The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore preschool teachers' beliefs and practices on developmentally appropriate practices. The study sites are a mix of public and private preschools that are located in Gondar City, Ethiopia. From these study sites, six participants were purposively selected. Date data were collected through in-depth…

This article analyzes the perspectives of three preschool teachers on integrative STEM practices and the facilitating and hindering factors in their implementation. The participants were preschool teachers working at public preschools. They volunteered to participate in a 14-hour STEM professional development program and to share their…

Early childhood care and education (ECCE) has a crucial contribution to the future life of children, and overall quality of learning and development of a country. Even though there are no well-established international criteria to evaluate the quality of ECCE programmes because of the variability in nations' economies, workforces, political…

This qualitative study investigated preservice teachers' experiences working with dual language learners within an early university-based practicum with young children. Our data were multiple reflective journal entries that each preservice teacher composed during the practicum. Our initial analysis revealed a subset of preservice teachers who…

This study explored children's experiences of instructional alignment from prekindergarten through kindergarten. Using cluster analysis to analyze data from over 1300 children in the 2009 Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey, the study found that children have distinct and definable experiences of prekindergarten-kindergarten alignment,…

Eco(logical)-cultural Theory suggests that a daily routine results from individuals adapting cultural ideas to the constraints of a local context or ecology. Using Ecocultural Theory, this research examined family child care providers' descriptions of daily activities and overall approach to understand cultural models. The results highlighted a…

Early Childhood Education in India derives its premise from its sociocultural context. In spite of policies in place for developmentally and contextually appropriate Early Childhood Education, the practices are largely detrimental for this age group. The ray of hope, amidst such a scenario are a few initiatives, one such being the rural preschool…

Social factors in the classroom (such as interactions with peers and teachers, talk, observation of others, and presence of peers and teachers) influence engagement, but little is known about the sequence or timing of these social factors with engagement. In this observational study of 12 preschoolers, ages 2-5 years, the influence of the timing…

The Mathematical Development Beliefs Survey was developed to measure early childhood teachers' beliefs about mathematics teaching and learning in the preschool classroom. This instrument was designed to measure beliefs concerning (a) age-appropriateness of mathematics instruction, (b) classroom locus of generation of mathematical knowledge…