The early elementary school years are widely understood to be critical to a child developing a strong foundation for future academic success. Children arrive at kindergarten from diverse settings and experiences, and not all of them are "kindergarten ready." Kindergarten readiness refers to the skills and abilities needed to succeed in…

We discuss an original study and two replications conducted over 18 years examining the impact of Teacher Study Group (TSG) in Vocabulary, a professional development (PD) approach for improving pedagogy and student learning. Study 1 focused on the design and development of the PD and included a small-scale randomized controlled trial to assess the…

Outdoor play comprises a highly significant play category through which children learn, develop, express themselves, socially and physically interact with their surroundings. Research, however demonstrates outdoor play is not substantially utilized within Greek preschool environments. This study was conducted during the 2019 academic year, aiming…

The modern teacher must respond to the needs of society in the context of Education 4.0. It seems suitable to adapt this trend to teaching children at an early age. The paper examines the usefulness of professional education for kindergarten and primary school teachers focused on personality development, emotional intelligence, and other social…

The presented study focuses on children aged from 5 to 6.5 who attend Czech kindergartens. Its purpose is to explore a potential positive impact of an educational game application on malleability of children's spatial skills through the application usage. The research was conducted as a pedagogical experiment in which the pre-test and post-test…

The aim of this research was to study how children's play behaviour was related to their cognitive skills and vocabulary development in integrated early childhood special education (ECSE) groups. The longitudinal study is part of the LASSO research project, which concerns children's stress regulation, learning and quality of early childhood…

Guided by evolutionary-developmental models, this study tested the hypothesis that children's exposure to parental relationship instability, defined by initiation and dissolution of caregiver intimate relationships, has both costs in cognitive impairments and benefits in enhanced learning skills. Participants included 243 mothers and their…

The Competencies and sub-competencies of the Collaborative of Academic and Social Emotional Learning (CASEL) are very closely aligned to skills-based health education based on the National Health Education Standards and SHAPE America Grade Level Outcomes but miles apart when it comes to recognizability, perceived need, efficaciousness, and…

Professional learning that includes coaching is an effective method of supporting teachers to make changes to their teaching practice. This article provides an overview of the initial in-situ professional learning and coaching in a primary school in Western Sydney facilitated by a Mathematics Teaching Educator. In this article I present the…

Play is a developmentally appropriate practice for young children and enhances children's holistic development. However, recent educational policies and pressure to focus on academic goals and high-stakes testing have resulted in an emphasis on teacher-directed instruction, minimizing play-based child directed experiences in kindergarten…

Food routines are an ecocultural asset of Latino families. This cluster-randomized trial with 248 children (M[subscript age] = 67 months; 50% girls; 13 schools) investigated the impact of a 4-week family program designed to capitalize on food routines in improving Latino kindergarteners' outcomes in the United States. There were moderate-to-large…

Food routines are an ecocultural asset of Latino families. This cluster-randomized trial with 248 children (M[subscript age] = 67 months; 50% girls; 13 schools) investigated the impact of a 4-week family program designed to capitalize on food routines in improving Latino kindergarteners' outcomes in the United States. There were moderate-to-large…

As the disruptive effects of COVID-19 on education have prompted conversations about remedial learning and learning recovery, the expectation is increasingly that schools are more productive in less time. This raises concerns regarding potential increase in the use of prescriptive curricula. While critiques regarding the usage of such curricula…

Recognizing the valuable role nature plays in human development as well as humans' responsibility toward the earth is critically important when considering how to transform education for the betterment of the individual and society. In this article, the author views nature as a force or phenomenon of the metaphysical world. As such, she suggests…

While play-based learning is important for a high quality early education, only when teachers are confident and competent in enacting play-based learning in their everyday practice are expected benefits of play-based learning for whole-child development realized. A sample of 592 early childhood educators who assumed different job titles in Hong…