Early childhood experiences set the foundations for health, well-being, and learning; quality interactions at this stage of development improve outcomes for young children. Teacher qualifications, training, and professional development (PD) are important components of best practice in early childhood education (ECE) and are frequently used as…

Preschool teachers are an essential part of the education system in the United Sates. The problem is that research and data about the development of literacy skills exist for kindergarten and upper grades, but there is minimal research on preschool teachers' perceptions on the development of literacy skills in a play-based learning environment.…

Education doctoral programs have an essential role to play in this moment of American history, as we train, teach, guide, and prepare education professionals to learn, unlearn, and lead as antiracist education activists. EdD program faculty and administrators sit in critical roles and must examine our own antiracist beliefs, while also…

National best practice guidelines for early childhood intervention (ECI) were first published in Australia in 2016, but research into the implementation of these guidelines has been limited. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which the role descriptions of ECI positions advertised by Australian employers aligned with the best…

This paper is a part of a larger research study that we are conducting to develop a framework consisting of the data-driven best practices around teaching and learning algebra in K-12 classrooms. The purpose of this paper is to develop a usable definition for algebra interventions for the second stage of screening within the larger study, which…

Social scientists seeking to inform policy or public action must carefully consider how to identify effects and express inferences because actions based on invalid inferences will not yield the intended results. Recognizing the complexities and uncertainties of social science, we seek to inform inevitable debates about causal inferences by…

Principals in elementary education who do not have early childhood classroom experience may not understand the educational, social, and emotional differences in young children. The lack of early childhood educational experiences that K-12 principal preparation programs provide in Texas is of concern. By exploring classroom experiences of current…

This case study explores effective practices within a district's early care and education model. Interviews were conducted with eight parents of high-performing students and seven district ECE partners from Promise City. The results of this case study lead to the development of a model that comprises best practices within the (a) informal ECE…

Following the increasing impacts on the value of Western play-based pedagogy, early childhood (EC) teachers in China face developmental challenges related to understanding and implementing play-based mathematical education. The purpose of this paper is to explore Chinese EC teachers' perspectives on play-based mathematics teaching. In this…

The purpose of this descriptive phenomenological study was to investigate kindergarten teachers' beliefs about literacy and the relevance of assessments at the kindergarten level, the literacy skills kindergarteners should possess, how these skills are acquired, to what extent their beliefs about literacy influenced their instructional…

Reflective supervision (RS) has been viewed as best practice and is therefore incorporated--and often mandated--as a key feature of many relationship-based infant and early childhood serving programs. To promote the implementation of high-quality RS for infant and early childhood professionals, it is critical that a focus is placed on…

Distributed practice is often cited as a best practice for instruction, although research on the application of spaced practice to schools is limited. The impact of practice distributed across days and the impact of practice distributed within sessions were examined. Second and third grade participants (n = 88) were randomly assigned to practice…

Coaching has received attention in early childhood education, early intervention, and family science. In the home visiting field, coaching is a distinct professional development tool to improve home visitor effectiveness in meeting the complex needs of families, improve child development outcomes, and meet home visiting field priorities (e.g.,…

Professional learning should be designed in a way that is responsive to the needs of teachers and intentionally planned with adult learning principles in mind. This article outlines one practitioner's professional journey to redefine how professional learning is designed with best practices in adult learning in mind. Strategies utilized during…

Self-regulation is a critical emergent developmental competency that lays the foundation for children's later psychosocial health and academic achievement. Recent work indicates that physical activity and energetic play opportunities support children's self-regulation in the early childhood classroom. Many early childhood programs offer…