INDEX Foreword 1 Professor Cathy Nutbrown Special Educational Needs and Inclusive Education in Early Years: Teachers’ Views on 2 Practices for Effective Inclusion Pauline Mallia-Milanes How do Maltese Mothers of Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder Perceive 15 Music as an Educational Intervention in Early Childhood? Julia Bianco Evaluating Young Children’s Science-Related Discourse whilst Engaging in Water Play 28 Activities Giselle Theuma Implementing the Maltese National Literacy Strategy in the Early and Primary Years: 42 Teachers’ and the Literacy Team’s Perspectives Joanne Falzon Zammit Munro Digital Literacy Practices at Home and School: Perceptions of 5 Year Old Children, their 56 Parents and their Teachers Alessandra Balzan The Impact of Digital Technologies on Emergent Readers 72 Rita Saliba Preparing for the Secondary Education Certificate Examination in Maltese through 88 Private Tuition Vanessa Saliba Mentoring Provision for Intending and Beginning Teachers in Malta 100 Tony Mizzi End Note 117 Sue Midolo Author Biographies 119 © 2017 The University of Sheffield and individual authors The University of Sheffield, School of Education, 388 Glossop Road, Sheffield, S10 2JA, UK email:
[email protected] ii Foreword In 2009, by invitation of St Catherine’s High School Higher Education Tuition Centre the School of Education at The University of Sheffield launched an MA in Early Childhood Education. The first eBook Researching Early Childhood Education: Voices from Malta was published in 2012 and featured essays by the first 14 graduates of our programme. Since that time, the programme has expanded to include opportunities to study aspects of Languages in Education and Educational Studies. This eBook Studies in Education: Perspectives from Malta features the work of MA graduates who have focused on a range of educational topics with a particular interest policy and practice in Malta.