Early Childhood Educators’ Attitudes towards Use of Educational Media in Young Children’s Learning in Australia

Abstract

This paper examined early childhood educators’ attitudes towards the use of educational media in young children’s learning in child care centres in Australia. This study firstly investigated what educational media are currently used in child care centres in Australia. Then a questionnaire was administrated to twenty early childhood educators in three child care centres to explore their attitudes towards the use of educational centres in child care centres. The major findings include a) children were provided access to some media devices such as television, DVD player, computer, Internet and Smartboard in child care centres; b) educators thought the use of educational media could be used to teach literacy, numeracy, science, art and physical education, and c) educators agreed the use of educational media could be used within children’s five domains of development, which include cognitive development, gross motor skills development, fine motor skills development, language development, and social development. Early childhood educators and parents of young children will find this paper useful in understanding early childhood educators and their use of educational media in educational settings in Australia.