The goal of this study was to identify pre-school teacher candidates' beliefs and conditioned judgments regarding children's body image. The exploratory research pattern was used in this study. The sample group included final year B.A. students from the Pre-School Education departments in two state universities in Izmir. The qualitative part of…

How do pre-service teachers perceive place identity, and is there a connection between their formative place identity and the development of their professional teaching identity? These questions are probed among pre-service teachers who participated in a course titled "Integrating Nature into Preschool." The design of the course was…

This study investigated the food consumption and nutrition perceptions of pre-service early childhood teachers using a mixed method research design. Data was gathered from 37 pre-service early childhood teachers through survey consisting of items in rating scale and open-ended questions. Descriptive analyses were conducted to report pre-service…

This study investigated young children's preferences for books to read aloud. Participants included 142 children enrolled in 4 public kindergartens in the Sanliurfa province of Turkey, their parents (142 parents), and teachers. Forty-nine 4-year-olds and 93 5-year-olds and their 9 teachers participated in the study. Parents filled out surveys;…

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in early childhood education is an area currently given little attention in the literature, which is unfortunate since young children are natural scientists and engineers. Here, we outline our mixed-methods design-based research investigation of a pre-kindergarten (Pre-K) classroom where two…

The purpose of the study was to determine the effect of preparing digital stories through an inquiry based learning approach on prospective teachers' resistive behaviors toward technology based instruction and conducting research. The research model was convergent parallel design. The sample consisted of 50 prospective teachers who had completed…

The purpose of this study is to investigate preservice preschool teachers' self-efficacy beliefs and attitudes toward the teaching profession. The population of the present study consisted of 855 (Female = 729) preservice preschool teachers studying at the Faculty of Education, Cumhuriyet University, in the fall semester of the 2015-2016 academic…

This study presents an analysis of a Czech pilot project in implementing the Eco-School program in kindergartens. The evaluation applied a mixed design that included pre/post testing of children using picture-based questionnaires, and interviews with the teachers responsible for conducting the program. The findings revealed a significant increase…

Developing problem solving skills is often accepted as a desirable goal in many educational settings. However, there is little evidence to support that students are better problem solvers after graduating. The students can solve routine problems but they confronted difficulties when adapting their prior knowledge for the solution of new problems.…

Dewey's concept of enabling children to explore based on their own interests has evolved into investigations and projects using methods of exploration, experimentation, and discovery--three tenets of service-learning. Using mixed methodology, the authors examined the implementation of service-learning in a teacher education program. A total of 155…

European education agendas have emphasized the importance of early childhood education in providing the foundations for lifelong learning. Central to the success of early childhood education is the quality of provision, with the workforce being key. While qualifications levels are frequently cited as important for the quality of provision here we…

The purpose of this study was to determine preschool teacher candidates' attitudes towards science teaching and to examine the reasons behind their attitudes in depth. In this study, mixed methods were used including quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative data gained by attitudes towards science teaching scale, qualitative data gained by…

Understanding how we can support children through their learning life course has become a policy imperative, particularly those children from poor homes who would normally be facing a low achiever trajectory. The paper reports on 50 in-depth Child and Family Case Studies (CFCS) that were conducted as part of the Effective Provision of Pre-School,…

This study examines Taiwanese preschool teacher education (PTE) students' attributions for studying in PTE, occupational knowledge, and initial teaching commitment, as well as the effects of the former two variables on the latter one. The study used mixed-methods which included questionnaire surveys and in-depth interviews. The Taiwanese PTE…

Early childhood is a ripe time for students to begin learning science, but due to certain constraints, this instruction is not happening as frequently as it should. This mixed-methods, multiple case study examined how two teachers implemented an early childhood science curriculum, the "Young Scientist Series." The teacher participants…