Assessments provide teachers with essential information regarding children's learning. Alternative education systems offer insight into ways that assessments can be redesigned to be developmentally appropriate to particular ages, including unique stances on what defines assessment, who should assess, and what should be assessed. We examined themes…

The aim of this study was to explore the use of in-between spaces to create music environments in a preschool setting. The research method was a 1.5-year case study of a preschool in northern Taiwan, focusing on innovative music environment creation in the in-between space. The implementation process was divided into three stages: exploration,…

Young children with early emotional, behavioral, and regulatory problems are at risk for long-term behavioral and academic challenges. This study examined the associations between O-classroom quality (i.e. emotional, organizational, and instructional supports) and problem behavior in six-year-old children who attend preschool. A correlation study…

Play is pivotal in supporting young children's holistic development. The COVID-19 crisis further highlighted the importance of play in supporting children's well-being and in providing a sense of normalcy. Guided by the phenomenographic method, this study aimed to examine Korean in-service infant-toddler teachers' experiences in fostering play in…

The study employed a qualitative multiple case study approach to investigate second-grade students' perceptions of their classrooms' physical learning environment. Data were collected through interviews, participant-generated photographs, and observations. Participants in the study were 16 students in four classrooms in three school districts. A…

Verbal interactions between children and educators can support the language development of preschoolers when conversations are of high quality. Educators' conversations with preschoolers are known to be responsive, but they are not always sufficiently complex. Educators' talk and topics may be too simple to propel preschoolers' oral language…

Early childhood education builds the foundation for students' academic careers, but perhaps more importantly emphasizes developmentally appropriate practices that encourage social and emotional learning and prosocial behaviors. Similarly, humane education addresses students' capacity for empathy, compassion, and perspective-taking through…

Physical classroom environments for young children and the quality of those environments have typically been studied by utilizing various rating scales. Research is limited on early childhood educators' perspectives and decision-making processes in striving to create optimal physical classroom environments during the school year. This qualitative…

Early Care and Education (ECE) providers earn low wages, have limited access to employer sponsored health insurance, and are at higher risk for poor health (Lessard, 2020). Evidence shows that poor ECE teacher physical and mental health is associated with decreased ability to provide quality care for young children (Esquivel et al., 2016). One…

Play, of varied type and form, provides opportunities for children to acquire a sense of competence and belonging when engaging in classroom life. The purpose of this study was to investigate ways that the inclusion of play as a curricular component eased academic stressors and supported motivation during the transition to kindergarten. In this…

In Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) programs, the quality of teacher-child interactions is regarded to be important for children's vocabulary development. However, prior studies on the relationships between teacher and child, as measured by the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS), and children's vocabulary skills are inconsistent.…

Teachers play an influential role in children's health behaviors and there is evidence to support the need for children to be more physically active within preschool. To increase children's physical activity, teachers need to be intentional about promoting active play. To date, most research has focused on teachers' promotion of physical activity…

This article highlights the "Picturebooks for Social Justice" approach which the author developed within her preschool program. "Picturebooks for Social Justice" was born of 2-year design-based qualitative research study exploring the intentional use of interactive read-alouds in early childhood education. This was not a…

High-quality early childhood education provides children with opportunities for engaged learning. Yet there are currently no classroom-level measures that focus specifically on how teachers support engagement in the classroom, a key underlying dimension of playful learning. We introduce the Playful Learning Across the Years (PLAY) observational…

Behavior disorders in early childhood are a major public health concern. A large percentage of young children spend their day in childcare settings, making early childhood educators a relevant population to target for behavior management interventions and training. Conscious Discipline® (CD®) is an evidence-based program targeting social emotional…