UpDate - Vol. 14, No. 7, Page 1
October 13, 1994
UD program featured in career-oriented TV series

     Boom mikes, videocameras and production technicians were roaming
the halls, play yard and classrooms of Alison Hall Oct. 4, as
students, faculty and children involved in programs of the
University's Department of Individual and Family Studies were the
subject of the video Early Childhood Education.
     Davis Gray Inc., a video production company from Narbeth, Pa.,
produces a television series entitled Career Explorations. Now into
its fourth year, the series explores many facets associated with
various professions.
     This year, the company is releasing a program on early childhood
education. Included in the half-hour feature, in addition to the UD,
are a Head Start program in San Jose, Calif., a corporate sponsored
health care hospital in Palo Alto, Calif., a corporate child care
center in Denver, and scenes still to be shot in Washington, D.C.
     According to producer Michael Davis, each program on a particular
profession includes a segment shot at an educational institution to
provide information on the academic training and requirements
associated with the career.
     The University of Delaware was recommended to him by personnel in
the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC),
the nation's largest professional organization in early childhood
education, Davis said.
     Marilou Hyson, associate professor of individual and family
studies and acting chairperson of the department, said programs
created for broadcast in the Career Explorations series show what a
profession is like, give information on its opportunities and also
talk about the field's emerging directions.
     Hyson said she provided information to the producers on the
department's teaching goals and on the training and research conducted
at UD in the field of early childhood education.
     The University of Delaware Laboratory Preschool, which later this
month will celebrate its 60th anniversary, is a significant part of
the department's efforts, she said.
     Video cameramen taped classroom sessions showing student teachers
in action in the preschool. They also recorded follow-up conferences,
which are held after each class, Hyson said, where student teachers
and faculty discuss how to improve on what occurred.
     "The buzzword for this is 'reflective practitioner,'" Hyson said.
"We want our students to develop to the level where they are able to
go through a self-examination that makes them better teachers. We want
them to be able to critique themselves, so they don't need someone
standing over them, telling them what they should do."
     Scenes recorded in the outside playground were more than just
opportunities to get warm and fuzzy shots of children romping and at
play.
     "Everything we do here with children," Hyson said, "has an
educational purpose. Outdoor play is not recess in the traditional
sense. The children may be playing, but there is a theme associated
with that time period. They are learning through play.
     The student teachers get the children involved, and as they play,
they ask questions. The teachers are guides for the children, and
they, too, are learning as they help the children learn.
     "If there is one theme I would like to stress about what we do
here, it is that caring for young children takes a high degree of
education and professional preparation," Hyson said.
     Davis said he found the University program creative and exciting.
     "What I think is interesting," he added, "is the depth of the
program, and that's what we're going to try to show. When you see the
depth, and how much goes on, it shows that it is really important
work. It's a lot more than babysitting.
     "Delaware was selected by the national association because of the
quality of the program as well as the research and its lab school,"
Davis said.
     The video is scheduled to be shown next month at the NAEYC
national convention in Atlanta. Hyson and her colleagues will be among
the more than 20,000 attendees who usually go to the annual event.
     "We are delighted to be selected as the higher education
institution featured in the video, and feel it is a validation of the
quality of what we do," Hyson said.
     Although the taping took some advance planning-mainly informing
staff of the visitors' arrival and providing background information to
the producers-there was little deviation from the department's daily
routine.
     "We did exactly what we normally do, with minor modifications to
accommodate the technical needs of the visiting video crew," Hyson
said. "We were all a little nervous and all really excited that the
work of our students and student teachers and faculty is respected
enough that people would want to make it a part of a presentation
about what is good in this field."
     Too often, Hyson said, the field of early childhood education is
associated with babysitting, because the professionals work with
small, young children. Many people, she said, don't realize the amount
of professional training and research involved in properly caring for
young children.
     "This video," Hyson said, "really helps us as professionals
convey to the public in general the value of what we do and what is
required. It's hard and challenging work, but very satisfying."
                                                         -Ed Okonowicz

Editor's note: The first public broadcast of Career Explorations:
Early Childhood Education will be Nov. 29 on UDTV Channel 27's Mind
Extension University (MEU).