“Who They Are and What They Have to Say Matters …”: How an Emergent Preschool Experience Shapes Children’s Navigation of Kindergarten

Parental choice and perceived benefits of Reggio Emilia inspired programs

“…Investigations of study tours in the Italian Reggio Emilia early childhood programs were investigated by researchers to understand the implications for educator professional development, to further understand the Reggio Emilia practices, and learn the cultural underpinnings of the philosophy Vatarlaro et al, 2015). Past research was conducted to understand why parents chose to send their children to one philosophical program over alternative options was investigated as well as research that investigated benefits associated with children that attended early childhood programs (Grogan, 2011;Hatcher et al, 2012;Recchia & Bentley, 2013;Smith, 2014). Yet, there remained a gap in literature that investigated experiences from parents who chose a constructivist-based Reggio Emilia inspired program for their children and examined perceived benefits for their children who attended.…”

“…A second weakness in past research was that some researchers used a quantitative research design to investigate the similar research problem of the current study (Andrews, 2012;Herrington, 2014;Zorec, 2015). A qualitative design approach may have been more in line with what approach should have been used because qualitative design produced holistic results (Abdelfattah, 2015;Merz & Swim, 2011;Mitchell et al, 2009;Recchia and Bentley, 2013). One strength of McClow and Gillespie's approach was that they included parents as participants and used focus groups of parents as the data collection method and resulted in an investigation of the problem from a parental perspective (1998).…”

“…The goal of the current study was to investigate parents' reasons for choosing a One purpose of my current study was to examine why parents made the choice for a Reggio Emilia inspired program versus an alternative early childhood program approach for their preschool-aged children. Recchia and Bentley (2013) identified benefits that were related to an arts-based, Reggio Emilia inspired education and included that children were given the opportunity to actively be involved in their own education, educators supported individual learning styles, and children were given opportunities for creative arts experiences daily.…”

“…However, past research has revealed that a constructivist-based learning model that fosters open-ended, play-based exploration is most beneficial for preschool-aged children. Yet policymakers continue to push for an academic, predetermined curricular, nonconstructivist approach (Mathis, 2011;Öztürk, 2016;Recchia & Bentley, 2013).…”

Η Μετάβαση Του Παιδιού Από Το Οικογενειακό Περιβάλλον Στον Παιδικό Σταθμό Και Το Νηπιαγωγείο

“…Το παιδί με την έναρξη της προσχολικής εκπαίδευσης θα πρέπει να είναι περισσότερο υπεύθυνο και ανεξάρτητο (Li-Grining, Votruba-Drzal, Maldonado-Carreno & Haas, 2010). Έρευνες (Berlin, Dunning, & Dodge, 2011▪ Pianta, Barnett, Burchinal, & Thornburg, 2009▪ Recchia & Bentley, 2013▪ Wong, Cook, Barnett, & Jung, 2008 έδειξαν ότι τα παιδιά που παρακολούθησαν προσχολικά προγράμματα βρεφικών και παιδικών σταθμών είχαν καλύτερη προακαδημαική και κοινωνική εξέλιξη όταν φοίτησαν στο νηπιαγωγείο σε σχέση με παιδιά που δεν είχαν ανάλογη προσχολική εμπειρία. Ακόμη και όταν το παιδί έχει φοιτήσει σε βρεφονηπιακό ή παιδικό σταθμό, η μετάβασή του στο νηπιαγωγείο θεωρείται σημαντική (Hains, Fowler, Schwartz, Kottwitz, & Rosenkoetter, 1989▪ Pianta, 2007▪ Vecchiotti, 2003 καθώς η αλλαγή προσχολικού περιβάλλοντος μπορεί να του προκαλέσει αναστάτωση λόγω των διαφορετικών απαιτήσεων (Οδηγός Εκπαιδευτικού για το Πρόγραμμα Σπουδών του Νηπιαγωγείου, 2011) και των διαφορετικών πιθανών κανόνων (Di Santo & Berman, 2012).…”