Child observation is a critical component of quality pedagogy in early childhood education and care (ECEC). The ORICL (Observe, Reflect, Improve Children's Learning) tool was co-designed by ECEC researchers, policymakers, leaders, and practitioners to support this work. Educators rate the experiences of individual children, and responses of…

Purpose: Being "literate" is well established as key to active civic participation, right from the earliest years of life. Young children's natural curiosity and motivation to understand the world and their places within it through playful explorations offers rich opportunities for learning. Reported here are findings from a STEAM…

The aim of this research is to highlight didactical voices on inclusive ideals and special educational tools noted in the written reflections of 178 preschool teachers in 10 Swedish municipalities. The research questions are as follows: How do preschool teachers signify inclusive ideals in written reflections of teaching in language and…

This article is based on a fieldwork study that explored a 1-year-long process of integrating children's human rights-respecting practice in a preschool through a project with a popular culture theme. Drawing on John Dewey's educational theory, educative participatory experience is suggested as a useful concept to further understand and develop…

Our ability to shift from current to alternative (e.g., past and future) perspectives (i.e., "self-projection") plays a fundamental role in accurate decision-making. We investigated 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds' ability to shift perspective to reason about their future and past preferences. In Experiment 1 (N = 96), children were presented…

This article explores video-stimulated recall as a novel approach to understanding children's decisions to engage in relational and physical aggression. Past studies have relied on caregiver and observer reports to investigate children's social behaviors, omitting children's experience and interpretation of their own behavior. Within this…

Reflective practice helps clinicians manage the complexity and uncertainty inherent in day-to-day practice. This is important given the high rates of burnout, turnover, and trauma-related stress among social workers and other clinicians. Using focus groups with 55 social work and child development graduate students and alumni, this study explored…

The COVID-19 pandemic, which continues to be effective today, disrupted our daily lives in many areas and caused some changes. Along with the pandemic process, social life, daily activities and working life, as well as education and training life, were also affected and many countries have switched from face to face education to distance…

The way educarers conceptualize their role in the education and care of infants can influence their pedagogical practices and interactions with infants in their care. The Early Years Development Framework was developed to provide key principles, practices, and learning outcomes to guide educarers working with children under 3 in Singapore. It…

Although the social-emotional competence of preservice early childhood professionals (ECPs) has been associated with the quality of their interactions with young children, there is limited understanding of these associations during preservice training. Utilizing a sample of students with career goals in early childhood (N=473), we examined the…

This article, based on theoretical reflections and empirical examples, outlines dilemmas in the social positioning of postgraduate research when students are challenged with their locations as insiders and outsiders in terms of the issues they investigate in Development Studies. Encountering the "other" and oneself in, against and beyond…

This article examines how an educator develops a drama pedagogy through the course of her dramatic interactions with three toddlers. A cultural-historical approach was used to explore the concepts of dramatic interactions and dimensions of drama pedagogy. Visual research methodology involved video observations and a reflective interview with the…

Interpersonal interactions during childhood form the foundation for development and learning (Tomasello, 2014; Vygotsky, 1962, 1978). Numerous studies have documented the impact of interactions between preschool teachers and preschool-aged children between 3 and 6 years of age (e.g., Denham et al., 2003; Hamre, Hatfield, Pianta & Jamil, 2013).…

This mixed methods study examines the impact of online professional development on preschool teachers' self-efficacy, burnout, and stress. Participating teachers (n = 89) were randomly assigned into four groups: one of three treatment conditions (course-only, conference, reflective writing) or a control group. All treatment conditions received a…

This qualitative study examined two sections of a course in child development, one online and one face-to-face, for comparisons related to constructivist approaches of the instructor and constructivist processes of the learners. Themes for each course section were more similar than different, indicating that factors other than delivery method play…