like" rather than "what I want to know." Children's self-esteem is fostered not by empty compliments but by…

While the development of children's self-esteem is a worthwhile goal in early education, many practices designed to reach this goal may instead be encouraging narcissism. Such practices include those that direct children's attention to their own inner gratifications, or encourage children to believe their specialness is dependent on trivial…

This paper addresses multiple perspectives on the quality of early childhood care and education, including lessons learned from programs in various countries, the implications of these perspectives, and recommendations for the improvement of early childhood provision. It also examines the ideas expressed in the 1994 "Start Right" report on early…

Issues in early childhood teacher education are discussed in terms of six dilemmas that may explain the low levels of impact and satisfaction attributed to the field by practitioners. Dilemmas are defined as predicaments having two main features: a choice between two or more alternative courses of action, each of which is problematic; and the…

Expanding on previous collections, this book compiles 16 essays on pedagogical and child development issues stimulated by interaction with teachers, child caregivers, and early childhood teacher educators during the preceding 20 years. The essays were written in response and reaction to particular educational events or contexts that were…