For learners in the early stages of reading, the best way to counteract the loss of literacy skills over the summer is not by forcing study but by boosting play that develops fine motor skills.
Only to the untrained eye do the artefacts children create in a play-based learning activity look simple and straightforward: perhaps like play itself.
Kindergarten educators are like detectives who investigate alongside their students and who use students’ creations to gain insight into their development and interests.
Picture books are a great way to approach conversations about diverse gender and sexual identities with young children.
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Our children can’t continue to grow up in a world where only women raise them, either at home or in early care and learning.
Reducing the number of child care subsidies will mean that some parents will not be able to support their families or continue their studies.
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For better childhood developmental outcomes and better economics, and in the absence of other long-recommended child care policies, the child care subsidy system should be expanded, not cut.
How do the major parties’ education commitments stack up?
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If you’re confused about all the millions and billions thrown around for education by the two major parties, here’s the low-down on what the policies actually mean.
Nova Scotia is rolling out a universal full-day, no-fee pre-primary program, similar to Ontario’s and the Northwest Territories’ play-based junior kindergarten.
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The plan to fully implement a quality early childhood program in all Nova Scotia public schools is crucial when more than one in five children live in poverty.
Australia is making significant strides in early childhood education, but we need more commitment if we’re to meet the evidence.
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Investing in early childhood education and care can save more money in the long run – in areas including health care – than dealing with these issues later in life.
The Coalition made some major promises in the 2016 election. Has it delivered?
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The Coalition has had longer than a three year cycle to make some changes to education. But since the 2016 election, what has it actually done? And what is Labor proposing?
Frydenberg may claim education is critical to the prosperity of our country, but his budget does not reflect this.
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The government has delivered a pretty disappointing budget for education, with no secure funding for early childhood education and a recycled commitment of $300 for schools.
Early intervention could make a difference. Here, protestors gather at Queen’s Park in Toronto on March 7, 2019 to protest changes to Ontario’s autism program.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn
An inclusive education researcher says the government’s consolation plan to boost school funding for autism services with no investment in early childhood education flies in the face of evidence.
Behaviours identified as early as kindergarten are clues about larger contexts that have lifelong consequences for individuals and society.
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A brutal rape at Pamplona’s 2016 running of the bulls outraged Spain. Then came #MeToo. With ever more Spaniards taking up the feminist mantle, schools – many of which are not coed – lag behind.
In Ontario’s full-day kindergarten, a child’s
development is informed by a play-based, curiosity-driven approach skillfully guided by the educator team.
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An internationally recognized educator who led the development of Ontario’s full-day kindergarten observes what’s at stake in little lives in one class.
There is a payoff of early quality childhood education for families, for communities and for economies but especially for child development.
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A comparative study examining more than 50 years of data in Canada, the U.S. and U.K. finds quality early child education lessens the need for later special education.
A new bill to provide affordable child care for working families faces an uphill battle in Congress.
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Taryn Morrissey, American University School of Public Affairs
Working class families have struggled for years to afford quality child care. Could the newly proposed Child Care for Working Families Act make a difference? A child care policy scholar weighs in.
Wiarton Willie, pictured with Premier Doug Ford
on Groundhog Day, cannot yet predict what Ontario may do to full-day kindergarten.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Doug Ball
Nine years in from its start date, full-day kindergarten is doing its job laying foundational learning for the future of individual children and the province at large.
President Cyril Ramaphosa delivering the 2019 State of the Nation Address.
GCIS
After the #me-too inspired Gillette ad, a male therapist says this year’s Super Bowl ads were disappointingly mild. But let’s not let that stop us from challenging each other.
Adjunct Professor, Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development at Ontario Institute for the Study of Education (OISE) and Senior Policy Fellow at the Atkinson Centre, University of Toronto
Professor, Canada Research Chair in Determinants of Child Development, Owerko Centre at the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary