Pretend play is often hypothesized in a global sense to be an effective context for young children's learning, but there is much still to learn about whether all types of information can be learned equally and whether all types of pretend play are equally beneficial. The present study tests whether preschoolers can learn a simple, novel causal…

Aistear: The Early Childhood Curriculum Framework, was launched in Ireland in 2009. The framework is applicable in all settings where children in the 0-6-year range are present; this includes all early years settings and the first two years of primary schools, referred to as "infant classes" in the Irish context. This article shares the…

The study aimed at assessing Problems of Curriculum Relevance in Enhancing Children's Cognitive Development in Early Childhood Education (ECE) in Ethiopia. An explanatory sequential research design was employed through a multistage random sampling technique to collect primary data from the participants (N[subscript i]=260) through questionnaires…

Federal attention is focused currently on investing and improving the quality of early childhood education, so that children's potential and talent development can be used as a natural resource for the future of our country. This article engages readers in transitioning their thinking about early childhood gifted education from a traditional…

This article provides an overview of the Australian Federal Government initiatives in the area of early childhood with regard to the provision of early childhood education and care. These changes have influenced a Western Australian university to develop an innovative birth to 8 years preservice educator education curriculum. Using an ecological…

Explores the importance of play in the cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development of young children. Functional, constructive, and dramatic play, and games with rules, are examined. Suggests that play is a powerful curricular tool for the kindergarten and primary classroom. Investigates ways to integrate play into the curriculum and to…

This annotated bibliography cites ERIC documents and journal articles which focus on children's moral development. Entries include selected resumes from "Resources in Education (RIE)" from February 1974 through December 1975 and selected journal citations from "Current Index to Journals in Education (CIJE)", July 1974 through December 1975. Each…

The author presents a series of programmed exercises designed to help teachers develop the skills necessary to incorporate Piaget's concepts of child intellectual development into effective classroom use. (MB)

Overviews characteristics of preoperational thought, summarizes Piaget's theory of the peroperational child's view of reality, explores implications of the preoperational stage of development for early childhood science education, and provides general guidelines for an early childhood science curriculum. (Author/RH)

The article describes the Chapel Hill Gifted Handicapped Project (housed at the University of North Carolina) designed to develop a model and field tested curricula for gifted and handicapped preschoolers. (SBH)

The two basic objectives of this five-year study were to investigate a number of variables related to the preparation of effective instructional materials for disadvantaged preschool children, and to determine whether special language instruction would produce improvement in language abilities and thus promote academic progress in the beginning…

The complex relationship between cognitive developmental research and children's science curricula is explored, focusing on the tendency to attribute shortcomings in performance to the child's age, the confounding of weak knowledge with developmentally based deficiency, and emphasis of stage-based constraints on children's thinking. (SLD)

Reported is an evaluation of the Child-Structured Learning in Science (CSLS) Curriculum using the intellectual models of Piaget and Guilford. A cognitive test instrument was designed to measure cognition of figural classes (CFC), convergent production of figural classes (NFC), evaluation of figural classes (EFC), cognition of figural relations…

Notes that developmental theories are a resource for developing early-childhood curricula; reviews a variety of current theories and research, including maturationist, behaviorist and psychoanalytic theories, and constructivist theories of cognitive development. Presents suggestions for translating theory into curriculum, as well as conceptions of…

Proposes guidelines for the development of a curriculum of visual thinking for early childhood education. Outlines suggestions derived from Piaget's theory and research as they apply to developing children's mental imagery skills in the school setting. Relates Piaget's findings to those of learning theory and "split brain" research. (MCF)