The international website that I chose was the European Early Childhood Education Research Association (EECERA). The website is http://www.eecera.org/. Some of the current research topics are "What Constitutes the Preschool Curricula?", "Parental Influence on the Development of Children's Storytelling", "Stay and Play or Play and Chat; Comparing Roles and Purposes in Case Studies of English and Australian Supported Play Groups" and "Make-believe Play versus Academic Skills: A Vygotskian Approach to Today's Dilemma of Early Childhood Education."
This website is one of the most prestigious early childhood journals in the world that is published four times annually. It is also one of only four early years journals indexed by the Institute for Scientific Information. The article that interested me was "Make-believe play versus academic skills: A Vygotskian approach to today's dilemma of early childhood education." This article discusses the challenges facing early childhood educators in Russia and in the West as it relates to play and the Vygotskian approach. Through Vygotsky's approach and what we have learned about play, children can gain necessary academic skills by engaging in make-believe play. Basically, children learn best through play.
