Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8

Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 587
Release: 2015-07-23
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0309324882

Children are already learning at birth, and they develop and learn at a rapid pace in their early years. This provides a critical foundation for lifelong progress, and the adults who provide for the care and the education of young children bear a great responsibility for their health, development, and learning. Despite the fact that they share the same objective - to nurture young children and secure their future success - the various practitioners who contribute to the care and the education of children from birth through age 8 are not acknowledged as a workforce unified by the common knowledge and competencies needed to do their jobs well. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 explores the science of child development, particularly looking at implications for the professionals who work with children. This report examines the current capacities and practices of the workforce, the settings in which they work, the policies and infrastructure that set qualifications and provide professional learning, and the government agencies and other funders who support and oversee these systems. This book then makes recommendations to improve the quality of professional practice and the practice environment for care and education professionals. These detailed recommendations create a blueprint for action that builds on a unifying foundation of child development and early learning, shared knowledge and competencies for care and education professionals, and principles for effective professional learning. Young children thrive and learn best when they have secure, positive relationships with adults who are knowledgeable about how to support their development and learning and are responsive to their individual progress. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 offers guidance on system changes to improve the quality of professional practice, specific actions to improve professional learning systems and workforce development, and research to continue to build the knowledge base in ways that will directly advance and inform future actions. The recommendations of this book provide an opportunity to improve the quality of the care and the education that children receive, and ultimately improve outcomes for children.

Measures of Personality and Social Psychological Constructs

Measures of Personality and Social Psychological Constructs
Author: Gregory J. Boyle
Publisher: Academic Press
Total Pages: 825
Release: 2014-09-04
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0123869587

Measures of Personality and Social Psychological Constructs assists researchers and practitioners by identifying and reviewing the best scales/measures for a variety of constructs. Each chapter discusses test validity, reliability, and utility. Authors have focused on the most often used and cited scales/measures, with a particular emphasis on those published in recent years. Each scale is identified and described, the sample on which it was developed is summarized, and reliability and validity data are presented, followed by presentation of the scale, in full or in part, where such permission has been obtained. Measures fall into five broad groups. The emotional disposition section reviews measures of general affective tendencies, and/or cognitive dispositions closely linked to emotion. These measures include hope and optimism, anger and hostility, life satisfaction, self-esteem, confidence, and affect dimensions. Emotion regulation scales go beyond general dispositions to measure factors that may contribute to understanding and managing emotions. These measures include alexithymia, empathy, resiliency, coping, sensation seeking, and ability and trait emotional intelligence. The interpersonal styles section introduces some traditional social–psychological themes in the context of personality assessment. These measures include adult attachment, concerns with public image and social evaluation, and forgiveness. The vices and virtues section reflects adherence to moral standards as an individual characteristic shaped by sociocultural influences and personality. These measures include values and moral personality, religiosity, dark personalities (Machiavellianism,narcissism, and subclinical psychopathy), and perfectionism. The sociocultural interaction and conflict section addresses relationships between different groups and associated attitudes. These measures include cross-cultural values, personality and beliefs, intergroup contact, stereotyping and prejudice, attitudes towards sexual orientation, and personality across cultures. - Encompasses 25 different areas of psychology research - Each scale has validity, reliability info, info on test bias, etc - Multiple scales discussed for each construct - Discussion of which scales are appropriate in which circumstances and to what populations - Examples of scales included

The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Child Development

The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Child Development
Author: Brian Hopkins
Publisher:
Total Pages: 993
Release: 2017-10-19
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 110710341X

Updated and expanded to 124 entries, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Child Development remains the authoritative reference in the field.

Self-Concept

Self-Concept
Author: John Hattie
Publisher: Psychology Press
Total Pages: 318
Release: 2014-03-05
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1317767780

The aim of this book is to discuss the notions of self-concept, self-esteem, and related terms from an educational and psychological perspective. Specifically, this book is concerned with developing a model of self-concept -- and corollaries to this model -- that assesses the dimensionality of self-concept, reviews tests of self-concept, discusses the relationship between self- concept and other variables (particularly achievement), describes the development of self-concept, and evaluates programs to enhance self-concept. Throughout this volume, emphasis is placed on ordering the many studies using recent methodological advances such as meta-analysis and the analysis of covariance structures. After detailing a conceptual model of self-concept, the book offers various experimental and statistical discussions of the model. Unlike many other models, the claim is not that this model is the correct one but that it may serve as a useful "coathanger" until a better one is devised.