The Massachusetts Early Childhood Support Organization (ECSO) initiative seeks to improve the quality of early education programs (EEPs) by supporting leaders to strengthen their organizational climate, provide job-embedded professional learning opportunities for educators, support the use of instructional curriculum and child assessments in their…

This paper explores how job-embedded professional development supported a Year 1 teacher as he enacted his growing expertise in the teaching of guided reading. By analysing coaching conversations focussed on the teacher's guided reading practices, we studied the way his teaching developed over a 7-month period. Our findings suggest the teacher…

Teachers play a critical role in the success of their students, both academically and in regard to long term outcomes such as higher education participation and economic attainment. Expectations for teachers are increasing due to changing learning standards and a rapidly diversifying student population. At the same time, there are perceptions that…

As the United States grapples with COVID-19 and the dangerous dislocations it has brought to the American economy, it may be hard to turn our attention to an ongoing issue like workforce development. But we would argue there is no better time. While jobs have been returning, an unprecedented 26.5 million Americans filed for unemployment over a…

In Germany, the field-based element in the education/training of early childhood educators is given high priority in the development of professional competencies. Nevertheless, Germany lacks a firmly anchored regulatory and curricular framework for early childhood education and care settings as "workplace learning sites" ("Lernort…

The article examines the aims of the workplace-based learning of prospective preschool teachers in Iceland and associated cooperative practices between the University of Iceland and preschools. A "third space" of collaboration between these two sites is considered necessary if the education of preschool student teachers is to be…

This paper uses the concept of the productive system to identify some of the tensions between the stages of professional development of early years practitioners and the relationships between the various actors within the system of professional formation in England. In the context of the recommendations of the Nutbrown Review a series of…

In its final report to Canadians, the Canadian Council on Learning (CCL) reveals that Canada is slipping down the international learning curve. The needs in this area are stark. The potential rewards are enormous. But Canada is falling behind competitor countries and economies. It is on the wrong road and must make a dramatic change in the course…