I chose to look at the Early Childhood Australia site, http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/ because I was able to find more information than on the other sites without subscribing to it. Some of the international research topics revolve around working together, diversity, and resilience. It looks as if they are also looking at intentional teaching and child centered curriculum. Language and literacy is also important when helping the children develop and build upon their cognitive skills.
New information that I gained from the website is that it has a lot more information than I anticipated. This sight also has links to quite a few different to magazines, articles, and a journal.
Noteworthy information that I found on this website is that Early Childhood Australia has 3 goals set for the next 2 years. They have a document that is about the future direction of the organization. I have not seen this before, so I am impressed.
aprilpettis 
Jun 03, 2012 @ 08:31:24
April,
I had an international contact from the last class who is a center director in Australia. She gave me a lot of information about how Australia has recently gone to National Standards for the early childhood field. Every center and program in Australia is now subject to guidelines set forth by a national standard. This has lead to a huge overhaul in the systems and set up important new ideas with regard to higher education levels for teachers, better curriculums for classrooms, and higher standards for basic practices. One of the changes is the need for a bachelor’s degree for early childhood classroom teachers by the year 2014! These huge changes and national standards can only mean great things for the field of early childhood! Perhaps the US should take notice of this fabulous idea! 🙂
Stacy