“ of particular significance as a basis for values and judgment which individual teachers will integrate within their own special ways”( 39). An integrative relationship is key.
On the Research Side articles that followed covered a range of topics— such as understanding children’ s behavior, family experiences, racial attitudes of young children, children with disabilities, and leadership in young children. Contributors elevated recent studies in these areas, offering key insights and implications for the field. The column also weathered the change from a bulletin with association news into the Journal of Nursery Education with its expanded focus and goals.
The final On the Research Side appeared in November 1961, with another contribution by Dr. McFarland. After writing about research aiming to predict preschool behavior based on an understanding of infant behavior, she explores ideas that echo the three core considerations of developmentally appropriate practice: Commonality, individuality, and context.
[ This ] study also provides a deepened awareness of the broader understanding one is able to have of children’ s development and of their needs by seeing the nursery children not just as members of a nursery group but as they are growing up in their families which are of course a part of a larger culture group.
The effort of becoming acquainted with a child as he belongs to his family and with his family as they belong to a culture group can be expected... to offer the teacher new means of making the children’ s nursery experience individually appropriate and of offering parents a meaningful kind of relationship.( 26)
Understanding general trends in child development, individual variation, and the contexts in which children grow and learn should, together, guide the education and care of young children.
The column concludes with a message from D. Bruce Gardner, who later served as president of
NAEYC, in which he reinforces the importance of two-way communication between practitioners and researchers. On the Research Side was an effort to meet this objective, which aligned with the journal’ s policy“ to bring significant research ideas and findings to the attention of its readers.” This was to be the“ final effort in this endeavor.” Dr. Gardner writes,“ We join the rest of the Journal readers in anticipation of the new plans for alerting us to significant research on the child and on nursery education”( 26).
Research Page
The November 1961 issue not only reflects a transition for this research-focused column but also for the editorial staff. In the issue’ s From the Editors, Docia Zavitkovsky and Mary Alice Mallum bid farewell to those who helped transform a bulletin to a journal, and they welcomed the newest group, including Cornelia“ Nell” Goldsmith, taking the helm. Nell Goldsmith also served as executive secretary of the association and is recognized for being a key figure in these transformative years. The journal’ s name changed to Young Children alongside the organizational name change in 1964.
Her first Letter from the Editor outlined“ food for thought and comment” as well as announced new section editors, including Willard W. Hartup( at the time, a professor at the University of Iowa and then the University of Minnesota) as editor of Research Page( Goldsmith 1962, 43).
As a change in editorial policy, selected research papers most appropriate to the field of Nursery Education will appear as summaries rather than as full studies. A few carefully selected research papers will occasionally be published in full, if particularly related to the theme of a certain issue.( 43)
Well-recognized names appeared in Research Page, including Albert Bandura, who wrote“ The Role of Imitation in Personality Development”( 1963), and Frances Degen Horowitz, who wrote“ Social
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