Moral Classroom Management in Early Childhood Education (Education in a Competitive and Globalizing World)

This monograph addresses the following questions: What is MCM and how is it viewed by teachers and student-teachers? What are the methodological tools that could help improve classroom management competencies on an ongoing basis? How has the model proposed here been applied to various issues the diversity of children in preschools, coping with challenging behavior (and applying boundaries and rules), planning and implementing curriculum that promotes participation and learning? What improved or changed in the preschools following implementation of the MCM model? What are the main lessons learned about enhancing teachers classroom management competencies derived from applying the proposed model? Part I describes a theoretical model that defines MCM as a meta-competency. This theoretical model serves as a conceptual foundation for understanding interventions in educational settings that are focused on the enhancement and improvement of classroom management competencies. In the second chapter of Part I, we define the research methodologies employed by student-teachers and teachers in their attempts to understand the educational setting and improve their classroom management practice an analysis of social episodes, action research, and case studies. The subsequent chapters provide an analysis and interpretation of cases showing employment of the MCM model by student-teachers and teachers in several main areas of preschool work. Part II looks at the application of the MCM model in dealing with childrens challenging behavior. Part III examines MCMs influence on curriculum and discourse that promotes learning. Finally, Part IV analyses the role of MCM in understanding and coping with diversity (ethnic, functional, and other). Collaboration with staff and parents as well as time and space management are embedded in the various domains of preschool work, and as such are indirectly addressed in Parts II, III and IV and summarised in the concluding chapter. About the Author Clodie Tal is a developmental psychologist who has been involved throughout her professional life in in Early Childhood Education. The preparation and in-service "training" of caregivers and teachers working with young children are perceived by her as an ongoing preventive intervention; as means of improving the conditions of life of young children coming from diverse backgrounds and for improving the odds for those coming from unprivileged backgrounds to build meaningful lives. Clodie Tal has a PhD in Psychology from Bar-Ilan University, Israel and A Master's degree in Clinical Psychology from California State University, Fullerton. She is currently the Head of the Master's degree in Early Childhood Education at the Levinsky College of Teachers' Education Tel Aviv, Israel. Before that she headed the Bachelor's degree in Education at Levinsky College of Education and has been involved in extensive in service training in communities throughout Israel. Her main areas of interest which are also the focus of her research are teacher-child , teacher-parents relationships, teachers' values, promoting children's social competence, classroom management and teacher-children dialogic discourse in general and in focused on children's picture-books in particular.