Faculty of Education Professor recognized for her work toward improving children’s development and readiness for school
CityStudio Durham is recognizing Dr. Brenda Jacobs, Assistant Teaching Professor in Â鶹´«Ã½ University’s Faculty of Education for her contribution to the Durham Region’s Early Development Instrument program.
CityStudio Durham is a collaboration between the Region of Durham, Durham Regional Police Services, Durham College, Â鶹´«Ã½ University and Trent University Durham-GTA. The collaboration focuses on experiential learning and civic engagement.
The early development instrument is a validated and reliable measurement questionnaire completed by kindergarten teachers in Durham Region to measure children’s ability to meet age-appropriate developmental expectations, also known as school readiness. Among the goals of the early development instrument program is to collect information on children’s competencies, and help children reach their potential based on that data.
CityStudio Durham collaborated with Dr. Jacobs and 78 students in her Educational Studies course on ‘Holistic Learning in Early Childhood Education’. The evidence-based outputs created by the student groups focused on parents, families, and caregivers, and is transferable to early learning professionals. These early development instrument products were showcased by CityStudio Durham at an event on April 18.
The early development instrument measures school readiness of children in five key domains, covering physical health and well-being, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive development, and communication skills and general knowledge. Each domain, except for communication skills and general knowledge, is divided into smaller subdomains. These represent more specific skills and behaviours and can be used to further explore children's competencies.
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