Library Resources for Education 464: Early Childhood Education

This page is intended to introduce you to some resources which can be used for EDUC 464.

If you need help, please contact Hope Power, Liaison Librarian for Education at 778.782.4359 or hpower@sfu.ca or Ask a librarian.

Background Information

Early childhood education: an international encyclopedia [4 vol.] LB 1139.23 E272 2007. Print only

Handbook of research on the education of young children. LB 1119 H25 2006. Print only.

Books

Books are excellent sources of background information. One good strategy is to identify main concepts in your research question, and then use these concepts as keywords for a keyword search in the SFU Library catalogue:

play and learning

emerg* and literacy

self-esteem and child*

pop* cultur* and early childhood

media and early childhood

Tip: Using the star (*) symbol tells the system to pick up all the words with that begin with the letters coming before the star. For example, emerg* = emergent, emerge, emerging (But be careful; emerg* also =emergency.)

Another way to find books on topics related to early childhood education is to search by subject in the SFU Library catalogue using the formal Library of Congress subject headings:

Early childhood education for books on activities and schooling that are intended to effect developmental changes in children from birth through elementary grade 3

Education, Preschool for books about structured education of children before entering kindergarten or grade 1 in elementary school

Education, Primary education for books about education of children in grades one through three or four

Kindergarten for books about the education of children at that school level.

After you identify a book that you would like to read, click on the Request button at the top of the screen, and follow the online instructions to have the book delivered to your home address by the SFU Library's Telebook service.

Journal Articles

Use the journal article databases listed below to find articles related to topics on early childhood education. Searches using the keywords suggested for searches for books will work in searches for articles. Indexes also have lists of the formal subject headings specific to each index. Use the Thesaurus button to find the formal subject heading list for the index.

CBCA Education. Articles in Canadian education journals. The full text of many articles is linked from the citation.

Education Full Text. Articles in education journals. The full text of many articles is linked from the citation.

ERIC Articles in education journals. The full text of many articles is linked from the citation. Also indexes documents, which are not usually peer-reviewed, so it may be advisable to use the "Refine Search" tab which gives the option of including only journal articles in the search results.

PsycINFO Indexes articles in psychology journals. The full text of many articles is linked from the citation.

Sociological Abstracts. Indexes articles in sociology journals.

Whenever the full text is not linked directly from the citation, use the Where can I get this? link in the citation to initiate a search of the SFU Library catalogue and other library catalogues. When the search is complete, a holdings web page will open on your screen showing a link to full text whenever the full text is available through the SFU Library.

When you identify an article that you would like to read that is not available in full text online, click on the Request link in the holdings web page, and follow the online instructions to ask SFU Library's Telebook service to mail a photocopy of the article to your home address. The article is yours to keep!

Electronic journals and texts

Here is a list of significant journal titles in the field of Early Childhood Education. You cannot search these titles individually but must do so through ERIC or another Education database. You can, however, browse these journals online by searching the titles in the the library catalogue. For more help contact the Education librarian.

Early childhood education journal

Early childhood research and practice

Early childhood research quarterly

Early development and parenting

Early human development

Topics in early childhood special education

Associations and organizations

• Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario. Professional organization for early childhood educators.
• Canadian Council of Montessori Administrators. Professional organization for Montessori specialists.
• Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and Development. Consortium of organizations involved in issues related to young children in the developing world.
• Division for Early Childhood. A section of the Council for Exceptional Children. Promotes polices apractices that support families and enhance the optimal development of young children who have or are at risk for developmental delays and disabilities
• Early Childhood Educators of British Columbia. Professional organization for early childhood educators.
• National Association for the Education of Young Children. Professional organization for early childhood educators.

Government information

British Columbia

• Ministry for Early Childhood Development. Coordinates information from the seven ministries with responsibility for services and programs for children under eight years of age.

Directories of web sites

• Clearinghouse on Early Education and Parenting (CEEP), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, including links related to the Reggio Emilia Approach.
• Montessori Foundation. Links to information on the programs founded by Maria Montesssori.
• NECTAC Clearing House on Early Intervention and Early Childhood Education. Conferences, digests, journal articles collected by the National Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center.
  
• Zero To Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers and Families. Resources for use by parents.

Style Guides

APA style is recommended by instructors in many Education courses. However, because Education is a field that crosses many disciplines, other citation styles may be preferred or required in specific circumstances. Writing & Style Guides provides information about citing and style guides, with links to examples using the most common styles: APA, Chicago, Harvard, and MLA.

SFU students and faculty can store citations in their personal RefWorks database for later use to produce lists of references formatted in APA or other styles.

Unsure about when it is necessary to acknowledge the work of other writers and creators? Test your knowledge with this online tutorial.