Getting to Know Your International Contacts

As I visited the website http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/activities/global_initiative/, it is clear that early childhood education is a global concern.  As the understanding of the practices of early childhood education grows countries are now developing ways to calculate and evaluate the effectiveness of the programs in place to determine if they are highly qualified and beneficial for the children and their families.

Three countries that are focused on the website are Zambia, Brazil and Chile.  Each country has joined with others organizations inside and outside of the United States to develop policies and  assessment tools to help determine the validity of their program.  

In Zambia, the collaborations with the Zambian Ministry of Education, the Examination Council of Zambia, UNICEF, the University of Zambia, and the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University are to measure the effects of an ongoing anti-malaria initiative on children’s development in Zambia. The children in Zambia  are assessed in physical, socio-emotional and cognitive development before and throughout their schooling careers (http://developingchild.harvard.edu, 2009). 

In Brazil, their is an ongoing effort to use the science of child health and development to ascertain stronger policies to support the children and their families. There first effort outside of the United States produced the Núcleo Ciência Pela Infância project.

In Chile, a program was developed to improve early childhood education by providing teacher professional development .  Un Buen Comienzo (UBC), “A Good Start,” was developed to improve the educational needs of preschoolers and kindergartners. Special attention was given to the area of language and to the socio-emotional development of children. Furthermore, interventions were arranged to increase family involvement and student attendance.

It is evident to me that early childhood education is important nation wide.  Resources are steadily increasing to produce effectiveness and high quality teachers and learning environment for our nation's children.