Australia Early Childhood Education

Some current international research topics are funding, social skills and play, literacy, same sex parenting, bullying, and so many more. These research topics are some that I hear about frequently. It was very interesting to see that other countries are experiencing some of the same challenges with their educational system as we are. While exploring the Early Childhood Australia website, I found it very comforting to know that we have so many similarities. So often we hear how terrible our education system is in the United States and how far behind we are, but I was intrigued by the research topics that I found, since they are all things that we are facing here. I found one of the research studies very interesting. I gained the knowledge that there are no qualifications for teaching or operating a family day care enter in Australia. There are some professionals that took the extra step to get an education in early childhood, but it is not a requirement at this time. Because so many of the children in these family day cares are special needs and culturally diverse, it is important that the teachers get qualified. This website is full of information and research on the Australian early childhood education system. There are many resources for not only educators but parents as well. 

References: 

http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/

Research Benefiting Children and Families

If I had the means and the knowledge to conduct research about any topic in the early childhood field, I would spend some time finding more information about Autism. I would love to see how I could make a difference in the Autistic community and how to help prevent this. I would really like to get to the bottom of some of the ways parents can prevent their children from getting Autism, even if these ways were before conception. I know that there is a lot of information out there on Autism but this is something that is affecting our Early Childhood community. While several children function well with Autism, I know that there are several children who have a hard time with socialization. There are so many aspects to Early Childhood education and the social/emotional is a major part of it. Finding a way to prevent Autism many help a huge portion of our community be able to master this area. 

School Readiness

I am really interested in the school readiness. In the childcare industry we always want to ensure that our children are ready for school and moving on to Kindergarten. But has the focus of school readiness deterred us from allowing the children to have fun. So many teachers have resorted to teaching students like they are already in an elementary school setting. They are teaching them at desks for large portions of the day. I want to research ways to really prepare our children for the next step. It is important to me that we prepare them but still allow them to be youthful. There are so many ways to teach children and it saddens me that because we feel pressure about their next adventure we force other teaching styles on them. Do you guys have any advise for me? How can I get more information on school readiness or teaching styles?