This exploratory cross-sectional study aimed to identify whether specific sociodemographic and attitudinal characteristics could predict educators' comfort working with sexuality minority people and willingness to take action in their own school or classrooms to help children and sexuality and gender minority parents feel accepted and welcome. The…

Adopting a sociocultural standpoint, the present study investigated Greek early years professionals' experience of the compulsive distance learning that took place in Greece due to the COVID-19 pandemic. More specifically, we explored: (a) the pedagogical priorities, challenges, and opportunities teachers recognised, (b) their understanding of…

This study explored which restrictive and/or punitive behaviour management practices are most frequently used by Greek early childhood educators in an attempt to control children's inappropriate behaviours and the personal or professional characteristics that could affect Greek educators' use of such practices. The sample consisted of 105 early…

The scope of this study was to discriminate factors, which could improve students' social relationships in kindergarten classrooms. In this research, 147 volunteer children participated, 67 female students and 80 male students. Every student was between 4.5 and 5.5 years old and they were all attending urban public kindergarten located in central…

Mobile devices and, in particular, tablets have become increasingly popular in young children's lives; however, there is limited empirical evidence regarding early childhood teachers' perceptions on mobile technology-learning in early years. This study investigated teachers' views on mobile devices' usage in early childhood education classrooms,…

Project-based learning (PBL) is a promising teaching method for integrated science education that has gained momentum in educational research and curriculum reforms, especially as a method to enhance 21st century skills and connected worldview. How teachers implement PBL greatly affects students' content understanding and development of skills.…

This study took place in the University of West Attica, Department of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) in Greece, founded in 2018, which focuses on the learning, development and education of children under four years of age. Greece has a split early childhood education system, and there is minimal attention given to infant and toddler…

This study explored early childhood educators' experiences and understanding of bullying in early childhood. Fourteen early childhood educators were interviewed. All the interviews were transcribed and analyzed using Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA).The results showed four themes: (1) Educators' emotional burden from children's…

This article is the result of work carried out within the scope of Erasmus+ project Kit@: Media competency training for professionals in day-care centres and comparable institutions in rural areas of Europe. Its main objective is to describe ECE systems, curriculum guidelines, pre-service teacher training curricula and teacher profiles related to…

The introduction of STEM education, and specifically the implementation of educational robotics (ER), has drawn researchers' attention and has shown that teachers play a crucial role in leading this innovation. The present study concerns in-service and pre-service early childhood teachers, focusing on their perceptions and attitudes about ER use…

This study explored Greek early childhood educators' attitudes towards same-sex marriage and same-sex parenting. It was hypothesized that participants with more negative attitudes towards same-sex parenting will have more negative attitudes towards same-sex marriage as well. The associations between these attitudes and demographic, psychological…

Self-reported measures are an easy, time-efficient, and low-cost way to collect research data compared to other assessment methods. They are, however, characterized by several limitations regarding the quality and the clarity of the data they produce, especially when they are implemented in education. The main purpose of the current study was to…

In this paper, we explore how professional and policy contexts can mediate early childhood teachers' relationship with the official curriculum. Using their assessment practices as an impetus for discussion, we probed 28 Greek kindergarten teachers to talk about their engagement with the prescribed curriculum and explain how they construct its…

Differentiated instruction is considered a prerequisite for the inclusion of students with disabilities (SWD) in general education. The aim of this study was to describe and evaluate the type and quality of curriculum modifications for SWD in Greek early childhood co-taught classrooms. Sixty-eight general and special education teachers in 34…

This paper will discuss the beliefs and experiences of early childhood educators across three countries, England, Norway and Greece, in relation to the use of touchscreen technology with the youngest children in their settings. Building on previous research which explored parents' perspectives, this study now extends the investigation to early…