Annotated Bibliography: Early Childhood Education Research Analysis

This annotated bibliography presents two research studies focused on early childhood education. The first study, by Bilir-S. & Ocak-Kabaya, explores the views of pre-service teachers on visual arts education and aesthetics, finding that seniors have a deeper understanding than juniors. The study, conducted in Turkey, used a qualitative method with interviews and content analysis, highlighting the importance of arts in teacher training. The second study, by Phillips et al., investigates the effectiveness of an arts-integrated program (PASELA) on emergent literacy and school readiness in preschool settings. Using a quasi-experimental design, the study found improvements in literacy rates among children participating in the program. Both studies emphasize the benefits of incorporating arts into early childhood education to enhance learning and teacher preparation. This annotated bibliography provides concise summaries of each study, including the research methods, findings, and limitations, offering valuable insights for educators and researchers in the field.

Annotated Bibliography: Research in Early Childhood education
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Bilir-S. & Ocak-Kabaya, S. Early Childhood Pre-service Teachers’ Views about Visual
Arts Education and Aesthetics. Eurasian Journal of Educational Research, 73,131-148. doi:
10.14689/ejer.2018.73.8
The research study s aims to explore the importance of providing knowledge of art and aesthetics
to teachers for improving the quality of learning among early childhood. It has used qualitative
research method that includes sample of 10 childhood juniors and 10 senior within the early
childhood education program from Ege Univeristy, Turkey. The interview session was
conducted from the sample population and the data was evaluated with the use of content
analysis. The results indicated that seniors have deeper meanings about the visual arts education
and aesthetics as compared to that of the juniors. Therefore, junior children have very limited
knowledge regarded arts and aesthetics. The study concluded that arts and aesthetics courses
within early childhood settings increase the awareness of pre-service teachers and enhances the
children learning. Limitation of the study is use of small size of participants and the study largely
contributed for enhancing my knowledge regarding the importance of arts and esthetics’ course
within early childhood settings to improve their learning.
Phllips, R.D., Gorton, R.L., Pinciotti, P. & Sachdev, A. Promising Findings on
Preschoolers’ Emergent Literacy and School Readiness In Arts-integrated Early
Childhood Settings. Early Childhood Education Journal, 38, pp.111-122.doi:
10.1007/s10643-010-0397-x
The aim of the research study is to develop an approach for improving the emergent literacy and
school readiness of young children in community-based preschool settings. It intends to explore
the efficiency of Promoting and Supporting Early Literacy through the Arts (PASELA) program
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that intends to integrate visual and performing arts within the pre-school curriculum. It adopts
the use of a quasi-experimental pre-post treatment design for exploring the potential effects of
the PASELA program in real-world setting. The program involved the participation about 181
children that are above the age group 3 years old and 15 ECE teachers selected from the south
side of Bethlehem. The study inferred improvements within the literacy rate of the young
children after participation in the program. It can be summarized from the research that the use
of arts integrated program within pre-school settings leads to significant improvements within
the learning of young children. The major limitation includes use of sample from selected
community settings and as such results cannot be stated as reliable for the international setting. I
have found the article to be largely helpful for understanding the use of arts as way of learning
for the young children and improving their literacy.
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References
Bilir-S. & Ocak-Kabaya, S. (2017). Early Childhood Pre-service Teachers’ Views about Visual
Arts Education and Aesthetics. Eurasian Journal of Educational Research, 73,131-148.
Phllips, R.D., Gorton, R.L., Pinciotti, P. & Sachdev, A. (2010). Promising Findings on
Preschoolers’ Emergent Literacy and School Readiness In Arts-integrated Early
Childhood Settings. Early Childhood Education Journal, 38, pp.111-122.
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